Why Boost Treble
Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 1:28 amWHY BOOST TREBLE ?
Why Boost Treble?
The human ear is very sensitive to changes in treble. The amount of treble to an instrument will determine the position of it in a mix. Echo reflections are distinguished in distance as their treble content for instance. Any change in treble response will have a great impact of final sound. Up to fatal levels of volume an increase in output level will also appear to be an increase in brightness because of the way we hear things.
Consider having an amplifier with bright switch (capacitor connected to volume control). This amp would sound best when volume is set to 6. With Little Red Trebler (LRT) you can have adjustable treble boost at any levels, so you will get the correct treble at all playing volumes.
If you connect a distortion pedal to an amp set for a bright, singing clean tone you very often end up with very bright shrill tone. There are not that many pedals with kind of construction and tone controls that can handle an amp with bright switch on. If you place the LRT in front of your distortion you will give more sparkle to your distorted tone without affecting the overall treble-balance and at same time give correct treble for your clean sound.
You might have an amp that has a soft treble tone and any attempt to increase treble results in a loss of bass and/or honky higher midrange instead of brilliant high-end. This amp has her own beautiful voice and you might be happy until the second guitar player in your band comes with his new amp with treble of silver and your amp sounds bit dull next to it. The LRT will let you dial in brilliance without changing the magical positions of your amp that makes it sing like angels (but not heard). You can have the shimmer when ever you need it by footswitch and now it's easier to cut through in a mix and still have the right balance of bass and middle that are so important to your tone.
On the other gig you have set your amp for light breakup with your single coil pickup guitar. For some songs you need to plug your old trusty "Paul" with humbuckers
After a little fiddling with the controls sound doesn't seem to be right. Lowering the volume helps correcting the break up, but treble response seem to suffer- focus is shifted either way you turn the tone controls as midrange and bass are also affected. The LRT might make things a little easier in this situation. String balance may be aided with the LRT - especially so with a jazzy neck pick up.
The LRT may also give a new life to the tone controls on a guitar - most tone controls on guitars are of the lowpass kind where a capacitor reacts with choke/s in the pick up bleeding highs to ground. The combination of this choke based low-pass filter and treble boost give rise to a resonant effect, somewhat like a wha set in between. (Some tweaking to the tone-control cap may be needed to get your exact in between sound)
This effect is all the more evident with distorted sounds - some combinations may result in your ordinary treble roll off being converted into a resonating, sweep able mid-control. Note that LRT does not give this effect but enhances it, making it more evident. Some guitarists have used this resonant effect (tone control, treble booster, distortion) with an almost infinite sustain, with a flute character as a result.
Some old fuzz pedals may benefit from having a bit of treble boost before them - making them more contemporary (while still organic) and all settings more useful.
Your rehearsal amp is a -70's transistor radio - a pack of slightly worn batteries to get the radio distorting and a treble booster may be all you need. The LRT will suit fine in this application.
Consider having a non master-volume, tube amplifier with bright and normal inputs. This amps break up into nice distortion when volume is advanced to 6. Workable range is volume 5 to 8 - above that sound gets fuzzy, and below sound is clean. Distortion devices on this amp work excellent up to volume 6 where distortion gets distorted. With the LRT on the normal channel (which has slightly more gain) volume 7 makes the amp trip to 10 without getting to fuzzy.
The treble booster trick to this kind of amp is the embryo of later master volume models from more than one maker of such amps, and has been used by many a notable player.
Have fun
BJ
Why Boost Treble?
The human ear is very sensitive to changes in treble. The amount of treble to an instrument will determine the position of it in a mix. Echo reflections are distinguished in distance as their treble content for instance. Any change in treble response will have a great impact of final sound. Up to fatal levels of volume an increase in output level will also appear to be an increase in brightness because of the way we hear things.
Consider having an amplifier with bright switch (capacitor connected to volume control). This amp would sound best when volume is set to 6. With Little Red Trebler (LRT) you can have adjustable treble boost at any levels, so you will get the correct treble at all playing volumes.
If you connect a distortion pedal to an amp set for a bright, singing clean tone you very often end up with very bright shrill tone. There are not that many pedals with kind of construction and tone controls that can handle an amp with bright switch on. If you place the LRT in front of your distortion you will give more sparkle to your distorted tone without affecting the overall treble-balance and at same time give correct treble for your clean sound.
You might have an amp that has a soft treble tone and any attempt to increase treble results in a loss of bass and/or honky higher midrange instead of brilliant high-end. This amp has her own beautiful voice and you might be happy until the second guitar player in your band comes with his new amp with treble of silver and your amp sounds bit dull next to it. The LRT will let you dial in brilliance without changing the magical positions of your amp that makes it sing like angels (but not heard). You can have the shimmer when ever you need it by footswitch and now it's easier to cut through in a mix and still have the right balance of bass and middle that are so important to your tone.
On the other gig you have set your amp for light breakup with your single coil pickup guitar. For some songs you need to plug your old trusty "Paul" with humbuckers
After a little fiddling with the controls sound doesn't seem to be right. Lowering the volume helps correcting the break up, but treble response seem to suffer- focus is shifted either way you turn the tone controls as midrange and bass are also affected. The LRT might make things a little easier in this situation. String balance may be aided with the LRT - especially so with a jazzy neck pick up.
The LRT may also give a new life to the tone controls on a guitar - most tone controls on guitars are of the lowpass kind where a capacitor reacts with choke/s in the pick up bleeding highs to ground. The combination of this choke based low-pass filter and treble boost give rise to a resonant effect, somewhat like a wha set in between. (Some tweaking to the tone-control cap may be needed to get your exact in between sound)
This effect is all the more evident with distorted sounds - some combinations may result in your ordinary treble roll off being converted into a resonating, sweep able mid-control. Note that LRT does not give this effect but enhances it, making it more evident. Some guitarists have used this resonant effect (tone control, treble booster, distortion) with an almost infinite sustain, with a flute character as a result.
Some old fuzz pedals may benefit from having a bit of treble boost before them - making them more contemporary (while still organic) and all settings more useful.
Your rehearsal amp is a -70's transistor radio - a pack of slightly worn batteries to get the radio distorting and a treble booster may be all you need. The LRT will suit fine in this application.
Consider having a non master-volume, tube amplifier with bright and normal inputs. This amps break up into nice distortion when volume is advanced to 6. Workable range is volume 5 to 8 - above that sound gets fuzzy, and below sound is clean. Distortion devices on this amp work excellent up to volume 6 where distortion gets distorted. With the LRT on the normal channel (which has slightly more gain) volume 7 makes the amp trip to 10 without getting to fuzzy.
The treble booster trick to this kind of amp is the embryo of later master volume models from more than one maker of such amps, and has been used by many a notable player.
Have fun
BJ
