Passive Tone Shaping

[JDH]

Has anyone tried a Stellartone Tonestyler or Varitone pot on a P bass. I'm interested in the tonal variations with flats.

[Mr. Foxen]

Made me think of this, varitone inna box:

[Conan]

What on earth is that ugly three-string bass he's playing?

[Truckstop]

It's a Wishbass Peanut Single-cut.
I used to have a 6er version which I wish I'd never sold now.

Truckstop

[Al Heeley]

I fitted a 3 way toggle switch to my p-bass which switched in 3 different caps to the tone pot. This works in a similar way to the 'varitone' arrangement.
the result - slightly more treble cut on a bass that sounded pretty dark anyway as well as a light difference in ramp to the tone pot.
Conclusion: insignificant change in tonal quality but it was worth 1/2 an hour with a soldering iron to try it out.
I never use it.

[JDH]

Thanks for your replies.

The Varitone circuit has been around for decades, so if it did have any useful qualities I'd expect to have seen it more widely used. Regarding the Tonestyler, Ed Friedland wrote a glowing review for Jazz Times and has them fitted to a couple of his jazz basses. I have a diagram for a Varitone circuit so I may knock one up!

That Wish bass looks positively medieval...

Thanks

John

[umph]

[quote name='Al Heeley' post='1060478' date='Dec 16 2010, 12:20 PM']I fitted a 3 way toggle switch to my p-bass which switched in 3 different caps to the tone pot. This works in a similar way to the 'varitone' arrangement.
the result - slightly more treble cut on a bass that sounded pretty dark anyway as well as a light difference in ramp to the tone pot.
Conclusion: insignificant change in tonal quality but it was worth 1/2 an hour with a soldering iron to try it out.
I never use it.[/quote]
proper varitone is a bit different to using caps to shunt high frequencys to ground