Installing a treble bleed circuit in a semi-hollowbody guitar:
A treble bleed circuit is fairly simple, but individual guitars may require something different. Sometimes just a capacitor is all that’s needed.
Hollowbody and Semi-hollowbody guitars require a bit more effort when working on electronics than solid body guitars. There are usually no control cavity covers to remove for access. Wiring, switches, and pots need to be pulled through either the f-holes, or pickup holes, worked on, and then re-installed.
Pulling the wiring out isn’t usually a difficult procedure, but re-installing the components can be. The first thing to do is pull the knobs. I’m using a homemade knob puller.
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To help reinstall the components, I tie thread on each component, and leave a foot or so of slack
Sometimes, you can pull components through the f-hole, but in this case the volume pot was too large to fit through the f-hole, so I need to pull the bridge pickup and go through the pickup hole.
Thread tied around the tone pot for the neck pickup. I tie the tread first, then unscrew the nut. The nut/washer end up around the thread, which makes it easier to put back on later.
I got lucky with this guitar (Ibanez Artist), the wiring was long enough that I only needed to pull the volume and tone pots to get the volume pot into the pickup hole.
I soldered the treble bleed cap/resistor across the lugs of the volume pot.
I didn’t show the cloth pieces I used to cover up the finish while I soldered, but I think most people understand that should be done. I also had to remove the resistor from this circuit later, as I found out it didn’t let the circuit function correctly. A bit easier procedure this time, and I just needed to clip the wires on the resistor. I didn’t put a thread on the actual volume pot, as I could reach through the f-hole to re-install it.
I forgot to take a pic of pulling the thread to get the pot back in position.
The rest is just putting the guitar back together.