Or use a cable with less capacitance or simply a shorter cable.
Are short, low capacitance cables known to minimize the loss of treble frequencies when a passive pickup's volume control is turned down?
I realize that cables like this can minimize the capacitance effect (loss of highs) over long cable runs.
But I've never thought about using them as a substitute for a treble bleed circuit.
You'll probably have more overall highs when you have your vol pot cranked and when you roll your vol pot back with cables like these, but will the relative difference between the highs with the vol pot cranked vs the highs with the vol pot rolled back be any better?
Maybe I should look into that.
My experiences with low capacitance cables have been mixed though.
I usually prefer the overall tone I get from standard shielded cables.
The low capacitance cables I've tried (George L, Planet Waves, etc.) often seem to yield too much top end and too much mids for my tastes.
Usually I've gone with low capacitance cables when I had to have longer cable runs though.
I never really messed around with shorter low cap cables.
I have yet to find a treble bleed circuit that doesn't bother me in one way or another.
There's either too much (or not enough) treble gain when the vol pot is rolled back or the pot's taper gets screwed up too much.
I've tried various value caps alone as well as caps with various value resistors in parallel or in series and it's never totally satisfactory.
I always use treble bleed circuits along with an on/off switch so that I can put them in the signal path only when I really seem to need it.
I used to always try to have my vol pots wide open and controlled the vol with a vol pedal for the most tonal consistency across all vol levels.
But I'm starting to like the duller sound better, with the vol pot level not quite on full, more of the time nowadays.
I'm tempted to just always use EMGs (since they are more or less immune to this problem) but they really don't have the tone I'm after most of the time.
I've even tried buffers that plug right into the guitar's out put jack.
There was one made by a company called PAX I think.
And also the Demeter Fat control which buffers the signal at the guitar as well.
But these buffers, while they solve the problem, make it too bright and sterile sounding at every setting of the vol pot.
This has always been one of those niggles that's bothered me about electric guitar tech.
That and guitar cab directivity.
T'would be really nice to completely banish both of these from my rigs.
[And yes, I know about Jay's directivity modifier.
I've been experimenting with these for years now but have not been able to find a suitable source of 1/2" foam (my front-loading cabs can't take the 3/4" foam) up here in Canada.
McMaster-Carr won't ship here for some stupid reason.
And I also know about the directivity characteristics of the CLRs and happen to own 2 of the wedges but have not yet been able to make them work 100% for me for various reasons.]
If this post is not suitable for this thread please feel free to move it somewhere else.