Varitone or Bass cut - mod, lets cut some basses off (customized for a Les Paul)
Hello friends, now I became curious about the varitone circuit (bass cut circuit) used in the gibson ES 345, and decide to try a shot. After a lot of searching for the circuit at internet, I started making experiences in a les paul with a old pickup as the inductor, and I liked the results. Then I have bought a new inductor ( 1,5 Henry - I guess) and capacitors, the result, after testing some capacitors values in series, is a custom version for les pauls as bellow, see the final schematic:
A six positions selector switch:
The 1,5 Henry inductor (I've used some hot glue to fix it):
Adding the capacitors and a resistor:
Don't forget: http://guitar4geek.blogspot.com/2013/05/audio-capacitors-do-have-polarity.html
The complete mod:
The chicken head knob and final result:
Sample:
New version 2.0:
** Ultimate version 3.0: **
Tone cap Update:
The Orange Drop (22nF) tone capacitor mod:
*It provides a more balance and a slightly brighter tone.
Treble bleed update (2026):
The last shot, a treble bleed update on the volume pots (simple, caps-only), because I was obsessed with getting more treble!!
