Does Varitone cut or boost midrange?

[SGD Lutherie]

That sounds even better. I have the tone control on my bass acting as a blend for the varitone... perhaps having it as an inductor blend is a better idea. Ideally I would want an inductor letting even more treble through, not just hiss and fluff at about 10k hz. No centre tap on the inductor, just an in and out on the sides of it.

Smaller value caps will shift the notch higher, so instead of having the big scoop, you will be able to color the high end better.

The difference between bass and guitar versions of Varitones are the cap values.

Here's the Craig Anderton version from Electronic Projects for Musicians.

He said to double the values for bass. I build some years ago and thing I went somewhere between the two extremes, i.e., I used some larger caps, but used smaller ones than if I doubled it.

On the other hand I do own an EQ pedal...

Varitones have a unique tone because it's part of the pickup's resonant circuit.

As for the stellartone Tonestyler, it does seem that they ironed out some of my misgivings with my own varitone switch. However it costs $119, so I would like to see what voodoo they have going on because that is a lot for a bunch of capacitors and a 16-way switch.

Just bypass the inductor, and you have a decade switch, which is what these caps and switch units are. So without the inductor you will roll off high end.

 

[Meddle]

The wiring you posted doesn't seem to have the option of lifting the inductor out of the circuit? As for doubling the capacitor values for bass that seems a little overzealous! I would say, using the Torres circuit as my witness, that the most 'interesting' parts of the varitone circuit, to my ears, occurs when only a small quantity of treble is removed.

Another idea I've been thinking about is one borrowed from the TDPRI forum known as the Arlo "cocked wah" setting. This lifts some bass by putting a cap and resistor in parallel in the circuit. With some circuitry cunning I'm sure you could make a varitone that pushes a mid hump around rather than a mid scoop, which might be slightly more musical than having a few interesting 'clicks' then four flavours of mud.

 

[SGD Lutherie]

The wiring you posted doesn't seem to have the option of lifting the inductor out of the circuit?

All you have to do is ground the input of the inductor, between the caps and inductor.

As for doubling the capacitor values for bass that seems a little overzealous! I would say, using the Torres circuit as my witness, that the most 'interesting' parts of the varitone circuit, to my ears, occurs when only a small quantity of treble is removed.

I agree. I always liked the smaller cap settings.

Another idea I've been thinking about is one borrowed from the TDPRI forum known as the Arlo "cocked wah" setting. This lifts some bass by putting a cap and resistor in parallel in the circuit. With some circuitry cunning I'm sure you could make a varitone that pushes a mid hump around rather than a mid scoop, which might be slightly more musical than having a few interesting 'clicks' then four flavours of mud.

Passive the signal through a cap removed the low end. If you then also remove the high end, you have a band pass filter.

You can also send the signal in series through the cap and inductor. Expect to lose some output.

 

[eagle67]

Great thread guys (even though a lot of the tech stuff goes right over my head). My questions:
1) From your experience, how would you compare the tone of a bass equiped with a (Torres) varitone circuit to the same bass with a standard tone control? Right now I'm using mostly the #3, #4, and #5 settings on the varitone, #1 being the bypass.
2) How difficult would it be to replace the varitone with a standard tone control?

 

[SGD Lutherie]

Great thread guys (even though a lot of the tech stuff goes right over my head). My questions:
1) From your experience, how would you compare the tone of a bass equiped with a (Torres) varitone circuit to the same bass with a standard tone control? Right now I'm using mostly the #3, #4, and #5 settings on the varitone, #1 being the bypass.
2) How difficult would it be to replace the varitone with a standard tone control?

A standard tone control just removes the high frequencies. A Varitone notches out a narrow band of frequencies.