Nordstrand Tone Drop

[Clark W]

Anyone have any experience with Nordstrand's Tone Drop?

• Pros?
• Cons?
• Did it add enough versatility to your sound to make it worth 40 bucks and the time to install it?

For those who don't know what it is. It's a 250k push-pull tone pot. In the push position its running the tone circuit through a .047uf cap, and in the pull position it's running through a .1uf cap.

Thinking about getting one to try out in my 2019 Fender Player Precision that already has a FCS '62 P pup in it.

The Tone Drop

 

[redstrand]

I had one in my Gibson DC. It gives you another cap to color the sound. The sweep was good. I dug it. Thing to be aware of is how deep the stack is, it won’t fit in some cavities without a little modding.

 

[Clark W]

I had one in my Gibson DC. It gives you another cap to color the sound. The sweep was good. I dug it. Thing to be aware of is how deep the stack is, it won’t fit in some cavities without a little modding.

I noticed that. Wonder if the stock Fender Precision cavity is deep enough? Guess I could email 'em and ask.

 

[redstrand]

I noticed that. Wonder if the stock Fender Precision cavity is deep enough? Guess I could email 'em and ask.

It should be, stacked pots(roughly same height) fit better in them to begin with, they're pretty responsive to inquiries

 

[dwizum]

Caveat: I have not tried the Nordstrand product you're referencing. I do respect Nordstrand and like many of their products. I'm glad they exist and they bring a lot of value to us bass players.

But this seems just ridiculous - $40 retail for a $2.50 pot and a couple ten cent caps? You have to solder to install it, you might as well buy the raw parts at Arrow or Mouser and do it yourself.

 

[Clark W]

Caveat: I have not tried the Nordstrand product you're referencing. I do respect Nordstrand and like many of their products. I'm glad they exist and they bring a lot of value to us bass players.

But this seems just ridiculous - $40 retail for a $2.50 pot and a couple ten cent caps? You have to solder to install it, you might as well buy the raw parts at Arrow or Mouser and do it yourself.

I like Nordstrand too, but yeah, 40 bucks is kinda steep. I've spent more on worse though. If I had a diagram to show me how to do it I'd definitely give it a go myself.

 

[dwizum]

Yeah, I didn't mean that to come across as judgy or anything, for sure.

The circuit is pretty simple - you get a push/pull pot and use the switch to swap between two different caps. That's all there is to it. People have been doing it for years, prior to Nordstrand coming up with a fancy name for it. Fralin has a page detailing how it works and how to wire it:

2 Tone Cap Push-Pull Mod | Push-Pull Pot Mod by Fralin Pickups

I have had a few instruments set up like this over the years and I have one guitar like this now. I find it to be a more significant change if you use caps with more difference between them, i.e. an .022 and .1 instead of .047 and .1. But it's easy to swap if you want to try different values.

 

[maurilio]

Parts without shipping etc. are ~$7.20, plus tools used, tech time wiring it up, plus overhead expenses...... $40 too much? Perhaps......

Interesting how so many people are complaining, but at the end no one has offered before the most simple, easy passive option!

BTW, depth from the base (flange) of the thread 1 1/4"

 

[Clark W]

Parts without shipping etc. are ~$7.20, plus tools used, tech time wiring it up, plus overhead expenses...... $40 too much? Perhaps......

Interesting how so many people are complaining, but at the end no one has offered before the most simple, easy passive option!

BTW, depth from the base (flange) of the thread 1 1/4"

I don't see a whole lot of people complaining. Matter of fact there's only two of us who have even discussed the price as far as this thread goes.

As far as the price, it all depends on how you look at it...

If you look at it as a "sum of all parts" costs kind of thing. Yeah one can definitely build one a lot cheaper than 40 bucks.

But if you look at it as an upgrade that is ready to install, all one has to do is make a few solder connections and you're done. Then it's kind of cheap when compared to other tone upgrades one could make to a bass.

I guess it all depends on whether one wants to look at it as a glass half full or half empty.

Thank you for the depth measurement. Guess I need to be looking at that before I do anything.

 

[rojo412]

FWIW, I've been making and installing this type of tone pot in a lot of my stuff, as well as for others, and it works very well. I like having the option to go really wooly if needed, but definitely like the predictable "normal" cap value for most times.

 

[mrperkolator]

It should be noted that Nordstrand seems to be wiring the two caps in parallel, where fralin is switching between the two.

has anyone tried making one of these with different cap values?

 

[dwizum]

I now do it the same way Nordstrand does (two in parallel, such that throwing the switch adds/removes the second parallel cap. That way, you're not making/breaking the signal path every time you throw the switch. My first few were done like Fralin and in some amps you'd get a tiny pop when you threw the switch and the signal path was momentarily broken.

I've tried it with different combos of .015, .022, .033, .047, and .1 uF caps. I find that it's most effective when there's a bigger difference between the caps. As a rule of thumb I've found that designing it such that your switch doubles the capacitance is a good place to start. Adding a .015 in parallel with a .047 is an extremely subtle change, not really worth the trouble. But adding a .033 to a .033, or a .047 to a .047, makes a nice shift.