Need help with this pot and mods

[donfenn]

I just opened up a partscaster and found this on tone pot... a bunch of capacitors and stacked component on top of pot... Would love to know what this is??

[frets]

Hi Don😺,

You’re the proud owner of a Rothstein style Midrange control. Looking at it as you have it photographed, on the right side it has a 39nF (or 33nF) capacitor with a 220k resistor that then runs into the blue cube, a 1.5H Audio Signal Transformer. This configuration provides scooping of the midrange tones. The left side probably has a 2.2nF (around that) and is in an RC circuit with a 1.1M resistor. This side acts as a frequency cut filter. It helps with cutting some of the bass frequencies from the other tone pot. The tone control is a good one and when one finds this mod, it is usually found as the second tone pot in a Strat. The other tone pot is a “regular” tone pot with likely a 22 or 47nF tone cap. Looks like yours has a 47nF tone cap. The pair of tone pots give quite a hefty control over tone. They provide tone to all three pickups equally. One would use them together to arrive at a particular tone.

My advice is that you try it out to see if you like it before changing the wiring out. You have a harness that is aimed at sophisticated control over tone. The “greenie” capacitors are as good as any other cap. They have a polyester construction. With the pair of tone pots, you’ll be amazed at the tones you can find.