Stellartone - ToneStyler Bass Six

Stellartone ToneStyler Bass Six

The ToneStyler® is an advanced drop-in replacement for the standard tone pots in electric basses. Easily installed in minutes without any modifications to the instrument, the ToneStyler dramatically improves the tone and versatility of any bass with passive pickups. Plus, the ToneStyler fits your bass’s original tone knob, so your tone upgrade is invisible!

Your old tone pot is a "low-pass filter"; it has only one capacitor, which offers only one roll off point, chosen just above the bass frequencies and string fundamental pitches. Due to this very simple design, passive tone pots act as "mid+treble volume controls"... reducing the loudness of all combined harmonics heard above the bass tones, all at the same time! To make matters worse, the tone pot's large value capacitor loads the pickups at all tone knob settings, which reduces your mid-range clarity and signal level.

In sharp contrast, the revolutionary ToneStyler has not one, but an array of six to eleven selectable capacitors and roll-off points. For the first time, players can adjust the frequency of the roll-off point... not simply the combined loudness of all mids+highs! You choose how much treble to retain... how much mid-range to retain... and exactly where to cut these harmonics off. Plus, the ToneStyler's small value capacitors greatly reduce pickup loading; this noticeably boosts your bass’s clarity and output level.

Powerful and precise control of treble & mid frequencies is provided at last... and that weak, muddy sound is completely eliminated!

According to StellarTone:

There is one big difference in the wiring of the cable which separates this T-6 model from all other ToneStylers ever built: BOTH the RED and the CLEAR wires in the cable are HOT. There are no separate FLOATING GROUND OR NEUTRAL WIRES. The only GROUND is the stranded shield in the cable jacket, wired in common to the mounting bushing.

I expect that customers familiar with our typical cable wiring will make some soldering mistakes out of habit. For example, if the CLEAR wire is treated as a GROUND.... nothing will work. It's a second HOT wire!

The reason for changing the cable wiring in this model is the creation of three distinctive EQ ranges, user-selectable during installation. Just choose the following HOT wire(s) to best-suit the instrument or pickups:
• RED wire = .022uF Guitar / Bridge PUP tone range
• CLEAR wire = .047uF Guitar / Bass / Neck PUP tone range
• RED PLUS CLEAR wires = .069uF Sub-bass tone range

Unlike our DUO SIX models with dual cables, the TRIPLE SIX's single cable cannot be "split" and wired to two separate circuits or pickups - due to shared components, only one chosen circuit connection is possible.

Specifications

• Six positions, notched rotation
• 24-fine-spline multi-use tip fits USA push-on knobs, plus 6mm & 1/4” set-screw knobs
• * Does NOT FIT Epiphone 18-coarse-spline metric push-on knobs *
• 3/8”-32 diameter x 1/2” MID-length USA bushing mounts through all surfaces up to 3/8” thick
• Choose between three maximum capacitance ranges during installation: .022µF guitar, .047µF bass, or .069µF sub-bass
• Replaces standard tone pot
• Heavy Duty Military Spec rotary switches with gold contacts and terminals, manufactured by Grayhill U.S.A.
• SIX position ToneStylers feature only "true bypass" at full clockwise position #6.
• Solid-Splined bronze alloy tip omits the traditional "split-shaft" slot; 24-fine-splines for U.S.A. push-on knobs and 6mm hole metric set-screw knobs; for 1/4" hole U.S.A. set-screw knobs, add the supplied 1/4" brass sleeve.
• Molded-in low capacitance Mogami shielded cable.
• U.S Standard 3/8" -32 diameter x 1/2" mid-length bushings, for mounting through instrument surfaces up to 3/8" thick.
• Compact .875" (7/8") diameter footprint is slightly-smaller than a standard (15/16”) full-sized CTS potentiometer.
• Low-profile metalized polymer module requires only 0.825" depth (21mm) inside the bass’s control compartment (typically 1.0" to 1.4" depth). Check your clearances before purchase!
• Complete with mounting hardware and instructions

The Bass Six is compatible with passive high-impedance basses with two "volume-tone" knobs (P-Bass), or four "volume-tone-volume-tone" knobs (RIC). Use one Base Six per volume control.

ToneStylers are not compatible with low-impedance or active pickups, but can be utilized with passive pickups and some onboard preamps if staged before the input on the preamp.