Just reporting back. I enlisted a friend on this project, as my electronics and soldering skills are not up to the task. He came back with a capacitor and nine resistors set up so I could try different resistors with alligator clips. Wow! what an improvement.

The bassiest resistor did not sound good; it reminded me of the forward position on an old telecaster. But the next one was a smoky bassy comping tone (not muddy at all) that I don't think I can live without. Two up from that was a great all purpose tone, chimy without any harshness.

So much for minimalism; we are playing around with the idea of some sort of decade switch ... I'll get back with exact specs when we get this done.