Forgive me father, for I hath sinned.

[Oli]

The past few days, i have moved to the Dark Side(tm). I took the plunge and turned my gain down... well... pretty much off, only using the preamp control on my 900. Doing the ol' turning one pickup volume down on the Les Paul so i can switch between clean and crunch with just the pickup switch. Admittedly the RAT does get stepped on when i want to go Sabbath regions, but there's not a down tuning or 7th string in sight at the moment! With the gain down, i can turn the master vol up a tad more than usual and drive the tubes slightly more, and it sounds great :)

It's really put the fun back in playing, and i'm starting to get ahold of licks and chops because that's something that i lack severely.

That is the end of my confession, i have no regrets.




 :)

[badgermark]

It's ok my son, welcome to the Light. Be-gone silly levels of gain and chugging riffs. The volume control is your friend.

I'd love to manage what I've seen Gary Moore do so well, use the volume as a gain knob. Volume down is clean, but still almost loud enough to match when he cranks it. This just a product of a well paid sound man cranking up the PA when he rolls down the volume?

[Machek]

do you mean the guitar's volume control?

Yeah, with the right amp and pickups, turning it down won't lower the actual volume -the one coming out of the speaker- so much, but it will indeed clean up the sound.... Preamp stuff i believe....

Anyway that's how i do it with my Les Paul now (Crawlers clean up reeaaally well), the pickup switch replaced the footswitch... And it is indeed way funnier and more musical to play this way, cause you control everything with your hands so you more free to move on stage, no footswitsch to step on that nails you to a precise place... More rewarding system as well.... But that's only my opinion...

[Peter Antal]

This just a product of a well paid sound man cranking up the PA when he rolls down the volume?

Who needs a soundman? Just slam a wireless system in that guitar, connected to the volume pot, to control the PA, lol...

[il˙ti]

Anyway that's how i do it with my Les Paul now (Crawlers clean up reeaaally well), the pickup switch replaced the footswitch...

Hmm that's strange, when I turn down on the Crawlers, the volume goes down but most of the gain stays. Is this becuase I'm not playing an all-tube amp or is there another reason?

[808]

I've been backing the gain down on my 900 as well. I've been enjoying experimenting with my volume knobs on my LP. I really like playing in the middle position with the volume rolled down halfway on the neck pup.

[Jonesy76]

That's how I've been playing my TSL601 for years now.  I've only got about 1 and a half to 2 rolled in on the gain channel, and the rest of my overdrive I get from the volume control.  

And the Mules in my V sound awesome through it........if I want a bit more grunt I simply strap on my LP Black Beauty with its Riff Raffs and let the Bareknuckles do the work without adjusting my settings!  Heaven :D

[38thBeatle]

Good to see you guys appreciating the benefits of clean tones. There is nothing wrong with hi gain but to me the clean tone of a guitar is what sorts the men from the boys ( and those wishing to be politically correct, the girls from the lovely pretty little ladies). Of course you have to have a great amp.

[MrBump]

This is something that I've noticed since putting Nailbombs in my Charvel.  I'd never really used the vol or tone pots before on this guitar, only the volume more or less as an off switch.  But now backing off the volume takes the punch out of the gain, but the strings still retain their clarity.  And the tone pot really works well too.

I'm going through a tone crisis myself at the moment.  Used to rely 100% on my DigiTech GNX3, not I'm going back to stompboxes and the amp.

Going backwards is the only way forward.

Mark.