Fess up-how much Vol-Tone-Pickup control usage?

[MisterMuncher]

I'd use all three nearly constantly. Worryingly, I'll even do so when I'm not plugged in. I guess I just got used to it when I sacked all my pedals.

[Twinfan]

I honestly do not see any point in having a tone control on a guitar

guitars always sound better with the controls flat out and all the tone shaping done in a tube preamp

if I want to change sounds then I've got a huge MIDI rig and FX processors up the ying yang, I don't really need a 10 pence capacitor to mess my guitar sound up

If you were running a guitar straight into a vintage voiced valve amp, you'd see why a tone control can be very useful  ;)

I can see why, with your rig, you see it's unnecessary though!

[BigB]

I honestly do not see any point in having a tone control on a guitar

If you were running a guitar straight into a vintage voiced valve amp, you'd see why a tone control can be very useful  ;)

Even with a couple OD / dist pedals in between FWIW. Now I noticed that I used the tone quite a lot with single-coils, and way less with 'buckers - and from the posts in this thread, it seems there's a kind of pattern here...

My 2 cents...

[Sollophonic]

Depends on the guitar I am playing.

My Esquire is nice as I use the controls as pre-sets on the switch.

My two Squier 51s dont have tone controls, so I use the switch quite a bit.

LP Jnr gets both the volume and tone used a lot.

My other Tele has a 4 way switch so I'm often making use of that, so I dont use the tone and volume so much. The series position gives me a big boost in volume if I need it.

Having said that I did once build an Esquire with no controls at all, and had the pickup wired straight to the jack. Fun for a while, but I soon added controls.

[jpfamps]

I use volume, tone controls, and where relevant pick-up selector too.

I've been using a one pickup guitar for the last year or so so pick-up selection has been not an option!

I've now got my Strat back so obviously I can (and do) use the different pick-up option with this.

I did a gig a few weeks ago with a 60s Gretsch 6120, which has slightly "eccentric" controls that I am not 100% au fait with. So I only dared manipulate the master volume control. I still managed to knock the tone switch onto the "jazz" setting which caused me some confusion until I work out what had happened!

[Jonny]

I only use the Tone when I play the Comfortably Numb solo, other times I use my Indie and it only has a volume, but has a coil-tap so I use a few times.

[nfe]

outta curiosity what do you play outside of metal?

I don't mean that in a negative way, your just our resident metalhead so I'm curious...are you secretly a bebop jazz musician?  :P

Lots of (very poor) jazz, country and blues.

I played in wedding and function bands for a long time, most of it's mince but it does steer you towards some cool stuff which I've investigated further over the years.

[Alex]

Volume - a lot, about 1 in 5 songs I'd say.

Tone - almost never.
Still important, as I find the treble end sounds to thin without a tone pot.

[Ratrod]

I have a Gretsch with plenty of knobs and switches. I only use the master volume to fade out or clean things up slightly. I only use the 1st position of the tone switch for the intro of White Room. The induvidual volume knobs are just there for the dice knobs.  :D

On the Esquire I have the tone rolled off a notch. I use the tone bypass when I need to cut through in a bright, trebly and twangy way. I use the 'honky tone' when I want a half wah sound and that's not too often.

On the Yammy SG everything is cranked.

[Fourth Feline]

For the Jazz 'project' - and most other stuff, very little control usage really.  

My 'to go' preference being middle toggle ( i.e both pickups on together on a Gibson or Gibson style guitar ) - and all guitar controls on full, with herbs and spices added or subtracted later. I.e. Monster 'Jazz ' and B.K.P. heavy celluloid if I want subtle / sweet attenuation to match Tape wound 'Swing' strings - or Cleartone cables and Dunlop '205'picks for the assertive Be-Bop round wound strings .  

Having said that, this is not currently a gigging set up ; but I prefer to control tone, volume and dynamics from the hands / pick anyway. When last gigging with Strat and Tele, in the context of a 7 piece band, I still prefered to let the signal leave the guitar nice and 'spanky' - then out board clean boost for solos and crunchy 50's / 60's style Soul and R&B riffs - especially as our Bass player had an active / humbuckered Bass , which produced high quality wool .  :)

[Fourth Feline]

Post deleted.

[sgmypod]

Used to only use my pickup selector....slight vol/tone usage....recent times using everything

[FELINEGUITARS]

I used to be a player that preferred guitars with just a volume pot - Charvel style

On LP type guitars I never bothered touching te tone controls - other than to butcher Gary Moore intros

BUT - on recent builds I started using better capacitors (in my case the Vitamin Q) along with pots that had a great taper to their resistance track and I was amazed at how subtle and usable I found the tone controls.
So now I use the tone a lot more.

Watching Dave Meniketti from Y&T get so many tones from his LP with gentle tweaks of the vol and tone and pickup selector may have been inspiring too!

[Frank]

I think I use the tone pot about as often as I use the floppy disk drive in my computer, about once every five years. Surprised the question included the pickup selector though, does anyone really not use this? On strats I just tend to use bridge only, bridge plus middle or neck only, might think about just wiring a three-way selector with these options.

If you want to talk about useless controls on guitars then I'd say the Fender S1 switching is the worst invention in years. A cheap little plastic switch that looks like it's off a chinese made kid's toy and all it does is make reasonable pickups sound muddy and muffled. God only knows how the advertising people managed to turn that into a "unique selling point", it's rubbish.

[PhilKing]

It depends on the guitar.   On my juniors, it's more everything to 11 and off I go, but on Strats & Les Pauls I do use the volumes a lot, with a bit less use of the tone (I tend to use a wah to do tone changes).  I do play with the controls on my Mockingbird a lot - but there are so many options that it is difficult to get back to a sound you had and lost!  It's many years since I played live, but then I would tend just to use the volumes and use a wah and channel switch for tone.