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

[AndyR]

All the time, especially on a strat or tele, but I do use them an awful lot on humbucker geetars as well.

I did grow up playing a strat through a single channel valve amp though - mebbe using all the controls is kinda ingrained in me now :lol:

I set my amps for "crunch" at about 7 on the guitar vol and 6-7 on the tone... then take it away from there.

[CaptainDesslock]

I only use my Kaoss Pad!

PDT_019 PDT_028 PDT_006

(I couldn't resist and I'm sorry)

hardee har har...mine has a fuzz factory remember?

though now that I think about it, I probably will have to order another with a kaoss pad  :P

continuing on topic.........................

As it stands atm I really like the MQ for the mids and the highs, and the NB for that kaboom bottom...I really don't ever use the volume control, its always at max, maybe a product of my products I think.  If I want more or less gain I leave that to stompboxes.

[nfe]

When I'm playing metal, the volume is either full or zero, and I play 95% of the time on the bridge. More neck use at home, recording though, as is often the case.

Playing any other genre, I use the volume and tone controls tons, and all pickups.

[CaptainDesslock]

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

[MrBump]

I use tone, vol and selector a lot more now than I did 20 years ago.

My Yam SG with Mules sounds amazing with a little grit, a tremolo pedal, and the volume and tone rolled off a little on the back puckup.

Switch between bridge and bridge/neck on my tele a lot.

[Plexi Ken]

I put guitar volume & tone to just over half-way then set the amp to suit. For there I constantly adjust the volume and tone depending on what my ears tell me. I almost never leave the bridge pickup for live playing. With all the other instrument competing for frequency, the bridge cuts through most. For recording or solo practice, I often use the middle and neck position.

[38thBeatle]

I used volume and pickup selector on the Strats but rarely the tone. Use Vol and tone plus pickup selector  a  lot on my Tele. On the 339 I am still feeling my way but so far I have been using all controls-there is no loss of top end when the volume is reduced.

[dave_mc]

sometimes. depends on the guitar, amp, pedals and what type of music i'm playing.

[Sifu Ben]

I use them much more when playing live and much more when playing clean.

[zf]

I never touch the tone dial, and tend to rip the pots off from my guitars. My band plays pretty straight out metal, but I do fiddle with volume in almost every song. Neck pup for some soloing and cleans.

I also have two guitars with piezos, both have two vol pots (piezo+magnetic) and no tone pots. Neither have switches for going between magnetic and piezo pups, so if I want to switch between the two, I have to turn the mag volume down, piezo up and vice versa. Quite a hassle tbh :P

[Simon D]

I change pickups a lot, especially playing blues on a Strat or Tele, but also flip about on humbucker-loaded guitars, mostly for solos.

I use the volume control a lot when playing through my valve amp, less so when using my old solid-state Laney. Don't use the tone controls much, but when I do I'm glad I have them. I wouldn't for a minute consider getting rid of them.

[Andrew W]

I tend to use the volume and tone controls a lot as I've always preferred to set my amp to "the most I'm going to want" and then use the guitar's volume to clean things up and the tone to balance whatever the current volume level is.  I think that really works for me because I only have single channel, Class A valve amps and guitars with single coils.

[JDC]

tone knob... what's that do? never use it, as for the volume knob, only use I might get out of it is roll back for metal intro/interlude riff with distorted chords so they ain't complete mush

as for the selector switch it's simple

rhythm = bridge
lead = neck
clean = both

[HTH AMPS]

I'm fairly old-school when it comes to playing and have got comfortable with the twin volume and tone arrangement on my Les Paul, so much so that the only Tele that really works for me is the '72 Tele Custom (the Keef one).

There is just so much variation and nuance you can get with those four pots - I adjust the volume alot to vary the gain throughout a song when gigging.

The Tele is especially great for this as its quite fat on full volume, but roll back the volume to 7 and its more of a traditional Tele tone.  On full, its really pokey.

[Frank]

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