Tone knobs?

[Brow]

I tend to use them most on a Teles bridge pickups, but also sometimes use them on a single coil Strats bridge pickup too but only for a slight amount of treble reduction.

On humbucker guitars I either leave them full on or take them out altogether.

[Dave Sloven]

I use my tone knobs when playing metal stuff.  When I play hardcore generally it is on max.  Sometimes I roll the tone back when playing crust punk, depending on the guitar.

Rather than remove them or tape them over you could leave the knob there and just take them out of the circuit.  I believe Tony Iommi has that on at least one of his guitars, for one of the pickups

Jao from RDP has the tone controls removed from his Les Paul:

http://radioputzgrila.com.br/site/wp-content/upload/2012/09/RDP-Cr%C3%A9dito-Giovani-Paim1.jpg

Gives him a very bright, cutting sound:

[AndyR]

Depends what I'm playing, but generally I use them a fair bit (single coils and humbuckers) same as I use the volumes a lot.

What I'd be interested to know is how folks, especially the tone/vol users, set their amps?

I treat all amps (and patches on modellors) as single channel amps, never got on with clean/dirty switching.

I set the amp for my main crunch rhythm sound with the guitar volume on 7 or 8 and the guitar tone on about 6 (unless it's a really vicious tone control! :lol:).

That means I can turn the volume up for "more" or down for "less" and cleaner.

I can also turn the tone up for "more", AND for cleaner, especially when combined with the volume going down (or picking lighter).

I tend to use all this stuff as part of the "playing of the instrument", same as choosing to use pick or fingers, where to pick (distance from bridge), how hard to dig in, etc, etc... I find it all valuable for expression in my stuff, and besides... many years ago I thought "f*ck it, it's there, might as well see what it does" - and because it seemed so useful, I kind of stuck at learning how to make it work for me... so now I'm kind of stuck with using it now!

Anyway, I was just thinking, I wouldn't be able to do this, and therefore wouldn't be using the vol/tone on the guitar so much, if I set my amp up with everything turned up to 10 on the guitar.

[Dave Sloven]

What I'd be interested to know is how folks, especially the tone/vol users, set their amps?

I have all of my knobs on my lead channel set at 6, except for the presence and resonance, which are on 9.  I then adjust that basic sound using an MXR 10-band EQ, an MXR CAE Boost pedal (for extra gain when needed momentarily), and an MXR Custom Badass Modified O.D. as my basic overdrive (set very much in the usual Peavey way, drive on zero, level dimed) that's on pretty much all of the time except when I go to my rhythm channel, which is set up for cleans.  That is then EQ'd for clean use, with the MXR EQ still in (I don't want to bother with turning that off if I don't have to), but I have to turn off the overdrive to get clean, and I can kick in the compressor at that point if I feel like it.  The compressor is never used dirty.  It is set up for clean playing only.

The tone pot is something I roll back if I am playing really dark sounding stuff.  Most of the time it is on 10.  For my SG Junior with the Stockholm I think I will install a 500K push-push pot with a 0.033 poly cap and set it up as a tone bypass, so that I can go between tone on full, tone rolled back, and tone completely bypassed.  That should be easy enough to set up on a single pickup guitar.

[AndyR]

That's interesting, but I don't think I made my question clear enough - I kind of made an assumption that other people think like I do(!) :lol:

What I meant was:

"What I'd be interested to know is how folks, especially the tone/vol users, set their amps? What is the guitar volume/tone set to when you're doing it?"

So, while you're setting your amp/rig tone (which I assume we all do by ear?), is the guitar "full-on" or not?

What I'm saying is that I set mine with the guitar vols & tones turned down - or I did for live work anyway (less so with recording etc now). I can see why folk might think that's a daft way of going about it, but it's how I ended up maximising the potential of the guitar for how I wanted to use it.

If I didn't do it this way, I probably wouldn't have ended up using the guitar vols/tones so much. Nowadays I find that if I tune the "rig" (a modellor patch mebbe) with the guitar full-on, I very rarely turn the guitar's vol or tone down afterwards when I'm using it.

[gwEm]

for my crunchy rhythm setting I leave humbuckers balls out on the guitar, and set up the rig for that tone. I then use a booster for leads, and roll back on the volume for cleans.

Its different for Fender single coils - a Rory Gallagher fan on a guitar forum(!) advised they tend to benefit from being rolled back a bit (I use maybe 7 or 8 on volume and tone) for the crunchy rhythm. It gives more flexibility for leads then, a booster is not always needed. Mostly I'll use an always-on treble booster on my Fenders... or a DOD250.

[Kiichi]

When I set my amp all is full on. Then I choose a nice amp setting which is a bit of a classic hard rock esque sound, then kick in my Klone (2, 12, 11 or so) into a boobtube to kick it over and add treble (these babys are always on for me expet when playing totally clean, then the Klone is out). The sound then is as high gain as I want to go with the most treble spank I ever want to, which ususally is not just a tad, so a pretty bright, tight and lively high gain sound (or as high as I want to go in that case). Then I can use the knobs to tone it down.

Short: I find the max I wanne go to and then am able to turn it down as much as I want since the wiring I have allows for pretty precise adjustment.

[dave_mc]

I use them all the time with Fender single coils (strat, tele, jazzmaster).

On humbuckers and P90s, not really very often at all - I leave them fully open. I sometimes think I can do without, but very rarely it comes in useful.

If you unsolder the tone pots and remove them you should notice a slightly brighter tone.

same here. other thing is, as you said, because removing the tone pot makes things slightly brighter, if you have a tone knob you might always leave it on 10, but things might be too bright with it removed.

That is true - things might be too bright with the tone pot removed (generally I like to have things bright, so didn't consider this a negative).

Yeah on 80s type guitars I have no problem without a tone knob (or on most guitars which I'd be playing at high gain, really), but for lower gain tones it's handy to have one.

If I have a treble bleed on the volume knob I like to have a tone knob too. I have an eggle semi hollow with a treble bleed and no tone knob- really nice guitar, but i dunno what they were thinking. it has a coil split on what should be the tone knob. a push-pull and a tone knob would be way more useful for that style of guitar.

I'm kind of scared of attempting to work on a semi :lol:

[AndyR]

...but for lower gain tones it's handy to have one.

That might be key to this whole thing actually?

I don't ever use a clean sound, but I'd hardly call the sound I do use "high" gain :lol:

Maybe that's a factor? Maybe you've got less room to fiddle with what's coming out of the guitar with high gain? That does kinda make sense. For what I do, I feel kind of crippled if there's no tone control!

[38thBeatle]

I use tone and volume controls a fair bit as and when I feel like it. I like to vary things. I use tone a fir bit on my Tele and I've even wired the bridge pickups on my Strats so that the tone affects them. Nice to roll off the top just a tad.

As for my Gibson, there are seemingly endless variations to be had by using the tone controls at various settings- particularly when using both pickups.

[Kiichi]

...but for lower gain tones it's handy to have one.

That might be key to this whole thing actually?

I don't ever use a clean sound, but I'd hardly call the sound I do use "high" gain :lol:

Maybe that's a factor? Maybe you've got less room to fiddle with what's coming out of the guitar with high gain? That does kinda make sense. For what I do, I feel kind of crippled if there's no tone control!

That certainly is a key factor. For use with most high gain tones I feel the tone knob needs to have just the right taper, one that allows me to rather easily find that point where I take the edge of. That can make leads more smooth and creamy and rythm a bit more growly. Both lower values and 50s wiring have helped with that.

I now also notice that it is a key factor on how you get your gain. I think most people would concider my sound high gain (even though it may be on the lower end of that compared to some extreme metal bands out there), but I have changed how I get the gain and since have been using the knobs more.
What I used to do: Take my Orange TT, turn up the gain and the tone to get the cutting, somewhat bright highgain sound. Gain knob does a lot on itīs own and the treble is after the gain.
What I now do: Take my TT, set it for hard rock and then push the treble and gain into the preamp, putting it over the edge. Sounds better to me that way (really get the tubes cooking) and the treble and gain is kinda decided before the amp.

So before the treble was added after the gain and now the treble decides the character of the gain. The gain also comes a lot more from what I send into the amp so if I roll down the guitar, I can roll the gain down better.


Does that make sense? Cause I think that combination of what AndyR and I just said might be the key things here.

[Philly Q]

I'm just someone who dicks around at home, never even been close to playing a gig, but I like Andy's approach.  It sounds like "proper" guitar playing to me, controlling things "at source" rather than with the outboard gear.

I see (hear) echoes of the Rory Gallagher approach of course.  And watching clips of Robin Trower (possibly my own biggest guitar hero) I see him using the volume and tone controls a lot - and let's not forget the pickup selector switch.

[Dave Sloven]

That's interesting, but I don't think I made my question clear enough - I kind of made an assumption that other people think like I do(!) :lol:

What I meant was:

"What I'd be interested to know is how folks, especially the tone/vol users, set their amps? What is the guitar volume/tone set to when you're doing it?"

Ha ha, okay, but I guess you can tell from my response maybe that I dime all the knobs on my guitar when setting the amp and then darken it up from the guitar using the tone control and add gain via the boost pedal.

[Telerocker]

That's how it do it more or less with my tele. Starting with the tone half way down and adjust it to the room or stage. It depends on how loud I can run my amp. On big stages with the amp cranked, the toneknob is very useful to tailor the highs and uppermids.

[AndyR]

Ha ha, okay, but I guess you can tell from my response maybe that I dime all the knobs on my guitar when setting the amp and then darken it up from the guitar using the tone control and add gain via the boost pedal.

:D Actually, yeah, I did get that, but it doesn't sound like I did, does it? :lol:

That's how it do it more or less with my tele. Starting with the tone half way down and adjust it to the room or stage. It depends on how loud I can run my amp. On big stages with the amp cranked, the toneknob is very useful to tailor the highs and uppermids.

I'd forgotten that! (Ages since I've gigged or run an amp very loud)
Yes, that was my experience too - tone knob did a lot more interesting and useful things during a loud live performance (or rehearsals) than practicing at home did. Still works in the living room, but not as sexy sounding :lol: