A question for our guitarists

Prompted by a statement made to a friend of mine by a purveyor of guitars.
 
Do you use the volume and tone controls on you guitar?
 
 
Or do you just wind them all the way up and never alter whilst playing, as he was advised.
 
 
There are no doubts that this will either disappear into the ether or be taken on some hither to yet unknown course.
 
Apologies in advance for being so non CH.

Wookiee


Prompted by a statement made to a friend of mine by a purveyor of guitars.
 
Do you use the volume and tone controls on you guitar?
 
 
Or do you just wind them all the way up and never alter whilst playing, as he was advised.
 
 
There are no doubts that this will either disappear into the ether or be taken on some hither to yet unknown course.
 
Apologies in advance for being so non CH.

On my geeter it's on full bore all the time.


On the bass, I use it/them* depending on the song.


*The Alembic (oh, did I ever tell you I have one?) has two tones controls as well as a three way frequency toggle switch per pickup.

Wookiee



 
Do you use the volume and tone controls on you guitar?
 

Certainly do John, I'm constantly trying to get the tone 'just so', and the combinations are endless.

Many sounds absolutely require adjusting volume(s) and or tone(s). People who don't use them apparently aren't interested in those particular sounds.

Shake that amp McQ!

Wookiee
 
Do you use the volume and tone controls on you guitar?

It depends on which guitar I'm playing, which style of music I'm playing, and if I'm playing live or recording.

Recording (Guitar):

Rock w/distortion: Tones=Full Treble. Volume=All the way up.
Rock w/o distortion and every other genre: Tones=Adjust for song. Volume:All the way up.

Live (Guitar):

Tones and Volume continually tweaked, but most often my Strats and Tele's were full treble and my Les Paul was adjusted on the warmer side.

Recording (Bass):

All Genre's: Tone and Volume adjusted.

Live (Bass):

Never played bass live so I can't say.

Not all tone controls are the same either. I have a Strat with a set of EMG Gold pickups and one with factory pickups and they are radically different in the tone curve (am I using the correct term there?). I can move the tone knob on the factory setup with no effect until I get to the very end. Then the last 1/8" movement is super sensitive and is hard to find the sweet spot. The EMG's have an even warmth from the time you first move the tone knob from full treble to full mud.

Thank you Bub and Kristoffer your replies are welcome.

Yes yes and yes (the last being the pickup selector)

I use both frequently. With single coils I may go up to 10, but usually not regardless of pup style. I like to give myself some leeway with both knobs. If you're constantly cranked to 10, you only have one way to go. With two tone and two volume knobs, plus the amp, the possibilities are endless. How could you RESIST tweaking?

never use tone control, but use vol and pup selector (neck pup for clean/half-distorted/full-distorted but needing clarity/sweep picking, bridge for rhythm, full on shred leads), volume for leads mainly...

Wookiee


Thank you all gentlemen. 

Personally I have always used the tone and volume on the guitar to create that "just right" tone.  I was looking for some confirmation so I can convince this friend of mine that it is a case of balancing the amp and the guitar to get that sometimes elusive tone.

Again my thanks I just knew that amongst the madness, general lunacy and unfunnyness of the CH I would get sensible answers.

You know what Wookiee, don't even try to convince him. LOL! In my opinion, the constant use of volume and tone controls pretty much deals with when your tone has a clean or moderate dirty tone. Now for high gain, most guys don't touch that stuff because they want the full guts of the sound going on at all times. However, when using higher gain stages, your volume knob pretty much acts more like a gain knob than an actual volume level. Because high gain sounds are usually compressed due to the gain, the knob is just going to control the amount of gain. Again though, is in extreme gain situations like modern rock/metal of today as well as lots of the 80's hair metal dude type sounds.
 
If you back the tone knob down, you mud up pretty quick due to the gain so most guys will leave this wide open also. BUT, for leads, sometimes it's nice to keep the bridge pup enabled and roll the tone knob completely down to get that creamy, smooth, Santana type tone or if using modern gain, a bit like the lead tone of John Sykes from Whitesnake or the later Europe stuff with Kee Marcello. Those guys really got great tones from tone kob control while using extreme gain...but most of that was on lead guitar passages only.
 
For cleaner stuff and mild drive, these knobs are going to play a bigger role in the sound for sure. Especially if you have a rig along the lines of what I use in my guitars. I like having both active and passive control on my guitars. The active controls have their own eq. A high and a low. The passive just has a tone knob...but it's great to toggle between them with the push of my volume knob as that is a push/pull. I also have coil taps, so this really gives me loads of options because I can get that strat type sound as well. Messing with the single coil sound in active or passive mode gives me such an array of sounds, it's pretty much like having any guitar you could dream of all in one. I also have a 3-way toggle and a phase switch. So now we have a Les Paul type sound, a Strat, and an almost bell like simulated Tele with the choice of enhancing these either with active or passive all in one shot. So in this situation, I'm all over these knobs like flies on poo constantly because in one twist, you get a totally different pallet to choose from. :)
 
-Danny

Most of Van Halen's first 2 albums were recorded on a guitar with no tone control - he used to say in interview he didn't need one as he could very the tone with how/where he picked etc.
 

 My main axe is a G&L Comanche,it actualy has treble and bass knobs,I adjust them according to the song I'm playing.It also has a switch that gives me some other tonal options.Its a real nice guitar.