My Experience Is That Tone Controls on Guitars Do Very Little

  • Thread starter Thread starter stevieb
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stevieb

Just another guy, really.
Pretty much the same, on a MIJ strat copy, a Squire Stratocaster, a Epi Les Paul (both before and after the change to Burstbucker Pro's) a Westone Spectrum (HSS setup), and almost every guitar I have ever played- the on-board, passive tone controls have an effect on tone when turned to the full treble-cut position, but after about 10% to 20% of their rotation, I hear little or no change. Only exception seems to be a Westone Thunder 1A, and then primarily in the active tone control. The tone pots all basically seem to function as switches.

What can be done? Dif. caps? Dif. pots? What values, then?
 
It's funny--I felt the same exact way until my guitar went into the shop for a week to have some repairs, and I borrowed my drummer's Squier and used it for a bit. It has a humbucker in the bridge and a single coil on the neck, and has the old-school push-pull pickup selector and the 3-way tone toggle switch.

I found myself much more actively using the tone controls when I was limited to three positions. The darkest position when coupled with my dynacomp sounds absolutely heavenly to my ears. But it's one of those situations where the limitation actually pushed me to be more creative with it.

After that, the Squier jumped into heavy rotation. I use it on 50% of the songs now, and the G&L on the others. But I've also started using the tone controls on the G&L MUCH more. I think once you spend a lot of time getting used to the full sweep of the tone control you start hearing the differences and are able to dial what you want in a lot easier.

That doesn't answer any of your questions. Just apropos of tone contols.
 
I find the opposite - I have to set the controls for the sun to achieve the tone I want - once set I dive in. I do tend to use the same setting on a single guitar & then switch PUs for variety but the setting change from guitar to guitar & I tend to use different guitars for different tasks except when I'm doing a classic Pygmy Beat song & then it's one guitar & one tone setting.
 
Totally dsiagree, especially with the neck pup on a LP. Very responsive to tone control, mostly play lead with the tone cut by half.
 
It sounds like your pots have been linear taper instead of audio taper. Try changing.
 
I find the tone control to be a vital part of electric guitar and normaly hear quite a bit of difference (even on most cheap guitars.) But I play mostly with my amps set to lower gain than many others and rarely use any efx other than a little reverb and compression. I have to admitt that I hear little difference when using distortion unless I turn the tone control all the way up or down. I have noticed that tone controls work better (more distinguishable) when the guitar's volume controls are less than full volume. I'm no expert on this but years of playing has taught me to listen and hear the often slight variations. The tone control(s) aren't as dramatic as an EQ but it does make a difference.
 
GOYA said:
It sounds like your pots have been linear taper instead of audio taper. Try changing.
Click to expand...

How can you tell by looking at them? Or, what would they meter out at, across their sweep?
 
Stevieb, my experience with a bunch of guitars is not similar to yours. Although I normally play with my tone pots full up (no treble cut), all my guitars have pretty good linearity with a sweet spot somewhere close to the middle of the pot's range.
 
GOYA said:
It sounds like your pots have been linear taper instead of audio taper. Try changing.
Click to expand...

Bingo. Before anyone else says, "I totally disagree," remember that there are lots of different ways to do a taper, and that your pots may not be the same as someone else's.

I find myself leaving the tone control wide open 99.999% of the time I'm playing (unless I hit it by accident, lol), but I still like having it there, especially for clean playing.
 
The tone control that covers the bridge pickup on my strat makes a hell of a lot of difference. I think I read years ago that it's supposed to have extra range or something. It's detented at 5, which is supposed to be what would normally be 10. I just keep it way up at 10, which I guess would be 20.
 
stevieb said:
How can you tell by looking at them? Or, what would they meter out at, across their sweep?
Click to expand...

you can check it with a multi-meter if you really want to know.


get some graph paper and draw a line down 10 segments then across to the right ten segments. measure the two outside terminals (meter set on ohms of course) of the pot and write that at the top of your graph, divide by ten, then mark each segment of the vertical line accordingly. then mark your bottom line at each segment 1 through 10.

now starting 1 on the tone knob, take a ohm measurement and mark it on the graph, above the 1 on the bottom line, at the approximate ohmage. repeat this for all 10 tone know settings. if you plot a straight line, your pot is linear taper and if you plot a sharp curve then the pot is audio taper.

you can plot this chart out in excel instead if that tickles your fancy. :D
 
stevieb said:
Pretty much the same, on a MIJ strat copy, a Squire Stratocaster, a Epi Les Paul (both before and after the change to Burstbucker Pro's) a Westone Spectrum (HSS setup), and almost every guitar I have ever played- the on-board, passive tone controls have an effect on tone when turned to the full treble-cut position, but after about 10% to 20% of their rotation, I hear little or no change. Only exception seems to be a Westone Thunder 1A, and then primarily in the active tone control. The tone pots all basically seem to function as switches.

What can be done? Dif. caps? Dif. pots? What values, then?
Click to expand...

Here's a great up-grade.....

http://www.rsguitarworks.net/rsstore/index.php?cPath=45
 
Theres a big difference in my les paul copy in the neck pickup. I typically roll it back to about 3 or4 when playing jazz. I don't notice as big a difference with the bridge pup tho.
 
Then you have never used a PRS! The tone control on their guitars is SICK :D
 
The tone controls on my strat are pretty much the only thing that changes between my crunchy, rock your face off and my wailing, shredding, super-fast licks.

:cool:

All sarcasm aside, I have pedals and multiple channels on my amp but tone controls usually make the needed changes for me. Situational, I know, but tone control > no tone control.
 
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