Who plays with their knobs?

myhatbroke

myhatbroke

Cocktacular Member
I actually never touch my tone knob and i only mess with the switch for solos and rythm. Bass for solos and treble for rhythm.

How do you people use your knobs?
 
myhatbroke said:
I actually never touch my tone knob and i only mess with the switch for solos and rythm. Bass for solos and treble for rhythm.

How do you people use your knobs?
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I rub it every night...


















On a serious level, I don't touch it much because I am a bassist and once it's set, it's set.
 
Too much to really get into...but I'll try.

First of all I switch pickups all the time. I prefer the bridge pickup for distorted rhythms and aggressive or rich sounding leads. I prefer the neck pickup for smoother leads and some clean sounds. I like the middle position for most clean sounds. I just use 2 humbuckers by the way. I use the neck pickup when I want to smear the attack a little for certain lead techniques like speed picking or arpeggios. I switch back and forth alot during solos.

I roll the volume knob back often for all kinds of stuff. Sometimes I like to sound smoother for a while and then I want the attack to jump out of the speakers for certain parts. Volume knob gets a workout. I also use the volume to clean my sound up a little instead of fooling with the amp.

I love the sound of my amp with the high end turned up a little too much and the tone knob rolled back on my guitar about halfway or a little more. It gives it a rich and juicy sound but not too much treble response. I do that when I'm trying to get that Holdsworthian, horn-like sound. Basically a really vocal sort of lead sound.

The tone knob has become an absolute necessity for me.

Every control on the guitar is a necessity for me.

I used to like the idea of one pickup and next to no controls, but I have really changed in recent years.
 
MAN! That's wicked dude! I had no idea you could use it like this. I'll give it a try. I also see that I'm not the only who uses the neck pickups for leads, that's good. Is it just me or do the neck pick ups seem like they filter out some minor mistakes? I hate doing solos with the bridge PU, they make the guitar so screechy, unless its like a really bluesy solo that is mainly at the low end of the neck.
 
myhatbroke said:
MAN! That's wicked dude! I had no idea you could use it like this. I'll give it a try. I also see that I'm not the only who uses the neck pickups for leads, that's good. Is it just me or do the neck pick ups seem like they filter out some minor mistakes? I hate doing solos with the bridge PU, they make the guitar so screechy, unless its like a really bluesy solo that is mainly at the low end of the neck.
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With the neck pickup, you lose some of the upper harmonics in the sound and it seems to smear the pick attack a little. You are not the first to discover this, that's basically why the pickup is there. ;)

I still use the bridge pickup often for leads because it is much more detailed and harmonics are much more pronounced. I like to be able to coax those juicy, singing qualities out of my guitar and the neck pickups dulls them down alot. I only use it for certain moods.

If you play through a nice amp, a nice guitar, and dial it in right - the bridge pickup won't have that "screechy" sound you're describing.
 
myhatbroke said:
What is a good guitar to you? Good neck and pick ups?
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One that plays well and produces the sound you want.

If you're not getting the sound you want, you've got to change something. Unfortunately, hunting down your ideal tone can be expensive.....I found the guitar that felt perfect to me years ago and ended up going through several amps before I settled on the one that I liked the best. I'm sure I could still spend a truckload of money and find something I liked better, but my rig right now sounds like I want to sound so it's all good.

For what it's worth, most guitar players play for years through mountains of different equipment never feeling like they have the tone that they ultimately desire. Most things are a compromise. That's the bitch of it all.
 
I use my volume knob to back off the distortion a bit for full chords, just bridging that gap between distortion and overdrive.

The tone knob gets backed off when I want to do a softer backing rhythm and don't need all the harsh high end, but still want bridge humbucker punch.

I switch to my neck pickup when I want a mid-focused sound. I hardly ever use my middle pickup alone, but I mix it with the bridge for a different rhythm sound, and I mix it with the neck for a slightly harsher sound than just plain neck pickup.

I play Pixies-style rock with an H-S-S pickup config into a Rat distortion into a Fender amp, as a reference for you.
 
I wish I "played with my knobs" a bit more actually. But I've kind of gotten set in my ways - I generally like the sound of my guitar (LP Std) on the bridge pu, tone all the way to the treble side. It's such a full-sounding guitar that that setting seems to make it cut through just a bit more. Now, of course I probably could adjust my amp tone a bit, so that my guitar tone can be somewhere more in he middle....actually, I probably should do that. Well I'll be starting from scratch with my set up and tone tonight as I'm getting a new amp today.

Also (and I don't know if this is typical of LP's - if so it's stupid) my volume pots are not very linear at all. 0-1 big jump. 1-7 not much of an increase. 7-10, fairly decent increase. or something like that. So, I usually jam on 8 or so, giving me a little extra room if I need to bump up to 9 or 10.

I've played other guitars and it's a perfect smooth increase from 0-10. For years I've contemplated replacing the pots...advice?
 
knobs

i agree with metalhead..... i use all the knobs on my les paul [ through 2 marshall mg's]..... sometimes i will begin a solo on the neck pickup maby w/ the tone backed off till the solo builds then i switch to the bridge pickup to make the solo explode... on my les paul std i have worn out 3 switches...when i play i am always changing pickups or on the knobs depending on my mood.......... the song the gig how i feel it at the moment..the size of the gig everything involved affects my tone .... and i think the 2 marshall mg's give me perfect tone....i can say i have the tone i always wanted........
 
I am with Mictr. I use my strat knobs and switches constantly, but on my gibson/h-bucker gtrs the knobs remain pretty much stationary. Have a good weekend all. :)
 
I've got dual humbuckers, 2 volume, 1 tone and a toggle. Tone is on 10, bridge volume on 10 and neck volume on 0. I use the toggle for a kill switch.
 
I almost never mess with the tone, and just rolloff the volume when I want a slightly rounder sound. Pickups, though, get played with constantly.
 
I tend to vary where I hit the string for variations in tone and feel, playing towards the bridge for a brighter, twangy attack.

Playing towards the bridge when using the neck pup can be interesting, although playing directly over the active pup gets you the most 'forward' sounds.

I also switch often between the pups on my LP and Strat. The S1 switching on the strat gets used very occasionally (once or twice in a set).

I've never really achieved a sound I liked by altering the tone controls on my Strat so I leave them at full. I have played with the tone controls on the LP, mainly to take the edge off the bridge pup, when combining the two pups in the middle position.
 
Knobs

I was never into messing with the tone knobs until recently. I bought a wiring harness from some guy that really knows how to put them together. What a friggin difference!! When you use quality pots and capacitors it makes all the difference in the world. I also have the volumes wired independently now, that makes a big difference.
 
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