Who actually uses their tone control?

maltingsaudio · September 2023

In real life and certainly at gigs I never touch the tone controls on my guitar, I only use the volume. I may when noodling play with the tone but 99% of the time they are on 10

tony99 · September 2023

On my fenders (strat and tele) I mess with the tone quite a bit, Gibbos not so much

blobb · September 2023

All the time. I blend vol / tone / pickup to get the source sound right before messing with other sound shaping options downstream.

Funkfingers · September 2023

I do. Lots.

Whitecat · September 2023

Quite a bit but a) it took me some time to come around to the realisation that it can actually be useful and b) not all tone circuits are equal - some guitars have weird tapers and/or just eff up the tone somehow, so it’s more useful on some guitars than others.

57Deluxe · September 2023

with a Les Paul Jr it is obligatory!

ICBM · September 2023

I do, although not that much. At gigs or in practice rooms with supplied backline I mostly use it as a problem fixer to remove shrillness, rather than a 'musical' choice.

Creed_Clicks · September 2023

Never used it. Always at 10, except when I had a Jazzmaster and needed to cut the shrillness, but I would imagine with a Jr style guitar, maybe it would be useful.

monquixote · September 2023

Depends on the guitar, but I rarely use the bridge pickup on a Tele without a bit of tone wound off.

polotska · September 2023

I, too, use them all the time.

ArchtopDave · September 2023

I do, plus I have an EQ pedal as well.

Lewy · September 2023

Main use is to take the edge off a bridge pickup when I’ve set the amp up for the neck pickup. On a strat with the second tone moved to the bridge pickup that’s set and forget, but on a guitar with a master tone you need to adjust when you change pickup

Philly_Q · September 2023

I don't use it in real life, since I don't gig or record or play guitar in the presence of any humans. But yes, I do like the tone control - I love the sound of a neck humbucker with distortion and the tone on 0, which probably isn't usable in the real world.

CampbellH · September 2023

Wire in a different cap, or wire between pots.Then there is the pot. Is it linear or variant of an audio pot. Gets a lots of options and worth finding few for each combination rather than just flicking the switch between pickups.

stickyfiddle · September 2023

Loads. Lots of folks always tell me rig is too bright when they play through it, probably because they just out everything on 10

jeztone2 · September 2023

Depends on the amp. A lot of venues want you to use their ten year old Fender Hot Rod Deluxe with teeth clanging highs. So in those scenarios I’m usually turning the tone down to counteract the sound guys vision.

Michael84 · September 2023

In a les paul with vintage wiring there're so many tonal options by fiddling with all the tone/volume combinations, especially in the middle pos. In single coil guitars, I don't use it much.

RaymondLin · September 2023

I thought I am one of those who put everything on max until I got a PRS SE One where it only has the volume knob, then I realised I miss the tone knob a lot. It changes the sound so much, it's so useful.

Voxman · September 2023

I'm old school and always use volume and tone control roll off. I hated that on my Patrick Eggle Berlin Pro it had a rotary tone selector but no tone control. So I had it modified with the rotary replaced with a push pull tone control.

Keefy · September 2023

Depends on the guitar type.

Strat - hardly ever.
Tele - sometimes.

Gibsons - neck always full up, bridge usually around 5.
Gretsch - rarely.

guitars4you · September 2023

Quite a bit but it won't be the same on all guitars - a) the pot taper varies and b) depends on the 'natural' voice of the guitar and pick-ups in question as to how much I might need to roll off - But tends to be more subtle

I use the vol pot far more - whilst it does have an impact on the guitars tone, I tend to use it more to adjust the level of gain on the amp/pedal - Think it was EVH who said the vol pot is the tone pot

Fishboy7 · September 2023

Not so much on a Tele but definitely on my 335. I tend to live on the neck pickup, vol and tone both around 7/10.

Funkfingers · September 2023

RaymondLin said:

I thought I am one of those who put everything on max until I got a PRS SE One where it only has the volume knob, then I realised I miss the tone knob a lot. It changes the sound so much, it's so useful.

I modified my SE One by extending the control cavity towards the neck sufficiently to accommodate a second pot. My tone pot is where the volume used to be. My volume pot is more or less in line with the pickup. This puts them slightly closer together than I consider ideal. (Think: Gordon-Smith GS-1.) If I could find a suitable replacement pickguard, I would shift the tone pot further away, towards the corner of the 'guard.

Roland · September 2023

I use them all the time. My guitars and amp are set bright. The tone then sits at 50%, giving me plenty of scope for adjustment either way. Running bright also means that I can cut through the mix without being too loud.

Loobs · September 2023

Both controls, all the time. Tone control is invaluable if you have to play/borrow an amp that's a bit toppy.

Supportact · September 2023

Yes i do, depending on the guitar. Normally as a quick fix if it's sounding too spiky.

Keefy · September 2023

My Palir Titan C4 is a Cabronita style guitar and has just a volume control. I always thought I’d miss a tone control but the tone of the Portertron pickups is so well sorted that you just don’t need it.

distressed · September 2023

All the time, depending on the part of the song or sound I want to get.

TTBZ · September 2023

Always on 10 with humbuckers, I use it a lot more on singlecoils/P90s to reduce the twang as the gain goes up.

PhilW1 · September 2023

I know he’s not everyone’s favourite on here but Joe Bonamassa has some good YouTube videos showing how he gets different sounds using tone controls,

Does help to be Joe Bonamassa though, I suppose

RaymondLin · September 2023

Funkfingers said:

RaymondLin said:

I thought I am one of those who put everything on max until I got a PRS SE One where it only has the volume knob, then I realised I miss the tone knob a lot. It changes the sound so much, it's so useful.

I modified my SE One by extending the control cavity towards the neck sufficiently to accommodate a second pot. My tone pot is where the volume used to be. My volume pot is more or less in line with the pickup. This puts them slightly closer together than I consider ideal. (Think: Gordon-Smith GS-1.) If I could find a suitable replacement pickguard, I would shift the tone pot further away, towards the corner of the 'guard.

I don't think it needs routing.

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Who actually uses their tone control?

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