Anyone actually use neck tone?

[TeaAt5]

I'm getting my guitar rewired when my guitar tech installs a seth set. I'm trying to decide whether to go master tone and master bass roll-off, or add a fifth pot to my les paul for a master bass roll-off, and keep the two tone pots.

Does anyone use master treble/bass tone controls? Do you miss having a tone control for each pup?


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[Herby]

Re: Anyone actually use neck tone?

I use the bridge tone frequently. I've used the neck tone on one song in my life... I'm old. That's the beauty of having independent tone knobs. Quick change with no fiddling. Two of my guitars have master tone. One has a master bass cut. It's a pain sometimes when you want a different setting for a different pickup... and you're in a hurry. It depends on your style whether or not the tone knobs are effective. Jazz and fusion players use it a lot. Some people run their tone knobs in the middle and adjust from there. This requires EQing your amp differently and running 'all' your guitars the same way.

The average person doesn't even know the neck pickup has a tone knob :18:. I've been thinking of unhooking the neck tone and doing something different with it also.

 

[TeaAt5]

Re: Anyone actually use neck tone?

I wonder if I could install a cavity switch to toggle between master treble and bass roll-off, and normal tone pots....


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[Mincer]

Re: Anyone actually use neck tone?

I use a tone control for the neck a lot, but I am not opposed to master controls, either. I use them just as much.

 

[Adieu]

Re: Anyone actually use neck tone?

I use a tone control for the neck a lot

In what situations?

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Anyone actually use neck tone?

I use the tone with the neck pickup a lot, even with my Teles.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Anyone actually use neck tone?

I rewire my guitars for master tone. I’ve also used bass rolloffs or varitone mid chokes

Having two tone controls is redundant since they are not independent.


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[Adieu]

Re: Anyone actually use neck tone?

Having two tone controls is redundant since they are not independent.


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What makes them influence each other? And to what degree?

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Anyone actually use neck tone?

What makes them dependent on each other?

A tone control just shorts a capacitor to ground. The two tone controls are in parallel, so on something like a Les Paul, if you have both pickups on, turning one tone control rolls off the highs on both pickups. Just as turning down one volume control mutes both pickups.

Gibson uses two tone controls because players would use one pickup like a preset tone.

On a Strat the two tone controls are connected to the same cap since when the Strat was designed it only had a three way switch and you couldn’t use two pickups at the same time.


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[Adieu]

Re: Anyone actually use neck tone?

A tone control just shorts a capacitor to ground. The two tone controls are in parallel, so on something like a Les Paul, if you have both pickups on, turning one tone control rolls off the highs on both pickups. Just as turning down one volume control mutes both pickups.

Gibson uses two tone controls because players would use one pickup like a preset tone.

On a Strat the two tone controls are connected to the same cap since when the Strat was designed it only had a three way switch and you couldn’t use two pickups at the same time.


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Ah in that sense...i thought you meant even with only one pup selected.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Anyone actually use neck tone?

In what situations?

If the guitar is wired for a neck tone, I use it for all sorts of situations...to get a clean jazzy tone, a good Cream-era soloing tone, and even as a wah-wah sound by sweeping it back and forth. I use it as much as the volume, which is a lot.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Anyone actually use neck tone?

I use neck pickup most of the time while playing (much more than the bridge anyway) . . . and the tone control is very important to getting a good neck tone. Often I've found that guitars are set up so that the neck tone goes from muffled to woolly. Play around with the value of the pot and the capacitor in your tone control, and you can spin through sparkling clean sounds, throaty cries, and muted jazz tones.

 

[Herby]

Re: Anyone actually use neck tone?

I play mostly Strat style guitars. I like having one dedicated tone hooked to the bridge pickup. I use that tone almost all the time. I've been experimenting with using a 500K pot on volume, a 500K pot and a 0.022 cap on the neck tone. I get a more useful range. I like a 250K pot and a 0.047 cap on the bridge pickup. I'm even considering trying a 100K pot on the bridge to see what, if anything, happens...

 

[Aceman]

Re: Anyone actually use neck tone?

I use the neck tone...but depends on the pickup. I may want the full neck treble, or I might want to cut it. Just depends.

Question: That's a lot of tone control with 5 knobs. What do YOU do with them????

 

[TeaAt5]

Re: Anyone actually use neck tone?

I use the neck tone...but depends on the pickup. I may want the full neck treble, or I might want to cut it. Just depends.

Question: That's a lot of tone control with 5 knobs. What do YOU do with them????

A fair and excellent question! When my tech installs my new Seths, I'm getting him to wire up the electronics and then I'm leaving them alone! So the weird situation is that I'm trying to decide on a control scheme without really trying multiple things out first.

I've got triple shots for the switching side, bridge tone (or volume) p/p for OOP, and I want a bass roll-off. Now it's just a matter of figuring out how to wire it with enough flexibility that I don't give in to the temptation of endless obsessive tweaking [emoji4]

Bridge tone will stay stock. I want bass roll-off off. I rarely use neck tone, but I usually play all at 10 and I need to start exploring those knobs, especially with new pups. So although I want a bass roll-off, I'm loathe to sacrifice the neck tone for it.

I will probably go with p/p between stock tone and bass roll-off. I was interested in having bass AND treble roll-off at the same time in order to see if I could get some really narrow, 'strangled' tones.

Sigh......



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[ItsaBass]

Re: Anyone actually use neck tone?

I use tone controls on both pickups. What I really don't use is a volume knob, be it master or dedicated to a particular pickup. I wish the four knobs on Les Pauls were bass and treble controls for each pickup, and I wish the switch was bridge pickup one way, neck pickup the other way, and master off in the middle.

Similarly, Strats could be T/T/T and I think they'd be a "better" guitar.

I have my Aerodyne Tele wired T/T (no volume control or off switch). It works for me, though I do miss having the ability to turn the thing off when needed.

 

[Artie]

Re: Anyone actually use neck tone?

I use tone controls on any pup mainly when I'm using any kind of fuzz or overdrive. (Pedal induced or true tube clipping.) Clipping generates its own hi-freq harmonics, so removing the highs from the original signal makes the overall sound smoother and "creamier". I want fuzz. Not fizz. Going along with that, I find myself using double-"0" cap values these days. (.001, .002, .0047, etc.) I only want to roll off the very top.

 

[Jacew]

Re: Anyone actually use neck tone?

A fair and excellent question! When my tech installs my new Seths, I'm getting him to wire up the electronics and then I'm leaving them alone! So the weird situation is that I'm trying to decide on a control scheme without really trying multiple things out first.

I've got triple shots for the switching side, bridge tone (or volume) p/p for OOP, and I want a bass roll-off. Now it's just a matter of figuring out how to wire it with enough flexibility that I don't give in to the temptation of endless obsessive tweaking [emoji4]

Bridge tone will stay stock. I want bass roll-off off. I rarely use neck tone, but I usually play all at 10 and I need to start exploring those knobs, especially with new pups. So although I want a bass roll-off, I'm loathe to sacrifice the neck tone for it.

I will probably go with p/p between stock tone and bass roll-off. I was interested in having bass AND treble roll-off at the same time in order to see if I could get some really narrow, 'strangled' tones.

Sigh......



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Trust me, that's not going to work.

With more complex than standard schemes, if you get it to exactly the way you want it now, you'll get plenty of ideas for improvement after playing it for a while. Then you just have to rethink it.

That's just the way it goes. So there's not that much need to fuzz about it too much. It takes time and many tryouts to find out what you really like.

 

[hamerfan]

Re: Anyone actually use neck tone?

I rewired my hamers from mastertofne to bridge tone to fight the muddy neck sound. I do not ever use neck tone pots and hooked it off on most (i think i use both PIO caps on my R8) of my Gibson Les Pauls. But i like the bridge tone pot very much and even more so on my 335 which i play only with the tone pot on 8. But thats just me.

I rewire my guitars for master tone. I’ve also used bass rolloffs or varitone mid chokes

Having two tone controls is redundant since they are not independent.


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