How do you use your Guitar tone Pot?

Re: How do you use your Guitar tone Pot?

I've seen a steve morse interview where he suggests turning the tone pots down for RHYTHM playing to help the vocals stand out more... this way you;re still 'moving a lot of air' as i think he put it, but at the same time not over-stepping your boundaries.
 
Re: How do you use your Guitar tone Pot?

Scott_F said:
I saw Stratman approach his tone pots very differently than I do.

He dials it all the way down dark, the brings it back up until he gets what he's after. I have always done the opposite, just turned them down to take the edge off.

After my last few wanking sessions, I'm now a convert to his way of doing it. It seems easier on my ears to add in what I want instead of taking away what I don't want.

Just food for thought. Many of you probably already do it that way.

I got used to the EVH way of single humbuckers and no tone controlls as that is what i grew up with.... But i have some guitars i use my Tone controlls on..... One is my 70's Les Paul... it's tone cap must be a high value as it is almost like a wah pedal when i roll it on and off quickly.... very cool effect! On my stock tele i cut the tone back until it sounds thicker.... then during solos i turn it on full.... On a MIM strat i have that is stock with TEX/Mex pickups i want to wire the tone pots to the bridge and middle postions and roll them off a bit like i hear Jeff Beck does.... Wish i had a Beck Signature Strat.....
 
Re: How do you use your Guitar tone Pot?

i don't LOL. either it's not in the guitar at all or on 10. for my style of music i haven't found need for it yet. only when i play clean stuff will i use it now and again. once in a blue moon on a lead part while on the neck pickup i'll use it to mellow out the sound a bit.

-Mike
 
Re: How do you use your Guitar tone Pot?

I sometimes use it for different things.

For most things, it's just full on. If I want to do a Woman-Tone like solo or riff, I roll it down to 0. My strat gets a pretty nice woman-tone when I have it in the bridge/middle notch with the tone rolled off the middle pickup. And in my jazz band at school I bring the tone down to 5 on both the neck and middle and use that notch for rhythm stuff, and switch to the bridge/middle notch for the occasional guitar solo (rare, because the saxophones get all the good solos :yell: ). And with my amp on it's distortion channel, if I bring the volume down to 5 to clean up the sound a bit, and then lower the tone to 5 on my neck pickup, I can get mock-acoustic sounds. A very woody, hollow tone to it.
 
Re: How do you use your Guitar tone Pot?

Scott_F said:
I saw Stratman approach his tone pots very differently than I do.

He dials it all the way down dark, the brings it back up until he gets what he's after. I have always done the opposite, just turned them down to take the edge off.

After my last few wanking sessions, I'm now a convert to his way of doing it. It seems easier on my ears to add in what I want instead of taking away what I don't want.

Just food for thought. Many of you probably already do it that way.


Oh oh!

There goes another secret! And another convert...

At my age, I have to take it easy on the ears.
 
Re: How do you use your Guitar tone Pot?

I've tried it both ways, and it doesn't seem to make a difference. I either end up with the tone dimed, or somewhere in the middle depending on what I'm going for. My Tele is pretty much the only guitar I touch the tone control on, but I know if I take them out of the Strats I will miss them.
 
Re: How do you use your Guitar tone Pot?

i find that my strats becomes more percussive when i roll the tone back. It gets a lower mid honk when i roll the tone with my Ts9 on, it sounds thick though.

I twiddle with the tone controls when im using it in 'tele mode' -neck and bridge on. I leave the bridge dimed and roll the neck a bit to build a contrast for the tone to sparkle and be dark.
 
Re: How do you use your Guitar tone Pot?

I'm constantly fiddling with all my pots, which is why I like guitars with LP style wiring.
 
Re: How do you use your Guitar tone Pot?

i have master vol & master tone on my guitars, and i always fiddle with them...the tone makes a great faux-wah sound too- stole that from seeing Adrian Belew & Steve Morse play.
A good tone pot can have lots of tonal colors throughout its range, and they are worth exploring. Doesn't matter to me what kind of music I play- from jazz to rock and soundsape-y ambient stuff.
 
Re: How do you use your Guitar tone Pot?

I really only use the tone control on my Teles Bridge. JB/Jazz sound awesome with the tone on 10
 
Re: How do you use your Guitar tone Pot?

On my Strat's I start roll them down, then back up.

On my LP I usually dial them into standard positions and leave them there....the bridge is usually around 7 and the neck around 8.
 
Re: How do you use your Guitar tone Pot?

I'll occasionally do the woman tone thing, but by and large I leave the tone controls alone. I find when I change my tone settings, I forget to put them back where I want. Then I'm wondering why my guitar sounds like that when I switch on the pickup! :smack: So I don't use them much. I'll change guitars, pickups, or amp settings if I need a different tone. I'll sometimes use an EQ also.
 
Re: How do you use your Guitar tone Pot?

I jockey with the volume pot far more often than the tone pot. For the most part, I find a position I like and leave it there when it comes to tone pots. Basically that means that bridge pups are dimed and neck pups are rolled back a bit on LP style wirings.

The tele’s tone pot gets played with the most, primarily because a little edge almost always has to be taken off the bridge pickup.
 
Re: How do you use your Guitar tone Pot?

The neck on my LP is often down at zero, usually the bridge is somewhere between halfway and full on. On my strat they are around 7-8, but there isnt one on the bridge pickup, its the old wiring.
 
Re: How do you use your Guitar tone Pot?

on strats i use the tone controls less but on tele/esquire and gibsons i use them quite a bit.

on my esquire (wired tapped w/cap, tapped w/tone control, full 11k no tone) i usually keep the tone rolled down maybe 1/3 of the way, i roll down the high end rather than rolling it up like scotts new method. i tend to like a very warm round tone and some times it works better on stage with a little brighter sound. i find when i roll up the treble i end up with a darker tone than if i roll down.
if im playing rhythm on a gibson bridge pup i tend to roll the high end off.
i like setting the amp fairly bright...actually thats not true, i like alot of high end available but with lots of mids and a decent amount of bass too so i can have the highs when i want them but never sound thin or shrill. sometimes i want to bite a little harder than others and if i set the amp so i get my usual tone when i want the extra bite, there is no where to go.
ive been playing that esquire on an off quite a bit. when you only have one pup dont use pedals much and play music that lends itself to a variety of tones you are forced to learn to get the most of out what you have
 
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