Master Tone

[Guitar Toad]

The biggest question of the day. Are you ready for this?

Why use a Master Tone? Is this simply to make room for a blender pot?
What do you lose with one tone pot?

What's the advantage of two tone controls over one? Two is better than one right?

 

[krankguitarist]

Re: Master Tone

well, not nessicarily on a strat. A master tone would give you control over the bridge pickup, where as the two individual tone pots on a strat just let you control the neck and middle pickups. Thats why I wire all my strats up for master tone controls.

 

[Kommerzbassist]

Re: Master Tone

And can someone tell me how I achieve that special wiring where I've got: Neck & Mid Tone + Bridge Tone?
thanks

 

[Quencho092]

Re: Master Tone

ive got mine wired neck tone and the other pot is middle and bridge. I forgot how i did it though, it's been a while.

With two tones, in position 2 you can decide how much high frequency you want from your neck pickup and you can control the quack by lowering the tone on your middle pickup. It's handy when you want a big clean

That's my favorite part about my strat right now-just using my neck and middle pickups i can play anything.

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Master Tone

I'm a new strat player for the most part, so I don't have a great deal of experience to speak from. But I'm beginning to think that the hot middle pickup on my JV is a great wiring scheme having tone controls each on the neck and bridge. But, the same thing could be accomplished with the "master" control that controls the neck and bridge and still leaves the middle tonally hot.

Then I could have room for a blender pot to get the neck+bridge combo. right?

 

[stevie_bees]

Re: Master Tone

ive got mine wired neck tone and the other pot is middle and bridge. I forgot how i did it though, it's been a while.

With two tones, in position 2 you can decide how much high frequency you want from your neck pickup and you can control the quack by lowering the tone on your middle pickup. It's handy when you want a big clean

That's my favorite part about my strat right now-just using my neck and middle pickups i can play anything.

It's just a link on the tone side of the switch from the middle lug to the bridge lug (next 1 across), then the tone works for both. It's how mine is wired also.

 

[Armotron]

Re: Master Tone

ive got mine wired neck tone and the other pot is middle and bridge. I forgot how i did it though, it's been a while.

With two tones, in position 2 you can decide how much high frequency you want from your neck pickup and you can control the quack by lowering the tone on your middle pickup. It's handy when you want a big clean

That's my favorite part about my strat right now-just using my neck and middle pickups i can play anything.

+1, thats how mine came set up, makes the most sense to me.

 

[YJM_Rocks]

Re: Master Tone

My next strat is going to be wired bridge volume, neck volume, master tone.

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Master Tone

My next strat is going to be wired bridge volume, neck volume, master tone.

Why? Is your bridge pup way hot relative to the neck and middle?

 

[YJM_Rocks]

Re: Master Tone

No, I just like more volumes instead of more tone controls. So I can keep one pickup really low volume for a better clean, and switch to the other pickup for more drive.

This would work better on a tube amp where it is more sensitive to input levels.