These Knobs Are Made For Turning, And That's Just What They Do, One Of These Days

JOLLY

JOLLY

Super Simonologist
These knobs are gonna tweak all over you.

Yeah, I know it's a dorky Nancy Sinatra thingie, buuuuuuuuuut.........

I don't get the deal with people always wanting to know what pickup to get brighter, or what pedal to get darker, or whatever's whatever.

I just got finished playing my li'l $149 Squier through my Marshall JVM410H for about an hour. It sounded great by the way. However, it doean't sound the same as when it did right after I played my Gibson RD through the amp. Guess what? I tweaked two knobs and it sounded perfect. I put that guitar down and played my Gibson Les Paul Classic with some Pearly Gates in it. It didn't sound exactly like I wanted it to, so I tweaked a couple of knobs and it sounded perfect.

I play different guitars throught that amp all of the time. Besides the fact that my ears seem to change from day to day and sometimes things don't sound the way I like right off of the bat, all I have to do is usually either tweak my Presence, Treble, or Mids....and it's usually only one of those and maybe two.

Am I the only one that just turns a knob here and there on this forum? Sometimes I wonder, and the reason being is because alot of people ask questions like I afforementioned in the third sentence of this rambling thread...lol.

What's so hard about turning a knob here and there? I couldn't tell you how many times I've been somewhere where some friends are jamming or whatever, and someone looks at me and says something like "this is too bassy", "this treble is driving me crazy", or whatever, and then they proceed to ask me about different pickups, speakers, or whatever. I walk over and turn a few knobs and they look at me all amazed like I just parted the freakin Red Sea or something because their amp sounds amazing all of a sudden.

Is it just me or do I not know what I'm talking about because I just shook half of my brain loose from crankin up the mighty Marshall with two totally different guitars?
 
Re: These Knobs Are Made For Turning, And That's Just What They Do, One Of These Days

I hope that made sense somewhat. Somewhat called me up during the middle of me trying to type that.
 
Re: These Knobs Are Made For Turning, And That's Just What They Do, One Of These Days

i think youre absolutely right, you can THIS tone, but by rolling off the knob on THAT hot pickup - its all circuits abd values, magnets and coils. but i wish i could bypass most of the pots i have- the resonant combo of woods, bridge/nuts, tubes, strings, oh, and of course pickups are in my experience, often the most preferable factors to have in place to get the tone in your head, while pots of vol, eq, etc. cant mask an insufficient factor. but twiddling is a skill worth mastering. i just assume on this forum that if someone says, can you recommend me a more scooped pickup than a JB, they mean, when i tried the JB, no amount of knob twiddling eliminated the unwanted mids, or i need a maple cap cuz no amount of knobtwiddling gave me the brightnes, etc. its tacit, but part of the story.
 
Re: These Knobs Are Made For Turning, And That's Just What They Do, One Of These Days

btw nothing has burnt me more than to dial a versatile guitar and amp just so, then jam with a guy using a Mosrite or Tele thru a Fender and have them bury you with stellar twang or presence: cuz theyre using the PROPER tools for the job
 
Re: These Knobs Are Made For Turning, And That's Just What They Do, One Of These Days

JOLLY said:
These knobs are gonna tweak all over you.

Yeah, I know it's a dorky Nancy Sinatra thingie, buuuuuuuuuut.........

I don't get the deal with people always wanting to know what pickup to get brighter, or what pedal to get darker, or whatever's whatever.

I just got finished playing my li'l $149 Squier through my Marshall JVM410H for about an hour. It sounded great by the way. However, it doean't sound the same as when it did right after I played my Gibson RD through the amp. Guess what? I tweaked two knobs and it sounded perfect. I put that guitar down and played my Gibson Les Paul Classic with some Pearly Gates in it. It didn't sound exactly like I wanted it to, so I tweaked a couple of knobs and it sounded perfect.

I play different guitars throught that amp all of the time. Besides the fact that my ears seem to change from day to day and sometimes things don't sound the way I like right off of the bat, all I have to do is usually either tweak my Presence, Treble, or Mids....and it's usually only one of those and maybe two.

Am I the only one that just turns a knob here and there on this forum? Sometimes I wonder, and the reason being is because alot of people ask questions like I afforementioned in the third sentence of this rambling thread...lol.





What's so hard about turning a knob here and there? I couldn't tell you how many times I've been somewhere where some friends are jamming or whatever, and someone looks at me and says something like "this is too bassy", "this treble is driving me crazy", or whatever, and then they proceed to ask me about different pickups, speakers, or whatever. I walk over and turn a few knobs and they look at me all amazed like I just parted the freakin Red Sea or something because their amp sounds amazing all of a sudden.

Is it just me or do I not know what I'm talking about because I just shook half of my brain loose from crankin up the mighty Marshall with two totally different guitars?
Click to expand...

To be Frank, sounds like someone has a case of those little town blues...
I'm gonna turn the tables and say this is weird. ..real weird. The guys got a White Falcon, a few high end Pauls and Fenders, and he goes and says how great a squire sounds?
Thats flat out bizarre. Go to an opthamologist and get your damn ears cleaned out!
Maybe your amp just sounds like a JVM no matter what goes in, but most every organic amp I've heard really makes a low end plank of lumber with cheap pickups sound like dump, especially cheaply made set neck Gibson type guitars compared to a real Gibson with something like a Seth Lover installed, and although a cheap plinky Fender sound like on the Chinese Fenders can be fun and cool, its certainly not brain science, nor rocket surgery, and hardly sounds anything like a high end Strat or Tele ,especially with Duncans, which can be very thick, dimensional and complex.
I ain't discounting the value of eq'ing your amp , but it won't make a APHII sound like a JB, nor will a JB gut punch your front end like a Dimebucker.
 
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Re: These Knobs Are Made For Turning, And That's Just What They Do, One Of These Days

No Jolly you're not alone.

My Bassman is my loud amp, my Marshall is my quiet amp. I can dial them in fairly close to eachother and I use my pedals to get anything different out of them.

That's why I went from having 15 guitars to 4 earlier this year. I liked the subtle differences but I only used like 3-4 different sounds...sounds the guitars I had before my buying binge covered just fine.
 
Re: These Knobs Are Made For Turning, And That's Just What They Do, One Of These Days

my Marshall is only 5 watts

guess what i want for my birthday
 
Re: These Knobs Are Made For Turning, And That's Just What They Do, One Of These Days

Your problem is the Marshall full stack. Its so loud that your hearing has deteriorated... lol
 
Re: These Knobs Are Made For Turning, And That's Just What They Do, One Of These Days

Yeah, I know what you mean Jolly.

To me it's so simple.
You get a pickup that transmits your voicing, be it full of mids and crunch, or clear, or a bassy monstrosity,
or maybe a more balanced sound, and then it's just turning knobs to balance and shape.
That's of course assuming you've got a good amp and a guitar you're comfortable with. And some pedals to shape the sound a bit.

By that point, if the gear's OK but it doesn't sound right, it's your fault, not the magnet inside your pickup.
There's so much tone to squeeze in the way that you play rather than what gear you play, most guys don't seem to get that.
 
Re: These Knobs Are Made For Turning, And That's Just What They Do, One Of These Days

While I agree a bit, some of it is the too brights are too harsh a bright or some ality of th tone that the tone knob does not address.
 
Re: These Knobs Are Made For Turning, And That's Just What They Do, One Of These Days

Diego said:
Yeah, I know what you mean Jolly.

To me it's so simple.
You get a pickup that transmits your voicing, be it full of mids and crunch, or clear, or a bassy monstrosity,
or maybe a more balanced sound, and then it's just turning knobs to balance and shape.
That's of course assuming you've got a good amp and a guitar you're comfortable with. And some pedals to shape the sound a bit.

By that point, if the gear's OK but it doesn't sound right, it's your fault, not the magnet inside your pickup.
There's so much tone to squeeze in the way that you play rather than what gear you play, most guys don't seem to get that.
Click to expand...

And I disagree, and thats why I need more guitars with different woods and pickups. I like my Marshall JMP . Its a wonderfully organic tone. Even though the JMP will always have the Marshall signature tone, the amplifier eq'd voicing of all those different woods and pickups( Ash, Alder, MAhogany, Mpale, etc), gives each isntrument a difefrent tone ..and add to that that the pickups have been selectively coupled to the tonewood for best results, and the harmonic convergence is a total delight.
With the high quality r APh's, Seths, Cutoms, etc etc. picking up the resonant charecter of the guitar( for betetr or for worse), the amp EQ is there to shape the final sound everything; to generally balance the sound and to fine tune it.
To *define the tone is the primary responsiblity of the pickup./ Its the first in the chain of command of tone. Its at the headwaters of the signal-It outsources the prime sound of the wood and the guitar to the rest of the signal chain. The pickup sould have a synergystic rrelartionshipwith the tonewood. This fundamental will become the cornerstone for the final tone of the amp.
 
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Re: These Knobs Are Made For Turning, And That's Just What They Do, One Of These Days

MetalManiac said:
And I disagree, and thats why I need more guitars with different woods and pickups. I like my Marshall JMP . Its a wonderfully organic tone. Even though the JMP will always have the Marshall signature tone, the amplifier eq'd voicing of all those different woods and pickups( Ash, Alder, MAhogany, Mpale, etc), gives each isntrument a difefrent tone ..and add to that that the pickups have been selectively coupled to the tonewood for best results, and the harmonic convergence is a total delight.
With the high quality r APh's, Seths, Cutoms, etc etc. picking up the resonant charecter of the guitar( for betetr or for worse), the amp EQ is there to shape the final sound everything; to generally balance the sound and to fine tune it.
To *define the tone is the primary responsiblity of the pickup./ Its the first in the chain of command of tone. Its at the headwaters of the signal-It outsources the prime sound of the wood and the guitar to the rest of the signal chain. The pickup sould have a synergystic rrelartionshipwith the tonewood. This fundamental will become the cornerstone for the final tone of the guitar and amp.
Click to expand...

knob polisher
 
Re: These Knobs Are Made For Turning, And That's Just What They Do, One Of These Days

The last time I made a change to my equipment that did not involve a knob turn was a little more involved. I had too much bite in the pickup, and if I turned down the treble, I would lose too much definition, like the old blanket analogy. Really, the problem was the pickup. Swap in a different magnet, and the problem was solved.

I think it's just an issue of using each item in the chain to its fullest potential. No amount of tweaking can make a guitar with the wrong voicing sound like a guitar with the right voicing. There is a lot of fine-tuning capability on a lot of the amps out there, but it always boils down to garbage in, garbage out.
 
Re: These Knobs Are Made For Turning, And That's Just What They Do, One Of These Days

It's all in the fingers. You can use them to adjust the controls, play and incite.

:fing2:
 
Re: These Knobs Are Made For Turning, And That's Just What They Do, One Of These Days

MetalManiac said:
Thios isnt a secks forum:chairshot
Click to expand...
No, they're a music act!

m.jpg


- http://www.myspace.com/thios -

:nana:
 
Re: These Knobs Are Made For Turning, And That's Just What They Do, One Of These Days

This post reminds me of my old audio days. "Purists" would simply not turn a tone control. God forbid they should buy an outboard EQ. That would "color" the sound. It wouldn't be "natural".

But they'd spend countless hours, and God only knows how much money, swapping speakers, cartridges, dyna-mats et al., because there was too much bass or too little treble, etc.
 
Re: These Knobs Are Made For Turning, And That's Just What They Do, One Of These Days

ArtieToo said:
This post reminds me of my old audio days. "Loonies" would simply not turn a tone control. God forbid they should buy an outboard EQ. That would "color" the sound. It wouldn't be "natural".

But they'd spend countless hours, and God only knows how much money, swapping speakers, cartridges, dyna-mats et al., because there was too much bass or too little treble, etc.
Click to expand...

You mean the ones that ran everything flat because " That's the way it was mastered " ? They fail to realize they don't have a studio control room to listen to it , with exactly the same dynamic construction.:14:
 
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