Wow!..the tone knob really does work!!

J

J.LaGrassa

New member
I reinstalled my Pearly Gates neck & bridge pickups again despite my Issues with the bridge being bright. I did some reading on this forum and I would see a few comments saying "Use your tone knob" when talking about bright pickups.

Well I tried that and it works very nicely with out killing the dynamics, I set my bridge tone knob on about 5 or 6 and the PGb still has great cut with out Ice pick highs! Now I find I can get excellent control and the desired cut I need just by using the almighty tone knob!

ok....back to playing my guitar!
 
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Re: Wow!..the tone knob really does work!!

Excellent! I use the bridge tone knob a lot on my Les Pauls. I usually set my amp up so that the neck pickup gives me a clear jazzy-bluesy tone when I roll the volume back. This can leave the bridge pickup sounding a little bright, so I roll the bridge tone knob back to compensate. It really fattens the tone! I also back the bridge volume off to 7 or 8 for rhythm playing, so I have some in hand for leads.

Towards the end of the gig, when the keyboard player's too loud and everyone's going deaf, everything goes to 10. :approve:
 
Re: Wow!..the tone knob really does work!!

Simon_F said:
Excellent! I use the bridge tone knob a lot on my Les Pauls. I usually set my amp up so that the neck pickup gives me a clear jazzy-bluesy tone when I roll the volume back. This can leave the bridge pickup sounding a little bright, so I roll the bridge tone knob back to compensate. It really fattens the tone! I also back the bridge volume off to 7 or 8 for rhythm playing, so I have some in hand for leads.
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I do pretty much the same: set the amp to have a nice tone with neck pup on my Epi with the set of '59. And then, control the high of the bridge pup with the knob on the guitar. It works really nicely this way.
 
Re: Wow!..the tone knob really does work!!

Depending on how your guitar is wired (I like the pickups on #3 and the switch on #2) rolling your bridge volume pot down just a touch will also work to roll off the highs. It's especially nice on clean tones but under gain on tube amps which can tend to get a bit darker when the volume and gain is raised, you can roll the volume pot back up as a slight treble boost for solos.

It's an old and often forgotten players trick but it works.
 
Re: Wow!..the tone knob really does work!!

Scott had a great post a couple years ago about using the tone knob, that really got me to playing with it more. I think there's a certain psychological quirk that makes us think that if we have a knob rolled back, we're missing something. In reality, we're just tweaking a parameter. I play with my tone knob all the time now.

My volume control . . . thats a different story. Its always on "10". :D
 
Re: Wow!..the tone knob really does work!!

...a lot cheaper than changing pickups ;) tone knobs might put SD out of business though...
 
Re: Wow!..the tone knob really does work!!

my tone knobs suck, i got to get some of those things.
 
Re: Wow!..the tone knob really does work!!

ArtieToo said:
Scott had a great post a couple years ago about using the tone knob, that really got me to playing with it more. I think there's a certain psychological quirk that makes us think that if we have a knob rolled back, we're missing something. In reality, we're just tweaking a parameter. I play with my tone knob all the time now.

My volume control . . . thats a different story. Its always on "10". :D
Click to expand...

You are arbolutly right.... at least that aplies to me... :) .. It is a psychological quirk.. I do use my tone control a lot... but some how get that feeling... But you put it well " tweaking a parameter."
 
Re: Wow!..the tone knob really does work!!

Yep, took me 30 years realize it was OK to use the tone control and not be a whimp. You can turn the volume down and the tone up and get a nice bright rythm tone or turn it up and the tone down and get a FAT chunchy tone and then crank them both for leads. P-90's work well with this.
 
Re: Wow!..the tone knob really does work!!

Not only that, but one of the most valuable things I've learned about the tone control is to use it in conjunction with distortion or overdrive. When you overdrive a signal, be it distortion or fuzz, you are clipping the signal. That creates high order harmonics, (additional high-frequency content), in and of itself. If you have the tone control all the way up, you add to that high-end and it can be harsh and irritating. By rolling back the tone control, you let the effect provide the high-end content and you get much more smooth and creamy distortion.

I never use my tone above 2 or 3 when using distortion now. I suppose this might be what they mean by "woman tone".
 
Re: Wow!..the tone knob really does work!!

Actually, you can get a good Sanatana tone with a strat by putting the 5-way between the neck and middle, and rolling the tone down all the way on the middle. With heavy distortion, it absolutely sings, and It seems to me that with the tone down, it's easier to control feedback. This also works well with the bridge, but it's not as smooth and sing-y
 
Re: Wow!..the tone knob really does work!!

I'm definitely finding by cutting some of the high end from the bridge pup when using distortion can fatten up the tone then for solos just go a digit or 2 higher on the tone pot for that cut you need to stand out.
 
Re: Wow!..the tone knob really does work!!

That is why I think it is a good idea to get a PU that is a little brighter than what you really want. I love the CC, but it doesn't leave much room for additional treble, unless you split it. With a JB, you can cut back on the Tone and get closer to a CC...
 
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