Okay, what do people use Master Volume knobs for, anyway?

I mean, I'm only 63 years old, been playing for 44 years and I still can't figure it out. All I know is, if I turn the MV control down, the tone usually goes away! That's not a good thing in my book.

I talked to a friend about it today. He said he uses MV primarily as an on-off switch, so he wouldn't have to change the position on a volume control.

Please give me some more reasons, por favor!

On/off and for volume swells.

It works great when you are blending the Volume and tone of both the neck and the bridge pickups at the same time. For instance, In the middle position if you only want a certain amount of Bridge pickup signal dialed in with a full amount neck pickup signal then you can fine tune the mixture on your individual Volumes and Tones Knobs and use the Master Volume for the overall level of the signal. It also works great for Blending "out of phase" and "coil split" pickup tones as well if your guitar is so equipped. Works Great on my Starfire IV Custom Shop with the 3 P90's in it, especially since the middle pickup can be added to the neck and/or bridge either in phase or out of phase. Makes for an endless combination of tones and the Master volume works great for controlling the Overall Signal output of the guitar.

TX

Some of the Hoboken SF II basses have a 200K neck tone pot and a 500K bridge tone pot (instead of 500K for both neck and bridge). With the 200K neck and 500K bridge pots on that bass, the MV knob really comes in handy, because the bridge pickup is at least twice as loud as the neck pickup, possibly more. examples have surfaced with both pre- and post- suck switch circuitry, and the MV control would be integral, possibly mandatory, either pre or post suck switch- to use, if you were to perform with that setup, and planned to switch from one pickup to the other. of course you can just use the pickup volumes, but you might not want to fumble around with the 4-pack of knobs in that area, every time you change pickups...to quote Phil Lesh (and basically Tex) "just set it and forget it." Anyway those SF IIs with that set up sound great, there is really no reason to mess with it. one pickup is just a lot louder than the other, a rare scenario where the MV is basically necessary at least to have it there as an option (even as an emergency brake, if nothing else).

I had always understood that it was leftover from the days of single coil pickups back in the 50's. Performing artists such as Chet Atkins and Duane Eddy wanted to be able to kill the 60 cycle hum between songs quickly and efficiently. :satellite:

But then again, that might just be guitar legend!

Bill

sailingshoes72 said:

I had always understood that it was leftover from the days of single coil pickups back in the 50's. Performing artists such as Chet Atkins and Duane Eddy wanted to be able to kill the 60 cycle hum between songs quickly and efficiently. :satellite:

But then again, that might just be guitar legend!

Bill

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Feedback, too. Watch Brian Setzer play and you'll see him mute the guitar between songs because those Gretsches, even with the trestle bracing, will feed back like crazy through a loud amp on stage.

IMO the MV is a great tool especially on a hollow body. I tend not to like the smaller knobs on the Guild MV, but I'll take it over not having one.

On all Paul Gilbert Signature Ibanez guitars, he has swapped the placement of the volume and tone knobs for just that reason - so he can quickly and conveniently cut the volume. Easier to get to the "outside" knob than the "inside" one.

http://www.ibanez.com/products/u_eg_sig_series16.php?year=2016&cat_id=1&series_id=18

walrus

GAD said:

Feedback, too. Watch Brian Setzer play and you'll see him mute the guitar between songs because those Gretsches, even with the trestle bracing, will feed back like crazy through a loud amp on stage.

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Good point! I believe that the large hollow body guitars built by Gretsch were the first guitars to feature the MV control. Hans states in his book that while designing his signature model for Guild "Duane specified DeArmond pickups, a master volume and a Bigsby vibrato, all features that he was used to having on his Gretsch guitar". IIRC the DE-500 was the first production Guild to feature a MV control.

Bill

With my Chet Atkins Gretsch I leave the individual pickup volumes at my favorite spots (bridge full up, neck backed off a little) and use the master to set overall volume. When playing with other folks I like to set the master down a bit and adjust my amp volume- & tone-wise to compensate. Then I can roll up the vol when desired and get a treble kick too.

-Dave-

Thanks, folks. I'll give it a try, when I get the X170T I am using back from the luthier man....

I find a master volume almost a must have if you are gigging with both pickups on. In fact I rewired my Bluesbird to have only one volume, and it controls both pickps. I can tweak lots of tonal variety using only the tone controls.

gilded said:

...if I turn the MV control down, the tone usually goes away!

Click to expand...

I have never done it myself, but I recall reading about a "Treble Falloff" modification (or something like that) years ago to remedy just such an issue. If I remember correctly, it is simply a matter of soldering in a capacitor and the MV knob is your best friend again.

EDIT: Well, this is not where I read it, but the article is very informative...they are referring to the lost tone as "Treble Bleed", and show exactly how to fix it:

A Simple Treble Bleed Mod

Yeah, I have treble bleed networks in a couple guitars. One of 'em is just a capacitor and was put in by the previous owner while the second, which I installed, uses a cap and a resistor (retains more low end as you dial back the vol). You can buy 'em ready-to-go from StewMac, with alligator clips that allow you to try 'em out without soldering.

-Dave-

For my purposes the master volume is all but essential. As a general rule, I avoid tweaking the pickup volumes; I usually end up forgetting that I've changed the settings and have an unpleasant surprise if I switch pickups.