On instrument tone controls - A Poll and Discussion

How do you use your on instrument tone controls?

  • There are Tone Controls?

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fronobulax

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I was thinking of tone controls and since I always use mine all on or all off I wondered why there were adjustable pots and not just a toggle switch? Is the wiring driven by tradition or do people really use the intermediate settings? If they do then why are unmarked knobs so common? How do you get back to it when you have dialed in the perfect tone? Maybe I'm the strange one although at least one other person here says they max out all the controls on their Pilot and never touch them again. Do people fiddle with them while they are playing or just between songs?
 

X-170AB

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Well, I certainly use the "intermediate settings" in my guitars, especially the more versatile ones. I might have the tone full on with the bridge pickup for a blues or rockabilly sound, then switch to the neck and roll off tone for more of a jazz sound. I like having the flexibility.
 

walrus

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I will use the tone control depending on the song. But never less than 7, at least on the S-60.

walrus
 

GAD

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I use my tone controls to make sure they work properly when I get a new guitar, then I never touch them again.
 

AcornHouse

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The song, the amp, the space, the band, the need, all make me tweak. I may not alter them mid-gig, but I like to be able to hone.
 

Quantum Strummer

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In my experience many electric guitars have great sounds you'll never hear unless you fiddle with the knobs. My old Tele, for instance, has a super cool high-mid resonant peak in the bridge pickup that pops out when I roll off the tone just so. The fellow (original owner) I bought it from told me about it. Most dual-pickup guitars with individual p'up vol & tone controls have a dark-ish nasally/phasey sound with both p'ups on and the neck vol rolled off to somewhere between 7 (out of 10) and halfway. Listen to the lead guitar lines in Donald Fagen's song New Frontier for an example of this. There are other nifty tones in such guitars too.

-Dave-
 
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Jeff Haddad

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I was thinking of tone controls and since I always use mine all on or all off I wondered why there were adjustable pots and not just a toggle switch? Is the wiring driven by tradition or do people really use the intermediate settings? If they do then why are unmarked knobs so common? How do you get back to it when you have dialed in the perfect tone? Maybe I'm the strange one although at least one other person here says they max out all the controls on their Pilot and never touch them again. Do people fiddle with them while they are playing or just between songs?

If you want a toggle switch instead of a tone knob you'll need a Gretsch. Not for nothing did they earn the name "mud switch"!
 

Antney

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I use the amp for tone control, not the guitar, so they're all on 10 on the guitar
 

txbumper57

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For me it depends on what pickups are in the guitar I am using. I fiddle with them a little bit on a Humbucker equipped guitar to "Color" the tone so they say. On my Guilds and other guitars with single coils, especially original Dearmond Dynasonics or the Duncan Custom Shop Dynasonics and or Vintage sounding P90's/Franz equipped guitars I find my self using the tone knobs more and more to dial in whatever sound I am going for. I can get both Dark Thick tones and bright twangy tones out of the same position pickup depending on where I have my tone knobs set.

I do like the tone knobs way better than a toggle switch like the Gretsch guitars have. I have 2 Gretsch black falcons, one with the Duncan Custom Shop Dynas and one Double cutaway with TV Jones Classics. The one with Dynas has the traditional Tone Knobs for each pickup and the one with TV Jones Classics has the toggle switch. I can't stand the toggle switch on the classics. I have the same classics in a 1987 Fender American Strat build with tone knobs and in comparison the toggle switch just limits my options too much. I can get tons of tonal options out of the same pickups in the strat where as I am left with the only option I use on the toggle switch setup which is the position that removes the toggle switch from the circuit. If there is one thing I will eventually change about the Double cut Falcon with the TV Jones Classics in it is to remove the toggle switch and actually wire the guitar for independent tone knobs on each pickup.

TX
 
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