Turning guitar volume down before unplugging

SteveRobinson

Lots of people seem to do this, does it serve any useful purpose?

vasselmeyer

Now you mention it, I just realised that I do this. It's just muscle memory now, I don't even know why I do it.

EDIT. I just realised I even do it when I'm playing unplgged and take the guitar off.

Sassafras

Never noticed people doing it. I can't see what difference it would make unless they're thinking about when they next plug in and the amp's on max.

bluechargeboy

It's to stop the electrons from coming out of the jack plug hole. They can damage nitrocellulose finishes.

guitars4you

SteveRobinson said:

Lots of people seem to do this, does it serve any useful purpose?

I have noticed that Steve but never thought to ask

Maybe I should ask why do customers strum a guitar when it is on the wall - one strum then walk away - Please tell me what you have learnt from this process - enlighten me with the knowledge you have acquired !!!!!

vasselmeyer

guitars4you said:

Maybe I should ask why do customers strum a guitar when it is on the wall - one strum then walk away - Please tell me what you have learnt from this process - enlighten me with the knowledge you have acquired !!!!!

I think that's a guitarist's equivelent of a woman walking through clothes shops touching every bit of clothing on the racks as she walks through the shop. My wife does that all the time.

joeyowen

Or kicking car tyres...

Norwegian_Blue

In the same vein, I know players, including myself who will change the pickup selector on an unplugged guitar whilst playing. I'm positive i can hear the difference....

guitars4you

Norwegian_Blue said:

In the same vein, I know players, including myself who will change the pickup selector on an unplugged guitar whilst playing. I'm positive i can hear the difference....

YOU CAN !!!!!!  and don't forget to turn the vol + tone pots as well - emperors new clothes syndrome

normula1

No difference at all as it's the act of unplugging / plugging that generates the noise unless you have silent plugs fitted. That said. I do it every time and as per @vasselmeyer I also do this when unplugged.

Nikko

Yep, guilty here as well. I don't know why I do it.

impmann

I do it.

So that when I plug the guitar back in, if the amp is at live volume, I don't get a wall of feedback.

Maynehead

It's so that when you plug it in again you won't suddenly get a loud dissonant ringing of the  open strings through the amp, because you forgot to turn the guitar volume off.

english_bob

vasselmeyer said:

guitars4you said:

Maybe I should ask why do customers strum a guitar when it is on the wall - one strum then walk away - Please tell me what you have learnt from this process - enlighten me with the knowledge you have acquired !!!!!

I think that's a guitarist's equivelent of a woman walking through clothes shops touching every bit of clothing on the racks as she walks through the shop. My wife does that all the time.

Touching clothing makes sense. It's going to be next to your skin when you wear it, so if you don't like the texture of the material you probably shouldn't buy it. It's probably a bit unnecessary to touch all the clothes though...

Strumming a guitar makes less sense. I recall hearing someone (Carl Verheyen?) advocating plucking a string with the guitar hanging on the wall and touching the guitar body to see if you could feel it resonating, with the understanding that resonance=good, and that if the guitar doesn't feel resonant it probably won't sound good. Not convinced.

digitalscream

Norwegian_Blue said:

In the same vein, I know players, including myself who will change the pickup selector on an unplugged guitar whilst playing. I'm positive i can hear the difference....

I do this, purely because the position of the volume pot and pickup selector relative to my picking position is actually really important to the stuff I play.

I realise it does look a little weird, though...

crunchman

For me it's a reflex action to turn it down before putting the guitar down. unplugging or whatever.  A lot of the time I might be taking it off and putting it on a stand rather than unplugging.  You don't want to leave it on a stand with the volume up.  Then you just get in the habit.

vasselmeyer

@SteveRobinson Although you've made the observation, I think we need to know if you DON'T do it or that you DO and you're just pointing it out as an odd thing that people do.

guitarfishbay

I do it so I don't get massive feedback next time I plug in to a loud amp. I also always check its on 0 before I plug in.

SteveRobinson

I don't ever do it, but it a lot of my customers do.

Avoiding howl when plugging into an amp turned up loud makes sense of course. 

octatonic

I once played in a band with a guy who refused to acknowledge that he was constantly out of tune.
His argument was that he had a locking trem so he wasn't out of tune, the bassist an I were.

PolarityMan

well since i play at well above home volumes i turn my volume down habitually as soon as i stop playing. Normally i stop playing before i unplug my guitar* so......



*foot on cable incidents aside