TONE... VOL... who knew!

Lebarque

For those that like to ride the volume control for clean/dirty.....treble bleed or no treble bleed?

octatonic

Lebarque said:

For those that like to ride the volume control for clean/dirty.....treble bleed or no treble bleed?

No treble bleed for me.

guitars4you

You watch many great players - BB King,  J Beck, EVH, Santana, G Moore, Kossoff etc and they are always playing with their knobs - both Volume and Tone - as well as their own touch, this is where so much emotion, soul and expression comes from - Granted it works better on a good guitar - subtle yet effective variations are there to explore and you and the guitar can totally control the amp - So like a good singer can go soft and belt it out the same applies to a good guitar and guitarist - I'm spoilt as I'm surrounded by so many good guitars but this approach adds so much emotional control to your playing, so much so that leaving it on 10 is both a  shame and one dimensional

The quality of the guitar, pick-ups, taper of the pots, capacitor values and 'treble bleed' mods all make a difference though

However it makes less of a difference on saturated gain levels and 'processed' amps/pedals

Lebarque

@octatonic How do you deal with the muddy clean sound? Tweak the tone control every time you tweak the volume?

guitars4you

I also think that the initial guitar to amp set up is better with the guitar on/around 6/7 and let this be base camp - then take it towards 10 when you have something extra to say - this approach works on subtle gain to hi-gain amp settings and gives you that additional boost when you need it

If you start with the setup and the guitar on 10, then everything else becomes a 'cut' as though you are loosing something when you turn down vol and/or tone pots - so change the approach so that 6/7 is the norm and 10 becomes the boost

TTBZ

Lebarque said:

For those that like to ride the volume control for clean/dirty.....treble bleed or no treble bleed?

50s wiring so no treble bleed needed. I used to use treble bleed with modern wiring but it thins out the sound too much for me.

octatonic

Lebarque said:

@octatonic How do you deal with the muddy clean sound? Tweak the tone control every time you tweak the volume?

One man's muddy is another man's warm.
It doesn't bother me, but my full tilt signal is quite bright so it cleans up to being warm and even, rather than muddy.

crunchman

It does depend on what I'm doing.  In a situation where I have to sing I'm normally playing rhythm and very little lead so I'll set it a good rhythm sound with the guitar on full.  it's simple and I can concentrate more on singing.  I tend to play with the volume and tone a lot more when I am there more as a guitarist and not singing very much.

guitarfishbay

octatonic said:

Lebarque said:

@octatonic How do you deal with the muddy clean sound? Tweak the tone control every time you tweak the volume?

One man's muddy is another man's warm.
It doesn't bother me, but my full tilt signal is quite bright so it cleans up to being warm and even, rather than muddy.

Same here. I don't like how thin it can sound when using a treble bleed. If I'm rolling down I'm usually also playing softer so the softer sound is preferable

Voxman

I've been an exponent of vol & tone roll off since my days of using non master volume amps. Even used it on some of my amateur demo vids inc this one: 

olafgarten

I use the tone occasionally, but I like treble. Volume wise I set up around 7, use 10 for the solo, and I adjust my picking dynamics for anything else. 

ESBlonde

No bleed cap for me. I also find I tend to have the amp brighter (but not brittle) than I might choose for home noodling, this gives the breakup more of a 'spit' type of effect if you dig in hard or turn up the volume to lead. Tone setting varies on different guitars, mainly because I select them for classic tones, but on the strat I heavily use neck or bridge/Middle and have the middle tone right back on 3 to get that Richard Thompson type of thick OOP sound or the ultra clean neck with tone on 10. Each guitar get treated differently because they sound and are different.

Rowby1

Volume and tone control use doesn't exclude you from using pedals. Especially if you buy pedals that respond well to the guitars controls. They aren't mutually exclusive approaches. 

DrJazzTap

I used to use the two different pickups on my SG for lead and rhythm. I have no issue using tone and volume pots for different sounds. I don't really get on with turning down on an overdriven amp for my clean sound, as I tended to play funk. which for me i would need a full on clean sound, also balancing volumes etc.

shugz

A trick to try is backing off the tone a bit on the guitar, set your amp up so you're happy and then use the tone up full for some snarly solos or lead/ rhythm stuff.

Might need to dig in, adjust vibrato/ picking hand a bit but I quite enjoy doing that.

Cheers 
Hugh

ewal

Of course all this depends on the style of music you are playing. I much prefer to have everything on 10 then use picking and pedals to alter the dynamic.

Barney

I find by backing off the volume control i also loose tone ...thats fine iff thats what you want ...i like the the way it cleans up and you can dig in and get more gain ...not to keen on the loss of treble though 

crunchman

Barney said:

I find by backing off the volume control i also loose tone ...thats fine iff thats what you want ...i like the the way it cleans up and you can dig in and get more gain ...not to keen on the loss of treble though 

In that case you would want a treble bleed capacitor.  If you are not comfortable doing it yourself, it's something that a competent tech could do in 5 minutes on a solid body.  It might take a bit longer to get at it on a semi.

The only issue is choosing the value of the capacitor.  PRS use 180pF which is probably a good starting point.

roberty

crunchman said:

It does depend on what I'm doing.  In a situation where I have to sing I'm normally playing rhythm and very little lead so I'll set it a good rhythm sound with the guitar on full.  it's simple and I can concentrate more on singing.  I tend to play with the volume and tone a lot more when I am there more as a guitarist and not singing very much.

Yep, me too. Set and forget when signing. I like Gibson style controls for this cos you can set a sound for each pickup and then use the switch without thinking. When not singing I use the controls a fair bit

shaunm

I tend to use my volume controls all the time. I find that my tone is at its best with my volume on 7. 

The pedals I use tend to work with this set up. My Sunlion, OCD and my AC Booster all react well with the guitars controls.