For some reason I was thinking about a guy I used to know who was a really good blues-rock guitarist (he had played with John Mayall amongst others) and he used to have his amp (some kind of Vox head he had or whatever was to hand) wacked up stupidly loud but then his guitar volume knobs (he used Guilds with buckers IIRC) always down at about 5. I first twigged to this when he borrowed my stuff for a jam and then set it up like that. I played my strat through my little Mustang with the guitar on about 4 earlier today with the amp turned up fairly loud and it sounded really good, if maybe lacking bite on the top strings.
Anybody here routinely play like this? That is with the guitar on about 5, never turning up anywhere near 10.
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+1
I guess it just depends on your setup. If your amp/ effects setup has loads of clean headroom I don't think it makes a big difference. On the other hand, when the setup is tending towards crunch a little backing the guitar volume off is a good way of leaving yourself some headroom, which gives you a bit more room to be punchy and dynamic.
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"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
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The same is true of many older designs, less voltage in the front gives the amp a bit more headroom before the preamp goes into clip. Depends on the tone you're going for though - if you're wanting to push the amp for more distortion run it on 10 and hit it with a boost.
My first post was a bit tongue in cheek, the main point was don't forget to use your vol and tone controls....
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I'm not all that convinced about 50s wiring. It sounds great but I've got so used to the vagaries of the modern way of doing things The old way doesn't do what I expect....
Before I had managed to get it very far there was a huge buzz and a whole lot of blue "flame" came out of the vents on top - much to my surprise, followed by a shout from my Mum downstairs
It had to go back to the shop for repair, and I don't recall keeping it for much longer.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
As for caps, slight difference between construction other than that I agree it's value changes that make a difference.
But booteek caps, most are Russian pio caps that are very nice, fill an amp up with a dozen as couplers and you'll hear a difference. One on a tone pot in a guitar you don't even turn I'm not so sure. Ive done blind tests with some very picky guitarists on this. Not sure they believed the results. I've got hundreds of PIO if any body wants any. I don't charge for dressing mine up in wax....