What do you consider more useful on a guitar, tone controls or volume?

[Ranbat]

 For me it's volume. Volume can clean up an overdriven tone and be used to blend multiple pickups. For me, the tone isn't that useful except maybe on the bridge pickup if it's overly bright. I've got a guitar with 3 pickups and I was thinking of going with 3 volume controls and using mini-toggles or rocker switches for pickup selection. That way I have each individual pickup and can do weird combos like neck and bridge. Thoughts?

[grimniggzy]

Guitar: Volume
Bass: Tone

[yesca]

yah i've been getting into the whole using the volume knob on the guitar to mess with the depths from clean to dirty. i do tweak the tone knob tho for different songs and jams.

[Metal and Beer]

Well, it depends on the pickups, amp, environment and song; but when I was yung and dumm (yesterday) I would have said "Both dimed always!!!!". It was a nice surprise to settle down enough to actually benefit from variations of either/both..

Short 'n' Curlies: "It depends"

[Hemisaurus]

[Ranbat]

  Since I can't 'like' your photo, I gave you an applaud instead 

[Metal and Beer]

^ ditto. My current bass is P/U to input jizzack, too...none of this foolin' around !

Old habits die hard

[bitter]

Hemi, Whats up with your B string in that photo???


I'm leaning towards volume. I run both full anyways, but at least I can control output with the volume. Even if I don't play with dynamics, I can still mute myself if needed.

[Corey Y]

For bass, volume if there are 2 pickups. Allows me a lot of tonal variety. I almost never use the tone knob on bass or guitar. For guitar I could do with a bridge pickup and a kill switch.

[Ayek]

I almost always run my bass with the volume right up and the tone right down to take away some o dat 'finger on the string' sound.

[Hemisaurus]

Hemi, Whats up with your B string in that photo???

It's an extender to give the string more tension. I can't remember the science behind it, but even though it's not on the playing (saddle to nut) length, it works. I think I got the idea from the 101 Bass Tips book by Gary Willis.

[jibberish]

equally useful.   volume for adjusting the input overload and pup balance. tone for tone. generally the bridge pup is too bright with the tone dimed so i have to back that one off some. i also back off the bridge volume at times. if i would have to choose one pup, it would be the neck.   check out some allman bros live. that whole gang uses the neck pick ups and they sound heavenly.

but i did wire across the pickup selector. i use both pups most of the time and i kept hitting the switch while playing(LP). now it doesnt matter where the switch is positioned and i can just use the volumes instead

GWAR ragnarok is playing. heh makes me smile

[RacerX]

Depends on the guitar & what I'm trying to do with it.

[hashbrowns]

Both. I like to have as many options as I can tbh. I like to use the neck pickup and role the tone down to about 4/10 and fuzz it up. That tone is so fat. Then for my slightly crunchy clean I use the bridge pickup with the volume down around 3/10 and the tone around 8/10 just to take the edge off a little.

[bitter]

Hemi, Whats up with your B string in that photo???

It's an extender to give the string more tension. I can't remember the science behind it, but even though it's not on the playing (saddle to nut) length, it works. I think I got the idea from the 101 Bass Tips book by Gary Willis.

What's anchoring it to the bridge? I can see the ball end on the end of the string?

[johnny problem]

I use both.  I want that kind of capability.  The tone knob and volume knob can do some amazing shit together.

[Hemisaurus]

Hemi, Whats up with your B string in that photo???

It's an extender to give the string more tension. I can't remember the science behind it, but even though it's not on the playing (saddle to nut) length, it works. I think I got the idea from the 101 Bass Tips book by Gary Willis.

What's anchoring it to the bridge? I can see the ball end on the end of the string?

The string is. You get a metal spacer or standoff of appropriate length and diameter, in my case 1" long and enough to take a .135 string, depending on your bridge, if it's a Fender style L bracket the outside diameter isn't important, if it's a badass type, where the ball end sits in the bridge, you want one that fits inside the bridge. Thread the standoff onto the end of the string, then thread the string back through the bridge, you now have an extra inch of string under tension.

[bitter]

Right on! I can see the spacer now.

Cool trick.

[Hemisaurus]

I need to get a hold off the book to remind me how the science works. Because it means I have a bass with a 30" scale, but a 34" string length because the saddles are 4" from where the strings are held, so it has a 34" tension, but a 30" scale, weird.



It also means that when downtuning a bass, one with a reverse headstock is better, because the longest length is on the thickest rather than thinnest string.

[The Shocker]

Volume.  Don't fool much with the tone knob.

[jibberish]

that's pretty cool, extending the string length so you have to put more overall tension to get the same tuning.

[liquidsmoke]

Volume but my Epi Junior(bridge pup only) used to sound a little bit too bright so I did take the tone down to 5 for awhile there. Now I think it sounds darker because the strings are so old.

[cat shepard]

Im all over the knobs that it has till it sounds right. I tend to keep the volume cranked but if it is getting vibey and moody i might ride it down. Never considered which was more useful. I like the tone to be cranked as well but sometimes you gotta shave the top end, or create a darker mood, or a murky world with intermittent shrieks and squelch.

[franksnbeans]

The tone knob is more important.  You can always get a volume pedal.

[Widget]

^Hardly ever touch my volume knob, I have a pedal.