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care share your tone and vol settings on LP?


jry.1949

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Hi I have a Les Paul studio.

I'm plugged in to DRRI with Fultone OCD/ Distort.pro/ soul bender fuzz and mxr delay.

 

Ive always played strats, up until now, so I'm having a little trouble finding my spot with 2 vol and 2 tone controls.

 

I usually keep the neck vol around 6/7and the bridge at max for solo's.

 

I seem to be doing a lot of tweaking when in the middle position. Both tone controls are at max.

 

I was wondering If anyone could share some of the ways they are using their controls? any feedback is appreciated. thanks

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Hi and welcome to the forum.

 

It all depends, obviously, on how you want to sound. Stevie Ray? Jimi? Billy Gibbons?

 

I normally start with both tone knobs set at about 3 or 4 but with the treble of my MusicMan 2 x 12 set to 10. That way I can get from almost no treble to ear-piercing all from the guitar.

 

With the guitar vol knobs at about 7 - 8 it's pretty clean and when turned past 9 gets a lot of bite. The treble reduces as the vol increases. Similarily, if you start out at 9 - 10 and reduce the vol the tone cleans up.

 

This is just my experience with my guitar. Yours may, of course, be a bit different......

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I keep all four knobs cranked to ten most of the time to get the full tone of the guitar. Sometimes I'll roll the neck pickup volume down a little. The way I have things set with my pedals and amp, full volume & tone give me the sounds I like.

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As always, it depends on what amp(s), fx you're using & the room you're in...

 

Strat's are a lot more "live" sounding than Les Pauls (completely different animals: one mahogany, the other Ash/Alder,etc) so the Strat'll ring more than the Les Paul. One other thing is the tone controls actually work on a Les Paul ;-).

 

On a LP, they'll roll off the treble when turned counter-clockwise whereas the Strat'll just muddy up.

 

In general, I keep the volume controls down low (around 3/4), adjust how much bite I need with the tone controls starting at 10 & work backwards & get a good sound from the amp(s)/fx & then unleash all Hell when I dime her.

 

I've always found the middle position with humbuckers pretty redundant but, hey, your mileage may vary ;-)

 

You've got a great guitar. Make her work her arse for ya. She'll do it, no doubt about that...

 

Cheers, Phil

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You mean you can adjust the volume and tone controls on the guitar?!?

 

+1

 

I feel the same way, they should call it a tone stealer knob!

 

Volume I do use, to get the right amount of gain.

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Sorry I didn't catch the type of amp you are using. Big difference on the settings between a tube and a SS amp. With a tube amp, the volume on the guitar is used to move between full on gain and clean. The actual volume is controlled on the amp itself (channel volume up high, master volume set for desired level). I usually set the tone to no more than 6 or 7 on the bridge and 8 to 10 on the neck. For a SS amp, you might as well put them all on 10, since you are not shaping tone from the guitar anyway. Of course this is only one opinion, you just need to play around until you get a sound you like.

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I have an '06 LP standard (stock) played through a Marshall JCM 2000 (dsl)

 

Presence: 4

Treble: 6/7

Middle:5 (not for the scooped mids sh1t just sounds FAT)

Bass: 8

Reverb: 0... (not into the LA GUNS sound:P)

 

Ultra Gain (i only use for a volume boost in solos)

Gain: 5

 

Classic gain:

Gain: 10

 

 

 

The volume depends very much on the venue.

 

Guitar tends to stay on 10 all round, except for the tone on my neck pup which i roll allll the way back for some licks

xx

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On the Les Pauls - I roll the tone controls both back to 8 or so & both volumes are maxed except for more subtle playing moments or on a clean tone w/ the neck pup. I'm sure us older guys & gals with treble hearing loss will have varying levels of compensation! Cheers!

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As always' date=' it depends on what amp(s), fx you're using & the room you're in...

 

Strat's are a lot more "live" sounding than Les Pauls (completely different animals: one mahogany, the other Ash/Alder,etc) so the Strat'll ring more than the Les Paul. One other thing is the tone controls actually work on a Les Paul ;-).

 

On a LP, they'll roll off the treble when turned counter-clockwise whereas the Strat'll just muddy up.

 

In general, I keep the volume controls down low (around 3/4), adjust how much bite I need with the tone controls starting at 10 & work backwards & get a good sound from the amp(s)/fx & then unleash all Hell when I dime her.

 

I've always found the middle position with humbuckers pretty redundant but, hey, your mileage may vary ;-)

 

You've got a great guitar. Make her work her arse for ya. She'll do it, no doubt about that...

 

Cheers, Phil

 

[/quote']

 

is that your guitar in your avatar? can we see it?

 

 

 

my vol. knobs stay maxed sometimes a little lower, and my neck tone is either between 3 and 6 or at 0

 

treble stays at 0 (i use mainly my neck and middle pickup) sometimes gets raised

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I always leave the volume and tone knobs on 10 for maximum power and tone, both clean and distorted. Less treble on the amp.

 

It's easier to work with a bright sounding guitar than a dark sounding guitar. You can always tame the bright one, but

you can't turn the dark sounding guitar in a bright, trebly guitar. That's why I like guitars that have some edge to them (especially les paul customs). It will sound warm anyway, mainly because of the massive mahogany body from the Les

Paul.

 

Less tone = darker, less edge/cut.

 

Less volume = less in your face-punch.

 

It also depends on whether you're playing in a (heavy) rock band with other heavy sounds around ya or in a one-guitar blues/jazz/pop band. Sometimes you need a cutting, powerful tone to cut through all the other instruments...a woman tone would be completely useless.

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This is how I roll with the LP for a good blues crunch:

 

Amp settings:

High- 85%

Mid- 35%

Low- 60%

Gain- 45%

Reverb- 10%

 

Guitar settings:

Position 1 (neck)- Vol 90% Tone 100%

Position 2 (both) Neck Vol 75% Tone 75%, Bridge Vol and tone 100%

Position 3 (bridge) Volume 75% tone 90%

 

This way, you have a little room to play around with volume to get more grind when the solo comes around.

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Bridge pickup volume -> 10.

 

Neck pickup volume -> 9.

 

The neck pickup on my Les Paul is a bit louder, that's why I leave it on 9 instead of 10. Perfect volume balans between the pickups.

 

Bridge pickup tone -> 7.

 

Neck pickup tone -> 10.

 

I think it's a lot easier to work with a bright sounding guitar. You can always tame the bright one (with your tone knobs), but you can't turn a dark sounding guitar into a bright, trebly guitar. That's why I prefer Les paul customs, for the extra edge that comes from the ebony fretboard. It will sound warm anyway, because of the thick/massive mahogany body.

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i am messing with them all the time to get different tones on different songs. it's fun to roll down th volume and then hit notes and roll it back up to get like a swelling effect. it's easier to do on strats though.

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