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Volume and tone pots - do you play on full?


tremolo arm

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How many of you play your Les Paul with the volume and tone pots at 10 at all times?

 

Do you not find that Les Pauls sound kinda harsh when everything is on 10?

 

I find that I have to start at 10 and then roll back until I find your sweet spot.

 

I was recently trying some new amps and all of them (Blackstars, Marshalls and Orange especially) sounded really harsh with the volume and tone at 10, especially on the bridge pickup.

 

Anyway, just interested in everyone's views and opinions.

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I dial up the tone I want on my amp, and leave the tone controls on my guitar at 10. I do sometimes roll the tone knob on the neck pickup to "0" for that Santana/fusion sound, but never use anything in between 10 & 0

 

I set the maximum required volume on my amp and use the volume control on the guitar to "roll back" from there for dynamics, or as "blend" when using both pickups, and as a "mute" control between songs.

 

Most of the times it's four of a kind, "10's".

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How many of you play your Les Paul with the volume and tone pots at 10 at all times?

 

Do you not find that Les Pauls sound kinda harsh when everything is on 10?

 

I find that I have to start at 10 and then roll back until I find your sweet spot.

 

I was recently trying some new amps and all of them (Blackstars' date=' Marshalls and Orange especially) sounded really harsh with the volume and tone at 10, especially on the bridge pickup.

 

Anyway, just interested in everyone's views and opinions.

 

[/quote']

 

 

[biggrin]

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I set my amp for my balls-out rock tone, and then back off on the guitar volume if needed.

I roll the bridge tone back as needed, usually 5-8.

 

That being said, I'm more of "vintage" 70's classic rock guy.

I don't care for hot pickups or shrill, thin Pantera/Megadeth gain.

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I dail in my amp for tone, vol. at 1-2.5(House Vol.) with the guitar pots all at 10. than i adjust the guitar Bridge vol. between 7-9.5 and Neck 12- 1 less than the bridge ( using both pups ). For a single pup i play between 7-10. and tone where ever i want the sound to be 7-9.5

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Very unusual to have the volume up to 10. I use the volume on the LP to move the Amp from clean to crunch and all in between. The Orange TT reacts fantastically to minor changes to the guitar output, allowing you to get most of the tone you want without change a setting on the Amp.

 

Regarding the tone on the guitar, the bridge is normally around the 7 mark and the neck is normally moved between 2 & 8, dependent on what I am playing.

 

If you simply leave them at 10, I think you are missing out on some of the fantastic tone available via your LP & Amp.

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Pfft. Why fukc around anymore than ya have ta...I've allas had everything redlined since day 1.

If I need clean - I have an amp dialed in fer clean etc etc.

The only thing I roll is the tone for that honey tone,I call it.

Volume - may as well be on & off for all I care in my 30+ yrs of playing.

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For me I keep everything on 10 for hard distortion sounds, rolled back a bit for bluesy distorted sounds and full out for clean. Don't really mess with the tone unless going for a jazz tone, where I'll roll off some treble on the front pickup. Seems that the constant here is that we all do something different.

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[crying] I no longer play in a group to an audience, but when I did, I had to make use of the volume controls, and tone controls to a lesser degree, to make sure I was playing at a sound level that properly placed my guitar at a level that best supported my group and the music. Many times you cannot leave it up to the guy on the mixer, but if you can, that should give you the optimal volume and tone. If you do not have a good guy on the board then you must use you volume controls and hope you do not get into a contest with the sound guys or other players. In the end, you must rule or you give up too much control.

 

Now that I play mostly for fun and home studio recording, I generally leave the volume and tone controls at max on the guitar, at a fixed level on the amp when used, and generally use the effects device(s) and digital recorder to make volume and other adjustments to reduce the number of variables I must deal with.

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Harsh?....I think that pretty much depends on the amp.

I use a Twin Reverb with Altec Lansing speakers, so even with the guitar's controls on 10, it's nicely rich and clean--though I'll back the volume pot on the guitar to "9"....and have that 'passing gear' available if I need to go to '10'. Of course if I'm playing a more mellow jazz thing--then I'll back off the tone control and get the right sound for the song...

BC:Documents and SettingsBill Turner.OWNER-MACHINEMy DocumentsMy PicturesLes Paul 's Les Paulill Turner[/img]

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Harsh?....I think that pretty much depends on the amp.

I use a Twin Reverb with Altec Lansing speakers, so even with the guitar's controls on 10, it's nicely rich and clean--though I'll back the volume pot on the guitar to "9"....and have that 'passing gear' available if I need to go to '10'. Of course if I'm playing a more mellow jazz thing--then I'll back off the tone control and get the right sound for the song...

BC:Documents and SettingsBill Turner.OWNER-MACHINEMy DocumentsMy PicturesLes Paul 's Les Paulill Turner[/img][/img]

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I'm currently trying to get my son to crank his amp to a boost level volume and back down on his guitar volume until a lead break presents itself. I believe those dynamics are useful to make the band sound balanced, to keep other band members happy, and to get volume high enough for solos.

 

I think tone adjustment is necessary to make songs sound more different from each other. How could one get close to Slash's lead tone without switching to the neck pickup and moving the tone knob on that pickup to near zero? Most times my tone knobs are at 6-8, depending on the song. If I want a very bright tone, I move to 10. Hope this helps.

 

SLS

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