Nighthawk volume pot cleans up from 4 down

[spooki]

I'm still getting used to my Nighthawk and actually have little knowledge on tweaking the knobs for the right sound. I'm not a tone person only because I don't have the natural gift for it. I just play for self enjoyment. I got myself set up with some soundtracks to play along with but noticed when I want to hear less of myself and more of the track. I loose all crunch, gain, distortion, when I lower the volume pot below the 4 mark. It's totally clean by 2. I have plans to change the pot for upgrade purposes but not sure which way to go. 250 or 500? Liner or audio? Treble bleed? My situation of space does not let me crank things up unfortunately and maybe that would help if I could with the amp and effects I have. It's an old Uni-vox 2-12 5 tube amp with new tubes and a Greenback and Swamp Thang. No real control there for EQ and I use a DigiTech RP350 for my effects. I'm sure most of my problem is size of amp vs the size of space but since I do want to upgrade the pot. The question still remains the same. Why does the volume pot go completely clean by 2 and fades quickly after 4? All is fine at 5. The tone pot is true blue all the way through other than just the tonal change. Any help would greatly be appreciated. Thanks....

[bigneil]

it's perfectly normal to loose your crunch/overdrive (or whatever you want to call it) when you turn down the volume on your guitar because your pickup can no longer drive the amp so hard. there are lots of great guitar players who use this effect to their advantage when playing. However it is sometimes possible to put a volume pedal into the effects loop, this allows you to keep the guitar volume up higher, crank the gain control and then use the volume pedal like a master volume without loosing so much of your crunch.

[hawkfanatic]

Any time you adjust a volume control that is BEFORE the point at which distortion is generated, lowering it makes your to0ne gradually cleaner and cleaner. Thats as Bigneil said a GOOD thing ! Most experienced guitar players who play music that requires versatility and more than just one style where only one sound is required like jazz or metal use it to thier advantage. Note that you can go from cranking distortion to clean just by adjusting your guitar ! Thats a GOOD thing ! Of course it does depend on the distortion source. Many pedals don't work well with that method of going from clean to scream and back. Some amps don't either. But with the right amp you can use that method to get so many different sound that you don't need multiple amp channels. What you have discovered is what most pros know and love....you just have to realize the value and learn to use it !

 

now if you want the thing you're talking about where you want to turn a volume control down for the sole purpose of turning down the volume without changing the tone, you must do it AFTER the distortion source. So for example if you use a pedal for distortion, put a volume pedal AFTER the distortion pedal. If you use the amp for distortion and it's an amp that generates distortion from it's preamp stages, then you'd need to put a volume pedal in the effects loop, assuming it has one. If it doesn't you're $hit out of luck. You are also out of luck if your source of distortion is a cranked amp and the distortion is generated in the output section partially.