I “found” the volume and tone controls a few years ago (who knew?!) and tend to live around 7-8 on both on most of my guitars. I love that in-between sound with a drive pedal, or a couple of low-gain drives stacked, where you get that nice clean transient so it sounds like a really fat clean tone. One thing that I did have to re-learn was to try and maintain that technique on a gig, where the temptation is to crank all the knobs to 10 to compete with the drums, bass etc. I like to use a high headroom amp and force myself to roll off the guitar vol and tone and use a lot of picking dynamics, fingers etc. I’m also using a little wet-dry set up with a tweedy amp and a blackface-style amp, and I’m getting the best tones of my life - even the audience in little club gigs tends to notice, which is always nice. Really enjoying your channel and tips.
Totally, one caveat of using this kind of setup is you must be able to hear yourself on stage! Which is more rare than people understand. But if I get a good monitor mix or I’m wearing IEMs, I can really work the dynamics of my setup and it opens up a world of tonal possibilities. Thank you for checking out the videos, I need to continue to make them!
Sick video Andrew! I have a few questions. Any types of pots your recommend for this type of gain staging? Also does this volume trick take away loudness as well? How would you combat that live? I get weary opening up my volume for a heavy rhythm tone then its super loud.
Thanks man! I recommend audio taper pots, 250K for singlecoils and 500K for humbuckers. I also like treble-bleed caps on my volume knobs, it retains more of the high end when you roll back. My overall volume doesn't change much from 10 to around 3 or 4, after that I lose some volume. It's really about finding the right amp and/or pedal that responds well to a variable input level, I recommend the XTS Winford Drive, or for heavier gain, the Ethos TWE-1. I've done lots of gigs where I leave one of those pedals on all night and just use my guitar volume to control my gain levels.
Nothing beats going right into a tube amp and riding the volume/tone knobs. I pretty much live with my tone at 9 and I set the amp so my lead tone is at 9 or 10 and turn down from there for whatever I need. Helps that I play a strat so picking dynamics are big, too.
![12 Ways To Use Your Guitar’s Controls [Volume, Tone & Pickup Selection] - That Pedal Show](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/oh6LHxrXR8E/mqdefault.jpg)
Hope you enjoyed this quick video. Let me know in the comments: how you you use your volume knob?? 👇👇👇
I “found” the volume and tone controls a few years ago (who knew?!) and tend to live around 7-8 on both on most of my guitars. I love that in-between sound with a drive pedal, or a couple of low-gain drives stacked, where you get that nice clean transient so it sounds like a really fat clean tone.
One thing that I did have to re-learn was to try and maintain that technique on a gig, where the temptation is to crank all the knobs to 10 to compete with the drums, bass etc. I like to use a high headroom amp and force myself to roll off the guitar vol and tone and use a lot of picking dynamics, fingers etc. I’m also using a little wet-dry set up with a tweedy amp and a blackface-style amp, and I’m getting the best tones of my life - even the audience in little club gigs tends to notice, which is always nice.
Really enjoying your channel and tips.
Totally, one caveat of using this kind of setup is you must be able to hear yourself on stage! Which is more rare than people understand. But if I get a good monitor mix or I’m wearing IEMs, I can really work the dynamics of my setup and it opens up a world of tonal possibilities. Thank you for checking out the videos, I need to continue to make them!
Sick video Andrew! I have a few questions. Any types of pots your recommend for this type of gain staging? Also does this volume trick take away loudness as well? How would you combat that live? I get weary opening up my volume for a heavy rhythm tone then its super loud.
Thanks man! I recommend audio taper pots, 250K for singlecoils and 500K for humbuckers. I also like treble-bleed caps on my volume knobs, it retains more of the high end when you roll back. My overall volume doesn't change much from 10 to around 3 or 4, after that I lose some volume. It's really about finding the right amp and/or pedal that responds well to a variable input level, I recommend the XTS Winford Drive, or for heavier gain, the Ethos TWE-1. I've done lots of gigs where I leave one of those pedals on all night and just use my guitar volume to control my gain levels.
Always love watching your vids bro!
Joey! Thanks dude, trying to get back into it. Hope you’ve been well man!
Nothing beats going right into a tube amp and riding the volume/tone knobs. I pretty much live with my tone at 9 and I set the amp so my lead tone is at 9 or 10 and turn down from there for whatever I need. Helps that I play a strat so picking dynamics are big, too.
Totally! Been doing that a ton lately