Anyone ever roll their tone back further than 25-30%??

Just wondering. I usually have my tone knob all the way up, and occasionally i roll it back a little to take the edge off for big sounding chords or something, but i just cant think of a reason i would ever roll it back then probably 30% at the most, unless i was going for some nasty straight up woman tone and rolled it all the way back with some fuzz or something.

Anyone else have opinions on the subject? how do you guys use the tone?

With you, just enough to take the edge off at most.

I keep it all the way up for rock stuff, but with jazz I roll it off quite a bit to get that neck humbucker pickup sound as on an ES-175 doing bebop.

Few guitars have that much bass tone with tone all the way up on the neck pickup so it's nice to have tone control to roll back to get that richness needed for traditional jazz. Other than that I can set it with treble turned down and bass and midrange turned up on amp to achieve this same basic tone which is actually better if I am close enough to amp to dial it in.

I recently bypassed my two humbuckers with tone control when I split the pickups with push pull volume pot and the less wiring in guitar tends to get a louder, more sustained sound. Now I have to use amp for now to get a bassier tone.

One thing that irks me is when people need to roll back tone, or volume, but don't know that there are knobs on the guitar. :)

I like to keep the volume all the way up but I keep the tones at around 5 on most guitars. My 94 American tele is so bright that i keep it at maybe 20%. It is brighter than any vintage style pickups I've heard.

usually 25-30% like you but you can get some good rock humbucker like tones
between 30-50%....and at 50% clean you can get some soft psuedo acoustic character

On my Tele I will roll my tone almost all the way down for Jazz stuff and Black Sabbath like sounds using the bridge pup for both. Usually I have the tone rolled off about 20% for preferred twangy country and western stylings.

on the bridge pickup

Bridge pickup with the tone halfway down or a little more, and the gain cranked up a bit gets a great slide tone. Kinda Lindleyesque. (is that a $5 word?)

I like to set mine at 50% and adjust my amp where it sounds the way I like it. That east I have tone control in either direction. Not always but I've been known to do it from time to time.

It makes my tone a bit more versatile.

I keep mine at about 50% for MY sound. I adjust to fit other sounds. Not that MY sound is anything special. I just like to be me.

Never more than 17.5%...Never

I've rolled it back to -11, turned Woman Tone into Grandma Tone! :mrgreen:

I keep it all the way up for rock stuff, but with jazz I roll it off quite a bit to get that neck humbucker pickup sound as on an ES-175 doing bebop.


One thing that irks me is when people need to roll back tone, or volume, but don't know that there are knobs on the guitar. :)

+1 to both of these items.

when I play jazz on a tele or strat (or a, wait for it ... jazzmaster) I back WAY off the tone ctrl. Usually it's backed down between 40 and 60% depending on the guitar/amp. On archtops and LP's I'll back it down maybe 20%.

*Your tone control is a beautiful thing!

I have an Esquire (VM Squire 50's) thats been modded with a fralin bridge pickup which isn't quite as hot as the stock one. I roll the tone off it all the time and it's very adjustable. I used a pot that has alot more sweep than what was there before.
So it's a wide range. All the way off sounds like a 50's Tele in the neck position.
All the way up is Pete Anderson-esque as on the Dwight Tunes, such as "Fast as You" and such. But when it was a Tele I used almost entirely when only in bridge pos only.

And yes, depending on need roll it the complete range. That's why I love it Esquired, it's so simple and the Tone knob and amp are everything.

i'm constantly changing my tone setting on the guitar pot, I go back as much as 1/2 depending on what I am going for -

Most of the time I have my tone knob all the way up, but back it down depending on the tune I am playing. I will use almost every variation of settings I can coax out of the guitar. I sometimes use the tone knob like I would the volume for swells, but obviously get a different result. I did have the Ted Green mod for awhile, but went back to the more standard wiring so that I could get better results using the tone knob.

I will definitely roll it back a lot for a straight jazz tone, and play on neck pickup.

I never, ever run my tone control wide open.

Used to when I was a kid playing punk music but now I'm more into getting earthy, organic sounds out of my guitar.

Usually on the bridge pickup I roll it back to around two thirds of the way down for that dry, spanky Steve Cropper sound.

roll down quite a ways with a .018 cap in the strat and a .01 for the tele

I dont like going too dark with the neck pickup - not into the woofy sound - so I ride the tone control very gently for Jazz stuff - trying to keep as much clarity as possible.

that's what the tone knob is for.... using it's sweep....

so yes.. I often roll back on tone to get different sounds/take the treble out... past halfway sometimes.. depends on which combo of pickups/pots/cap is installed..

For the most part, I like the tone at about 50% and at times as low down as 30% from full left generally with both pickups on. There are exceptions of course. I'm not fond of shrill sounds as I age. Still my Tele gives me everything I want and need. Oddly, I used to hate bass and love treble. Now I've mellowed and my tone preference has followed suit. Fairly clean, fairly mellow but not muddy does it for me.

I like to keep the volume all the way up but I keep the tones at around 5 on most guitars. My 94 American tele is so bright that i keep it at maybe 20%. It is brighter than any vintage style pickups I've heard.

Assuming you have an American standard from 1994 you should know that those models had the TBX tone pot where when set in the middle(where you feel the detent)it is in normal position.If you roll it higher towards full you are adding treble frequencies beyond an ordinary tone pot.When you lower it past the middle then you are getting bassier frequencies.TBX stands for treble bass expander.

I dont like going too dark with the neck pickup - not into the woofy sound - so I ride the tone control very gently for Jazz stuff - trying to keep as much clarity as possible.

Exactly what I do, back the tone off far enough to lose some of the peak highs. I don't think I ever have my tone on 10 for any style of music that I'm playing.

I will take the tone down low (to maybe zero), and do a 6th or 9th chord voicing followed by a tone rolled up (high) 6th/9th/7th chord on classic country tunes. It's really a medium to fast tone swell. It makes people smile.

When I first bought a Tele and discovered this forum, Nashville ace Bill Hullett advised me to use this method to find the sweet spot for the tone knob when using the bridge pickup. Position the knob so that the set screw points directly up with the knob wide open. Then turn the knob down so that the set screw points at the output jack. You can vary from there for a nice range of tones. Great advice that I have used ever since.

It depends.

Mostly to play jazz. I have rolled it off to get certain emotions when playing blues.

I tend to not like icepick type tones so I keep my tone knob turned down most of the time on almost all my guitars. Mostly it is a little past totally turned down. Not sure what % that would be.

PJ

A wise man once told me 'if Leo Fender had intended the volume and tone controls to only be ever set on full, he'd have installed simple on/off switches which would have been cheaper'!!

As someone else has commented, if you set your amp's tone controls with your guitar tones set around the mid point then you can add or subtract treble as you see fit without having to move back to your amp all night. Same goes for the volume knob on the guitar.

Makes sense to me anyway.

Sometimes with distortion I'll roll of the tone control all the way on the neck pickup. Usually it's when I'm going for long sustaining tones like Fever Tree or the first Blood, Sweat and Tears album.

If you can't find a use for a sound, make one up!