Do You Set Your Amp To Sound Best With Tele's Volume/Tone "Dimed"?

[arlum]

With the Cornford Hellcats two channel with separate gains and masters for each I set the Clean channel's gain at 3.5 to 4.5 and it's Master between 7 and 10. On the dirty channal the settings are almost reversed. Gain set 7 to 10 and Master backed off to maybe 4.

 

[Chiogtr4x]

Makes perfect sense to me.

Just speaking for myself,
using a Blues Driver, always ON ( say, w/ all knobs at NOON) into a clean amp, and then using guitar Volume knob...

( vs. say using the exact same gear, but with guitar Volume knob all the way up, and THEN kicking on the BD-2 for solo, which never sounded good)

...was just an open door, eye-opener to my getting the sound I was always wanting.
Just more natural or organic- easing into OD, from the guitar and using all pickup positions- and really hearing your guitar is just fantastic

 

[msalama]

Always, because I very seldomly if ever fiddle with the guitar's vol/tone pots. Well sometimes in the studio perhaps if I'm after a particular tone, but other than that, nope.

 

[2HBStrat]

At the moment I've got some pretty satisfying knob settings (Gain/Volume/Bass/Mid/Treble/Presence) on my Katana's "clean channel". Haven't really tweaked it much for at least a couple months now. I keep the Master Volume where it's not too loud in my music room, especially important when my tinnitus flares up.

But those settings work nicely with both knobs on my Telecaster turned all the way up. I pretty much never use the guitar's Volume and Tone because they quickly get too quiet or too dark, given the way my amp is set.

I saw an interview with Julian Lage that touched on how he uses his Telecaster. For starters, he said he "never" switches away from the neck pickup. Not sure he literally meant never or just that he uses the neck 99% of the time. I'm pretty much the same way. My whole reason for buying a Tele was based on liking how the neck pickup sounds.

But he also mentioned that most of the time his standard Tone knob setting is rolled back very slightly, just a little less than fully open. And he works the Volume knob to influence his tone and dynamics. He specifically mentioned there spending a lot of time with it "between 8 and 9". So I get the impression he doens't often turn either knob all the way up when he's playing.

Do you think it's worth me trying to find a slightly tweaked amp setting that sounds good with my knobs set to, let's say, Volume on 8 and Tone on 9? That would make the whole thing a little loud if I ever (briefly) bumped them both all the way up but I could have a little fine-tuning control by working that Volume knob up or down a little.

How do most Tele players set up their amps? Knobs dimed and just leave a little extra brightness and loudness that you can back away from as needed? Or knobs down a little so you can get either louder/brighter or quieter/darker by going both ways?

If you install a treble bleed circuit on your guitars volume control your tone won't get "too dark" when you turn down and will sound the same at any volume.

 

[Tom Grattan]

Tone turned all the way up, then volume

 

[Ascension]

I learned to play on a single channel high gain tube amp and to use my touch and guitar volume to get different tones. I'm working the pickup selector and volume a good bit when I'm out gigging. I rarely will touch my amp and run few effects. Doesn't matter what guitar I'm running ether.

 

[Dave Harmon]

I have large Fender tube amps.
For many years I had the amp set about 3 on a scale of 10 and had the guitar volume full on.
I felt that something was missing.....antiseptic....restricted...ugghh
Then someone told me what time it was and I tried what he said.

So....Years ago I started setting the amp volume to 8 and adjust the volume at the guitar. Typically the amp tone controls are 5 bass and 7 treble.
Setting everything like this gets you a lot of touch sensitivity and better tone from the amp because the preamps are not 'throttled' at low volume. There are more technical reasons as to why the tubes operate this way but you should try it.
Sort of analogy would be like a car going up a hill and not accelerating the engine. The car performs better when the engine speed is increased.

In addition...it is much easier to get squealies and if you pick a little harder the amp really growls if you want it to..
Pick easier and there is that glassy tone everyone likes.

 

[TunedupFlat]

Always dimed.

The reason I've found that many of the students I've had over the years don't like turning down their tone or volume knobs is because their core sound doesn't leave them with any room to go down on either.

Most have the bass up higher, to give it that thick sound (because they play at home and normally alone), but when you roll back with that, a lot of the time it just makes for dark mud.

 

[fender4life]

No, I set it so there's a good balance between about 5 and 10. What i mean is if i set it so it sounds great on 10 but 5 Isn't happening, i change it to improve 5 without ruining how it sounds on 10. If the amp and guitar are a good match i can usually get both to sound great. I use a modeler so i use the models that do that best, sometimes i find different models work better for one guitar than another. This is a important subject to me because i ride my volume constantly to vary the degree of drive from classic rock drive right down to pretty clean. It's my #1 concern when it comes to guitar sounds. I use treble bleeds in all guitars and look for a value for each guitar that allows just the right tonal balance too.

 

[transmetro]

Depends on the amp and what I'm playing.

With something like a Tweed Deluxe, the volume is almost another tone control at lower gain, or like an overdrive pedal at medium+ gain.

With more linear amps this is less of a deal.

If I'm playing jazz I'll be riding the volume and tone knobs a lot. Louder styles tend to be more single setting as a general rule (not a hard rule).

 

[53Strat]

No! Seldom, if ever, dime the tone on a Tele. Volume, yes I dime it.

 

[tomasz]

My starting position for a tele is:
Volume - rolled back by ~20%
Tone - rolled back by 40-45% (just before it breaks into muddy)

this is my basic strating point, that gives me a possibility to punch in some gain or treble on the guitar itself.

I usually live on the middle or neck position.

 

[T Prior]

My primary soloing tone and levels are set with the V knob "dimed" as you say, but I also back off the V Knob just a tad for other tones and levels which are a bit cleaner for fills and orchestrations. I am currently using the Wampler Paisley dual OD pedal which offers a lot of flexibility. I am also using the Katana 50 for small rooms ( clean no effects) and the Z-Maz 38 for the stages. So far so good !

 

[ClashCityTele]

I used to years ago, but now I turn down to 10.
I just plug in & hope the controls are 'as I left them'.

No, seriously. I tend to have the tone at ~8 (and leave it there). Especially with Fender gtrs.
With 'LP' type controls, neck tone on 10, bridge 7-8. Fix amp tone with vol on 8.
Then I have that little extra for wild freakouts, man!

Then I start on my 3 overdrive pedals, while the rest of the band shout 'Are you ready yet?'.

 

[blue metalflake]

I always keep the volume full up, but when the bridge pick up sometimes roll the tone back for a less harsh sound.

 

[Trenchant63]

I never use tone knob. At bedroom levels, volume is 100%. At gig level, I will bring volume back 10-15% and go to 100% for solo work. I find the rolling volume back slightly also rounds the highs off just a touch like a tone control which I really like. I use full frequency Tele - all pickup positions and play mostly clean guitar. All EQ is at amp and I’m fortunate to have a really warm clean amp with headroom and sweet clean sound. OD is outboard. I like your current approach and sounds like you’re happy with it so why change - notwithstanding Julian’s awesome pro advice.

 

[ABetterTelePlayer]

At the moment I've got some pretty satisfying knob settings (Gain/Volume/Bass/Mid/Treble/Presence) on my Katana's "clean channel". Haven't really tweaked it much for at least a couple months now. I keep the Master Volume where it's not too loud in my music room, especially important when my tinnitus flares up.

But those settings work nicely with both knobs on my Telecaster turned all the way up. I pretty much never use the guitar's Volume and Tone because they quickly get too quiet or too dark, given the way my amp is set.

I saw an interview with Julian Lage that touched on how he uses his Telecaster. For starters, he said he "never" switches away from the neck pickup. Not sure he literally meant never or just that he uses the neck 99% of the time. I'm pretty much the same way. My whole reason for buying a Tele was based on liking how the neck pickup sounds.

But he also mentioned that most of the time his standard Tone knob setting is rolled back very slightly, just a little less than fully open. And he works the Volume knob to influence his tone and dynamics. He specifically mentioned there spending a lot of time with it "between 8 and 9". So I get the impression he doens't often turn either knob all the way up when he's playing.

Do you think it's worth me trying to find a slightly tweaked amp setting that sounds good with my knobs set to, let's say, Volume on 8 and Tone on 9? That would make the whole thing a little loud if I ever (briefly) bumped them both all the way up but I could have a little fine-tuning control by working that Volume knob up or down a little.

How do most Tele players set up their amps? Knobs dimed and just leave a little extra brightness and loudness that you can back away from as needed? Or knobs down a little so you can get either louder/brighter or quieter/darker by going both ways?

Having over 20 electrics and a few of those being Teles, I always have the Amp's 3 EQ knobs at noon (flat EQ). My Pedalboards, however, are set accordingly to whatever guitar I'm using. Each pedalboard has an EQ Pre'amp pedal which dictates that per use.

Telecasters always have volume and tone knobs maxed out where as I am constantly changing these knobs when paying Strats ormy esp Eclipse.

 

[Telecaster88]

For the first ten years I played my Tele, I never touched the guitar knobs. They were maxed all the time. When I finally got the bright idea (ahem) of rolling back the tone knob, the guitar blossomed for me. Wow. I wish someone had told me about that on Day One!

It took another ten years for me to realize that the volume knob on a Tele is like a second tone knob. This blew my mind.

One remarkable learning experience I had was when I picked up a used MIM Classic 72 Thinline...one with the much despised pre-revoiced "fake" WRHBs. What I discovered was raising the gain on the amp, and then rolling back the guitar's volume knob all the way to like 3, brought the whole shebang to life. Beautiful, sweet clean tones at that setting.

Nowadays on a regular Tele, baseline for me is volume around eight, tone around seven or eight. Depends on the pickups, but that really sweetens the guitar up and lets you ride up a little when desired.

It took me forever, sadly, but I've learned to really experiment with the controls, and also to not be afraid to try "extreme" settings (diming or choking amp or guitar's tone knobs, eg). For such a "simple" guitar, there are a whole world of sounds in a Tele.

PS: I play clean and quiet.

 

[davidchagrin]

Julien's amp is set clean. He uses the guitar volume as a sort of tone control. Dialed back slightly, it rolls off the highs a bit to get that darker, wooly sound. Then he rolls back the tone knob to further reduce the highest frequencies.
It's worth experimenting with this method to find out if it's right for you. I'm into similar tones as Julien, but I get there with slightly different methods of tweaking the guitar knobs.

 

[middy]

Man, I feel sorry for all these treble shy people. Learning to tame that beast is half the fun.

I have tone and volume both rolled back maybe 15% as a starting point. I adjust them both fairly frequently depending on what the band is doing.