Tone controls are useless and I demand they all be replaced with a volume.

My brother-in-law would be right with you on this one. He said if Don Rich hadn't rolled his tone control off all the way on his Tele, and turned the bass up on his amp so much, he woulda liked his playing a lot.

 

I think you can demand this of all non-users of the tone knob. Us users will keep on using...

 

Changing the cap can help a lot if you don't like the rolled off tone.

From .047 to .022 is pretty normal and too much for me, but .01 and even .0047 starts getting a lot more subtle if you want to just take a little off the top.
For my ideal tone I don't like any highs shunted to ground, I love the upper harmonics, and choose to avoid ice pick with other methods.
But sometimes everything is set up and music is underway and I just can't mute a mellow enough tone, so it can be real handy to have that knob- with caps that suit my oddball taste.

 

You'd love "browny" then, Zesty...... I set it up with a 3 way and 2x 500K Volume pots..... I leave it in the mid pos and adjust the "tone" by volume settings .... usually crack the neck pu off a bit and adjust the bridge in and out..... or use each pu on it's own....

works OK..brash and bold without being shrill......

 

I use mine more since a use a 1m volume , with a no load pot tone with smaller value caps .

It really make a noticeable difference the way i do it , and its actually usable . But for many years i would have agreed with you .

best regards

Mark

 

That's the nature of a passive circuit. They are limited and crude and why so many players leave everything on 10 & control things from the amp or pedal board.

 

I accidentally wired the middle pickup tone control wrong on a partscaster Strat so that it acts as a volume control. I haven't bothered to fix it.

 

I do the same thing. I gig Strats (with both single coils and humbuckers) but also a Rickenbacker. The first pedal on my pedalboard is a Mooer Pure Boost (formerly an RC Booster). Tone knobs on all my guitars are always dimed. Even though I'm not recording at this time I don't like an "in between" tone I can't instantly duplicate.

The EQ on the Mooer boost sets the parameters of each guitar going into all my pedals from slight crunch, crunch to OD. When I change guitars, I change the EQ, Bass/Treble to prearranged settings on the Mooer boost to match the guitar.

 

so many choices, so many subtle differences
we shouldn't be forced to choose
It hurts I tell you, it really hurts
enough already, where is my flattop?

 

I have this "tele" I made from one of the discovered Gretsch Astro Jet bodies and they have a control cavity the size of a swimming pool.



I'm considering taking the guts out of one of these




and installing it right in the guitar.

 

Thanks.
I was wondering what my problem has been all these years.

 

ah ha concealed carry
DO IT sounds like fun.

 

Brilliant! A perfect gigging or recording guitar when you settled on pickups. And the guitar itself is beautiful and prime for the idea.

 

Out of curiousity, what are these other ways to avoid icepick?

 

I guess if I was going to replace my tone control, I would want a pez dispenser.

 

You could use caps, maybe with trimpots, to shape the tone

 

How is that different from a tone control?

 

Well, it isn't different , it just saves having knobs cluttering up the front of your guitar. Also makes it easier to resist the temptation of fiddling with it. I installed some actives like that, the controls were in the back of the guitar, in the redundant trem spring cavity.

 

Tone controls are useless and I demand they all be replaced with a volume.

No. I use mine.

 

Or you could just do that...