Guitar Volume & Tone Controls: Infinite Tonal POWER!

Your guitar's volume control and tone control can open up a whole new world of tone. Twist those knobs to improve your TONE!

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[CatsAndDogs-qt]

With infinite tonal power comes infinite tonal responsibility. :)

[killroy]

Perhaps one of the best explanations as to what is going on. This is super helpful! Thanks Bill!

[jean-philippemorin]

Notice Prs has a treble bleed cap on volume to keep the same tone clarity when rolling down the volume. Otherwise without the treble bleed cap the tone gets a bit darker when rolling down. Some like this other not. Just saying! :) I personnally prefer without the treble bleed cap. And I love playing with the knobs on the guitar, using one channel on an amp. Infinite power!

[jose]

As a new guitarrist who just found your channel: YOU ARE AMAZING. Keep up the great job man

[GeneLLynch]

I was so grateful early in learning guitar I learned to utilise the controls. I was learning Claypton's "Wonderful Tonight" when I first learned this. Opened up a whole new world for me.

[pfernandez]

This is so true. Playing with pedals is fun, but I’ve found that a tube screamer and delay are really all I need in addition to volume and tone control. I usually use a volume pedal and pickup switch though.

Awesome guitar work, by the way.

[jjugo]

Wao. I used to play guitar a lot when I was young and I really didn't take the time to explore all these combination.
I guess I should have known this before. Actually, is the first time I see someone talkig about this. Amazing!!!

[omarcapaso]

What I do on my strat is put it on the neck pick up and roll off the first tone knob underneath the volume knob and get a kinda wah in the up position sound and add some fuzz and it’s fun

[brianrollins]

Thanks for another great video Bill. I use my volume and tone knobs on my telecaster all the time. And just like you I also roll the tone knob all the way down when playing lead stuff or using fuzz. I have a 4-way switch in my guitar so I can get the middle position in series or parallel. I like the 4th positions fatter tone and it sounds awesome with fuzz and the tone knob rolled all the way down. You are spot on with this video, the tone and volume knobs are more tools in the toolbox.
Thanks again Bill
Take care

[nnamhor]

On the contrary, depending on pickups one can see a Massive decrease in high frequency tone with minor roll off in volume, say from 10 to 9. Especially common in single coil pickups. That’s why people like myself who want to keep the high frequencies but use our volume to clean up an amp on the edge of break up will wire in a treble bleed circuit on the volume pot to diminish such tonal impact of volume pot changes.

[JohnLeaf]

just what ive been talking about yesterday with my friend lol

[davelanciani-dimaensionx]

I changed the tone knob on one guitar to a 2nd volume control, so I can turn one pickup off completely. So now my pickup selector is effectively a "killswitch."

[RobertDorschel]

my god, that guitar is beautiful, tonally and visually. I remember when you got it.

[seanverso]

Like my tom delonge strat clean up so well keeps all the high end

[goaliemask]

I have only one guitar in the herd that doesn't have a tone control, my khononykheen russian made breed 11. I keep it in drop c and it is interesting how the lack of tone control changes how I play. I usually fiddle around with tone a lot, and I was unsure about how I would like a guitar without a tone circuit. What it does do is make me super conscious of my attack, and I don't think I would necessarily get another guitar without it, however I do love THAT guitar and I would get another khononykheen in a heartbeat!

[Juergen.Scheiblhofer]

I use the Kingtone Duellist and a Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster (which is always on) after the dirt into a clean Mesa Boogie Studio 22+ and with my Strat and the Volume pot (with a treblebleed) I get all the tones I need.
I don't get it why people don't use the volume pot. Put in a treblebleed and you won't loose any highs when rolling back the volume.

Great video! 👍🏼
Greets from Austria

[seanmiller]

Thanks I've been one of those that leaves the pickup switch on the bridge and volume and tone controls at 10. Hell I'd turn them to 11 if I could. This makes me rethink my tone.

[chopperdeath]

Blow switch is a fun mod and can be similar to a boost pedal.

[nnamhor]

If you always have to roll tone knob down towards minimum on ALL your guitars when playing leads, presumably at higher gain and/or volume than rhythm, perhaps it’s not your guitars but the way you setup your amp/amp modeler. Example: setting it up too bright from the very beginning so you have to use full dynamic range of tone pots to try to get useful sounds?

Could be related to age as age related hearing loss impacts high frequencies first and to greatest extent. I have a PhD in auditory neuroscience so I know what I’m talking about on this last part.

[marcusstrymon]

I changed the saddle on the prs 277 from plastic to bone. it is so much better now.