Dual volume knobs.

[tot_Ou_tard]

How many of you with a dual-pickup guitar with a volume knob for each adjust both knobs while playing?


I do with my My Godin Radiator, but it doesn't have a selector switch. I love the variation of tones possible. So much so, that if I had another dual pup guitar I'd feel cheated if it only had one volume knob.

[just strum]

Epi Dot: 2 volume, 2 tone
Epi SG: 2 volume, 2 tone
Ibanez ARC300: 2 volume, 1 tone
Squire Strat: 1 volume, 2 tone
Washburn J28SDL: No volume, no tone

I adjust the volume when playing both pickups on the first three.

[tot_Ou_tard]

Epi Dot: 2 volume, 2 tone
Epi SG: 2 volume, 2 tone
Ibanez ARC300: 2 volume, 1 tone
Squire Strat: 1 volume, 2 tone
Washburn J28SDL: No volume, no tone

I adjust the volume when playing both pickups on the first three.

Thanks Strummy.

Too bad you can't hear the last one.

Well maybe it's better that way, since it has no tone .

[just strum]

To provide you with a more serious answer. When I first started, well actually up until a few months ago, I just cranked both volumes to 10. As I develop an ear (I amaze myself that I am actually starting to hear things differently), I now find myself making the adjustments to find a "pleasant" or "appropriate" sound. When I started, everything on the guitar was at 10, tone and volume.

[tot_Ou_tard]

Strummy, does that appropriate balance change song by song, within a song, or does it just slowly change over time.

For me it's song by song & it'll drift over the course of a day if I am working on the same song all day.

[just strum]

song to song? You have me mistaken for some of the more talented people here.

I am trying to find or discover different sounds and make changes while going through chord progressions. I also do the same when going through different scales and my attempts to improvise (I am working on joining in on the BT's).

I initially relied on the ad30vt presets for all my sound, but now I am exploring the settings on both the guitar and the amp.

I make no adjustments in volume or tone midway through anything I am playing - one step at a time. I just started using the foot switch more to take advantage of the saved channel programs.

I guess the guitar with no volume or tone knobs does have some advantages. Although the acoustic never provided me with feedback from the family "Dad, turn that thing down, I'm on the phone"

[wingsdad]

Bridge & Neck pups (any decent ones) inherently have different tone character, just by nature of their position relative to the strings, bridge, etc. possibly different resistance & output levels. This is one of the factors that drives the aftermarket pickup market, and why Seymour Duncan & DiMarzio (just to name 2 mfrs) have so many different models.

With 2 pups & a vol control for each, and with both pups selected (i.e., toggle switch middle position on Strum's Epi Dot, SG, and Ibanez ARC300) you adjust the 'blend' of the 2 pups. If you've got a tone control for each pup, like on the Dot, you really have a range of tones to mess with by varying the relative volumes.

That Ibanez does one peculiar thing: with both pups selected, if you kill the bridge's vol to '0', they both go out. It's like a 'Mute' function.

If you only have a Master Tone (like the Ibz), or Master Volume, then you have no such capability.

Strats ('classic' original wiring scheme) give you a Master Volume, but your tone controls are for the Mid & Neck pups. You get what you get from the Bridge pup, period. What's ususally overlooked with a Strat is that the original concept with the 3-position switch was to choose 1 pup at time, the bridge was for lead work and the other 2 for various rhythm tones. Then somebody found the 2 & 4 'tweener' positions by accident and The Quack from blending parallel coils a bit out of phase was discovered.

I'm getting way OT here...sorry...but the point is: that's why those controls are there. Not just to be dimed for max output.

Volume & tone controls on the guitar are really important when tube amps have no tone controls.

[just strum]

My hanging out and reading these posts must be paying off, I actually understood exactly what you were saying.

file under "progress in 2008"

[tot_Ou_tard]

I'm with you all the way Wingsdad (or will be as soon as I get good enough ).

[t_ross33]

Washburn HB-30: 2 volume, 2 tone. The p'ups are very different from each other. The neck p'up has thick and dark tone and the bridge p'up is quite thin sounding (not in a bad way really cuts through the mix). If, for example, I need a rhythm tone that is slightly brighter than the neck p'up alone, I will select both and dial in the bridge p'up slightly.

Lots of tonal variations available :

[LagrangeCalvert]

I played a Revrend (spelling sucks I know and I don't feel like looking it up) the other day and it had one volume and two tone pots, BUT both tone pots worked on the same pup at the same time. Was was a treble/high mids and the other was a low mids/bass pot. It took a while to get used to BUT you could get some good sounds out of it. It wasn't a bad guitar, just different that what I am totally used to.

[wingsdad]

If you only have a Master Tone (like the Ibz), or Master Volume, then you have no such capability.

I'm gonna correct/clarify that statement of mine. You can set an 'overall' tone that applies to either or both pups on that guitar or others with similar controls. Either pup will have the same relative degree of high end. But, with the 2 volume controls, just as t_ross does, you can make one pickup dominate the other to varying degrees when they're both on. It's pretty effective.

A 2- or 3-pickup guitar with only a Master Vol & Master tone is the type that lacks any blending capability. On the other hand, it's chimp-simple to operate.

Volume & tone controls on the guitar are really important when tube amps have no tone controls.

Like an old or RI Fender Champ or Epi VJ. You dime the amp's volume control to attain max tube saturation & volume. You back off the guitar's volume control(s) to reduce the gain going to the amp, and thus, 'clean up' the amp's output. With 2 or 3 pup guitars, here's where you can 'fine-tune' the degree of edginess of the tone and amount of sustain by blending pups at various levels and tone settings.

The best example of this is and always will be a '52 (type) Fender Tele and a Champ. Simplicity but versatility created by a guy who'd repaired radios for a living.

[mrmudcat]

I have both .I prefer 2+2. Yea thats all ive got ,wings is a hard act to follow!:

[Plank_Spanker]

I adjust the volume all of the time on both pickups. With both pickups selected, I use the volumes to blend the sound. If I'm working from one pickup, I can set the the other's volume differently for when I need it. Example - I work a clean rhythm with the neck pickup volume set low, and go to the bridge pickup (volume set higher) to do a lead.

The volume and tone pots add a whole pallette of tone to a guitar if they're used.

[Bloozcat]

If a two pickup, two volume/two tone guitar doesn't come wired with independent controls, I'll rewire it that way. I like the tone variations you can get when "blending" the two pickups in the middle switch position. It's a far more versatile wiring scheme IMHO.