Our love affair with effects
and aftermarket mods has
raged on unabated for decades
now, with no end in sight.
Guitarists love widgets and
constantly tinker with them to
tweak sounds and, in some cases,
to forestall actual practicing. I’ve
written in the past of my relative
abstention from pedals for subtle
tone modification, preferring to
stick mainly to the big guns of
sound processing, like the wah
pedal. But my weapon of choice
for on-the-fly tone manipulation
is the guitar’s volume knob. As an
old-school minimalist, I always
figured that my instrument’s
volume control was worth at least
three distortion and boost pedals—
and it’s easier to carry, too.
Truth is, the guitars that I’ve
designed over the years have featured
volume potentiometers that
reflected this philosophy, with
a semi-logarithmic taper that
presents a rapid increase right at
the end of the control’s rotation.
This makes for a kind of switch
effect that allows the player to
control amplifier distortion easily
with the guitar itself. By setting
a good, crunchy rhythm tone
with the guitar set at about 8, the
quick jump up to 10 would dial
in just the right amount of drive
for most lead work. Turning
down to about 6 could produce
even cleaner tones, if needed.
With a judicious matching of
pickup and pot values, you can
achieve an optimal balance. I’d
even built some little test boxes
that allowed me to juggle all the
values, including the tone cap, by
flipping a series of switches outside
the guitar. It’s not a unique
idea, I imagine, but it is a very
useful tool.
So imagine my surprise (and
embarrassment) when after
three-plus decades of playing
professionally, I discovered the
tone control. Sure, I’d used it to
achieve “woman tone” or hollow,
Michael Schenker-esque
lead tones, but in those cases the
tone control was backed all the
way down and amp distortion
was complicit. But what I’m
talking about in this column is
Keith Richards clang, Joe Perry
punch, and Don Rich-style
clean-Telecaster territory.
My epiphany happened
innocently enough when someone
left one of my Teles on its
stand with the tone control
backed off slightly. I picked it
up, plugged it in, and started
playing. Thunderstruck, I
started experimenting with
the zeal of a child with a new
toy on Christmas morning.
Suddenly, all those classic tones
that seemed just out of reach
before were right there in my
hands. It was a good day. I also
found it applicable to the bass.
My ’64 P bass warmed up and
sounded even woodier with the
tone down a little and the volume
control backed off. In both
cases, it wasn’t just an absence
of treble, but the way these
settings affected how the amp
responded to my touch.
Certainly, the sonic shadings
available from the interplay
between volume and tone aren’t
a secret, but just how prevalent
is this technique? To get some
perspective on the subject, I
risked further humiliation and
asked a few players and producers
how they viewed the lowly
tone control. Interestingly,
Brian Henneman of the Bottle
Rockets related a story similar
to mine. “In the past, I never
touched a tone control,” he
confided. “It took years for me
to find its usefulness. It can
do great things for the guitar’s
audibility—where you feel like
you’re being swallowed by your
surroundings.” If you’ve ever
sampled Brian’s work, you will
appreciate the breadth of this
statement. “The tone control
can really help a Tele hold its
ground in a band situation,”
Henneman continued. “Just roll
it back until your guitar jumps
out of the mix—works great.”
Of course, the world of guitar
wouldn’t be as interesting if the
exact opposite weren’t true as well.
“Recently, I converted one of
my Telecasters to a single-pickup
Esquire,” explained producer Eric
Ambel. “I realized I was going
to miss the Esquire position that
bypasses the tone control, so I
put a pull-pot in the tone-knob
position. When it’s down, the guitar’s
signal skips the tone control
and goes straight to the amp.”
When I asked him to describe
the result, he answered simply,
“I get a bigger sound when the
tone control is out of the circuit.”
Eric did, however, confirm my
discovery of the P-bass tone control.
“In the studio,” he told me,
“I almost always have bass players
roll off all the instrument’s treble.
I almost always prefer a bass with
flatwound strings, too.”
Of course, this made me
rethink the specifications for
my own guitars. It looks like
my switching console is going
to be getting overtime pay.
Tone-Knob Testimonials
Bruce Kulick
(Kiss, Grand
Funk Railroad)
“Though many players
don’t use tone controls,
I find they can be very
helpful in coloring your
sound. Mostly, I find
that Telecasters—which
can have that wonderful
biting tone in the bridge
position—can be tamed
a bit by pulling back on
the tone control. This
has helped me play
power chords on the
bridge setting, which is
usually best for stinging
leads. Of course, the
tone control is there for
a reason, so play around
and see if you can make
a cool sound sweeter.”
Jack Sonni
(Dire Straits)
“Tone controls? Never
touched them for the
first two or three years
of playing electric guitar.
The idea of subtlety
hadn’t yet entered
my lexicon. Then you
get an instrument in
which the [tone control]
components actually
function like they’re
supposed to. Once that
door was opened for
me, things changed.
Now I roll it back just
a hair and the tone still
cuts, but it’s much fatter
and warmer. ‘Tone control’
says it all, actually.”
Lyle Workman
(session guitarist,
composer)
“For studio work, I’ll use
the tone control to bring
more focus to the mids
or lows. Recently, while
sitting in with a band, I
quickly attenuated the
tone control, helping
me achieve a warmer
sound from a guitar and
amp that produced too
much searing top end.”
Jol Dantzig is a
noted designer, builder,
and player who co-founded
Hamer Guitars,
one of the first boutique
guitar brands, in 1973.
Today, as the director of
Dantzig Guitar Design, he continues to
help define the art of custom guitar. To
learn more, visit
guitardesigner.com.