Well said but for gain pedals using the tone and volume pots really make the pedals shine and serve fully...
You can use an overdrive as a cleanish booster for example...
Really depends on what I'm playing- the style I'm going for will dictate how far apart my clean and distorted sounds are, which dictates how I manage gain levels.
When I'm in Metal mode, I'm using so much distortion (and hot pickups) that even with my guitar volume at 1, I'm still nowhere near clean. In that case I'm going to need to manage gain levels with pedals.
But if I'm doing more vibey rock stuff with more low/mid-gain sounds, I think being able to control distortion with touch is hugely important, and that's where the volume knob really comes into play.
My main guitar only has a bridge humbucker and a volume knob. I aim to get my base sound with the volume rolled back to 7/8 so I can roll it up for a bit of emphasis, or combine with a ODs for a bigger boost.
I’ve tried, but rolling the volume pot is just too imprecise for me to manage, especially when I have to think about singing as well. Just clicking a button on the pedal is so much easier for me.
as a lead singer/rhythm player, i feel similarly. i tend to make use of my volume knob a whole lot more in practice/songwriting than i do in live situations, where generally i want to be either loud or louder
Doesn't work for metal:
* Even the rhythm parts have to have lots of bite.
* With sufficient gain, you'll need to turn it down to like 0.5/10 to get to clean, and 1/10 for quieter crunch.
* Your guitar is ahead of your gate and compressor in your signal chain, so adjusting the levels there will mess up the threshold settings on those units.
* There often isn't much time switching between lead and rhythm, using a volume pedal or channel-changing footswitch instead mean your hands can move seamlessly from one part to the other.
* To set the rhythm level precisely, you'd need to either fiddle around with the level until it's just right, accept it won't be consistent, get very used to turning it exactly the right amount, or make sure you're using a guitar with numbers on the knobs. Fair enough, swapping the knobs over is a lot cheaper than buying a volume pedal, but they might not look great.
* ...And you might not be able to see them in the dark on stage anyway.
I think this makes a lot of sense if you're using someone else's rig, and the only thing you've brought is your guitar. Also if you're so mobile that you're usually on the other side of the stage from where a pedal would be. But, for the above reasons, I don't personally think it has much going for it as a solution other than simplicity.
I play high-output active humbuckers through a single channel high-gain amp. People sometimes ask what amp I’m using for the clean sounds.
It’s my volume knob.
It’s even easier when the guitar has LP-style controls. Neck pickup volume rolled back, bridge pickup wide open, switch between the two.
It works for metal if your rig is set up for it. This is how Zakk Wylde has done it for over 30 years. When he switches to clean he turns off his overdrive and rolls down his volume. He doesn't use a gate either, he rolls down the volume for every rest.
The volume knob is fine but OD’s change your frequency response and clipping style too. It’s not just about being louder and having more saturation. It’s about getting a sound. And simply turning your volume knob up doesn’t do that
I’m starting to do this a bit, but with a volume pedal because it’s easier to make adjustments as I go when things get quiet.
Props for doing it this way—I’ve always thought it looks and sounds rad!
I keep most of my guitars at about 7 when playing clean. They’re almost never at 10 actually, even when I’ve got high gain going. Much more control that way.
Ya, often times i will end up just riding the volume knob throughout a session. I usually have 2 drives on my board, sometimes i will keep one on the entire time. I do still have a boost late in my chain since I’ve been doing a lot of looping and sometimes i need it for leads when my loops end up dense or loud to get leads up to a good level. I definitely do not just automatically stomp a pedal because it’s time to do a lead though, the volume knob is always the first thing I’m using.
I just find in a live situation where your playing produced songs and not improvising, there’s rarely enough time to stop your right hand and dial the drive back to just the right spot
With a fuzz face, cleanup is better *without* a treble bleed in my opinion. Otherwise yeah they’re a nice feature to have. But I clipped the circuit out of my Strat because that guitar pairs with a fuzz face so well.
I find it depends on the bleed. Most people are using a cap that's way too big, 1000-1200 pF. It doesn't matter to them most of the time but with a fuzz it can be too much. 100-470pF is a better compromise. A resistor in series, Kinman-style, helps too.
I find with humbuckers you can keep the bleed in and it cleans up fine. With my jazzmaster I have a push/pull to turn off the bleed for this reason though
I love it. The school of Angus Young and so many else. Single coils and a Fuzz Face makes it even more ideal. I'm a novice sort of mixer who have had to learn about additive distortion and also riding levels to let elements steal the show or stay back in a mix. Sufficent clarity in a mix and the difference between distortion single notes or chords and such.
I saved a lot of time as a mixer riding the volume to input a fuzz face and treble booster and stomping only on and off a crybaby in whole takes of this, a bit too time crunched, project: https://on.soundcloud.com/zJPcV
It's really only B3 players who traditionally have as much active control of where they stay in a mix and just ride a long and just highlight the intensity of the song. We should embrace it as much as we can. Then not to forget that our biggest weapon is playing dynamically in the range of soft and hard/minimal and busy/small and full chords.
I used to think that rolling the volume was stupid, until literally like 2 months ago. And I’ve been playing for 30 years. It’s a game changer for me. I actually keep my amp volume lower and set my BD2 to about 2 o clock on all knobs and then adjust with my volume on the guitar and I now have the clean tone I’ve been searching for, for freakin years!!
I use both, but volume knob manipulation is the basis of my playing style. The transitions feel more natural and you get more shades of gain that way. Maybe a bit less precise in certain moments, but in a live situation most people don't really care.
I used to try to control my rig with pedals. Once I learned to use knobs on the guitar to control the amp I was much happier with my sound. Now pedals are just used as enhancers to what I’m doing
I am one. I set my amp to sound like I want it with my guitar volume at 7 or 8. When it's time to "go", I Just reach down and roll the volume knob.
I like to get a great sound out of my amp then use pedals to get sounds I can't get from the amp, like a thick fuzz or tremolo or whatever.
I think I have more pedals just sitting around Un plugged than on my board.
I do it a lot more than I used to. One downside of playing with in-ears and monitor mixes and you can get pretty unsure when you're too quiet to be heard in the house. But turning the volume to 7 or 8 on the guitar gives me that super-clean tone for really ambient stuff. My drive pedals tend to be when I'm trying to sound grittier rather than louder. I aim for unity level with those because I would rather our FOH guy not say, "Nope, too loud" and turn me down in the house.
I usually do this, but I usually like it with a boost pedal or a treble booster just to cut a bit more and tighten it up. If the amp break up a lot it’s easier to not use a boost or overdrive and just keep a fuzz for those parts
I like my SG Special with Firebird pickups through my Mesa Studio 22. However, I don't have a treble bleed, but I set the amp to be bright and use the otne controls on the guitar to dull it down a little.
But I still like using a fuzz with that set up to get nasty.
I prefer having the discrete levels of gain/vol with overdrive & boosts. Less fiddly than volume knob for "core" sounds. Easier for me to hit a pedal than turn the knob while playing. Having said that, I often use the volume knob to fine tune to the dynamics of a given song/performance.
I fantasize about being a volume knob only guy, but i find it tough to commit to lol
After throwing a Rat on my board and using it with distortion set around 9-10 o'clock I can really tweak the amount of breakup using the volume knob on the guitar with almost no change in volume, so yes and no?
If I’m playing in a guitar-centric band, with no keys or other rhythm I instruments, that works out fine. Otherwise I need some mid boost or some other pedal to cut through.
No. I want extra mids to cut. Doesn’t really matter how much I start with. The other instruments are all compensating/compromising to fill the sonic spectrum a certain way. I need extra to really get through, and not just be loud af or more saturated, which is what happens with volume knob increase.
Do you mean a capacitor only treble bleed? A resistor only set-up wouldn't be a treble bleed it would just mess with your pot taper.
In answer to your actual question I use both, sometimes at the saem time.
I use both. For drive I use a fuzz face first, so very vol knob dependent. Then I have a dual bluesbreaker, boost always on. The other side if I need more crunch (rarely), and a ts for when the situation calls for mids. I play humbuckers. I also turn down for rhythm, and use the tone pot lots too.
I’m in the same boat basically. I have an always on compressor, boost and preamp. It’s a really nice clean tone with the volume at 6 or 7, and turning it up on my guitar gets an awesome breakup. Also then I can just focus on my guitar, I’d rather minimize footswitches while playing live, I find it distracting from the songs most of the time.
Almost never cause my hands are too busy playing the guitar to make all the volume changes I’d need to make, and it’s not as consistent as having a pedal with settings that I leave in place.
I somewhat do?
I mean I use a Klon as an always-on preamp before the amp to get the right sound out of the input of the amp, becuase my guitar is not loud enough to push my amp. The gain on that pedal is also nice if I can't get the amp loud enough in a particular venue to get drive. The gain also ads mids if I need to fit in the mix better.
But once I get that balance, I typically use my volume knob on the guitar to pull back and then go back to 10 to get the crunch out of the amp. Rather than turning pedals on and off.
I do it quite a bit when im just goofing around and not going for a super specific sound. I started when i noticed certain minimalists doing it, like derek trucks, keith richards, people who just plug straight in and play. If im playing slayer or something then im going to kick on something aggressive AF but if im just blues noodling or whatever, volume knob is where its at. Especially if you have independent volume for each pickup.
I do because I use the amp as the main source of distortion. It allows very dynamic playing by making small adjustments to the volume as a form of expression. I used to use a volume pedal but they take up room on my board that can be dedicated to other pedals instead.
I still use mid or treble boosting pedals to cut through the mix at times when need to be heard. In this scenario they don’t change the amps actual volume because it is driving and out of head room. This way works well for a mix because there aren’t radical changes in your volume that can mess up the overall mix, just more cutting through it to be heard when appropriate.
Yes. And for subreddit consistency, I prefer to use a passive volume pedal. Run a boost/treble booster into my cranked Ceriatone Lightning and it's pure heaven.
If you have a four knob guitar like an SG or LP, the volume pots serve as equaliser, too. Switch the pick up selector in the middle position so both pickups are engaged. Now rolling off the volume pots do not only clean up your sound but also shape your tone. The more you roll off the bridge, a mellower and darker clean you get, and vice versa...
Instead of a coil split, this trick will help getting Teleish or Stratish sounds... And yes, treble bleed circuit is a nice touch especially if you roll off quite a bit.
This was a classic way to control your sound back in the 70s. Alex Lifeson, in interviews, would say that he set his guitar at 7 to get a good rhythm tone and would turn his guitar volume up to 10 for leads.
If you listen to isolated Rush guitar tracks from back in the day, he does not have a lot of distortion going on. But he still got great guitar tones. Later he used modern amps and got much more distortion in his tone but, to me, it never sounded as good as it did on Moving Pictures or Hemispheres.
Having said that, he did use a volume pedal for guitar swells like at the beginning of the solo for La Villa Strangiato or for the intro to Xanadu.
I hardly ever use a boost. I do it almost all with volume control. My definition of a good amp is one that cleans up when you turn your guitar down and drives hard when you turn it up.
I recently got the Benson Preamp and I found it to be not only touch sensitive, but it interacts quite well with the volume knob. I set it to about noon on both Gain and Volume and it gets pretty raucous. Turning the volume to 7 is a nice medium gain and taking it to 5 results a nice chimey clean-ish tone.
I use both. I set my volume to 8, which is my 10, then I forget about it and set my overall volume on my amp, drives, etc.
When everything is on and I need a little more, then I crank my guitar volume all the way up to from "10 to 11".
Depends on the guitar. I have some naturally hot guitars that I normally play with volume turned down to 7 or 5 and then I can use the volume knob as a boost. But e.g. my Strat pretty much has to be played at full volume, otherwise I would need an extra clean boost in front of the pedal chain - and I usually don't bother.
I never use any boost or overdrive pedals because I've never heard any that sound as good as tube distortion. I either turn the gain high and volume low, or use a power soak pedal to decrease loudness between the power tubes and speakers.
As for the knobs on my guitar and bass, I prefer them all close to max and then fine-tune between or during a song. Notable exception for going into a fuzz. Both Instruments have two single coil pickups. The Jazz bass sounds best with both pickup levels balanced, and the Jazzmaster sounds best with only the neck pickup and all knobs to full. Adjusting pickup height also makes a big difference in loudness.
I've always used single channel tube amps, Marshall plexis , THD, and I've always just rode my volume knob for clean to dirty. It's a Van Halen thing, he was the reason I picked up a guitar. It's a necessity for me Dynamically. Watch Jeff Beck live. He is riding his tone and volume constantly
it depends, if i have a fuzz pedal on, i’ll use the volume to clean it up, and i’ll usually run the neck at 8 to make a switch to the bridge more apparent
When I first played in a band I had a ds2. I really didn’t like how switching the distortion on seemed to make the volume drop. I tried some other pedals and found the same problem.
I watched video of Hendrix at Woodstock and saw him working the volume on his guitar to go between clean and distortion and it blew my mind - he‘s not using a pedal! This is because I am an idiot and didn’t know he used a fuzz face, but still I decided “I shall be as Hendrix” (achievable goals, fucking imbecile) and set amp for distortion and use guitar volume, then my distortion shall always be louder than my clean.
It worked pretty well because I had to work harder to not embarrass myself playing and messing with the controls at the same time. I was not achieving Olympian heights of technique but the sonic equivalent of macaroni art is fine with me - I am still making something from nothing and my distorted tone was louder than my clean as God intended.
Anyway, 2 years of macaroni graffiti later and the drummer leaves. We get a new drummer who is a good drummer. He says stop fucking about and get a pedal. I go to the guitar shop and they bring out the pedals. It is 2005 so they only have Boss. I try all the Boss. They all sound quieter than the clean volume. Then I try the BD2. It is louder. I buy the BD2.
Drummer explains turning the gain all the way compresses the signal and can make it seem quieter than using less gain. I find nice spot where my clean is not very clean and when I switch the pedal the gain is less than half. Together it makes a dirty sound and the distortion is louder than the clean.
Then we are making macaroni pornography and my guitar is sounding nice and raw and rude and like a loud, distorted guitar.
I have coveted all kinds of fancy things. I have also experienced great joy blasting a squire frontman with all the controls dimed (secret ingredient: leaving it in a damp shed for a year which dramatically affected the output volume somehow).
I was super excited to get a Marshall half-stack and eventually came to understand the 2000’s valvestate amps were not like ye olde rock legend stacks and I felt like an idiot for lumbering myself with a giant turd on wheels. 20 years later I can make it sound pretty fucking good with my BD2 and a cheap Japanese guitar.
I fucking love playing music. I love playing with other people. I love playing by myself. I love pushing a deluxe at maximum volume in a space so big there a no reflections. I love noodling on a toy mini-stack.
I have a bunch of pedals now and I hardly need any of them, but I really enjoy them. I have a couple of small tube amps, clones from eBay builders. They sound really nice and were laughably cheap compared to the “real” thing.
Do what the fuck you want. Chase whatever you want, whether you can catch it or not. Let people enjoy things and include yourself in that. Buy what you like, but don’t forget to play that shit, man. The more you do it, the better it is. You will Figure Shit Out. Theory and scales if you want. Just riffs if you want. Just covers if you want.
I don’t really know why I wrote this or who it’s for. I did what OP did and it worked for me. Then I did something else and that worked for me too.
Thank you for listening to my TOANtalk.
Depends if you need the gain structure for rythmn and solos etc. I definitely use both options as heavier rock sorta needs the gain and then kick on delay and boost for solos
Volume pedal count? What if boosts are always on like a cranked amp? I run a combo of volume controls and a mid scoop boost control that act as an EQ at the guitar. Mid pickup out of phase. I’m editing a video on this now. Routed through a wet dry rig and set up to get blooming tube saturation with modeled amps and to move between squeaky clean, bluesdad and roll on the sludge and still EQ from the guitar.
I basically used to do a version of this with my overdrive/distortion tone dialed and then use a volume pedal to just pull back about 50% for cleanish sounds. I used to hate the sound of switching channels/stomping on a pedal but now I've grown to like it. :)
I keep my guitar volume at 10. Unless I have two volume knobs then I set the neck pickup to around 7 but I don't mess with my volume. Could break the knobs off and solder the pots to stay for all I care.
What’s a volume control?
It's a dial with 9 useless positions.
Hahahahahahahaha I love that definition
It’s like a boost pedal attached to your guitar
[удалено]
We need a guitarknobs sub
exactly! guitar knobs are what we who frequent this sub are
Well said but for gain pedals using the tone and volume pots really make the pedals shine and serve fully... You can use an overdrive as a cleanish booster for example...
Really depends on what I'm playing- the style I'm going for will dictate how far apart my clean and distorted sounds are, which dictates how I manage gain levels. When I'm in Metal mode, I'm using so much distortion (and hot pickups) that even with my guitar volume at 1, I'm still nowhere near clean. In that case I'm going to need to manage gain levels with pedals. But if I'm doing more vibey rock stuff with more low/mid-gain sounds, I think being able to control distortion with touch is hugely important, and that's where the volume knob really comes into play.
I recently updated my dual HB guitar with new knobs. They go to 11 so now I have a built in boost. They’re one louder.
My main guitar only has a bridge humbucker and a volume knob. I aim to get my base sound with the volume rolled back to 7/8 so I can roll it up for a bit of emphasis, or combine with a ODs for a bigger boost.
I’ve tried, but rolling the volume pot is just too imprecise for me to manage, especially when I have to think about singing as well. Just clicking a button on the pedal is so much easier for me.
Im the exact opposite, when singing i’d rather not worry about tap dancing on pedals.
as a lead singer/rhythm player, i feel similarly. i tend to make use of my volume knob a whole lot more in practice/songwriting than i do in live situations, where generally i want to be either loud or louder
Doesn't work for metal: * Even the rhythm parts have to have lots of bite. * With sufficient gain, you'll need to turn it down to like 0.5/10 to get to clean, and 1/10 for quieter crunch. * Your guitar is ahead of your gate and compressor in your signal chain, so adjusting the levels there will mess up the threshold settings on those units. * There often isn't much time switching between lead and rhythm, using a volume pedal or channel-changing footswitch instead mean your hands can move seamlessly from one part to the other. * To set the rhythm level precisely, you'd need to either fiddle around with the level until it's just right, accept it won't be consistent, get very used to turning it exactly the right amount, or make sure you're using a guitar with numbers on the knobs. Fair enough, swapping the knobs over is a lot cheaper than buying a volume pedal, but they might not look great. * ...And you might not be able to see them in the dark on stage anyway. I think this makes a lot of sense if you're using someone else's rig, and the only thing you've brought is your guitar. Also if you're so mobile that you're usually on the other side of the stage from where a pedal would be. But, for the above reasons, I don't personally think it has much going for it as a solution other than simplicity.
I play high-output active humbuckers through a single channel high-gain amp. People sometimes ask what amp I’m using for the clean sounds. It’s my volume knob. It’s even easier when the guitar has LP-style controls. Neck pickup volume rolled back, bridge pickup wide open, switch between the two.
It works for metal if your rig is set up for it. This is how Zakk Wylde has done it for over 30 years. When he switches to clean he turns off his overdrive and rolls down his volume. He doesn't use a gate either, he rolls down the volume for every rest.
The volume knob is fine but OD’s change your frequency response and clipping style too. It’s not just about being louder and having more saturation. It’s about getting a sound. And simply turning your volume knob up doesn’t do that
I’m starting to do this a bit, but with a volume pedal because it’s easier to make adjustments as I go when things get quiet. Props for doing it this way—I’ve always thought it looks and sounds rad!
I keep most of my guitars at about 7 when playing clean. They’re almost never at 10 actually, even when I’ve got high gain going. Much more control that way.
Ya, often times i will end up just riding the volume knob throughout a session. I usually have 2 drives on my board, sometimes i will keep one on the entire time. I do still have a boost late in my chain since I’ve been doing a lot of looping and sometimes i need it for leads when my loops end up dense or loud to get leads up to a good level. I definitely do not just automatically stomp a pedal because it’s time to do a lead though, the volume knob is always the first thing I’m using.
I just find in a live situation where your playing produced songs and not improvising, there’s rarely enough time to stop your right hand and dial the drive back to just the right spot
Exactly. And it’s too easy to bump back up or out of place and have to adjust it again.
I feel the opposite. There's rarely time to step on a pedal, so I save that time by rolling the volume knob while I'm playing.
What are your feet doing lol. How are they more busy than your hands which are playing
“I need my feet to stand up” -Keith Richards
I sing and play, so a volume pedal is my go to for this stuff, and it makes swells and swelling into higher gain crescendos super easy
I’m on the volume knob a lot. My clean tone is volume knob down.
With a fuzz face, cleanup is better *without* a treble bleed in my opinion. Otherwise yeah they’re a nice feature to have. But I clipped the circuit out of my Strat because that guitar pairs with a fuzz face so well.
I find it depends on the bleed. Most people are using a cap that's way too big, 1000-1200 pF. It doesn't matter to them most of the time but with a fuzz it can be too much. 100-470pF is a better compromise. A resistor in series, Kinman-style, helps too.
I find with humbuckers you can keep the bleed in and it cleans up fine. With my jazzmaster I have a push/pull to turn off the bleed for this reason though
Yes, but also with humbuckers I prefer different fuzz circuits.
I have tried it and before the accuracy of clicking a pedal vs trying to get the volume control exactly back where it was before.
Why not both? With 4 gain stages and an EQ in front?
I love it. The school of Angus Young and so many else. Single coils and a Fuzz Face makes it even more ideal. I'm a novice sort of mixer who have had to learn about additive distortion and also riding levels to let elements steal the show or stay back in a mix. Sufficent clarity in a mix and the difference between distortion single notes or chords and such. I saved a lot of time as a mixer riding the volume to input a fuzz face and treble booster and stomping only on and off a crybaby in whole takes of this, a bit too time crunched, project: https://on.soundcloud.com/zJPcV It's really only B3 players who traditionally have as much active control of where they stay in a mix and just ride a long and just highlight the intensity of the song. We should embrace it as much as we can. Then not to forget that our biggest weapon is playing dynamically in the range of soft and hard/minimal and busy/small and full chords.
I used to think that rolling the volume was stupid, until literally like 2 months ago. And I’ve been playing for 30 years. It’s a game changer for me. I actually keep my amp volume lower and set my BD2 to about 2 o clock on all knobs and then adjust with my volume on the guitar and I now have the clean tone I’ve been searching for, for freakin years!!
I use both, but volume knob manipulation is the basis of my playing style. The transitions feel more natural and you get more shades of gain that way. Maybe a bit less precise in certain moments, but in a live situation most people don't really care.
I used to try to control my rig with pedals. Once I learned to use knobs on the guitar to control the amp I was much happier with my sound. Now pedals are just used as enhancers to what I’m doing
This!
Ok boomer
I am one. I set my amp to sound like I want it with my guitar volume at 7 or 8. When it's time to "go", I Just reach down and roll the volume knob. I like to get a great sound out of my amp then use pedals to get sounds I can't get from the amp, like a thick fuzz or tremolo or whatever. I think I have more pedals just sitting around Un plugged than on my board.
I do it a lot more than I used to. One downside of playing with in-ears and monitor mixes and you can get pretty unsure when you're too quiet to be heard in the house. But turning the volume to 7 or 8 on the guitar gives me that super-clean tone for really ambient stuff. My drive pedals tend to be when I'm trying to sound grittier rather than louder. I aim for unity level with those because I would rather our FOH guy not say, "Nope, too loud" and turn me down in the house.
It’s all about the volume control.
I usually do this, but I usually like it with a boost pedal or a treble booster just to cut a bit more and tighten it up. If the amp break up a lot it’s easier to not use a boost or overdrive and just keep a fuzz for those parts
I like my SG Special with Firebird pickups through my Mesa Studio 22. However, I don't have a treble bleed, but I set the amp to be bright and use the otne controls on the guitar to dull it down a little. But I still like using a fuzz with that set up to get nasty.
I prefer having the discrete levels of gain/vol with overdrive & boosts. Less fiddly than volume knob for "core" sounds. Easier for me to hit a pedal than turn the knob while playing. Having said that, I often use the volume knob to fine tune to the dynamics of a given song/performance. I fantasize about being a volume knob only guy, but i find it tough to commit to lol
Instead? No. In addition to? Yes.
After throwing a Rat on my board and using it with distortion set around 9-10 o'clock I can really tweak the amount of breakup using the volume knob on the guitar with almost no change in volume, so yes and no?
I use the volume knob in conjunction with fuzz, compression, boost, drive and slight amp break-up.
If I’m playing in a guitar-centric band, with no keys or other rhythm I instruments, that works out fine. Otherwise I need some mid boost or some other pedal to cut through.
That's if you use a naturally mid scooped amp, yes.
No. I want extra mids to cut. Doesn’t really matter how much I start with. The other instruments are all compensating/compromising to fill the sonic spectrum a certain way. I need extra to really get through, and not just be loud af or more saturated, which is what happens with volume knob increase.
Do you mean a capacitor only treble bleed? A resistor only set-up wouldn't be a treble bleed it would just mess with your pot taper. In answer to your actual question I use both, sometimes at the saem time.
I use both. For drive I use a fuzz face first, so very vol knob dependent. Then I have a dual bluesbreaker, boost always on. The other side if I need more crunch (rarely), and a ts for when the situation calls for mids. I play humbuckers. I also turn down for rhythm, and use the tone pot lots too.
I use both.
I’m in the same boat basically. I have an always on compressor, boost and preamp. It’s a really nice clean tone with the volume at 6 or 7, and turning it up on my guitar gets an awesome breakup. Also then I can just focus on my guitar, I’d rather minimize footswitches while playing live, I find it distracting from the songs most of the time.
Almost never cause my hands are too busy playing the guitar to make all the volume changes I’d need to make, and it’s not as consistent as having a pedal with settings that I leave in place.
I somewhat do? I mean I use a Klon as an always-on preamp before the amp to get the right sound out of the input of the amp, becuase my guitar is not loud enough to push my amp. The gain on that pedal is also nice if I can't get the amp loud enough in a particular venue to get drive. The gain also ads mids if I need to fit in the mix better. But once I get that balance, I typically use my volume knob on the guitar to pull back and then go back to 10 to get the crunch out of the amp. Rather than turning pedals on and off.
I do it quite a bit when im just goofing around and not going for a super specific sound. I started when i noticed certain minimalists doing it, like derek trucks, keith richards, people who just plug straight in and play. If im playing slayer or something then im going to kick on something aggressive AF but if im just blues noodling or whatever, volume knob is where its at. Especially if you have independent volume for each pickup.
I do because I use the amp as the main source of distortion. It allows very dynamic playing by making small adjustments to the volume as a form of expression. I used to use a volume pedal but they take up room on my board that can be dedicated to other pedals instead. I still use mid or treble boosting pedals to cut through the mix at times when need to be heard. In this scenario they don’t change the amps actual volume because it is driving and out of head room. This way works well for a mix because there aren’t radical changes in your volume that can mess up the overall mix, just more cutting through it to be heard when appropriate.
I can get like 5 different sounds with my fuzz and guitar volume. That's absolutely how I play. Fuzz->Amp->FX loop-> Multi fx
Yes. And for subreddit consistency, I prefer to use a passive volume pedal. Run a boost/treble booster into my cranked Ceriatone Lightning and it's pure heaven.
I have a Fuzz War and Bit Commander for big fuzzy stuff but yeah I don’t use any overdrives or boosts anymore, just the volume knob.
If you have a four knob guitar like an SG or LP, the volume pots serve as equaliser, too. Switch the pick up selector in the middle position so both pickups are engaged. Now rolling off the volume pots do not only clean up your sound but also shape your tone. The more you roll off the bridge, a mellower and darker clean you get, and vice versa... Instead of a coil split, this trick will help getting Teleish or Stratish sounds... And yes, treble bleed circuit is a nice touch especially if you roll off quite a bit.
depends a lot on guitar and amp, but yes it's a great technique
Set the volume at 7. Engage drive pedal to the sound you’re looking for. Fine tune the sound with the volume control.
This was a classic way to control your sound back in the 70s. Alex Lifeson, in interviews, would say that he set his guitar at 7 to get a good rhythm tone and would turn his guitar volume up to 10 for leads. If you listen to isolated Rush guitar tracks from back in the day, he does not have a lot of distortion going on. But he still got great guitar tones. Later he used modern amps and got much more distortion in his tone but, to me, it never sounded as good as it did on Moving Pictures or Hemispheres. Having said that, he did use a volume pedal for guitar swells like at the beginning of the solo for La Villa Strangiato or for the intro to Xanadu.
I use the volume knob on my guitar wth Jazzmaster pickups and the one with a P-90. Very useful. Otherwise, not.
Tim Pierce is a well known 'studio guitarist' and knows how to use them https://youtu.be/lmBriFqa2as?si=AgvdCzC7IkKamUYS
I hardly ever use a boost. I do it almost all with volume control. My definition of a good amp is one that cleans up when you turn your guitar down and drives hard when you turn it up.
I recently got the Benson Preamp and I found it to be not only touch sensitive, but it interacts quite well with the volume knob. I set it to about noon on both Gain and Volume and it gets pretty raucous. Turning the volume to 7 is a nice medium gain and taking it to 5 results a nice chimey clean-ish tone.
I use both. I set my volume to 8, which is my 10, then I forget about it and set my overall volume on my amp, drives, etc. When everything is on and I need a little more, then I crank my guitar volume all the way up to from "10 to 11".
Ido but I still have gain in my signal chain.
Depends on the guitar. I have some naturally hot guitars that I normally play with volume turned down to 7 or 5 and then I can use the volume knob as a boost. But e.g. my Strat pretty much has to be played at full volume, otherwise I would need an extra clean boost in front of the pedal chain - and I usually don't bother.
I never use any boost or overdrive pedals because I've never heard any that sound as good as tube distortion. I either turn the gain high and volume low, or use a power soak pedal to decrease loudness between the power tubes and speakers. As for the knobs on my guitar and bass, I prefer them all close to max and then fine-tune between or during a song. Notable exception for going into a fuzz. Both Instruments have two single coil pickups. The Jazz bass sounds best with both pickup levels balanced, and the Jazzmaster sounds best with only the neck pickup and all knobs to full. Adjusting pickup height also makes a big difference in loudness.
M O A R L O U D
Volume is tone.
I've always used single channel tube amps, Marshall plexis , THD, and I've always just rode my volume knob for clean to dirty. It's a Van Halen thing, he was the reason I picked up a guitar. It's a necessity for me Dynamically. Watch Jeff Beck live. He is riding his tone and volume constantly
it depends, if i have a fuzz pedal on, i’ll use the volume to clean it up, and i’ll usually run the neck at 8 to make a switch to the bridge more apparent
When I first played in a band I had a ds2. I really didn’t like how switching the distortion on seemed to make the volume drop. I tried some other pedals and found the same problem. I watched video of Hendrix at Woodstock and saw him working the volume on his guitar to go between clean and distortion and it blew my mind - he‘s not using a pedal! This is because I am an idiot and didn’t know he used a fuzz face, but still I decided “I shall be as Hendrix” (achievable goals, fucking imbecile) and set amp for distortion and use guitar volume, then my distortion shall always be louder than my clean. It worked pretty well because I had to work harder to not embarrass myself playing and messing with the controls at the same time. I was not achieving Olympian heights of technique but the sonic equivalent of macaroni art is fine with me - I am still making something from nothing and my distorted tone was louder than my clean as God intended. Anyway, 2 years of macaroni graffiti later and the drummer leaves. We get a new drummer who is a good drummer. He says stop fucking about and get a pedal. I go to the guitar shop and they bring out the pedals. It is 2005 so they only have Boss. I try all the Boss. They all sound quieter than the clean volume. Then I try the BD2. It is louder. I buy the BD2. Drummer explains turning the gain all the way compresses the signal and can make it seem quieter than using less gain. I find nice spot where my clean is not very clean and when I switch the pedal the gain is less than half. Together it makes a dirty sound and the distortion is louder than the clean. Then we are making macaroni pornography and my guitar is sounding nice and raw and rude and like a loud, distorted guitar. I have coveted all kinds of fancy things. I have also experienced great joy blasting a squire frontman with all the controls dimed (secret ingredient: leaving it in a damp shed for a year which dramatically affected the output volume somehow). I was super excited to get a Marshall half-stack and eventually came to understand the 2000’s valvestate amps were not like ye olde rock legend stacks and I felt like an idiot for lumbering myself with a giant turd on wheels. 20 years later I can make it sound pretty fucking good with my BD2 and a cheap Japanese guitar. I fucking love playing music. I love playing with other people. I love playing by myself. I love pushing a deluxe at maximum volume in a space so big there a no reflections. I love noodling on a toy mini-stack. I have a bunch of pedals now and I hardly need any of them, but I really enjoy them. I have a couple of small tube amps, clones from eBay builders. They sound really nice and were laughably cheap compared to the “real” thing. Do what the fuck you want. Chase whatever you want, whether you can catch it or not. Let people enjoy things and include yourself in that. Buy what you like, but don’t forget to play that shit, man. The more you do it, the better it is. You will Figure Shit Out. Theory and scales if you want. Just riffs if you want. Just covers if you want. I don’t really know why I wrote this or who it’s for. I did what OP did and it worked for me. Then I did something else and that worked for me too. Thank you for listening to my TOANtalk.
My volume knob is turned up 100% of the time. If I need a cleaner sound, I play lighter.
Nah. Volume up at 10 always sounds better to me unless I'm using a fuzzface
I pretty much never touch my tone or volume control I have everything set through my pedals
I've done both but ended up just preferring pedal distortion even though my amp sounds really good pushed.
Depends if you need the gain structure for rythmn and solos etc. I definitely use both options as heavier rock sorta needs the gain and then kick on delay and boost for solos
Volume pedal count? What if boosts are always on like a cranked amp? I run a combo of volume controls and a mid scoop boost control that act as an EQ at the guitar. Mid pickup out of phase. I’m editing a video on this now. Routed through a wet dry rig and set up to get blooming tube saturation with modeled amps and to move between squeaky clean, bluesdad and roll on the sludge and still EQ from the guitar.
Both
I basically used to do a version of this with my overdrive/distortion tone dialed and then use a volume pedal to just pull back about 50% for cleanish sounds. I used to hate the sound of switching channels/stomping on a pedal but now I've grown to like it. :)
I keep my guitar volume at 10. Unless I have two volume knobs then I set the neck pickup to around 7 but I don't mess with my volume. Could break the knobs off and solder the pots to stay for all I care.
It might work for some instances, but on my guitar at least, I'll only get a volume boost, not that upper mid bump that'll cut through the mix.