For too many players, setting those amp tone controls is such a random act with little thought behind it. Here's an excerpt from my Ultimate Guitar Tone Handbook (written with the excellent guitar player, composer and author Rich Tozzoli) that gives some context as to how to get those most out of these controls.
"So often players are confused by the tone controls on their amps. What’s the best way to set them? Is there a method for doing so? In order to get the most out of them, it’s best to understand the reasons why they’re there in the first place.
The biggest reason for having tone controls is so that all the frequencies of your instrument speak evenly so no particular range is louder or softer than any other. Shortly after the first amps were developed with only a single “Tone” control, manufacturer’s noticed that players might be using guitars with different types of pickups with their amps, so more sophisticated tonal adjustments were really necessary. A guitar with a humbucking pickup might sound too boomy through an amp, but if you roll off the low-end with the bass control, the frequencies even out. Likewise, a Strat might be too light on the low-end or have too much top-end, but a simple adjustment would make all frequencies come out at roughly the same level.
Another place where tone controls come in handy is if you have a frequency that really jumps out, as compared to all the rest, either because of the way the amp is overdriven or because of a pedal. Often a slight adjustment of the Treble, Middle or Presence control can alleviate the problem, although these controls will also adjust all the frequencies around the offending one as well.
Where tone controls are especially effective is how the guitar fits within the context of the mix of the song. You want to be sure that every instrument is distinctly heard and the only way to do that is to be sure that each one sits in it's own particular frequency range, and the tone controls will help shape this. It's especially important with two guitar parts that use similar instruments and amps (like two Strats through two Fender Super Reverbs). If this occurs, it’s important to be able to shape your sound so that each guitar occupies a different part of the frequency spectrum. To make our example work in the mix, one guitar would occupy more of a higher frequency register while the other would be in a lower register, which would mean that one guitar has more high end while the second guitar is fatter sounding, or both guitars might have different mid-range peaks.
Not only do guitars have to sonically stay out of the way of each other, but they have to sit in a different frequency space than the bass and drums (and vocals, keys, percussion, and horns if you have them) too. As a result, you either adjust the tone controls on your amp or try another guitar so it fits better in the sonic space with everything else. While the engineer can do this with equalization either during recording or mixing, it’s always better if you get as close to the sound as possible out in the studio first because it will save time and sound better too.
The best way to get an ear for how guitars are sonically layered is to listen carefully to a number of hit songs in almost any genre and really dissect how everything fits together. Of course, the producer, engineer or artist (if you’re playing on someone else’s recording) will also have specific ideas as to the sound they’re looking for in the track, and will guide you in that direction."
To read additional excerpts from the Ultimate Guitar Tone Handbook and my other books, go to the excerpts section of bobbyowsinski.com.
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5 comments:
This may be a dumb question, but on most amps and pedals, how do I set the tone knob so that it's not doing anything, as if it were bypassed altogether?
Turning the tone all the way down is obviously subtractive, getting rid of much of the treble. So that's not it.
Turning the tone all the way up with some amps/pedals often doesn't seem as subtractive as regards bass. But is it boosting treble, or is it the unaltered, original tone?
Basically, is setting the tone right in the middle the "real" sound for most devices, or is it with the treble all the way up?
Sometimes, I just wish pedals didn't have tone knobs at all, so I could just do that tweaking at the end of the chain (the amp)!
Greg,
There are so many ways to design a tone control circuit that it's hard to say definitively.
On the older Fender amps (black face, brown face, tweed), for instance, the tone controls are subtractive and the sound is flat with everything full up.
On most modern amps and pedals, the tone controls are active, but most of them are flat (or try to be) with the controls on 5 or 12 o'clock.
That said, the tone can change anyway because of the design of the other circuity of the amp or pedal, so you have to use the tone controls to try to bring it back to flat, which isn't always easy.
That's one of the reasons that the never ending search for the perfect amp or pedal continues.
Thanks for such a thorough response, Bobby!
On Fender Twins the sound is flat with the mid full up and the treble and bass all the way down. I don't know if that is how the other Fender circuits work.
Just to add, this is why Twins have their characteristic "smiley-face" EQ sound, and why they sometimes have trouble cutting through a mix. It is why so many Twin player use Tube Screamer style overdrives that accentuate the mids.
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