Guitar Lesson 16a: Getting better tone with only the controls on the guitar

TITU supporting article: http://adamharkus.com/search-perfect-guitar-tone/ Website: https://tunein-toneup.com Dedicated post: https://tunein-toneup.com/2017/06/23/guitar-lesson-16a-getting-better-tone-using-only-the-volume-and-tone-controls-on-the-guitar/ This is the first part of a four-part mini series covering the topic of tone. The aim of this lesson was to see how better to use only the volume and tone controls on the guitar in order to dial in a wealth of different tones and also to dispel some myths about certain traditional types of guitar. In this first part we gain a distorted sound on the amp and then from there Dan demonstrates the different sounds you can get on a PRS pickup setup (i.e. with a selection of both humbucker and single coil settings) without touching the amp at all or using footpedals. Everyone can learn something from this lesson and I, for one, wish I had known this sooner. Learning to control your tone from your guitar is hugely beneficial and you will become a much more versatile and confident guitarist by understanding this better. As a basic rule, the more distorted/compressed your tone the less you'll be able to dial it back using the guitar’s volume control. Mid gain tones allow for a huge amount of dynamic variation from solely the volume control. In these lessons, Dan demonstrates to Gary how you can use these controls on different guitars with the setting on the amplifier left untouched. It really is incredible how with a little understanding you can dial in such a range of tone from the controls which are always under your fingers. For example, knowing that the ‘treble bleed circuit’ will decrease the bass from your signal as you lower the volume means that you will realise that with a low volume you will get a thinner twangier sound and diminish the boom of the bass. Likewise, adding volume will increase the thickness, distortion and crunch which you have already dialled into your amplifier. In the other episodes: 16a) Dan demonstrates the versatility of Gary's PRS without touching the controls on the amp 16b) Dan shows us that it is possible to get a thick, humbucker-type tone on a single-coil stratocaster 16c) Dan gets a twangy tone with his Les Paul 16d) Dan puts his own PRS through its paces