Setting your amp tone....

Hootsmon

to your bridge or neck pick up, what's your secret?

octatonic

Both, it is always a balancing act.

TTBZ

Bridge because I can't stand neck pickups for 99% of my playing!

guitarfishbay

Bridge because that’s the one I use.

If you use more than one pickup it’s a balancing decision, helped by having the guitar set up for the ideal source tones from each position (be that heights, or even pickup models) being key factors in what can be achieved

RandallFlagg

Years ago I used to always set the amp to sound right with the bridge pickup as that was the position I used 99% of the time. Nowadays, I set it to sound good with the neck pickup with the guitar tone control fully open and dial back the guitar bridge pickup tone control when switching to the bridge pickup, sometimes the bridge tone control is dialled back quite a bit to get the balance right but it is a compromise as I'm always left feeling that the bridge pickup needs a lift in the amps bass tone control.

Even more of a balancing act is trying to get the amp set up to cope with my LP, Strat and Tele, on the same settings and sound good between both neck and bridge pickup on all 3 guitars...not something I can say I have achieved fully satisfactorarily yet.

One of the advantages of modelllers is that you can set up patches using the same amp model but with the tone controls adjusted correctly for each pickup, and each guitar, but it is a faff. I prefer to try and get the amp set once and use the guitar controls for dialling in.

I often wonder how The Edge manages this when he changes guitar for each  aong.

gringopig

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ICBM

With a good amp that’s set right for your personal sound preference, it will sound good with any pickup on any guitar (within reason) and simply reflect their differences.

The method of setting the amp at the point where the controls seem to have the most effect over the smallest range also really seems to help with finding that just-right spot. Some people mock this as ‘internet wisdom’ I know, but it actually seems to work.

The whole point of someone like The Edge using different guitars is to use their different sounds. If you don’t, why bother?

Stevepage

All the gain




Scoop the mids

richardhomer

gringopig said:

Everything at 12 o'clock and a little bit of reverb....

That’s pretty much my starting point - unless it’s a Mesa - in which case that doesn’t work at all.

I’m assuming that @hootsmon’s referring to a Les Paul, or similar?

When I owned a vintage 335, the bridge pick-up was quite spiky - and the neck pick-up was very rounded in the high end. The most effective set up was to use both pick-ups together and use to volumes to blend a bit of neck in to fatten up the bridge, or a bit of bridge to brighten up the neck.

Modern two humbucker guitars often have hotter-wound bridge pick-ups which are more balanced when you switch between them.

JerkMoans

How strange.  I'm at the neck about 95% of the time...  Which is probably why my setting sounds brittle on the rare occasions I flick to the sharp end.

timmysoft

Stevepage said:

All the gain




Scoop the mids

This is correct. Bridge humbucker and tell everyone to fuck off.

Tenebrous

Depends on the guitar.

On my 611, it's middle position with the coil split.

On a tele, again, it's typically middle position (terrible, I know ).

On a strat, it's middle/neck together.

On a guitar loaded with humbuckers, it varies. Bridge for rhythm, neck for lead - If I could only dial in one for all purposes, it'd be the bridge. A passable lead tone and a killer rhythm tone is better than the reverse for me.

Alterlifeson

RandallFlagg said:

I often wonder how The Edge manages this when he changes guitar for each song.

I believe he uses different levels with his wireless packs to compensate for output differences in his guitars. His tech spoke about using different transistors in the cables that run to the packs so each guitar sounds 'right'.

ESBlonde

@RandallFlagg I could have written that same post. Nailed it.
@ICBM that too.
Make the amp sound good for the purpose you need (be that bedroom/studio/stage whatever) using the most sensitive instruments available (your ears). Then accept the resulting sound on the guitar(s) in thier selected configurations. Mastering a guitars rotary controls and thier interaction with proper amps is a talent many take years to recognise and master (guilty your honor). Not being a digital amp player I can't tell you if they work as well with the current crop of emulators, with the early ones they certainly didn't in the short time I could tolerate before the sound gave me hearing fatigue.
Always remember to listen IN CONTEXT and not in isolation, if you invade the space of the keys/bass/trombone player and vocalists your sound needs review!

bingefeller

Hootsy I always found Matt Schofield's advice here useful 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shAtnDUXGlQ&t=1563s

I do that and then tweak to taste and go from there!

Lestratcaster

Only ever use the bridge pick up live. Set pretty much everything at 12 o'clock and tweak, apart from pre/post gain as that's the gain level and master volume pretty much!

Anderz

I usually set mid at half and work from there.

Still it's a basic tone so it works with every pickup setting.