How do you tune in your amp?

Rowby1

Depends on too many variables, I like to use my ears.

Depends on which guitar, how big the room is, how loud I'll be playing, if I'm playing with another guitarist or not......to name a few.

I general though, I tend to set it up with the guitar back down a fair bit and the amp a touch bright so I can use the tone control on the guitar too. Bass and middle are adjusted to suit how the guitar sits with bass player and other guitarist (if there is one). 

vasselmeyer

Everything at 12 o'clock and then EQ for the room. If we're playing a small venue and not micing up then I always give it more treble and less bass than I would normally do if I were standing in front of it. The crowd will always absorb some of the high end once the room fills up.

TimmyO

There is only one reliable way to tune your amp : the Amp Capo

ThePrettyDamned

That shelf thing is a bit nonsense I think. I don't get why you'd do it, but maybe I'm missing something. 

I just twist them till it sounds right - if that's 1,1, 10, so be it. 

Likewise if it's 10,10,10.

RocknRollDave

I set the gain level first against the volume - so as to get a "just breaking up when picked hard" thing, then adjust EQ to taste. Given that I play a Tele, that usually means rolling most/ all of the amp's treble off and then taking it from there.

EDIT: Might sound daft, but quite often I have to tweak my amp's EQ not so much to suit the room (although of course that too) but also to suit where my amp is located. Sometimes my amp will be tucked away in a corner against a wall or a heavy curtain, or sat on a couple of padded chairs...which can affect the sound like suddenly turning it into a closed-back combo.

Sassafras

Depends on the amp but I generally turn TMB on full and then back off the mids till it's lost the horrible nasal sound.

ennspek

I think I tune then badly to be honest. I have much to learn.

Col_Decker

I tend to find that if I set my amp to give nice rich full sound that it gets lost once the band starts to play. I've tended to get better band sounds by setting my amp up to give a nasty high trebly sound, leaving the bass player to give the overall sound the bottom end. As a rule I'm in the neighbourhood of Treble = 7, Bass = 2

slacker

I turn the tone controls to the point where they stop doing stuff and back off a bit. Then I'll compensate for the room. I tend to run my Rics full on and use the 5th knob as a lead/tone control. The LP I run the vols on 10 and the tone on 7. I'll tweak things if I want.

That's in an ideal world. I played in a scratchband with non soundcheck so I looked at the other guitarists amp and set mine like it, worked a treat.

I had a little WEM 15 and my pedalboard blew up, so I put everything on full and controlled it from the guitar. I had a Fender HRD backline once and don't ask me how to set them I cant make them sound good. Happily it blew up once so they gave me a Gorrilla keyboard amp. I ran it clean, turned up the delay and pretended I was in a post rock band.

Real life always gets in the way. IMHO learn how you like it and learn how to fix it when it goes wrong.

ThePrettyDamned

RocknRollDave said:

I set the gain level first against the volume - so as to get a "just breaking up when picked hard" thing, then adjust EQ to taste. Given that I play a Tele, that usually means rolling most/ all of the amp's treble off and then taking it from there.

EDIT: Might sound daft, but quite often I have to tweak my amp's EQ not so much to suit the room (although of course that too) but also to suit where my amp is located. Sometimes my amp will be tucked away in a corner against a wall or a heavy curtain, or sat on a couple of padded chairs...which can affect the sound like suddenly turning it into a closed-back combo.

That's the gist of what I'm saying - just twist the dials until it sounds good. 

pintspiller

Sometimes I turn up the amp loud enough so I hear nobody speak, then twiddle the knobs as I play I Wanna Be Your Dog until I sound like Ron Ashton

ESBlonde

Different amps have different controls and the way they interact varies too. On an amp i don't know I just play through it as the last player left it but usually taking down the overdrive content and increasing the master volume to compensate. Once the amp feels like it 'breathing' nicely I adjust the controls to correct the sound toward the image I have in my head. When it's close I just play and the fingers do the rest. That interaction between controls and learning the sweep and frequency each controls takes a few moments to learn but is usually the best lesson you can give yourself like that.