My LP has too many knobs!!!!

[Guitar Geezer]

donning asbestos suit and prepping fire extinguisher

I'm actually getting into the feel of playing it. For years have played my old 1980 Ibanez Blazer / strat sytle with one volume, one tone, five way switdch (and some sort of phase tap).

 

Any recommendations from you LP Players? Should I set tones at neutral and adust from the amp and distortion pedal? - or keep fussing with the combinations?

 

Oh Yeah - (for the gear heads) it's a 1974 LP Deluxe - the one with the mini humbuckers. my toys

 

Thanks guys and ladies

[NMcGuitar]

I always start with my tone and volume controls on "10". Since they aren't active pickups this means that you aren't "subtracting" anything yet.

 

For an awful lot of stuff I just leave the settings there and use the pickup selector (and pedals, etc.) for different sounds.

 

When I feel like getting a more complex tone I just play around till I find the sound I like for the tune I'm playing. This usually involves blending the pickups - often with radically different tone settings on each.

[TuskBuffer]

Hey lynng, I've got a '74 LP Custom that I'd feel lost without! I always play with them both on 10 and use a the amp or effects controls for differences in tone and volume. I think they would come in more handy if you were to put a higher output pickup in the bridge position or something. That way, you'd be able to balance the two out without too much difficulty.

[doc taz]

Yeah, that's what makes LP's great. I do use the tried and true all on ten setting when I play one. Sometimes, if I do a particular distortion sound, I'll set one for a semi clean tone with the tone at 7 (usually the neck), then the other up full. That setting's great for Zakk Wylde tunes.

 

Also, having the two volume settings makes it useful for those sounds where you can play with the toggle switch. One volume on, and the other off. Like a blippy sort of sound, I guess. Works best with a lot of distortion and sustain, though it can be done cleaner, too.

[the stranger]

http://www.teamtatham.com/lynntest/guitarist.gif

 

Nice gif, man.

[Adamixoye]

I'm sorry, what does this thread have to do with Linkin Park?

[Caevan O’Shite]

-It is a fake Linkin Park.

 

Hey, I dig blending the pickups from time to time, too, though I think a pickup "pan-pot" would be better, leaving a master volume wherever you set it.

 

I almost always leave the neck tone control wide open, and set the bridge tone at about 7&3/4. (Mine has rather hot ceramic-magnet Gibson humbuckers in it.) On this particular guitar, rolling back the bridge tone just this tiny bit seems to affect the upper midrange, sort of "focusing" it, more than rolling off the highs.

 

There are all kinds of cool tones in there, even with single pickup selections, if you play with the volume controls on both clean and distorted settings.

 

Set up an amp or modeler or what-have-you to replicate a sort of '70s Marshall sound, overdriven but not super distorted. Getchasum 'verb and a nice analog-flavored echo happening. Set your bridge volume to just above 6, set the neck volume to just under 6, and set the selector to the middle/both position. A very groovey touch-sensitive experience awaits, especially played fingerstyle. If you don't love this, I'll play that way, O.K.?!?

 

There's also the classic neck-turned-down for rhythm-stuff, and bridge-turned-up for leads, switching back and forth.

 

You can hear a lot of these kinds of things on live Allman Bros. and Led Zeppelin recordings. Roy Buchanun (sp?) used to do this stuff a lot, though primarily with a Tele, but sometimes a Les Paul Custom, too.

[NMcGuitar]

Originally posted by CaevanO'Shite:

[QBThere's also the classic neck-turned-down for rhythm-stuff, and bridge-turned-up for leads, switching back and forth.[/QB]

I used to do a lot of that too. But don't forget the reverse . Bridge turned down a little for rhythm, neck turned up for leads. You'll get a more focused tone for chords & a much fatter tone for leads. Joe Perry (Aerosmith) does this a lot .

[doc taz]

Originally posted by NMcGuitar:

Originally posted by CaevanO'Shite:

[QBThere's also the classic neck-turned-down for rhythm-stuff, and bridge-turned-up for leads, switching back and forth.

I used to do a lot of that too. But don't forget the reverse . Bridge turned down a little for rhythm, neck turned up for leads. You'll get a more focused tone for chords & a much fatter tone for leads. Joe Perry (Aerosmith) does this a lot .[/QB]

True, but the harmonic squeals sound better with the bridge pickup. Also, there's a grinding quiality that I like that can only be obtained by using the bridge.

[NMcGuitar]

Absolutely, Taz!

I just wanted to point out yet another option.

[The Bear Jew]

Those knobs can be turned down?

 

Yeah, I have an LP. Late '80s Classic sunburst.

 

I always keep mine wide open. I get different tones by switching between the pick-ups and playing harder or softer or hitting the srings in different places. I use ny Marshall's channel-switching box as a mute... I never use my clean channel.

 

And no effects. I hate them.

 

If I can't get the sound I need by changing my playing approach, I either work on it until I CAN get it or find a way around it.

[Guitar Geezer]

WOW

I knew you guys would point me on the right path. Now I got lot's of things to work with!!! Guess I'd better put some soundproofing up in my study

Thanks

[Philip OKeefe]

I used to have a early 70's Deluxe goldtop like that - nice guitar!

 

I do mostly studio stuff these days, so I'm a bit more inclined to adjust controls, even though I normally leave everything full up. I do sometimes roll off the neck P/U's tone control and then run both pickups (Clapton's classic "woman tone"), and occasionally to the "drop one P/U's volume off all the way, run the other full up and do the pickup selector toggle switch 'stutter' effect", but beyond that, and for live use, it's nearly always with all knobs up full, and the occasional P/U selector switch change.

[Franknputer]

Nice choice, Phil!

[Blue Strat]

Originally posted by NMcGuitar:

I always start with my tone and volume controls on "10". Since they aren't active pickups this means that you aren't "subtracting" anything yet.

This isn't exactly correct. Try un-soldering your tone control - you get a lot more volume and treble out of your pickup. It's not getting loaded down by the pot and capacitor in the tone circuit. If you're feeling frisky, you could even eliminate the volume pot for even more volume and treble.

[Philip OKeefe]

Originally posted by ChristopherKemp:

Nice choice, Phil!

I hear ya Christopher... there's more than a few guitars that I no longer have that I dearly miss... and kick myself for being so STUPID as to have sold them.