Your guitar's tone and volume knobs have more potential than you'll care to admit. Instead of going for that amp or expensive upgrade I advise you to read this article and spare that expense. Let us help you discover your guitar onboard controls full potential. The best tone and volume tune ups are done by your fingers. Your amp should not serve to make modifications to the sound but do the work they're named after amplification.   Turning everything to max and using the amp to modify the sound is old-fashioned. Ninety percent of people ever tune their guitars once after they buy it and leave it there. When is the last time you tweaked your volume and tone controls? We want you to go against the norm of tweaking your pedals and amp dials to shape EQ and sound. Actively changing your volume and tone knobs and understanding your guitar's basic tonal properties beforehand will put you in a position to make the most sensible tune up. Making these changes is cheap and easy and will considerably improve your tonal and sound issues of your guitar. To effectively optimize and tonal output of your guitar without external modification the following tips will come in handy.  

Use The Volume Knob As A Booster

The guitars onboard volume control has the same capabilities and settings to affect the sound as the volume pedal. It isn't necessary therefore to use a volume pedal when bringing up your guitar's volume is equally as good. For effective control start at the end, turn up your guitar volume to 10 or the max figure and the amp to the level where it just starts to overdrive your tone. Start turning down the guitar's volume, and this will make the sound much cleaner and clearer. It can be turned up and down as per the requirements of the song.  

Explore Your Tone

Setting your guitar up to max and starting your performance at a high does not give you much room for modification and tuning. It limits your ability to explore and go through the various tones as per the needs of the song. It leaves you with the amp as your only mode of control and more often than not you get it wrong. Try dialing the tone control down to either 5 or 6 and tune your amp to accommodate this changes. It goes without saying that you will have to add more mid, treble and gain. Doing this gives you more control especially for lead parts. You will be able to dial up the tone for a cutting and gainful tone in solo performances and balance the volume accordingly to your performance.  

Add Some Warmth

There's a limit to how much of a sharp tone you will attain by turning up the treble. After that, the high end starts to sound shrill. Taking the volume down and turning the tone up will move you into the different sounds from soft rock to country to hard rock tones.Use tone controls a fitting neck and bridge pickups to enter warmer climes.It is possible to turn the volume down and turn the sound up to move into country tones.  

Change The Character Of Your Pickups

The guitars tone knobs are of importance here is vital. Resist the temptation of using pedals to turn the treble down set it at around six to eight. Instead, add lashings of overdrive by using a mid-rich pedal. Keeping the guitar's volume at max, knock the bridge pickup tone control down to about half or lower. After this, it should sound much richer and different.  

Final Thoughts ...

Maybe it's the fact that we live in a world full of effects pedals and custom pickups but the volume and tone knobs on a guitar are more than just set and forget settings. By taking advantage of the tips above, you can truly take advantage of the full potential of your instrument.    

Your Turn to Sound Off!

How often do you use your guitar's volume and tone knobs?

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