Is a tone knob necessary?

[edsped]

The ONLY time I've ever really used my tone knob is when playing jazz or jazz type things and I'll just roll it back about halfway or so. Distorted I never roll off the tone at all because it loses the bite that I love so much, and if I'm playing something clean that's too bright or harsh I'll just back off my volume a little bit. I don't like muddying up my sound. Then again I like my cleans to be very "transparent" sounding and not overly warm.

 

[Overtone]

Subtopic... A strat has three pickups but two tone knobs... Stock is one for neck, one for middle. Whats your setup and what do you think is best? I out mine on bridge middle when i installed new pups because i figured that the full sized jb could use it, but there are times the neck seems bright to me, so i might go neck, bridge and see how i like it.