Regarding "tonal variety"

[Velokki]

I've owned 50+ guitars, and I remember often thinking when buying a guitar; "it's great that this has a lot of tonal variety if I need it", meaning a ton of different switching options. Also, most guitars have tone knob by default, and I remember thinking that's a good thing.

Now, I've come to the conclusion that I fucking NEVER use any of the extra switching capabilities. The worst ever was the Fender American Elite Strat - which was a decent guitar on its own, but it had this S1 switching system. Fender says on its site "it gives you more tonal options by offering extra pickup-wiring configurations", but all the options sounded like dog shit. The ones that sounded the best were the basic strat positions, like always.

Now I've also noticed that I've never, ever, not once used a tone knob on purpose. I might've tried a couple of times during the 18 years I've played guitar just for fun, but I've never used it in any meaningful context, certainly not for recording.

Give me 2 humbuckers, a 3 way switch and a volume knob. I won't use anything else.

Do any of you actually use the tonal options available? Am I just a simpleton neanderthal?

 

[Screamingdaisy]

I use tone and volume all the time. I'll roll the tone back to pull a lead guitar behind the vocal, then roll it back up to cut through.

Some of the stranger stuff I've found useful in band mixes. PRS with the old five way rotary for example. We had a song we recorded with an acoustic, but live we decided to use an electric to avoid having to swap guitars multiple times mid set. Humbuckers on their own were too punchy, but the middle positions scooped out and softened the sound enough that we could ditch needing an acoustic guitar.

It's not a tone I would've chose on my own, but in that context it worked great.

 

[AwakenTheSkies]

Give me 2 humbuckers, a 3 way switch and a volume knob. I won't use anything else.

Always had 3 way switches on all my guitars, about to get me some 6 way Freeway switches to see what I've been missing

 

[sonoftheoldnorth]

I've found the odd use in coil splitting and parallel. Never use a tone knob. Never found a use for the middle 2-hums on position. Guitar electrics on the whole feel quite outdated tbh. You'd have thought by this point there could be pickup hot swapping and whatever switching configs you want without the faff. Plug and play standardization type of deal. I'm aware these things exist or probably exist, but I mean as standard and not an expensive upgrade

 

[narad]

I got a free-way switch for a strat. The way I wired it up, I wasn't initially sure which way was the traditional strat way and which were the extra voicings, since it's basically 2 rows of 5-ways. But messing around with it, there were times where the best sound would be in one row, and others where it would be in the other row, so even though I didn't know what pickup combinations I was hearing, it was clear there was some added value to those extra options.

That said, my absolutely least metal guitar of the bunch. I'm not sure I would need much, or a tone knob ever, in a metal context.

 

[odibrom]

Yes, I use lots of different tones, mixed in the guitars and amps. It's cool to differentiate passages and music parts.

No, you're not a neanderthal.

Edit: as some of you may know, I'm not a guitar hoarder, I have a small collection and are all in the same genre so to say. But I rather have all guitars in one than all guitars in the world. One can't go from a Les Paul to a Strat with the flick of a switch. My 8 stringer has 300+ switching tone options, 3 of my guitars are in the 100+ ball park, the Universe has 73, the fretless is at 49 (I think), 3 Prestiges are in the 21 and only 1 guitar has only 5 switching tones to choose from. I love all of my guitars, even if some don't get as much playtime as others, even if I'll only use about 10% of their tones. From my small collection, only 2 guitars don't have piezos.

Edit 2: I have a friend that commissioned a custom guitar to a local luthier a few years ago, loaded with 3 hums and asked me to help him define the wiring. He said something like "I want it all". With 2 main switches and 6 mini toggles I drawn him a 1228 combinations (yes, one thousand, two hundred and twenty eight) wiring that he now loves. The 2 big toggle switches manage the pickup mix, and then there are 2 mini toggles for each hum (seen in the pickguard) to manage each one's coils and 1 vol+Tone per pickup...

Do I or my friend use all the guitar options? NO, but they're super cool to play and be surprised with when searching for something different. It's super inspiring.

 

[STRHelvete]

My main guitar has the SD Triple Shot rings and a no load tone pot. I prefer this be standard on all my guitars. Do I need it? No...but since I record a lot does it come in handy? Yes. 97% of the time I'm just using my bridge pickup run full tilt but that 3% still matters.

 

[budda]

I like having a tone knob available for when the mood strikes. Vol knob per pickup, again when the mood strikes. Dont use em often, glad to have em.

Pickup splitting i dont use nor have I ever needed. Fun to try when I buy say a prs then I never touch it again .

 

[Rubbishplayer]

Thete's no right answer to this question, other than what you prefer. And if what you prefer is simpler to use, then more power to you.

My best flamenco guitar has one sound, with variation coming only from how I play it.

That said, having tonal variation helps me when I want to dial-in tones from a particular song from one guitar, a good example being Corrado Rustici's playing on "Iruben Me": I can pull this off on my RG precisely because of its switching options.

 

[Demiurge]

Embarrassed to say that until not that long ago, the depth of my excursion into tonal variety was using the neck pickup in college big band and the hottest bridge pickup I could find for anything else.