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 Guitar electrics on the whole feel quite outdated tbh.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]

There'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 "setting", 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.

 

[SalsaWood]

First ten years or so I practically never used anything except neck pickup. Now I use my switches a ton, but still never the tone knob. If I had more imagination I'd probably use it in my playing, but I'd rather just not have one.

Come to think of it, I don't even use my switches within compositions. I use them to practice playing things well through a range of response levels and textures which accentuate different shortcomings or choices in my playing. Typically bridge for noise, neck for note separation, and split coils for picking technique. I also just jam with split coils, but I always record rhythms with full neck pickup.

 

[Emperoff]

It mostly depends on:
A - The variety of musical styles you actually play.
B - Wether you play live/session a lot or not

Now combine them at will:
- If you play a lot of different styles and do plenty of session/live gigs, you're going to need that tonal variety at some point (unless you play in a big band that allows bringing plenty of guitars with you).
- If you are a bedroom rocker you can always switch to a different guitar if you fancy a particular sound anytime.
- Or maybe you play live a lot but DGAF about tonal variety for your death metal band.

I'm at the first example, where I can only bring one guitar and one backup to play a lot of different shit. So tonal variety is necessary for me. When I was in a thrash death I was at the third one. I had single volume EMG equipped guitars and that was it. I didn't give a damn if the clean tones weren't that clean or whatever.

 

[Crungy]

I vary things more on bass due to being more in touch with it since it was my primary instrument for well over 20 years. Even a P bass with a volume and tone can vary a lot in addition to position and technique changes.

For guitar, I don't normally adjust the tone. Sometimes for an intentionally muffled effect, or less likely if I want a hair less high end.

I found I most enjoy EMG's VLPF tone control. It takes off a lot less treble and doesn't get muffled with it rolled all the way off.

 

[budda]

I await @Bloody_Inferno contributions

 

[yan12]

Great question. I am an old analog man, so this question has plagued me for a long time not coming from the digital world at all. I answered it for myself long ago, but here's my take.

EBMM offered the gamechanger system. I thought it was an answer to a question nobody asked because no single guitar can do everything, electric or acoustic. I think if you are more than just a bedroom or couch player, you need several, if not at least 5 guitars.

One guitar is perfect for beginners and people on a budget. This is the most critical phase of guitar ownership, because if you stick with one guitar long enough to learn how to manipulate it, as in play dynamically enough to change attack, timbre, bright or dull, your technique will develop to the point you can add tonal variety to any guitar. Then comes the fun (and expensive) part. More guitars.

If you reach this basic playing plateau and start with an LPish guitar, then you pick up a Strat, all of a sudden you have tonal variety. Applying all your technique to the Strat you have even more. Guitars themselves dictate to the player what can or cannot be done. What I mean is some guitars play like butter, some fight back a bit, even with a great setup. That forces the player to either adapt and change technique a bit, or abandon said guitar and find another. All of these variables, which are endless, influence the outcome in regard to tone.

Amps, strings, pickups, all the stuff we obsess over...it is never ending. I found out for myself the answer lies in the goal. What is the goal? Recording in my world dictates a cohesive sound. I don't want a different rhythm sound on each track, so I use one guitar for that. Perhaps I double with a different guitar, and other guitars for leads. That is way easier than trying to make one guitar sound different, but again, the goal of making a recording that has a sound I hear in my head requires multiple guitars. Perhaps yours does not.

So much choice can hamper inspiration and produce less personal technique. Beware the man with one gun, or in this case, the guitar. If it is all you will ever have, chances are you will do things on it nobody will believe if you put in the time.

All of it matters and none of it matters. If you only need one pickup and have and H-S-H guitar, the question arises about why do I need these other pickups? Tear them out and tell me the tone is the same. I don't think it will be. I think EVH was correct in that even if other pickups are not being used, they do have a pull on the string and one pickup guitars sound different. But then a test in a fancy lab measures this experiment and says no audible difference. But the player may actually notice a slight variation in attack and physical feedback and then subtly play differently. So, the change does have an effect.

More guitars suit me better and I have a bunch. Having them set up in different tunings is another benefit, and I think some guitars are destined to be in a specific tuning. My Jackson CS star sounds amazing in D standard. It sounds great overall, but it just has some extra mojo in D standard so that's where it lives. Then again, I could just be a crazy old man. Carry on.

 

[Stiman]

Depends on the guitar's purpose. For my HSS AZ I love all 9 different pickup combos, some are quite good and unusual. Same goes for my 7-string AZ with HH configuration. The Ibanez Dynamix switching is quite awesome and I prefer a small toggle switch to push/pull pots.

I never use the tone, but it doesn't mean I never will in the future if a recording situation calls for it.

 

[prlgmnr]

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 you prefer position 362 or is 1005 probably the more balanced option?

 

[odibrom]

Do you prefer position 362 or is 1005 probably the more balanced option?

Position 666 is the best one, trust me on this...