Amp and Pedal Settings

[I.T.]

John, please tell us about your amp and pedal settings. Where do you normally have the volume set on your Deluxe Reverb? Do you keep the guitar's volume and tone controls on 10 most of the time? Also, what brand/gauge strings do you use, and how often do you change them? Thanks!

[John]

This is pretty nerdy, even for this nerdy part of a nerdy board, but OK.

I set the treble and bass on the amp at about 6 and a half-- varying depending on the room-- and turn the amp volume down to 3, reverb at 2, mids at five or lower. I keep my volume and tone turned up all the way on the guitar, except when I turn the volume all the way off as an effect. I've never intentionally touched a tone knob.

Strings are D'Addario 10s or 11s-- I switch gauges every six months or so and never notice an intonation problem-- and lately I've been using Gibson branded strings. If I go more than three shows without changing strings I'm risking a break, so I usually change them after two or three shows. Around the house I only change strings when they get too rusty to play.

[Patr!ck]

Eddie Van Halen said something like "I don't even know what the hell that tone knob is for. I just turned it all the way up and played."

[Liesbeth]

I keep my volume and tone turned up all the way on the guitar, except when I turn the volume all the way off as an effect.

am I totally dumb when I think that the effect is that we don't hear anything? which could be done by just not playing?

this guitar playing thing is way over my head.

[sour29]

Less hum and no feedback with the volume turned all the way down, Lies'. He may also be considering the actual act of lowering the volume the effect (ie. a fade out?).

[John]

Yes, exactly, a kind of "zip" of the volume off, more organic with no click at the end. It sounds great with a delay.

I talk to guitar dudes all the time and they often say they "just roll a little bit of the tone off..." to mellow out their sound. I look at them and say, "Really? You use your tone knob? Weird."

[I.T.]

Thanks for the info John. Volume at 3 is pretty quiet and clean on a Deluxe Reverb. I'm surprised that you don't adhere to the infamous Spinal Tap face melt settings.

A few years ago, someone showed me a little trick that worked especially well for recording a Gibson SG through a Deluxe Reverb. Using the bridge pickup, roll the guitar's volume and tone knobs down to 0. On the amp, set the volume above 4 and crank the treble to 9 or 10. Gradually bring up the volume and tone knobs on the guitar just until you have a nice balanced tone happening and you should be rewarded with some glorious tube overdrive at a reasonable volume.

One of the classic Gibson 'effects' involves turning the neck pickup volume knob down to 0. Leave the bridge pickup volume at 10 and vigorously toggle back and forth between pickups. The resulting stutter effect is very amusing.

[Liesbeth]

Thanks for this little lesson guys, I'm glad that's cleared up, it was bugging me.