Twist the amp’s volume knob. I’ve never thought of an 85/15 as a high output pickup. Depending on your musical style and goals, you can reserve guitar volume 10 for solos or park it there after setting the amp for the guitar’s output.
Do you use your TONE pot (dial) on your PRS guitar?
- Thread starter HANGAR18
- Start date
I have a guitar with 85/15s and usually run the guitar volume at 5-8 with it. I feel the pickup’s frequency range sits in great balance set there with my amps, and I do adjust the amps for each guitar, too. Again, the interaction of all guitar and amp controls is what I’m after.
Also, if you start with the guitar at 10, you’ve got less ability to control solo volume/gain from the guitar, when you want more.
Watching great players using the guitar controls constantly while playing to milk tone nuances from their rigs was instructive for me. YMMV.
I like the 85/15 for certain tones and textures more than the 58/15, though I have, and like, both. The 57/08 might be my favorite conventional humbucker, but it depends on my mood, too.
The Paul’s 408s are gorgeous sounding pickups, whether playing clean or dirty, and I run those with the guitar 5-9 or so, most often toward the 5-6 range.
But all this stuff is personal.
Also, if you start with the guitar at 10, you’ve got less ability to control solo volume/gain from the guitar, when you want more.
Watching great players using the guitar controls constantly while playing to milk tone nuances from their rigs was instructive for me. YMMV.
I like the 85/15 for certain tones and textures more than the 58/15, though I have, and like, both. The 57/08 might be my favorite conventional humbucker, but it depends on my mood, too.
The Paul’s 408s are gorgeous sounding pickups, whether playing clean or dirty, and I run those with the guitar 5-9 or so, most often toward the 5-6 range.
But all this stuff is personal.
No, never. Honestly I hate the woman tone. It's a bad tone that had a really good marketing team.
No disrespect to anyone who likes it of course. It's just not for me.
Having seen Cream live back in the day, audiences and other players responded to Clapton’s sound pretty darn well, no marketing team required.
Remember, however, that his Marshall was dimed, and there was a fuzz, so the distortion threw off plenty of higher frequency overtones, yet I never felt it was too spiky in concert.
Clapton and Hendrix were two players who helped shape the foundation of the guitar tone followed by an awful lot of other players. I wonder how the music would have become what it has without that base to build on.
jak3af3r
Jake
That's why you need one that goes to 11.
Ha! So true!
Alnus Rubra
Loving nature’s wonders
Toolmaster Of Brainerd
You know what a loon is, noodle head?
Inspired by this thread, I tried turning my tone knob down today.
For some context, I play 99% of the time with a Yamaha Pacifica (HSS) though an Archon. With that combo I strongly prefer having the bright switch off and the treble turned up on the clean channel of the Archon.
I recently got a custom 24 and the neck pickup has been a little bit dull, dark, and muddy when clean. It sounds good for chords but not as much for single note lines.
Today I turned the volume and tone both down to about 7 and flipped the bright switch on to compensate. It sounded really good! But then I turned the knobs back to 10 and it sounded even better!
It turns out the bright switch is what I've been missing for amazing clean tones with the custom 24 the whole time. I love this guitar even more now. I don't even think of it as a bright switch anymore. It's a single coil / humbucker switch. So I'm back to having my tone on 10. But on the plus side, I discovered my bright switch and my tone is better as a result.
For some context, I play 99% of the time with a Yamaha Pacifica (HSS) though an Archon. With that combo I strongly prefer having the bright switch off and the treble turned up on the clean channel of the Archon.
I recently got a custom 24 and the neck pickup has been a little bit dull, dark, and muddy when clean. It sounds good for chords but not as much for single note lines.
Today I turned the volume and tone both down to about 7 and flipped the bright switch on to compensate. It sounded really good! But then I turned the knobs back to 10 and it sounded even better!
It turns out the bright switch is what I've been missing for amazing clean tones with the custom 24 the whole time. I love this guitar even more now. I don't even think of it as a bright switch anymore. It's a single coil / humbucker switch. So I'm back to having my tone on 10. But on the plus side, I discovered my bright switch and my tone is better as a result.
I immediately noticed that too. Compared to the other pickups I had been playing through, my first opinion of the 85/15's was that they were WAY overkill bright/hot and realized I couldn't play them on 10 like I was accustomed to doing with other guitars. The Archon I used to have was also way too bright for me and I had to learn how to dial it down to get the same tone I was getting from the amp which preceded it.
