Questions for HH players

D

Dave Merrill

Axe-Master
Do you have bridge tone all the way up?
If so, name some factory presets where bridge by itself sounds good like that.
if not, roughly where do you have it set?

Where do you have neck tone set?
Name some factory presets where both neck and bridge by themselves sound good.
 
  1. Yes. I prefer to ride the volume instead for different tones. I generally go for the Seymour Duncan JB/59 combo or other similarly rated pickups. Never the super hot type.
  2. Most of the older model Marshall-based presets as they have great clean-up dynamics with the volume pot.
  3. Neck tone on 10 as well.
  4. See answer #2.
 
I used to rarely touch the tone, leaving it up all the way. Now I use it all the time. Presets are dialed in with the tone dimed. Then I can roll it off if needed. Like Burgs says the Plexis. Also AC20. I don’t much like neck buckers because they sound very bass-ey with higher gain levels. Flub city. That’s where it’s handy to roll off the volume or use a split if available. My 1st 2 scenes are my lowest gain and work best with the neck and middle. I voice those scenes for neck and middle, so if I use the bridge only on those scenes I need to roll off the tone or its too bright. You might consider a bucker sized P90 or something like the Duncan 59 in the neck.
 
I have two HH electrics, one of them even doesn't have a tone pot. And the other one is not used at all.
 
I only wish my tone pot went to 11.... I want every bit of dynamic the pickups will give me to be there when I need it.
I never use H-H together, typically all bridge for rhythm and some lead, I prefer neck for most lead, used to use reverse polarity at times but not much anymore.
 
I dialed in a number of my own, and a few factory presets with one of my darker guitars. Then for the brighter guitars I might roll the tone control down a bit... but never passed 5. Works for me.
 
David Tesch said:
I only wish my tone pot went to 11.... I want every bit of dynamic the pickups will give me to be there when I need it.
I never use H-H together, typically all bridge for rhythm and some lead, I prefer neck for most lead, used to use reverse polarity at times but not much anymore.
Click to expand...
You can get no load tone pots that when on 10 are out of the circuit. I have this sort of tone pots on an old Yamaha semi-hollowbody but I very rarely use the option because I don't find it that useful and prefer the somewhat darker sound I get at 9 and below.

To me the proper way to employ your tone knobs is to set the amp brighter and roll back the tone knob until it sounds right to you for your "normal" use. Then you have the ability to roll it further back to make the sound darker or you can emphasize the highs by turning the tone knob up.

You are not "losing tone" or anything doing it like this. You have an infinite array of things you can do on a Fractal to adjust the tone and anything that results in an outcome you like is fair play.
 
Im generally into everything on 10. Primarily play with vol and tone knobs when I play clean sometimes, not with gain.

I like fuzz tweed and spandex and hairspray for preset sounds, but those may not be your flavour haha.
 
I play HH but it’s not for me, so I split the neck to the outer coil. I lower the neck pickup but massively raise the pole pieces, and I raise the bridge pickup. I set my tones with my bridge tone at 5, but I’m using a .010 cap, so the whole range of it is usable to me (neck tone cap for me is .015). Then I can dial in my neck to taste. Sorry if you’re having balance problems on this beauty, Man!
 
On my 1981 Les Paul Custom I've had the tone pots disconnected since the mid-80s. Never had the need to use them.
 
Have always felt that the primary purpose of the bridge humbucker is to cut for rhythm playing, so I'd say tone on 10 all the time. What i find more often to be the issue with HH guitars is that the neck pickup is way to wooly sounding, so if you dial in the tone to work with the bridge pickup, the neck won't be usable and vice versa.

My solution to this has always been to change the neck pickup to get a more balanced tone. Some of the more modern neck pickups do a way better job of this, particularly anything that is mid-focused. My personal favorite is the DiMarzio Liquifire.
 
When I’ve owned guitars with tone pots I disconnect them from the bridge pickup entirely. I like it on the neck for when I feel like doing a bad Slash impression, but otherwise literally never touched it except to make sure it’s on 10 at all times.
 
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