Poll: Do you use your guitar volume and tone controls?

[pass it]

I'm curious as to how many players use their guitar volume and tone controls. I always used to leave both on full all the time or most of the time. I've changed my view over time finding that in many cases the best sounds can be obtained away from the max settings. Now when I'm dialing in a sound, I keep my volume and tone backed off to 8 and 5 (demeter midboost onboard) which allows me to boost or brighten the tone as needed and control the amount of distortion without touching the amp.

Here are the choices.

Always leave volume and tone on 10

Rarely have both of these controls on 10.

Constantly adjust volume and tone to find sweet spot

Regulary use the volume to control the amount of distortion.

[jazzandmetal?]

All the time.

[gkoelling]

It depends on the guitar.

[101Volts]

What ever happened to "yes" or "no"? I do adjust them but not all the time. It depends on what kind of sound I want at the time.

[dantedayjob]

I don't touch a standard tone control, now a PRS Sweet Switch or Gretsch tone switch I will use...

[DS88]

I backup on the volume when I want to clean up my lead sound. I use the tone to shave off a little top end from time to time, but leave it at 10 most of the time. Oh and there's always the woman tone!

[paintguy]

I use the middle position of a 2 humbucker mostly and am always blending the 2 volumes to taste. The tones usually stay on 10 with a little tweaking here and there.

[DGDGBD]

With HB's, my tones are almost always on 10. I adjust the volumes constantly. Rarely are they on 10 through an entire song. With my strat, almost always on 10, vol and tone.

[theflyingturtle]

I do now. It has been a combination of TGP and the addition of a handwired amp. I've read on TGP for years about guys "rolling off" to get a better tone and how Clapton did that. When I got my new amp I tried it and was suprised at the change in character and the extra dynamics that were available with less distortion. Now I run my 18 watter at 8-10 and use the volume to get where I want to be. I don't use the tone knob much except to darken or brighten the sound.

[DavidH]

I dial it in, then switch between sounds with the toggle, for the most part. I get most of my clean(ish) to grit with picking dymanics and switching pickups.

[jeffwith1f]

I keep the guitar running on 10, and use a volume pedal to find the sweet spot.
I think the only time I've touched a tone control is in the studio.
I kind of like the way my guitars sound as is. it's why I play them.

[Tubebender]

Always and all the above depending on the sound we're making.

[cbguy]

I used to be in the category of both on 10 and dial in the tone from the amp and use boost pedals for leads; overdrive pedals for OD.

In the last few years though, I tend to experiment more with volume in an effort to ween myself off of pedals I shouldn't need to use. I still use pedals but my core setup is a volume pedal and tuner (along with channel switching footswitch on amp.)

[m@2]

if you have a sunface (and many other pedals of course), you likely live on the volume control. that pedal is SO diverse depending on the amount of volume the guitar throws at it.

[shredtrash]

I ride the volume knob constantly.

The tone control? I usually leave it on 10.