What Do Your Electric Guitar Controls Do?(Ⅰ)

June 23,2022

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The Electrics on a Guitar can have many functions and so it is important to understanding what they do to find your sound.

 

What do the controls do on an Electric Guitar? There are generally three controls on an electric guitar. These include a “pickup switch” for changing between the neck and bridge pickup, a “Volume knob”  for adjusting the volume output to the amp, and a “tone Knob” for adjusting the treble frequency output.

 

In this article, I will go over these controls in more detail and answer common questions that you may have to ensure that you are not limited to getting that ideal tone.

 

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WHAT DO THE KNOBS ON MY ELECTRIC GUITAR DO?  

 

Generally speaking, all electric guitars will have a Volume knob controller and a electric guitar two tone knobs controller installed with a pickup selector switch. The volume will adjust how loud the output is, whilst the tone knob will filter; (increase/decrease) the amount of treble that is passed through the audio output. The pickup up switch will change between pickups.

 

Depending on how your guitar is wired, you may find that your guitar either has:

 

  • One volume knob and two tone knobs (Fender Strat Design)
  • Two volume knobs and two tone knobs (Les Paul Design)
  • One volume knobs and one tone knobs (Ibanez & other)

 

As you can see from the Fender design each loose volume knob on guitar controls the individual pickups (isolated controllers) whilst the volume knob controls the whole output at once (master controller). The Les Paul design is slightly more flexible with two volume knobs and two tone knobs as you select through the pickups.

 

MASTER CONTROLLED VS. ISOLATED CONTROLLED

 

The volume and tone controls can come in many forms depending what brand your guitar is, or how it is set up. However, the two most common set ups include isolated controller or master controller. These two setups each have their pros and cons but it is really down to the guitar player’s preference to decide what they want.

 

✔️MASTER CONTROLLER

 

Master controller is the most common and you may have seen them used on Les Pauls. This works by having a single knob that controls the setting for both pickup positions at the same time. This works by serving the same output to each pickup with using only one dial.

 

I feel too many knobs can get ugly and I personally prefer my guitar body to be less cluttered so I am taken to a simpler setup. Having master controller does make life simpler with just having one volume knob and one tone knob. If you are like me then I always have my tone and volume on full when switching through my pickups.

 

✔️ISOLATED CONTROLLER

 

If there were a situation whereby I will need to isolate each pickup then I would definitely recommend a volume/tone knob for each pickup. This means that you can configure your tone/volume settings individually and so when you decide to switch through the pickups then you will not need to keep changing the settings.

 

For example, you may have a set up whereby you have individual controls for each pickup. This would usually include two volume knobs and two tone knobs and 1 switch.

 

Conclusion

 

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