are all EQs not created equal?

I'm wondering how redundant the guitar's tone control knob is with the amp's EQ section. Most amps that I've seen have low, midrange and high EQ knobs whereas the single tone control on the guitar is more limited. Why then does the guitar have a tone control at all. Is there something you can do, or some way that you can impact the sound coming out of your amp by using the guitar's control knob that you can't do as well or better with the amps EQ section? Is it mostly because when playing live it's easier and quicker to do tone adjustments from your guitar?

Hi dlwalke,

The tone control is pretty important on your guitar and can be used to create different types of tones when paired with your amp's settings.

Generally, if you want to keep your amp at a very specific setting, you can use the tone knob to back off on, say, your highs, by closing the tone with the knob.

It's a lot easier to simply adjust your knob on the guitar while playing, than going to your amp, bending down and adjusting something.

To reiterate, maybe you have your treble set pretty high on your amp, but you want to turn the treble down a little bit, you can use your tone knob to sort of control this, depending on the pickup you're on.

If you're the only guitarist in a band, and you're playing rhythm, you can simply turn the tone knob down so that your guitar isn't cutting through when it's not supposed to. You can then open the tone all the way and let the trebles through with the knob really quickly if you need it for a blistering solo as well.

It's just a simple and convenient way to sort of control treble, and tweak your tone overall for the situation. But you are right, sometimes you may not even need to worry about the tone knob at all. A lot of guitar players simply leave it all the way open, and go on with their day. It really depends on the style you're going for and the genre of music you're after.

It doesn't hurt to have more options, that's what I say.

-Billy

Originally Posted by: dlwalke

I'm wondering how redundant the guitar's tone control knob is with the amp's EQ section. Most amps that I've seen have low, midrange and high EQ knobs whereas the single tone control on the guitar is more limited. Why then does the guitar have a tone control at all. Is there something you can do, or some way that you can impact the sound coming out of your amp by using the guitar's control knob that you can't do as well or better with the amps EQ section? Is it mostly because when playing live it's easier and quicker to do tone adjustments from your guitar?

Just adding here.

Think of any tone knob (pot) as doing one thing; either allowing or limiting a sound frequency signal to pass through to the end (speaker). In the case of the pot on the guitar, it allows frequencies to pass to the cable jack (which then passes to the amp).

With this in mind, from the guitar, you're deciding how much of a sound frequency is hitting the amp. Very powerful. When you have the tone pot pegged at 10, you're sending all frequncies generated from the pickup. When you 'roll it off', you limit the higher frequencies passing from your guitar to your amp.

It would seem logical to not bother with the tone pot on the guitar and just focus on EQing the amp. Fair enough and was pretty much the only way I EQ'd for a very long time. In a way, if you have more amp gain, the less it seems to matter how you set the tomne control.

But.....

It's all about the highs. Raemember that an amp is driven by what you send it from the guitar. The lesson I learned is that a combo amp I often used would become very 'high endy' the louder I turned it up no matter my amp tone EQ. I would roll off the tone on the guitar to offset. The amp was getting less high end sound at that point.

Eric Clapton was a very adept user of the tone control and it was his secret weapon for tone.

Thin of it this way, you may have 3 EQ knobs on the amp but you have 4 EQ controls overall. TAhe amp setting and the guitar's tone pot as a fine tuner.

Thanks. And would be accurate to say then that for most setups, if you want to limit your bass, that is something that you would need to do from your amp? Generally speaking, aren't guitar tone controls just rolling off the high end (i.e,. no separate bass and trebble knobs)

Originally Posted by: dlwalke

Thanks. And would be accurate to say then that for most setups, if you want to limit your bass, that is something that you would need to do from your amp? Generally speaking, aren't guitar tone controls just rolling off the high end (i.e,. no separate bass and trebble knobs)

That is pretty much true. Your amp EQ really shapes your tone overall so the amount of bass in your tone is definately more affected by the amp adjustments.