Passive tone controls

Unless your guitar uses batteries you have ‘passive’ tone controls.

These will be found on your basic tele, strats, Les Pauls, etc. This means that when the tone knob is on 10 it’s not boosting or adding anything. When the knob is turned down the treble frequencies are subtracted or cut.

Many players leave their tone on 10 and that’s it. I almost always find myself working the tone controls to get that desired sound. I use a tele and that is a guitar with an extremely bright sound. Cutting back on the tone mellows it out enough for playing jazz or finger style arrangements.

Whatever guitar or style of music you are playing, learn to work your tone knob. Turning it down different degrees can give you more variety in your sound.

Digital Delay

A student mentioned to me tonight how nice the strat sounded through the amp. It was mellow and had just a touch of effect. The effect he noticed was the Boss DD3 digital delay pedal. Digital delay when used sparingly can add just the right sparkle to your guitar tone. Delay does not always have to be used for overly spacey sounds or to make echo upon echo.
For that subtle delay sound using a Boss DD3 pedal –
Set the mode on Long.
Set the effect level, feedback, and delay time knobs at about the
9 o’clock position.
Then you can fine tune each knob to your own taste.
I play mostly with a clean guitar sound. The delay certainly helps to fatten and add some life to that sound.