Why do so many guitars lack tone controls?

[floatingpickup]

When Johnny Smith provided the spec’s for the Gibson Johnny Smith model, he obviously wanted to keep the electronics to a minimum - a single floating pickup with only a volume control. I understand that he felt that a tone control was not required, because the tone could be adjusted at the amplifier. I have several guitars with floating pickups, some with tone controls and some without. I definitely prefer the sound I get from the ones that have a tone control, with it rolled back a bit to cut the highs and warm up the tone. Whenever I play one my guitars that doesn’t have a tone control, I just don’t feel that I am able to get the same warmth by adjusting the amplifier’s settings. I realize the type of amp makes a huge difference, but my amps are not bright sounding amps (I generally use an Acoustic Image Clarus or an older Polytone). I have a couple of vintage guitars with original Johnny Smith pickups, and I do not want to modify them, as they are in entirely original condition. The best solution I have found is to turn the amp’s volume up a little higher and turn the guitar’s volume control down. That seems to cut the highs somewhat. I have tried using EQ pedals as well, but I’d rather not carry pedals around. The “single volume/no tone control” design seems to be very popular with modern jazz guitars. Do most people find this to be satisfactory? What do other people do to get a good jazz tone from this type of guitar?
Keith

[Cunamara]

I have always preferred to have a tone control, if nothing else to have a better range of EQ available between that and the amp. I have found that without the tone control, the sound of the guitar is just too harsh for my taste. I'm 65, I have some high-end hearing loss and I wonder if the frequencies I'm missing end up emphasizing the sort of harsh frequencies of the guitar, because I seem to be really sensitive to it. On most guitars, I have the tone control down to the equivalent of 2–3 and the volume rolled off a bit too.

I also have an AI Clarus 2r, Series III I think, and I do not find it a flattering amp for electric guitar. I just recently got a DV Mark Raw Dawg 250 which is IMHO a much better sounding amp for electric guitar, particularly on the high strings. All of my magnetic pickup guitars sound much better through it.

[sgosnell]

I'm fine with no tone control on the guitar, and on my main guitar, with a floater and thumbwheel controls, I removed the tone control. To me, the sound is livelier and better defined without the tone control, which seems to cut treble just a little even when full open. My other guitars have tone controls built in, and it's not worth removing them and leaving an open hole, to me, but it now occurs to me that I could just disable the tone controls and leave the pots in place. I just live with them, but I almost never move the tone controls from full up. The sound just gets muddy to my ears. Tone preference is entirely subjective, and if you like using yours, then play on.

[rpjazzguitar]

My amp has 3 band EQ, my pedalboard has 4 band EQ.

I set and forget the amp. I don't use the 4 band in the pedalboard.

But, I use the guitar's tone control all the time.

If I had a guitar without one and I didn't want to modify it, I'd investigate putting in a stacked pot in place of the existing volume control -- thru the same hole in the top. Then, one would be volume and the other would be tone.

If I had to pick one, I'd pick tone. I always use a volume pedal anyway. The only time I adjust the guitar's volume is on the rare occasions I don't have the pedalboard.

That works for the sounds I use. I'm not using sounds that change much when you roll back the volume on the guitar.

[Strat-itis]

2nd the stacked dual gang pot with volume and tone in 1. Solves the problem without modifying the guitar itself or doing anything else weird.

[sgosnell]

All the above can work, as one desires. I've tried going with no volume control, and it was a bad idea for me. I don't use a volume pedal, and I prefer to control the volume, and I have to be able to kill the volume completely when necessary. I would never be without volume, but don't care about tone. But I'm just one guy, and everyone needs to use what works for them. I've found that having a guitar with Gibson wiring and a bridge pickup has advantages. I keep my Epi ES175 set to zero volume on the bridge pickup, and just moving the selector switch to the center position completely kills the volume. To get it back, exactly where it was, I just move the selector to the neck pickup position. All that said, I still prefer having only a neck pickup.

[Cunamara]

IIRC, Eddie Diehl used a D'Angelico with a humbucker mounted to the end of the neck, no on-guitar controls and a volume pedal. I assume he used the amp for tone.

I don't get how the tone isn't too bright, harsh and hard for you all who don't use tone controls. It's literally painful with my guitars without the tone rolled down partway. Doesn't matter which of my guitars combined with which of my amps- even with the highs on the amps turned all the way down. And yet most of you who post clips don't sound painfully bright.

[buduranus2]

The volume control is a tone control.

"High Frequency Roll-off: When a volume control is turned down, it introduces a resistance in the circuit, which acts as a low-pass filter, attenuating high-frequency components more than lower frequencies."

[Cunamara]

Not enough of a tone control on its own, IME.

But someone else's mileage may vary.

[Litterick]

Pete Shelley:

I was playing the Gordon Smith. They're handmade in a workshop that's like a garage – very artisanal. I mean, the way that most guitars are made nowadays, they send off the specifications to a a firm in China and they send back a container-load of them. So it's more bespoke than that, there's a lot of detail – they used to hand-wind their pick-ups and that. The instrument I had was the body off one guitar and the neck of another – they had examples there and you could pick the ones you wanted. I liked the shape of one but I liked the feel of the neck of the other, so they married the two together. The last one they made me was just a couple of years ago – you see, I don't use tone controls, I never have. I've never seen the point of them: they just make everything sound more 'muffley'. And I don't really adjust the volume; I only use it as an on-off switch. So instead of having two controls, volume and tone, it's just got volume. Custom-made guitars can be very expensive but Gordon Smiths are quite reasonable.

Ever Fallen in Love: The Lost Buzzcocks Tapes
Pete Shelley, Louie Shelley.
London: Cassell, 2021.

[Stringswinger]

I prefer a tone control on the guitar, but on those guitars that I own that only have a volume control, I can get the tone I want with the EQ of the amp along with rolling off the volume. But given the choice, I would opt for a tone control on the guitar.

[garybaldy]

Do any two pickup guitars have just two volume controls and no tones?

[Christian Miller]

Tone controls are bourgeois


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[GuyBoden]

Pete Shelley:

I was playing the Gordon Smith. They're handmade in a workshop that's like a garage – very artisanal. I mean, the way that most guitars are made nowadays, they send off the specifications to a a firm in China and they send back a container-load of them. So it's more bespoke than that, there's a lot of detail – they used to hand-wind their pick-ups and that. The instrument I had was the body off one guitar and the neck of another – they had examples there and you could pick the ones you wanted. I liked the shape of one but I liked the feel of the neck of the other, so they married the two together. The last one they made me was just a couple of years ago – you see, I don't use tone controls, I never have. I've never seen the point of them: they just make everything sound more 'muffley'. And I don't really adjust the volume; I only use it as an on-off switch. So instead of having two controls, volume and tone, it's just got volume. Custom-made guitars can be very expensive but Gordon Smiths are quite reasonable.

Ever Fallen in Love: The Lost Buzzcocks Tapes
Pete Shelley, Louie Shelley.
London: Cassell, 2021.

Gordon Smith guitars were made in Cadishead, Greater Manchester, not far from where I live. But, alas, no longer.

[skiboyny]

For me, the higher the volume knob the brighter the sound. I really don't use the tone controls. Just the volume on the guitar for tone and the amp for volume. Tone shaping on the amp only. I suspect that I am more tolerant of a more "Crisp" sound than many here.

[bluejaybill]

IIRC, Eddie Diehl used a D'Angelico with a humbucker mounted to the end of the neck, no on-guitar controls and a volume pedal. I assume he used the amp for tone.

I don't get how the tone isn't too bright, harsh and hard for you all who don't use tone controls. It's literally painful with my guitars without the tone rolled down partway. Doesn't matter which of my guitars combined with which of my amps- even with the highs on the amps turned all the way down. And yet most of you who post clips don't sound painfully bright.

Several things here. I find that when I record, almost invariably the sound is a bit darker than in the room. With just about any mike. Not sure why.

The harshness of the sound could be related to your hearing loss, it is very common to be more sensitive to high end with hearing loss, especially if you have tinnitus. It is called hyperacusis.

I'm the same way, but my hearing is complicated by hearing aids, which usually make music unbearably bright, because they are designed to boost those frequencies for speech recognition. So I have to adjust tone on guitar, amp, and hearing aids. Really a pain.

So I always use a bit of the tone control. The only guitar I sometimes like no tone control on is a vintage telecaster or esquire, those things are screamers without tone controls. Not usually my sound, but it can really wake up a noisy bar!

[sgosnell]

What I do to tame the brightness is to crank the amp way up, to at least 50% or more, and run the guitar volume control well below 50%. I've been doing that for a long time, and Jimmy Bruno reinforced it for me in one of his videos. That's why I need a volume control, and partly why I don't need a tone control. But there is an infinity of ways to adjust tone and volume on guitars, pedals, and amps, and they're all valid for someone. I'm not an evangelist for removing tone controls, it's just the way I prefer, not a religion.

[garybaldy]

Picking near the neck makes a huge difference in tone.

[floatingpickup]

Several things here. I find that when I record, almost invariably the sound is a bit darker than in the room. With just about any mike. Not sure why.

The harshness of the sound could be related to your hearing loss, it is very common to be more sensitive to high end with hearing loss, especially if you have tinnitus. It is called hyperacusis.

I'm the same way, but my hearing is complicated by hearing aids, which usually make music unbearably bright, because they are designed to boost those frequencies for speech recognition. So I have to adjust tone on guitar, amp, and hearing aids. Really a pain.

So I always use a bit of the tone control. The only guitar I sometimes like no tone control on is a vintage telecaster or esquire, those things are screamers without tone controls. Not usually my sound, but it can really wake up a noisy bar!

I also wear hearing aids, which further complicates things. With hearing aids, everything is brighter, which makes guitars sound a little harsh (even acoustically). Without hearing aids, guitars sound muffled and dull. I have a custom mode set up on my hearing aids to use when playing guitar that rolls off the highs a bit and, hopefully, allows me to hear the guitar the way others hear it. Having said all this, I was not satisfied with a guitar that didn’t have a tone control back when my hearing was still normal.
Keith

[Strat-itis]

Turning the volume down is legit because it darkens the tone in a different way. It uses resistance to darken the tone which has the effect of dampening the entire signal (and mostly the resonant peak). This gives a smokier tone.

Tone uses capacitance to darken the signal by reducing only highs and some mids above the point set by the cap. This gives a rounder, bassier tone.

Imo, for optimal tone shaping at the guitar it's good to employ both.

What I do is use a 100k volume pot to hard wire in the smoky tone. Then use a 250k no load tone for still some spike on 10 if needed, then bassier stuff rolled back.

[lapideusvir]

Because you dont need them.

[58flame]

On the guitars I have with a tone control, they are always on 10. All I use is the volume because it’s all I need. I don’t like that muffled muted sound of the tone control rolled off. I want to hear the sound of my guitar.

[Doctor Jeff]

The volume control is a tone control.

"High Frequency Roll-off: When a volume control is turned down, it introduces a resistance in the circuit, which acts as a low-pass filter, attenuating high-frequency components more than lower frequencies."

Yes the beauty of the Gretsch guitars that have individual pickups and a master volume is that you can turn the volume down on the pickup, and you're rolling off the treble. Then adjust the master volume to taste. And that's in addition to the handy "mud switch," which is a pretty subtle high-frequency attenuator in the scheme of things.

[vinnyv1k]

Figure out how much brightness you want rolled off and then solder the appropriate capacitor onto the volume pot.
Completely reversable.