For what it is worth, I have found that a real good quailty guitar be it a Strat, Tele, Les Paul, 335, SG, played through a good Fender tube amp that has tube reverb and vibrato, use as few pedals as possible, work your pickup switch, volume and tone controls, that will produce your best all around sound for rock, blues, country, and jazz. Use pedals as needed for Hendrix style of music. A good tube tape echo sounds great and adds tone even with the echo off using the tubes for a tone coloring and or boost. The bottom line to me is, every guitar sounds different with every pedal and every amp. That is why a person can hear a pedal and love it and then get one and say it doesn’t even sound the same run through my rig like it did at the store or the demo I heard on RUclips. We all get caught up in buying the latest and greatest if we can afford it and it all comes back to a great guitar and a great tube amp that sounds the best. Work your controls and dig in or play soft whatever you feel with your pick and fingers and you will be the most satisfied. Just my opinion.
I like how you think and I used be like that. Now I am running a pedal board and a clean amp.for gain I have been either a boss BD2 wazza,pushed by a tube screamer or and OCD pedal,again pushed with a tube screamer. When dialed in ,I have got the most smoothest sweat sounding lead tone plus it works great for clean As I back of the volume. I am running reverb and a small amount of analog delay from my echo plex. The clean sound alone is amazing. Now when I play,I am constantly smiling at how nice my rig sounds. It’s better than my fender super sonic gain which is also not bad. As players we are always experimenting and changing our minds as what sounds great at the time,depending on what inspires us and who we are trying to emulate at the time. I love it all
Lovely mate. I play a Strat as my number one axe the last 7 or so years and I’m totally in love with it. I’m loving your tone and playing in this vid. Thank you so much. I may have written this in another comment on your vids but love to push my amps as far as I can live and in the studio. Rolling the volume knob and tones anywhere that suits the occasion. So much scope. A lot of my session work I can apply this idea as I’m not needing a full straight ahead in your face rock tone. With full volume on the guitar. My point is I appreciate the scope and variety of tones I can get from that way of playing. I have many crew cone to me after a show asking “how the hell do you get that sound man”. I simply sat a loud amp. Sure. There’s more to it but a loud amp (CONTROLLED) is simply magic. Naturally I let them know I till the volume back but when it’s solo time. 😁 up it goes. Thank you for your content brother. Lee. 😃
You have quickly become one of my favorite channels. I never realized the power of that tone pot until I heard you do it. I've been generally getting my home from pedals but I feel like a change in the Wind. Thanks Shawn!!
Shawn, you do a great job of explaining how you get your tone. When I am playing a Strat, I generally set to tone to my liking and then just use the volume control for clean or bite, and of course the pickup selector!
Wow, that "outside" lick at about 9:03 to 9:05!! Incredible! I know it's become a youtube cliche to say "how could anyone give a thumbs down?" to a video you like, but ... but, seriously, how could two people have given this video a thumbs down??!! It delivers Strat Tone Tips as promised (and more), plus it features the amazing riffage of Shawn Tubbs!
Great tips and thank you for sharing. Hopefully people here are aware that you were a touring musician on a national/world wide level. Because of your humility, I think people sometimes forget your resume’.
ALWAYS love your videos. I know you were focusing on how to get tones from a strat by using volume and tone. I would loved to have you talk about a quack tone.
Great vid Shawn. Just watched a clip of Landau in Seoul 2019 I'm Buzzed. Still the best Strat tone/player on the planet. You are very much in that lineage.
Learning how to play the guitar volume and tone to create different sounds. I like using a Fuzz that cleans up well, and treble bleed on the volume pot. All the things that you outlined apply, but you have even more range in the sound! Great usable tones from 4-10. In general, if all your guitar tones are set up on max, you have no where to go. Slightly rolling off volume and tone, then set up your base tone leaves somewhere to go.
What great advice! Was just listening to Phil X talk along the same lines, utilizing your fingers and volume to shape tone and/or create gain before turning to the amp or pedals
Shawn, no question you are my favorite guitarist right now but this is the first time you made me laugh so hard at 5:57 "sloppy" facial and voice expression. You're funny too man!
My favorite strat tones from you seem to come from your Saticoy, and either the Div13, or Bella amps. So many of the pedal demos sounded great with that combination. Like you, I have SO many pedals and amps, I'm forever swapping configurations of pedals, mics, guitars, and amps. It's rabbit hole for sure, but my inner geek loves it. My latest addition to the family is the Two Rock Studio Signature with the matching open back 1x12 cab. I'd love to here how you sound through one. Seriously inspiring, and I have some great boutique Suhrs and Bogners, but it's on a different level for fender cleans. The sustain and harmonic overtones are very special. Good to watch you as always!
Hi from southwest Victoria Australia mate. I’ve been a Tele player forever but the past 6/7 years I’ve really hooked into my Strat. I love your vids man and your playing. I get great inspiration from your input and sharing. I am huge on the tone shaping that can be produced from just the guitar. A Strat especially. Huge voice so to speak. I actually run my amp quite loud but have always worked the volume and tone knobs to their fullest. Listening to what ever is going on around me and finding that space that works. As you know great for texture colour and slotting right into a mix live or in the studio. I too run my boost pedals as the drive out front of an amp. Also my amp being loud pushes those valves into swwwwweeet tone land any time. Control of what’s coming out and not being ridiculous in a life setting. I wouldn’t want to cause that phone to stop ringing man. 😂😳 But in all seriousness! Thank you again for all your great playing and inspiring content. Be great to hook up and have a pick if your ever over this way man. Big love. ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾
Nice! Thanks for the reaffirmation in regards to dialing in bridge tone/knob. We guitar tone hounds tend to second guess ourselves sometimes. If it sounds right, it probably IS right! 👍🏽👏🏾✊🏽
I wish more Tele players would learn that there’s a tone control on their guitar. I read on the video banner you’ve got a set of dirty blondes in your Saticoy, are they flat pole or staggered, It’s a bit difficult to tell by looking?
Consistently exceptionally tasteful playing and tone to match! I agree with each of your approaches. I use a 4 pole multi 5 way switch that bypasses my tone on position 2 and 4. Saves a step to get the mega quack tones. Keep posting man!!
I have the blender wiring, so I like to blend in the neck with the bridge.I play a lot of worship music. its nice to hear something a little different.
Such a great video from one of the worlds great players. To think some players don't use the tone controls! Thank you for this Shawn, and happy new year.
Nice video and nice tone! I use my strat volume and tone controls pretty much the same way you do. I use a treble bleed because I use the volume knob as a “channel switcher” with clean around 3-4, dirty rhythm around 6-7 and lead from 8 to 10. I use no-load tone pots and Van Zandt pickups.
Great tone, and very tasty playing as you noodle around. Sounds like basic minor pentatonic with maybe some modal notes stuck into spice things up. Any chance of a video explaining that part? I need some extra flavor to my blues playing. Thanks!
When I was in a band I had a strat yjm model. It was lovely to play but so Ice picky . I learned that backing the volume of a touch ,gave it more compression, it just tightened up the notes. When playing chords,any chords ,just strum lighter and she is all good.
I like an HSS strat with the same tone config you have here. I also have a switch to put the humbucker on in any position, and another switch to turn the neck and middle into a big humbucker. 9 sounds in total. Sounds great!
Great tip about rolling off the tone control on the bridge pickup. It’s the best way to make the the bridge pick up on a Strat a lot more useable. Otherwise it’s too icy, unless you’re trying to do some kind of surf rock thing. I think Eric Johnson does that pretty much all the time? I’ve tried a few aftermarket pickups but think the new fender V-Mod single coils are just brilliant. They are just so sweet with a beautiful bell tone.
Thanks for the video Shawn. Some great tips. I do the same thing, except I usually have a 2 channel amp with 1 channel set pristine clean because I need that sound a lot. Sometimes I will use an SD9 into the clean channel ala Landau because it is super expressive. Other times I will use the 2nd channel of the amp for the crunch tone and then push it with a Klone or a Tubescreamer to sing for a big solo. It all depends on the song. It's tough to find a 2 channel amp with a dirty channel that cleans up well outside of the higher end amps though. I don't use treble bleeds either, but always have the bridge pickup wired to the tone knob ala Eric Johnson. There is a way to wire a Strat with a Superswitch so that when you are in the bridge/middle position it bypasses the tone knob so you can leave it rolled down for the bridge and it doesn't effect that other position. Scott Henderson does that. Been meaning to try that for years, maybe this year I will finally do it...lol.
Great video! Thanks again Shawn! It’s so funny but I was just talking about this the other day! I never understood why the tone knob wasn’t wired to the bridge pick up which was the only pick up I wanted to make less bright of the three pick ups on a strat!
I don’t mess with the tone much. But i do tweak the volume knobs depends on the situation. I switch between fingers and pick. Some hybrid picking also. The tone is all in the hands!
I run with an ephiphone LP, that is a fave among many, the sound it produces is way above it's league. Also a Gretsch and an Ibanez. There's no difference to how I use them and how I utilize the tone and volume controls, nor the pickup switch. Sure one fits a style better than the other. But (...) It lives SO much tone and variation on the guitars themselves, that sometimes you don't even need a pedal before the amp. A style I adopted years ago influenced by the best players around the world. seeing how they used ALL the instrument, and not just a ton of pedals. The ear getting trained over the years to dial in a smoother an better tone for sure. But there's a lot of power in Less is more.
Great video. I’d love you to do a lesson of your outside playing you did on here and how you think about what chord you were on or going to/from. I’m still a humbucker addict but miss the strat sounds. Think I just need the right neck on a strat guitar.
I am a Tele player but have been finding myself in playing situations that require a Strat for a couple years now and have really had to find my way on the Strat platform. I have worked a bit backwards in that I prioritize my bridge tone, dial in the amp accordingly, and then adjust neck and middle pickup heights and angles to try to achieve the best tone from the guitar in all positions. I then try to nudge amp settings a touch to find the best compromise. As I just don't have the heart to roll off highs from the bridge position by using a tone control there, I've recently been considering the idea of increasing the pot values for the neck and middle tone controls to see if this helps with clarity in these positions. Another thought is to bypass the tone controls altogether and see if this yields an increase in clarity. If neither of these ideas get me there, my last thought is to wire a tone control for the bridge but never actually use it. The idea is that just the load of the pot might be barely enough to bring all positions together using just one amp setting. And that's the real issue: I don't want to have to adjust my amp between songs or ever really. Anyone try any of these ideas? Thoughts? Thanks for the video!
@@ShawnTubbs, this might make many a Strat enthusiast cringe, but I decided to just disconnect the tone pots from the circuit altogether and this ended up being the perfect solution. I never used them, so it was 100% win for me. The mids of the neck and middle pickups were woofy and dark compared to my ideal bridge settings, now all positions are perfectly balanced. Yay!
I do pretty much the same thing with my tone pots. The bridge pickup really needs one dedicated. The only difference for me is I converted all of my 3 pickup guitars to Nashville tele wiring. I love the 3rd position to be N+B! It works much better for me on a strat than having to mess with a push/pull or a toggle switch.
My first tone control is always wired to the bridge pickup and the second one to the neck since I would most likely change the bridge frequently and keep the other one in fixed position. It also lets me do wah effect a la Steve Morse. The middle is wide open. I do struggle with the volume knob since the most active range seems to be between 8 and 10. So usually I step on a pedal for the lead to be heard.
For a strat, I ride the volume. My strats have mustard caps on the volume. Bottom tone control is notched so that 5 it is basically at 10 on a normal strat hooked to the bridge pick up ( JB Mini Hum) the middle and neck are Joe Barden, super S single coils.
Hey Shawn, I know this is an older video. The algorithm just sent it to me. Any chance you have done the same thing with a T-style? I guess you just have to ride the tone knob. My bridge pickup can remove paint if I open up the tone too much, but sometimes I want a little more top end out of my neck pickup. I'd love to see how you do it.
I'm a rock guy and I've played strat style and super strat style guitars all my life but as a rocker I never really mess with a tone knob... it was just always all the way up except for once when I was attempting some jazz style stuff and I was told that if I back off the tone knob I might get aa cleaner drier sound to simulate a hollow body jazz tone... I wish I knew then what I know now lol
1 mid gain channel all the way (pedals can make up the rest of the gain)! I have a Grosh loaded pick-guard wired by them. The middle tone knob is a master tone with the "bridge tone" actually being a volume control for the bridge pickup which allows you to blend the bridge in with the neck, giving pseudo Tele tones. I generally set a medium action, use an Ultex Jazz III pick and play with a medium attack. If I need to attack harder I can and the strings wont plink out. The harder attack adds a little more "gristle" (in the words of our lord and savior Gregory Kochory). PIckups are about halfway between the base of the pick-guard and the strings (obviously this varies for every guitar) and gives a good amount of sustain and output without being too hot. Otherwise, I do everything else the same.
I value your videos and your logical approach to dialing in your tone. I'm building a dedicated single coil guitar with a t-style bridge pickup and middle/neck Lollar BLONDES. i play through A 1961 Fender Showman with an added PPIV mv and british 12" speakers. I'd appreciate your opinions (pros and cons) on treble bleed circuits and, aftermarket Tele bridges/saddles. What LOLLAR Tele bridge p'ups do you think would pair well with the Blonde p'ups. I play mostly blues, Americana and classic rock. Thank you for your time. All the best in 2020!
Thanks so much! Treble bleed circuits are great. The only con that comes to mind is sometimes the cap can argue with vintage Fuzz pedals. There are a ton of great builders out there when it comes to bridges for Telecasters go I'm partial to Wilkinson bridges but the Callaham stuff is nice too. The majority of my Tele guitars have brass saddles but I'm not that picky about it. Not sure about the Lollar Tele bridge pickup. Maybe reach out to Lollar and hear what they think?
I have a Fender Strat and I put Andy Timmon's favorite hummbucking pick-up in the bridge position - it's the one that's single coil size and has two blades. Love that pick-up. I also have a Tom Anderson Strat style guitar that has a full hummbucker in the bridge position that can be split. The neck and middle pick-ups on that guitar are stacked hummbuckers that I usually play split (single coil). It's amazing how many different tones I get out of those pick-ups and they all sound amazing. I rarely crank my volume all the way up and when I do, it's only for the bridge position pick-up (with rare exception). I usually play with the volume knob around 7 and my Mission active volume pedal (with a buffer) around the half-way point. As for my tone knobs, I usually have them around 5-7 depending on the song or sound I'm going for. I have the output of my amp up to about the 2:00 position (maybe a bit higher and the gain on at 9:00 on the clean channel (which I use about 98% of the time and get whatever tones I want with my pedals), my rhythm channel is at about 11:00, and my lead at 12:00. I typically use one OD pedal at a time but I will use a compressor pedal in conjunction with my lower gain overdrives (BB Pre-amp and OCD) I also use the BB and OCD together - what a great blues tone with the neck pick-up. I love the tones you get on every vid I watch - while I do think that a lot of the tone is in the gear, I also think a fair amount is in the player's hands and his / her technique and you have that in spades. Keep it up and keep the vids coming. If you are ever in SLC for a gig / concert, I'd love to come and see you. I'm seeing Eric Johnson on Friday night for my 3rd time. Can't wait.
That LSL always sounds killer. I’m gonna have to get a set of those Lollar DBs. My main Strat Fender AM Prof. With Suhr V60LP(N) V60(M)Dimarzio FT1 bridge never lets me down. I wonder how the DBs compare to Suhrs? Does Shawn find that the methods in this video apply to every single coil Strat style guitar?
I've got a guitar with Suhr ML standard single coils and they're similar to the Lollars but I still prefer Lollars. The methods in this video would really apply to any strat style guitar.
Another awesome demo Commander! You are such an inspiration to me. I have a question not related to this video Shawn. I have a Suhr strat style guitar with 3 Mike Landau single coils. I noticed that you have a Suhr with a humbucker in the bridge position. I'm thinking of putting a humbucker in mine and I'm wondering what pickup you are using in that bridge position? Thanks for all your help Shawn!
Thanks very much, I don't have any experience with Lollar black face pickups. I bought the Dirty Blonde set that I have based on what I read on the Lollar site and they delivered.
Thanks so much! Some of my guitars have treble bleed circuits on them but they were built that way from the factory. If my guitars have them in stock format, I don't remove them and if they don't, I don't have one installed.
thnx for all the great content shawn and happy new year! question: bought a morgan sw 22 (non reverb) a couple months ago and after much tweaking and running various pedals into it as well as a boss waza tae (which i returned--great tool--me not need) i'm realizing it sounds amazing with single coils and kinda hard-edged and well, just not as good with humbuckers...am i imagining things? do i simply not know what i'm doing? did joe morgan voice it this way? i may send him a text--he replied to me a couple times back when i was looking at his amps but thought i'd ask you. anyhow, thanks for everything. cheers
I haven't played that amp in particular. That's a 6v6 powered amp correct? Some amps truly do respond better to single-coil pickups over humbuckers. It would be interesting to hear what Joe thinks.
Ok so, I cancelled my dinner date so I could watch this....it’s all good...fantastic review of specifics for the strat...nice Shawn!!! A+
For what it is worth, I have found that a real good quailty guitar be it a Strat, Tele, Les Paul, 335, SG, played through a good Fender tube amp that has tube reverb and vibrato, use as few pedals as possible, work your pickup switch, volume and tone controls, that will produce your best all around sound for rock, blues, country, and jazz. Use pedals as needed for Hendrix style of music. A good tube tape echo sounds great and adds tone even with the echo off using the tubes for a tone coloring and or boost. The bottom line to me is, every guitar sounds different with every pedal and every amp. That is why a person can hear a pedal and love it and then get one and say it doesn’t even sound the same run through my rig like it did at the store or the demo I heard on RUclips. We all get caught up in buying the latest and greatest if we can afford it and it all comes back to a great guitar and a great tube amp that sounds the best. Work your controls and dig in or play soft whatever you feel with your pick and fingers and you will be the most satisfied. Just my opinion.
I like how you think and I used be like that. Now I am running a pedal board and a clean amp.for gain I have been either a boss BD2 wazza,pushed by a tube screamer or and OCD pedal,again pushed with a tube screamer. When dialed in ,I have got the most smoothest sweat sounding lead tone plus it works great for clean As I back of the volume. I am running reverb and a small amount of analog delay from my echo plex. The clean sound alone is amazing.
Now when I play,I am constantly smiling at how nice my rig sounds. It’s better than my fender super sonic gain which is also not bad. As players we are always experimenting and changing our minds as what sounds great at the time,depending on what inspires us and who we are trying to emulate at the time. I love it all
This was GREAT Shawn! Ive all but given up on playing Strats.... Youve given me renewed hope...!!!
Sounds so good!
Thanks so much, R.J.! Happy New Year man!
Lovely mate.
I play a Strat as my number one axe the last 7 or so years and I’m totally in love with it.
I’m loving your tone and playing in this vid.
Thank you so much.
I may have written this in another comment on your vids but love to push my amps as far as I can live and in the studio.
Rolling the volume knob and tones anywhere that suits the occasion.
So much scope.
A lot of my session work I can apply this idea as I’m not needing a full straight ahead in your face rock tone.
With full volume on the guitar.
My point is I appreciate the scope and variety of tones I can get from that way of playing.
I have many crew cone to me after a show asking “how the hell do you get that sound man”.
I simply sat a loud amp.
Sure. There’s more to it but a loud amp (CONTROLLED) is simply magic.
Naturally I let them know I till the volume back but when it’s solo time. 😁 up it goes.
Thank you for your content brother.
Lee. 😃
A lot of guitar players forgot they have tone and volume knobs on their guitar. Thanks for this great video.
I like to set my tone knob to 5 while I'm dialing in the amp. Then when I'm playing, I can cut or boost based on what I'm hearing.
You have quickly become one of my favorite channels. I never realized the power of that tone pot until I heard you do it. I've been generally getting my home from pedals but I feel like a change in the Wind. Thanks Shawn!!
Shawn, you do a great job of explaining how you get your tone. When I am playing a Strat, I generally set to tone to my liking and then just use the volume control for clean or bite, and of course the pickup selector!
Wow, that "outside" lick at about 9:03 to 9:05!! Incredible! I know it's become a youtube cliche to say "how could anyone give a thumbs down?" to a video you like, but ... but, seriously, how could two people have given this video a thumbs down??!! It delivers Strat Tone Tips as promised (and more), plus it features the amazing riffage of Shawn Tubbs!
I love this demo. There are knobs on the guitar for a reason. Nice job, Shawn. Thanks!
Great tips and thank you for sharing. Hopefully people here are aware that you were a touring musician on a national/world wide level. Because of your humility, I think people sometimes forget your resume’.
Thanks so much Chris, I appreciate it man!
I did the mod on the tone pot with my Strat (treble position only for the lower tone pot) & it works wonderfully. Plethora of tones now ! :)
Wonderful music! Congratulations! I just subscribed!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👍👍
ALWAYS love your videos. I know you were focusing on how to get tones from a strat by using volume and tone. I would loved to have you talk about a quack tone.
Thanks for these tone crafting videos with different amps, guitars and pedals. Lots of gratitude 🙏🏼
Great video and tone tips! You're a killer player and seem like a great guy, hope the new year is a blessing to u!!
Great vid Shawn. Just watched a clip of Landau in Seoul 2019 I'm Buzzed. Still the best Strat tone/player on the planet. You are very much in that lineage.
I've watched that clip over and over! Landau is one of the best!!
Learning how to play the guitar volume and tone to create different sounds. I like using a Fuzz that cleans up well, and treble bleed on the volume pot. All the things that you outlined apply, but you have even more range in the sound! Great usable tones from 4-10. In general, if all your guitar tones are set up on max, you have no where to go. Slightly rolling off volume and tone, then set up your base tone leaves somewhere to go.
Really appreciate all your videos, Im finally getting this strat tone thing
What great advice! Was just listening to Phil X talk along the same lines, utilizing your fingers and volume to shape tone and/or create gain before turning to the amp or pedals
Shawn, no question you are my favorite guitarist right now but this is the first time you made me laugh so hard at 5:57 "sloppy" facial and voice expression. You're funny too man!
Happy new year Shawn, thx for all your vids!
My favorite strat tones from you seem to come from your Saticoy, and either the Div13, or Bella amps. So many of the pedal demos sounded great with that combination. Like you, I have SO many pedals and amps, I'm forever swapping configurations of pedals, mics, guitars, and amps. It's rabbit hole for sure, but my inner geek loves it. My latest addition to the family is the Two Rock Studio Signature with the matching open back 1x12 cab. I'd love to here how you sound through one. Seriously inspiring, and I have some great boutique Suhrs and Bogners, but it's on a different level for fender cleans. The sustain and harmonic overtones are very special. Good to watch you as always!
I hope you do a vid on dialing in a amp. Do you as a general rule dial your tone in on the neck pup first of whatever guitar your playing? Thx again.🤘
Great question. I was wondering the same thing.
When I use a strat I'll generally start with the neck pickup and then go from there. Thanks!!
@@ShawnTubbs the Strat "magic" is all in the Neck p'up :)
Great question!
Hi from southwest Victoria Australia mate.
I’ve been a Tele player forever but the past 6/7 years I’ve really hooked into my Strat.
I love your vids man and your playing.
I get great inspiration from your input and sharing.
I am huge on the tone shaping that can be produced from just the guitar.
A Strat especially.
Huge voice so to speak.
I actually run my amp quite loud but have always worked the volume and tone knobs to their fullest.
Listening to what ever is going on around me and finding that space that works.
As you know great for texture colour and slotting right into a mix live or in the studio.
I too run my boost pedals as the drive out front of an amp.
Also my amp being loud pushes those valves into swwwwweeet tone land any time.
Control of what’s coming out and not being ridiculous in a life setting.
I wouldn’t want to cause that phone to stop ringing man. 😂😳
But in all seriousness!
Thank you again for all your great playing and inspiring content.
Be great to hook up and have a pick if your ever over this way man.
Big love. ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾
Thanks so much, Lee for the kind words and encouragement! It means a lot!
@@ShawnTubbs ☺️🎶🎶🎶
Mama Mia, that Ox preset sounds frikkin great.
Killer tone! Love your playing... And the Lollars.
Nice! Thanks for the reaffirmation in regards to dialing in bridge tone/knob. We guitar tone hounds tend to second guess ourselves sometimes. If it sounds right, it probably IS right! 👍🏽👏🏾✊🏽
I enjoyed it so much i came back at a later time and watched again.
Oh yea, i subscribed the first time 🤣
Thanks so much for watching and for subscribing! It means a lot!
Dude you are amazing. I stumbled across one of your videos and was amazed.
This is killer! Happy New year Shawn!
I wish more Tele players would learn that there’s a tone control on their guitar. I read on the video banner you’ve got a set of dirty blondes in your Saticoy, are they flat pole or staggered, It’s a bit difficult to tell by looking?
A splendid way to start 2020!
Thanks for all your tweaks and tips: HAPPY 2020, with lots of music and tone...!! \m/
AMAZING Information as always! Thank you for all u do. Keep up the GREAT WORK 👍👍
Thanks for this one Shawn ... and Happy New Year !!!! More of those videos in 2020, please
Great under-served topic Shawn - spot on!
Consistently exceptionally tasteful playing and tone to match!
I agree with each of your approaches.
I use a 4 pole multi 5 way switch that bypasses my tone on position 2 and 4. Saves a step to get the mega quack tones.
Keep posting man!!
Yea, sure do love Lollar pickups. After I got the Dirty Blond set I had to put Lollars in my Tele too!
Me too. Really Stratty !!! Love dem Lollars.
I’m going to use this info!! Thank you! Happy new year
I have the blender wiring, so I like to blend in the neck with the bridge.I play a lot of worship music. its nice to hear something a little different.
Spot on as always!
Great stuff as always Shawn! I find myself caring more and more about this stuff as I mature as a player. Especially on traditional F style guitars.
Beautiful tone manipulation, HNY Shawn
Such a great video from one of the worlds great players. To think some players don't use the tone controls! Thank you for this Shawn, and happy new year.
Nice video and nice tone! I use my strat volume and tone controls pretty much the same way you do. I use a treble bleed because I use the volume knob as a “channel switcher” with clean around 3-4, dirty rhythm around 6-7 and lead from 8 to 10. I use no-load tone pots and Van Zandt pickups.
Great tone, and very tasty playing as you noodle around. Sounds like basic minor pentatonic with maybe some modal notes stuck into spice things up. Any chance of a video explaining that part? I need some extra flavor to my blues playing. Thanks!
When I was in a band I had a strat yjm model. It was lovely to play but so Ice picky . I learned that backing the volume of a touch ,gave it more compression, it just tightened up the notes. When playing chords,any chords ,just strum lighter and she is all good.
Strat + JTM45 + Treble booster + Delay is pretty much all I need. Rolling back the volume gets me everything from clean to breakup to lead.
Excellent tone and wicked playing
Thanks for this shawn. I. Know I sure could use the help. 👍
I like an HSS strat with the same tone config you have here. I also have a switch to put the humbucker on in any position, and another switch to turn the neck and middle into a big humbucker. 9 sounds in total. Sounds great!
That sounds awesome. Is that second switch different from position 2 in any way? What does it do differently?
@@atonofspiders It's basically just putting the neck and the middle in series. Premier guitar has a wiring tutorial that I used.
Great tip about rolling off the tone control on the bridge pickup. It’s the best way to make the the bridge pick up on a Strat a lot more useable. Otherwise it’s too icy, unless you’re trying to do some kind of surf rock thing. I think Eric Johnson does that pretty much all the time? I’ve tried a few aftermarket pickups but think the new fender V-Mod single coils are just brilliant. They are just so sweet with a beautiful bell tone.
Enjoyed it! I must investigate my control knobs more!
Thanks for the video Shawn. Some great tips. I do the same thing, except I usually have a 2 channel amp with 1 channel set pristine clean because I need that sound a lot. Sometimes I will use an SD9 into the clean channel ala Landau because it is super expressive. Other times I will use the 2nd channel of the amp for the crunch tone and then push it with a Klone or a Tubescreamer to sing for a big solo. It all depends on the song. It's tough to find a 2 channel amp with a dirty channel that cleans up well outside of the higher end amps though. I don't use treble bleeds either, but always have the bridge pickup wired to the tone knob ala Eric Johnson. There is a way to wire a Strat with a Superswitch so that when you are in the bridge/middle position it bypasses the tone knob so you can leave it rolled down for the bridge and it doesn't effect that other position. Scott Henderson does that. Been meaning to try that for years, maybe this year I will finally do it...lol.
Tone for days!
Thanks Marc!!!
Awesome as always Sean! I do miss the sound of your original LsL pups. X
Great video! Thanks again Shawn! It’s so funny but I was just talking about this the other day! I never understood why the tone knob wasn’t wired to the bridge pick up which was the only pick up I wanted to make less bright of the three pick ups on a strat!
Another great video Shawn, thanks.
I don’t mess with the tone much. But i do tweak the volume knobs depends on the situation. I switch between fingers and pick. Some hybrid picking also. The tone is all in the hands!
I run with an ephiphone LP, that is a fave among many, the sound it produces is way above it's league. Also a Gretsch and an Ibanez. There's no difference to how I use them and how I utilize the tone and volume controls, nor the pickup switch. Sure one fits a style better than the other. But (...) It lives SO much tone and variation on the guitars themselves, that sometimes you don't even need a pedal before the amp. A style I adopted years ago influenced by the best players around the world. seeing how they used ALL the instrument, and not just a ton of pedals. The ear getting trained over the years to dial in a smoother an better tone for sure. But there's a lot of power in Less is more.
Love the your chords...... beautiful.
Love your playing!
Great video.
I’d love you to do a lesson of your outside playing you did on here and how you think about what chord you were on or going to/from.
I’m still a humbucker addict but miss the strat sounds. Think I just need the right neck on a strat guitar.
I am a Tele player but have been finding myself in playing situations that require a Strat for a couple years now and have really had to find my way on the Strat platform. I have worked a bit backwards in that I prioritize my bridge tone, dial in the amp accordingly, and then adjust neck and middle pickup heights and angles to try to achieve the best tone from the guitar in all positions.
I then try to nudge amp settings a touch to find the best compromise.
As I just don't have the heart to roll off highs from the bridge position by using a tone control there, I've recently been considering the idea of increasing the pot values for the neck and middle tone controls to see if this helps with clarity in these positions. Another thought is to bypass the tone controls altogether and see if this yields an increase in clarity.
If neither of these ideas get me there, my last thought is to wire a tone control for the bridge but never actually use it. The idea is that just the load of the pot might be barely enough to bring all positions together using just one amp setting. And that's the real issue: I don't want to have to adjust my amp between songs or ever really.
Anyone try any of these ideas?
Thoughts?
Thanks for the video!
All of those ideas are great but might be too subtle. It's worth a try for sure.
@@ShawnTubbs, this might make many a Strat enthusiast cringe, but I decided to just disconnect the tone pots from the circuit altogether and this ended up being the perfect solution. I never used them, so it was 100% win for me. The mids of the neck and middle pickups were woofy and dark compared to my ideal bridge settings, now all positions are perfectly balanced. Yay!
Awesome stuff! Wouldn’t mind seeing one of these for a T style guitar! Could be cool to talk a little about amp mindset for these too!
I do pretty much the same thing with my tone pots. The bridge pickup really needs one dedicated. The only difference for me is I converted all of my 3 pickup guitars to Nashville tele wiring. I love the 3rd position to be N+B! It works much better for me on a strat than having to mess with a push/pull or a toggle switch.
Tone is soooo sick 🥰
Sounds killer - great video! Curious to know how you first dialed the amp for the s-style. Thanks!
Thanks so much! I dialed the BE channel of the BE-100 deluxe for the neck position on my strat first and went from there.
great playing style is superb
My first tone control is always wired to the bridge pickup and the second one to the neck since I would most likely change the bridge frequently and keep the other one in fixed position. It also lets me do wah effect a la Steve Morse. The middle is wide open. I do struggle with the volume knob since the most active range seems to be between 8 and 10. So usually I step on a pedal for the lead to be heard.
You have great tone man
Have a healthy and happy new year Shawn! From the OC
Thanks so much! Have a great 2020!!
Why almost no pro is using the floating trem beats me. It is such a magical thing. It is what it was made to do. I like the fact that you use it.
For a strat, I ride the volume. My strats have mustard caps on the volume. Bottom tone control is notched so that 5 it is basically at 10 on a normal strat hooked to the bridge pick up ( JB Mini Hum) the middle and neck are Joe Barden, super S single coils.
Hey Shawn, I know this is an older video. The algorithm just sent it to me. Any chance you have done the same thing with a T-style? I guess you just have to ride the tone knob. My bridge pickup can remove paint if I open up the tone too much, but sometimes I want a little more top end out of my neck pickup. I'd love to see how you do it.
once again if I could like this vidoe 10 more times I would thanks!!!!
I'm a rock guy and I've played strat style and super strat style guitars all my life but as a rocker I never really mess with a tone knob... it was just always all the way up except for once when I was attempting some jazz style stuff and I was told that if I back off the tone knob I might get aa cleaner drier sound to simulate a hollow body jazz tone... I wish I knew then what I know now lol
Best strat sound ever...
Thanks Shawn!
1 mid gain channel all the way (pedals can make up the rest of the gain)! I have a Grosh loaded pick-guard wired by them. The middle tone knob is a master tone with the "bridge tone" actually being a volume control for the bridge pickup which allows you to blend the bridge in with the neck, giving pseudo Tele tones. I generally set a medium action, use an Ultex Jazz III pick and play with a medium attack. If I need to attack harder I can and the strings wont plink out. The harder attack adds a little more "gristle" (in the words of our lord and savior Gregory Kochory). PIckups are about halfway between the base of the pick-guard and the strings (obviously this varies for every guitar) and gives a good amount of sustain and output without being too hot. Otherwise, I do everything else the same.
Hi Shawn, why are all knobs in the ox box software on the left? Has it to do with mono/stereo?
I'm running the OX in mono so I pan everything to the left output.
I value your videos and your logical approach to dialing in your tone. I'm building a dedicated single coil guitar with a t-style bridge pickup and middle/neck Lollar BLONDES. i play through A 1961 Fender Showman with an added PPIV mv and british 12" speakers. I'd appreciate your opinions (pros and cons) on treble bleed circuits and, aftermarket Tele bridges/saddles. What LOLLAR Tele bridge p'ups do you think would pair well with the Blonde p'ups. I play mostly blues, Americana and classic rock. Thank you for your time. All the best in 2020!
Thanks so much! Treble bleed circuits are great. The only con that comes to mind is sometimes the cap can argue with vintage Fuzz pedals. There are a ton of great builders out there when it comes to bridges for Telecasters go I'm partial to Wilkinson bridges but the Callaham stuff is nice too. The majority of my Tele guitars have brass saddles but I'm not that picky about it. Not sure about the Lollar Tele bridge pickup. Maybe reach out to Lollar and hear what they think?
thanks Tubbs :)
I have a Fender Strat and I put Andy Timmon's favorite hummbucking pick-up in the bridge position - it's the one that's single coil size and has two blades. Love that pick-up. I also have a Tom Anderson Strat style guitar that has a full hummbucker in the bridge position that can be split. The neck and middle pick-ups on that guitar are stacked hummbuckers that I usually play split (single coil). It's amazing how many different tones I get out of those pick-ups and they all sound amazing. I rarely crank my volume all the way up and when I do, it's only for the bridge position pick-up (with rare exception). I usually play with the volume knob around 7 and my Mission active volume pedal (with a buffer) around the half-way point. As for my tone knobs, I usually have them around 5-7 depending on the song or sound I'm going for. I have the output of my amp up to about the 2:00 position (maybe a bit higher and the gain on at 9:00 on the clean channel (which I use about 98% of the time and get whatever tones I want with my pedals), my rhythm channel is at about 11:00, and my lead at 12:00. I typically use one OD pedal at a time but I will use a compressor pedal in conjunction with my lower gain overdrives (BB Pre-amp and OCD) I also use the BB and OCD together - what a great blues tone with the neck pick-up. I love the tones you get on every vid I watch - while I do think that a lot of the tone is in the gear, I also think a fair amount is in the player's hands and his / her technique and you have that in spades. Keep it up and keep the vids coming. If you are ever in SLC for a gig / concert, I'd love to come and see you. I'm seeing Eric Johnson on Friday night for my 3rd time. Can't wait.
Thanks so much!! I'm going to try and catch EJ in March here in Nashville.
Dam you sound great
I’m so inspired to practice
Hope you don’t mind I I learn all the licks you are dropping here
Thanks for the inspiration
You're very kind! Thanks!
When I dial a lead sound in a HSS should I be tweaking for the bridge or neck pickup? Epic playing Shawn keep it up 👍
I tend to lean toward the neck pickup and then adjust or balance from there. Thanks!
That LSL always sounds killer. I’m gonna have to get a set of those Lollar DBs. My main Strat Fender AM Prof. With Suhr V60LP(N) V60(M)Dimarzio FT1 bridge never lets me down. I wonder how the DBs compare to Suhrs? Does Shawn find that the methods in this video apply to every single coil Strat style guitar?
I've got a guitar with Suhr ML standard single coils and they're similar to the Lollars but I still prefer Lollars. The methods in this video would really apply to any strat style guitar.
Shawn Tubbs Thanks Shawn!
Sensational playing and really... that's as sweet as can be! Also curious about the pick you use?
Thanks, Chris! I use Fender Heavy Picks.
Another awesome demo Commander! You are such an inspiration to me. I have a question not related to this video Shawn. I have a Suhr strat style guitar with 3 Mike Landau single coils. I noticed that you have a Suhr with a humbucker in the bridge position. I'm thinking of putting a humbucker in mine and I'm wondering what pickup you are using in that bridge position? Thanks for all your help Shawn!
Check out his other video comparing his strats. I think he mentions the bridge pickup in his Suhr is an SSV.
@@theKamih Thanks Guillaume! I'll take a look at that video.
An amp and pedal, ‘if they’re dialed right’...I’d love to see you talk about that. Thanks.
And HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YA!!
Amazing playing and tone Shawn! Do you have any experience with the Lollar Blackface pickups? Are they any good?
Thanks very much, I don't have any experience with Lollar black face pickups. I bought the Dirty Blonde set that I have based on what I read on the Lollar site and they delivered.
Hey man new subscriber here. I like what I hear. I like strats but teles and single cuts are my fave. The p90 is the King of pickups though!
Thanks so much for subscribing Wade!
Hey Shawn, sorry if this was asked before but do you have a treble bleed circuit on the volume pot? Thanks for the tone tip.
There's no treble bleed on the LSL. Thanks for watching!
Hey, love your vids! Do you use treble bleeds in your guitars?
Thanks so much! Some of my guitars have treble bleed circuits on them but they were built that way from the factory. If my guitars have them in stock format, I don't remove them and if they don't, I don't have one installed.
How do you balance the middle pickups on a strat with the others (as in pickup height is it dropped?)Do you use the front two pickups often?
I try to just listen to the guitar. In general, I keep my neck and middle pickups a bit lower than the bridge.
Are there certain frequencies you’re listening for when you set it up or a balance between clarity and bass response?
Great video.
Would love to see this done on an HSS, ES style and LP with series/parallel with out of phase switch
thnx for all the great content shawn and happy new year! question: bought a morgan sw 22 (non reverb) a couple months ago and after much tweaking and running various pedals into it as well as a boss waza tae (which i returned--great tool--me not need) i'm realizing it sounds amazing with single coils and kinda hard-edged and well, just not as good with humbuckers...am i imagining things? do i simply not know what i'm doing? did joe morgan voice it this way? i may send him a text--he replied to me a couple times back when i was looking at his amps but thought i'd ask you. anyhow, thanks for everything. cheers
I haven't played that amp in particular. That's a 6v6 powered amp correct? Some amps truly do respond better to single-coil pickups over humbuckers. It would be interesting to hear what Joe thinks.
Shawn Tubbs thnx-yeah 6v6’s...ill reach out to him and if he responds ill hit u back.
happy new year!