what he doesn't talk about here (but you should be able to notice) is that JB's picking attack changes with every style and tone change as well. Your fingers play an important role in tone also. good video
I watched this video so many times, and come back to it and still watch it. I love my Les Paul's. Even though I can't play nearly as good as Joe, this demonstration shows how much you can get out of a guitar without any toys on the floor.
Bill Ducas Exactly, and that is the entire point of the video. It’s all about learning the instrument and amp. It doesn’t take expensive equipment to get a difference in the sound by moving the knobs on the guitar, they all work, some sound different than others but they still work. Picking location and attack also affect the sound. Cheap tube amps don’t sound like expensive ones but they still distort when turned up. Used off-brand old amps often are surprisingly good sounding. Either way it’s about learning the sounds available. People want instant gratification and don’t want to do the work so they buy pedals, and Bonamassa is just trying to get them to think first and then experiment. Looking at other comments to the video it’s obvious too many missed the point and want to make excuses why it wouldn’t work for them. The majority of the time I don’t use pedals, it’s just me and the guitar and the amp. It’s much more fun.
And this is somehow a new idea or some kind of realization one day strumming your mucky, flat sounding Gibson? Gibson, really like the SG when used by Derek Trucks, and thosr.old southern rock guys, Marshall Tucker, Alman Brother and Skynyrd had no option, a.strat wont work for them. But for everyone else, there's something better than a Les Paul for you.
Thank you very much Joe Bonamassa for pointing out that guitars have more than two positions on the volume and tone controls. You can actually play all night and never change channels or hit an overdrive pedal with a good guitar and (in my opinion) tube amp. For many years I did not know this is how the guitar could actually work. Now it is so nice to work a job and not have to do the (pedal) dance. Everything that I needed was right in my hands all that time. Thank you again Joe.
No really into Joe Bonamassa's music too much, but I will say he is so old school in his tried and true methods and it is nice to see him share that information with a younger generation that watches youtube. I see him on a lot of "virtual" magazines doing stuff like this. It is just cool. I dig it.
He is old school, true. But it's not like he is always a "straight into the amp" kinda guy. Idk what his current rig looks like but I've seen him with massive pedal boards in the past. He just likes to experiment a lot.
I like him a lot. He has a humbleness that is inviting. It makes me want to hear what he has to say and definitely makes me want to listen to him play.
AUGUST 2021 and still nothing beats this video of Joe Bonamassa teaching us young guitarists that it depends on the guitar player and not on pricey effects pedals and amps. Yeah his guitar is pricey but very few can make those guitar tones using just the guitar and amp. 👌
Somebody should show this video to all the people,who say:''I don't need a tone knob'' or ''One pickup in the bridge is enough''. And this works also with other type of guitars,like PRS,ESP,MusicMan,Jackson etc.You can get even more tones out,if you mess around with the coil-splitting.Very usefull video.
Coil splitting is nice, then you can get close to Tele and Strat tones with a Les Paul. I love Jimmy Page’s wiring mod (the one utilizing the push/pull tone and volume pots more so than the one hidden under one of his Les Paul’s pickguard), it’s “‘50s wiring” so distortion cleans up as you roll the volume back plus you can put the pickups out of phase or activate them both at the same time in series in addition to coil splitting.
I jam with a friend who's wife's picky about what gets set on furniture... I had set down my AAAA maple flame topped LP on the couch for a moment while we stepped outside for him to have a smoke, when we came back my LP was leaning against a brick fireplace. AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!! Fortunately no scratches, but I was none too pleased. Have since learned she feels only peoples bottoms should go in furniture. I guess I wasn't supposed to put furniture in furniture. LOL!!
That's kinda like someone sittin' on a man's Harley without askin' - could, in some environs, result in immediate need of medical attention ---- P.S. Would probably be my last time there --- Snortin' Morton
I just now learned about using the volume and tone knobs on my guitar and I play a tele. It's really brought alot of colour and tone in my playing and I'm primarily a rhythm guitar player. I would use an overdrive pedal to boost the signal but I use the volume and tone knobs to add grit to a rock song or turn down to clean up to play a mid tempo or slow song. Really makes a difference than spend a lot of money on pedals IMO.
And that's what makes a good guitar player a good guitar player. Being able to play with and without pedals and understanding how to get a variety of tones out of your instrument. For the most part the Strat works the same exact way. Love Goldtops too!! Right on Joe!!
Tom Darian Sorry for the late reply. The amp is a Lazy J20 and very loud for the setting Joe is using the amp in, thereby leading me to believe the amp is attenuated. Plus I can hear break up which indicates the amp has the attenuation option; either that or Joe has very strong ears. Most Lazy J20's I have seen come with the attenuation mod by Jesse. An amazing and versatile amp, especially with the built in attenuation.
The man talks sense, he's been a big influence of mine since my early playing days in 2006/7. I've been listening to him ever since and is my No.1 favourite guitarist of all time.
Good tip Joe! The volume and tone knobs are considered the first special effects before there were any guitar pedals. I tried a Fender Stratocaster with some 69 pickups. I changed the tone by using the pickup selector. On every pickup selection, I played a swing slow blues riff and each one had a different tone. One sounded good and another became my favorite. They were all good in tone anyway. Joe, you made your point. Peace, Flood!
Thanks for this great lesson, Joe. I've had a Les Paul for almost 30 years and I've basically just turned all the knobs on the guitar all the way up until now.
Wonderful video, Joe. I always laugh to myself and shake my head when I go into a music store and find all the guitars' volume and tone knobs pushed to 10. I find in my Les Pauls, especially the Collector's Choices, right around 6-7 on volume and 7-8 on tone is my preference. Of course, it took me 28 years of playing to figure this out. You just saved thousands of players a lot of trial and error.
Would love to see Joe do videos like this using like a Epi Studio & some cheaper amp, then demonstrate the same ideas & just see if the same can be said. Would be interesting to say the least
It's funny that he would mention Ritchie Blackmore. Even though Ritchie plays a Stratocaster, he's an absolute master of coaxing every ounce of tone out of it just by using the controls on the guitar.
I'm good with the Joe Bonamassa signature model I just received, It's a VOS replica of his main '59 "Skinnerburst". I've never owned a Les Paul before and I've never played a guitar with such usable tone controls. And the volume controls are super dynamic because of the high output of the pickups.
Its amazing how he can get his tones without pedals. I love the raw sound of the guitar(although i do love kicking on my fuzz and distortion now and then :p)
Very impressive bit of playing - the country at the end was very nicely played. Joe has his fast picking very clean - I think that the Jazz III plectrums do help in the attack since to play that fast you can really only be gliding over the string - notwithstanding the immense talent and many many hours of hard work! I think that the variations in the sound he achieves are really only possible with the amp volume pretty loud. Still, they are impressive tones through the Lazy J!
Thanks Joe! I was a drummer for a long time and of all the guitarists I've played with over the years only two knew what those round things on the guitar were there for! 👍😎
He's not describing what hes doing with his amp volume. It is cranked up to overdrive, and he is using the volume knob to lower the amount of overdrive. Example: For clean country licks he turns volume down.
@@mason8971 because the volume knob on the guitar affects the signal going into the preamp section (which does most of the dirtying bit) and drives it harder. The power amp section (which does most of the loudening bit) isn't distorted as hard, and the volume doesn't change too much. Of course, this depends on the amp.
Shehran Azim exactly. It’s a Lazy J J20, I think. Smaller wattage tube amps typically distort quicker than bigger wattage ones. You can use your volume knob as an overdrive control by just giving the amp more signal, assuming you have the amp set up that way.
Because Joe is being modest here, the true difference is that he is a consummate player with fingers like magic because he has practiced practiced and then practiced some more. As peter green told me back in the 60s " a lot is in the hands and fingers". Such a brilliant demo though Joe. Thank you.
Stephen Morgan anyone who says that has zero experience with Les Pauls or Gibsons for that matter, or even with manipulating their guitar’s controls to influence their sound. Of course if you run any guitar through loads of pedals and never touch the controls on the guitar itself it is going to be a one-trick pony. Players these days have gotten accustomed to tap dancing on stomp boxes rather than manipulating their tone with their guitar’s knobs the way literally EVERY great player did in the old days, which gives you infinitely better control over your instrument.
Hey Joe, thanks for the tone tips. You just saved me a trip to these Guitar Center. I was about to turn in my satin black Gibson Les Paul trad for a Fender, since I'm left handed and on a tight budget.
Good job. Very informative and quite amazing what's already in the LP without the need for anything else. It never ceases to amaze me how good a guitar it is and how versatile. Thanks for the info.
Let me explain what Joe's doing behind the scenes here... I play a PRS through a Fender Blues Jr Tweed amp, which is a very similar setup to what he has going on here. Tweed amps are known for being extra "gainy" than their non-tweed counterparts. What he's doing is cranking the gain and tone on the amp, then pulling back the gain/tone using the knobs on his guitar. Essentially he's just "swapping" tone control from his amp to his guitar by blasting the amp and "choking" the signal from his guitar. I actually use this technique often. So if you want a mellow/clean tone, you just roll back on the volume/tone knobs on your guitar and it "holds back" signal going into your cranked amp. When you want to move into a lead tone, you roll the volume/tone knobs forward and now you're in lead territory with the gainy sound. Then of course there's everything in between depending on what you're trying to achieve for a particular riff. Of course it helps to be actually GOOD at the guitar...
Do you know If he has treble bleed on his guitar? Bucause when he Rolls back the volume knob the clean sound is very briliant/ bright. In fact he is getting a very bright clean sound with his Gibson, which I assume is mostly because of the amp, is it??
@@matheusleao2035 It's hard to pin-point, but in my experience, it only takes a little volume-knob roll off to clean up a signal into an overdriven amp. I don't lose too much tone either, but my tone usually starts out a bit darker, anyway. I know Fender tweed amps are more mid-boosty and have rolled off trebles compared to their blackface counterparts, so it does make for an interesting observation that he retains his highs.
@@mott1992 I see. I Said that because I play my LP through a Laney LC50, and I totaly loose highs when I roll back my volume knob, even in a clean config. So That's why I assume he has treble bleed on his Gibson.
Well yeah but still he’s just playing the guitar through the amp and using the volume and tone controls on the guitar. that’s a good place to start kids.
Matheus Leão I have some guitars w treble bleed circuits and some without. What I learned is that the treble bleed and “normal” wiring are almost indistinguishable when an amp is in its sweet spot. That being said, if you’re playing at bedroom levels and pushing the preamp/gain on your amp for grit with the master/level down, treble bleed is more necessary.
John 5 cracks me up the most. Dudes outfits would throw most people off. But he could walk into any country bar. Play for 5 mins and have them country boys buying him a beer in no time LOL.
A Les Paul is basically a slab Tele, it just has different pickups and a fixed neck. Listen to very early Les Pauls into a clean amp and they were bright and twangy. Early PAFs were brighter than the current sound from Gibson. A Tele can sound amazingly ballsy too if plugged into a Marshall or a tweed amp that’s cranked.
not a surprise really. Jerry Reed played a LP just as often as he played a Tele and got basically the same tone from both. Jimmy Page played a Tele on the first Zeppelin album and got the same tone that he did from a LP.
Very very well done ... the ONLY thing that really should be mentioned is that to get all these different sounds (knob tweaks) to sound truly good ... You need one hell of a great guitar. Not every guitar can reproduce such great sounds (BTW ... those underwound hums sound really, really good .. Not to mention that JB is a total MO FO and makes it look soooo easy .... :)
What he didn't talk about on the video was the wiring on the les paul. On a regular stock one if you lower the volume knob you won't get that clear sound
Great playing and sound advice. I only recently discovered the tone and volume knobs on my LP after 30+ years of playing. Another obvious but often neglected thing to remember is playing dynamics. Pick hard and it gets louder and more distorted: back off a bit and it cleans up. And picking at the bridge gives more treble than picking at the neck. Picking dynamics mean you can leave all the knobs on ten but still get variety!
Maybe it's worth mentioning that the volume knob is usable only when a treble bleed mod has been made and/or the circuitry components are all prime quality?
This video demo is what made me finally fall in love with P.A.F. pickups (not that I ever disliked them before) and I'm currently working on a Les Paul guitar project that will have P.A.F. style pickups by Seymour Duncan.
Ladies and gents, if you want to buy the actual guitar Joe is using in this video, it was kindly loaned to us by Peach Guitars on the day of the shoot and you can get it here: www.peachguitars.com/guitars/electric-guitars/gibson-collectors-choice-12-1957-les-paul-goldtop.htm
***** I am using Cort G 254 which is like 300 euros and it's H-S-S configuration (5-way switch) with only one tone and only one volume knob, but I still can get lots and lots of different sounds while plugging only in amp. There is a guitar player called Radomir Mihajlovic Tocak, his gear is based only on Fender Strat and Marshall JCM 800, but the kind of tones that guy gets out of that rig is sick. Check him out watch?v=DEUv0J6WV1s watch?v=XCTuUDE-8FI
My 2000 murphy custom authentic ,Murphy Aged crushes this.Tom told me it was the 1st year he aged gold tops and he did everything. Mine has a Brazilian board,which is 1 of 3 In 2000.Joe is a monster man.
There are 2 things that get in the way of me achieving this kind of effect - 1) it does seem to depend on having an amp that suits the venue and band, insofar as you can only get the lead tones with the volume wide open if the amp is being pushed significantly - unless you have a booster. This is obviously not always the case - Joe mentions at the end that it can still be done with a powerful Marshall but I'd be interested if he could elaborate on how you do it without your solo being too loud. 2) I think it takes a lot of practice to quickly and accurately adjust the volume knob in different places throughout a song!
It does take practice but came natural for me over time. I'd suggest practicing with the same amp so that you can get used to how it responds to knob adjustments. Each amp responds uniquely. As far as the amp goes, I use non-master volume amps. These are often (usually?) more sensitive to guitar control adjustments. And regarding volume, I have to use an attenuator most the time to control the volume of the amp.
It's nice to have nice equipment :-) and he definitely has more money than you and me put together, but ...you can do this with an Epiphone LP and a good small tube amp. No doubt.
Yeah. The comment is not as bitter as it may sound. I certainly don't begrudge Joe the things that I know he has worked hard for and deserves. You're right. I have some guitars and other gear that is better than stuff that costs twice as much.
dETROITfUNK It in no way takes expensive or vintage gear to get the tonal variations he demonstrated in the video. Yes, the quality of the tone might not compare, but that's not the point of the demo. The point is using the controls on the guitar to get a variety of tones. Roll off the tone knob: woman tone. Roll back the volume, the grit cleans up. Switch pickups, it gets brighter or darker. It all works pretty much in the same way. It's as much about the amp as it is the guitar. And what he didn't mention is that it takes setting up the amp to respond in that way -- right on the edge of breaking up. People love that cheap little 5 watt Epiphone head for this very reason -- it sounds good at a volume that's tolerable at a price that won't break the bank. Yeah, some amps sound better than others, but it is a marketing myth that only if one buys expensive gear will they sound good. I'm quite sure Bonamassa could replicate this demo with a Cort and a Valve Junior, and so could people whose budgets limit their choices to a Cort and a Valve Junior. So take heart: there's hope for the blues yet :-)
***** I have a gibson les paul, epiphone les paul, some bc rich's. my gibson has the best tonal range, but the epi is ok at it, it has emg's so it's not really built for it. The volume pots on my b.c rich's are like on/off switches. Really isn't hard to tell the difference between pots. some nice cts 500k pots would improve the bc rich's, but it's a metal guitar so I only use it for that anyway.
That axe is frikking expensive. Of course u can get so many tones outta there by just tweaking the knobs even just a lil bit... And of course there's Joe. But watch his playing carefully and you will see the attack make a big difference. Anyway all I'm saying that it takes a relative seasoned player to get tones like that :-)
You can do the same thing on a Made in Mexico Telecaster used for $275. It will sound like you playing a Telecaster rather than Joe Bonamassa playing a LP, but the principles he's showing work just the same.
no way, you got it all wrong. any beginner can sit down and get those tones right away. it's got nothing to do with technique or any of that. babies can do it. no for real, stop laughin'. go get a random baby and see for yourself. thy're tone junkies. everybody knows that.
It's also the relationship between the guitar and an amp (tube or SS). I tend to notice tube amps are more reactive to certain pickups and player dynamics. Rolling the volume off makes it clean up quite well while running it wide open drives the amp hard. When you play through a solid state or one of those cheaper computer units, when you turn the volume down...well the volume just goes down but it's still distorted lol.
Wow.. I just learned more about tone, than in all the other guitar vids I've watched. (bows..) Thank you, Master Bonamassa. I shall forever be in your debt. MachOverspeed
Joe uses a fender 59 bassman , a 50s twin , a 50s tremolex , but he also has a signature Marshall amp . On stage he uses a Marshall and a Fender . This man has signature cables , picks , amps , guitar , pedals etc. I wouldn't doubt if he had signature toilet paper lol so on this tutorial I didn't see what amp but its probably a 15 , 40 or 65 watt Fender in beige tolex cover .
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
what he doesn't talk about here (but you should be able to notice) is that JB's picking attack changes with every style and tone change as well. Your fingers play an important role in tone also. good video
Absolutely, whether you use just fingers, a pic, or a combination of both (my preference or I end up losing the pic). So much flexibility!
obviously he used his thumb for wes tone
Tone is ALL in your hands
@@mr.smithgnrsmith7808 no lol
Good point, i agree.
I watched this video so many times, and come back to it and still watch it. I love my Les Paul's. Even though I can't play nearly as good as Joe, this demonstration shows how much you can get out of a guitar without any toys on the floor.
Bill Ducas Exactly, and that is the entire point of the video. It’s all about learning the instrument and amp. It doesn’t take expensive equipment to get a difference in the sound by moving the knobs on the guitar, they all work, some sound different than others but they still work. Picking location and attack also affect the sound.
Cheap tube amps don’t sound like expensive ones but they still distort when turned up. Used off-brand old amps often are surprisingly good sounding. Either way it’s about learning the sounds available.
People want instant gratification and don’t want to do the work so they buy pedals, and Bonamassa is just trying to get them to think first and then experiment. Looking at other comments to the video it’s obvious too many missed the point and want to make excuses why it wouldn’t work for them.
The majority of the time I don’t use pedals, it’s just me and the guitar and the amp. It’s much more fun.
And this is somehow a new idea or some kind of realization one day strumming your mucky, flat sounding Gibson? Gibson, really like the SG when used by Derek Trucks, and thosr.old southern rock guys, Marshall Tucker, Alman Brother and Skynyrd had no option, a.strat wont work for them. But for everyone else, there's something better than a Les Paul for you.
@@8sigregyou do realize that Joe is playing a $12,000 les Paul in this video right?
Thank you very much Joe Bonamassa for pointing out that guitars have more than two positions on the volume and tone controls. You can actually play all night and never change channels or hit an overdrive pedal with a good guitar and (in my opinion) tube amp. For many years I did not know this is how the guitar could actually work. Now it is so nice to work a job and not have to do the (pedal) dance. Everything that I needed was right in my hands all that time. Thank you again Joe.
210 seconds. The best review ever. Pure wisdom
it helps to be a beast on guitar, too.
Michael Guido and an expensive reverb pedal which he fails to mention 😳
Michael Guido ok guido
@@sijoy1969 You don't need a reverb pedal in a room like that.
simon joint thats a channel switcher, you can tell its natural reverb since his voice is reverberated
Anyone can be a beast on guitar, just gotta devote yourself and be consistent
I have really grown to like him. He’s a smart guy that loves playing. He knows his shit
So simple, yet remarkable tip for all players. Gotta like that natural approach from Joe.
No really into Joe Bonamassa's music too much, but I will say he is so old school in his tried and true methods and it is nice to see him share that information with a younger generation that watches youtube. I see him on a lot of "virtual" magazines doing stuff like this. It is just cool. I dig it.
same. i feel like he has so much admiration for the players before him its cool to watch him go
The sound of a LP : tribute to Gary Moore ruclips.net/video/WgbFKGNfYR0/видео.html
He is old school, true. But it's not like he is always a "straight into the amp" kinda guy. Idk what his current rig looks like but I've seen him with massive pedal boards in the past. He just likes to experiment a lot.
I like him a lot. He has a humbleness that is inviting. It makes me want to hear what he has to say and definitely makes me want to listen to him play.
AUGUST 2021 and still nothing beats this video of Joe Bonamassa teaching us young guitarists that it depends on the guitar player and not on pricey effects pedals and amps. Yeah his guitar is pricey but very few can make those guitar tones using just the guitar and amp. 👌
He is playing both a very pricey amp and guitar. It’s pedals that are cheap.
I love Joe’s passion and how active he is in sharing his deep expertise!
One of the best salesmen in the world. Coming from me (used to sell vacuum cleaners) is a BIG compliment!
Yeah man, Joe’s the real deal
Joe is from my home town Utica ny..my dad played with his dad back in the day..there are some phenomenal players from this area..kudos joe..
One of the best videos I've seen. The country sounds were brilliant. Joe Bonamassa is a top man and great guitar player.
Agreed...I didn't know a LP could sound so country!
@@danhall716 he can play all genre's including metal. he is seriously an impressive player.
Somebody should show this video to all the people,who say:''I don't need a tone knob'' or ''One pickup in the bridge is enough''. And this works also with other type of guitars,like PRS,ESP,MusicMan,Jackson etc.You can get even more tones out,if you mess around with the coil-splitting.Very usefull video.
Coil splitting is nice, then you can get close to Tele and Strat tones with a Les Paul. I love Jimmy Page’s wiring mod (the one utilizing the push/pull tone and volume pots more so than the one hidden under one of his Les Paul’s pickguard), it’s “‘50s wiring” so distortion cleans up as you roll the volume back plus you can put the pickups out of phase or activate them both at the same time in series in addition to coil splitting.
Joe: Stop spending all your money on guitars and buy some furniture! lol!!!!!!!
Nick V Empty room - Natural reverb
+Nick V Technically, guitars are a furniture. :)
I jam with a friend who's wife's picky about what gets set on furniture... I had set down my AAAA maple flame topped LP on the couch for a moment while we stepped outside for him to have a smoke, when we came back my LP was leaning against a brick fireplace. AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!! Fortunately no scratches, but I was none too pleased. Have since learned she feels only peoples bottoms should go in furniture. I guess I wasn't supposed to put furniture in furniture. LOL!!
That's kinda like someone sittin' on a man's Harley without askin' - could, in some environs, result in immediate need of medical attention ---- P.S. Would probably be my last time there --- Snortin' Morton
+Keith Murray I woulda leaned her somewhere else if she'd done that to any guitar of mine! LOL
Joe, When someone of your status in the music business takes time to bring us less gifted pickers, it's a grand day! I am grateful to you, maestro.
You didn't know about your guitar's tone knobs?
The Tweed 57 Deluxe is incredible, dynamic, rich , complexe. Love it !!
I just now learned about using the volume and tone knobs on my guitar and I play a tele. It's really brought alot of colour and tone in my playing and I'm primarily a rhythm guitar player. I would use an overdrive pedal to boost the signal but I use the volume and tone knobs to add grit to a rock song or turn down to clean up to play a mid tempo or slow song. Really makes a difference than spend a lot of money on pedals IMO.
That's the Best Guitar review I've seen on the net in a long time ..
And that's what makes a good guitar player a good guitar player. Being able to play with and without pedals and understanding how to get a variety of tones out of your instrument. For the most part the Strat works the same exact way. Love Goldtops too!! Right on Joe!!
Bonamassa is not a human... he is more than a guitar player, it's unbelievable How he makes it sound... very impressive tone.
+Luca Sabattini ohh you must be kid... lol
Tom Darian Sorry for the late reply. The amp is a Lazy J20 and very loud for the setting Joe is using the amp in, thereby leading me to believe the amp is attenuated. Plus I can hear break up which indicates the amp has the attenuation option; either that or Joe has very strong ears. Most Lazy J20's I have seen come with the attenuation mod by Jesse. An amazing and versatile amp, especially with the built in attenuation.
The man talks sense, he's been a big influence of mine since my early playing days in 2006/7. I've been listening to him ever since and is my No.1 favourite guitarist of all time.
Watch his picking hand in this video. It's constantly changing, there is so much more to this playing than having a versatile guitar
I would live in that room.
Nano B that's natural church reverb damn
Thanks for a great video!
And a never-aging, horny, Bettie Page type waitress bringing me super dry Arthur Bach Martinis every 15 minutes.
"The acoustics in here are....aaaammaaazinnggg"
Good tip Joe! The volume and tone knobs are considered the first special effects before there were any guitar pedals. I tried a Fender Stratocaster with some 69 pickups. I changed the tone by using the pickup selector. On every pickup selection, I played a swing slow blues riff and each one had a different tone. One sounded good and another became my favorite. They were all good in tone anyway. Joe, you made your point. Peace, Flood!
engage the knob
that's what I tell my girlfriend
That´s what she said.
Thanks for this great lesson, Joe. I've had a Les Paul for almost 30 years and I've basically just turned all the knobs on the guitar all the way up until now.
I've always loved a Les, its just a beautiful shape, beautiful sound, its a looker! and a solid guitar,
with a great tone
He's got some sick country chops and blues chops. Real versatile player
Wonderful video, Joe. I always laugh to myself and shake my head when I go into a music store and find all the guitars' volume and tone knobs pushed to 10. I find in my Les Pauls, especially the Collector's Choices, right around 6-7 on volume and 7-8 on tone is my preference. Of course, it took me 28 years of playing to figure this out. You just saved thousands of players a lot of trial and error.
Absolutely.. there are ten measured positions on them FOR A REASON! LOL!
This is one of my favorite Les Paul Tone videos on YT. ❤️❤️❤️
Would love to see Joe do videos like this using like a Epi Studio & some cheaper amp, then demonstrate the same ideas & just see if the same can be said. Would be interesting to say the least
now this guy is my hero, i'm just in awe and in love with how much he masters the guitar, and not just the playing part
*This is the best guitar lesson of all time!*
You can only smile when you see a demo like that. Classy Joe
It also helps if you have a whole lick/player style encyclopedia in your head.
... and that it transfers to your fingers effortlessley :-P
What of the best instructional videos on how to use a guitar and get different sounds.
It's funny that he would mention Ritchie Blackmore. Even though Ritchie plays a Stratocaster, he's an absolute master of coaxing every ounce of tone out of it just by using the controls on the guitar.
I'm good with the Joe Bonamassa signature model I just received, It's a VOS replica of his main '59 "Skinnerburst". I've never owned a Les Paul before and I've never played a guitar with such usable tone controls. And the volume controls are super dynamic because of the high output of the pickups.
Its amazing how he can get his tones without pedals. I love the raw sound of the guitar(although i do love kicking on my fuzz and distortion now and then :p)
Not amazing. A great guitar + a great amp + a great player = great music
this is an example of "50s wiring" in a les paul.
very very versatile and great job Joe.
very helpful video. I'm sure that even my epiphone les paul standard would sound great with the same test. it's not about the gear, but the player...
Erik Braga yeah, gear can only get you so far, the player has to go the rest of the way
Very impressive bit of playing - the country at the end was very nicely played. Joe has his fast picking very clean - I think that the Jazz III plectrums do help in the attack since to play that fast you can really only be gliding over the string - notwithstanding the immense talent and many many hours of hard work! I think that the variations in the sound he achieves are really only possible with the amp volume pretty loud. Still, they are impressive tones through the Lazy J!
3:01 ...How the heck did he do that...
Practise his ass off, all day, every day, for years
Its actually not as hard as it looks with hammer ons and pulloffs
@@JohnWilliamsFromBluff many many years I’d know it’s been many years for me and I still can’t master it. Les Paul kills me ☺️
Thanks Joe! I was a drummer for a long time and of all the guitarists I've played with over the years only two knew what those round things on the guitar were there for! 👍😎
You know dude...no matter which pick-up, volume, or tone knob you turn...it still sounds like Joe Bonamassa......That's a compliment by the way
Single greatest guitarlesson on youtube!
He's not describing what hes doing with his amp volume. It is cranked up to overdrive, and he is using the volume knob to lower the amount of overdrive.
Example: For clean country licks he turns volume down.
Why does the output volume of the amp not change when he dials down his volume?
Mason Pretty sure you would here the volume difference in the room but the volume will be equalised by the software before we hear it here on RUclips
@@mason8971 because the volume knob on the guitar affects the signal going into the preamp section (which does most of the dirtying bit) and drives it harder. The power amp section (which does most of the loudening bit) isn't distorted as hard, and the volume doesn't change too much.
Of course, this depends on the amp.
Jonny E can you not see which way he’s turning which knob? It’s not hard to follow
Shehran Azim exactly. It’s a Lazy J J20, I think. Smaller wattage tube amps typically distort quicker than bigger wattage ones. You can use your volume knob as an overdrive control by just giving the amp more signal, assuming you have the amp set up that way.
Because Joe is being modest here, the true difference is that he is a consummate player with fingers like magic because he has practiced practiced and then practiced some more.
As peter green told me back in the 60s " a lot is in the hands and fingers".
Such a brilliant demo though Joe. Thank you.
Never let it be said again, "Les Paul's have only one great sound".
Stephen Morgan anyone who says that has zero experience with Les Pauls or Gibsons for that matter, or even with manipulating their guitar’s controls to influence their sound. Of course if you run any guitar through loads of pedals and never touch the controls on the guitar itself it is going to be a one-trick pony. Players these days have gotten accustomed to tap dancing on stomp boxes rather than manipulating their tone with their guitar’s knobs the way literally EVERY great player did in the old days, which gives you infinitely better control over your instrument.
LPs are being played in literally all genres of music.
@@Corvette.Ronnie Finally. The word "literally" being used correctly on an internet comment section.
Did you know the Les Paul was originally supposed to be a jazz guitar? That's how versatile it is.
@@Dagger_323 i don't own a Gibson or epiphone but I have played them and I completely agree
Hey Joe, thanks for the tone tips. You just saved me a trip to these Guitar Center. I was about to turn in my satin black Gibson Les Paul trad for a Fender, since I'm left handed and on a tight budget.
And of course have a cranked tweed without any worries about volume
Good job. Very informative and quite amazing what's already in the LP without the need for anything else. It never ceases to amaze me how good a guitar it is and how versatile. Thanks for the info.
Seems every guitar is based off a Gibson, or fender platform
Les Paul in my eyes is a telecaster on steroids lol
Let me explain what Joe's doing behind the scenes here...
I play a PRS through a Fender Blues Jr Tweed amp, which is a very similar setup to what he has going on here. Tweed amps are known for being extra "gainy" than their non-tweed counterparts. What he's doing is cranking the gain and tone on the amp, then pulling back the gain/tone using the knobs on his guitar. Essentially he's just "swapping" tone control from his amp to his guitar by blasting the amp and "choking" the signal from his guitar.
I actually use this technique often. So if you want a mellow/clean tone, you just roll back on the volume/tone knobs on your guitar and it "holds back" signal going into your cranked amp. When you want to move into a lead tone, you roll the volume/tone knobs forward and now you're in lead territory with the gainy sound. Then of course there's everything in between depending on what you're trying to achieve for a particular riff. Of course it helps to be actually GOOD at the guitar...
Do you know If he has treble bleed on his guitar? Bucause when he Rolls back the volume knob the clean sound is very briliant/ bright. In fact he is getting a very bright clean sound with his Gibson, which I assume is mostly because of the amp, is it??
@@matheusleao2035 It's hard to pin-point, but in my experience, it only takes a little volume-knob roll off to clean up a signal into an overdriven amp. I don't lose too much tone either, but my tone usually starts out a bit darker, anyway. I know Fender tweed amps are more mid-boosty and have rolled off trebles compared to their blackface counterparts, so it does make for an interesting observation that he retains his highs.
@@mott1992 I see. I Said that because I play my LP through a Laney LC50, and I totaly loose highs when I roll back my volume knob, even in a clean config. So That's why I assume he has treble bleed on his Gibson.
Well yeah but still he’s just playing the guitar through the amp and using the volume and tone controls on the guitar. that’s a good place to start kids.
Matheus Leão I have some guitars w treble bleed circuits and some without. What I learned is that the treble bleed and “normal” wiring are almost indistinguishable when an amp is in its sweet spot. That being said, if you’re playing at bedroom levels and pushing the preamp/gain on your amp for grit with the master/level down, treble bleed is more necessary.
No one showed us those simple tricks, years ago. Greeeet stuff, JB!
He can play country music on it like it was a Telecaster.
John 5 cracks me up the most. Dudes outfits would throw most people off. But he could walk into any country bar. Play for 5 mins and have them country boys buying him a beer in no time LOL.
A Les Paul is basically a slab Tele, it just has different pickups and a fixed neck. Listen to very early Les Pauls into a clean amp and they were bright and twangy. Early PAFs were brighter than the current sound from Gibson. A Tele can sound amazingly ballsy too if plugged into a Marshall or a tweed amp that’s cranked.
Joe did learn from Danny Gatton as a kid, but whatever...
not a surprise really. Jerry Reed played a LP just as often as he played a Tele and got basically the same tone from both. Jimmy Page played a Tele on the first Zeppelin album and got the same tone that he did from a LP.
To me it sounds warmer, the tele has a very distinct voice even playing this same lick imo...
One of the greatest guitar tone advices
"...that you bought from Ritchie Blackmore." The guy's name is said with respect from all corners of the guitar universe.
Such a great master at guitar paying. Beyond greatness, no words can describe.
Very very well done ... the ONLY thing that really should be mentioned is that to get all these different sounds (knob tweaks) to sound truly good ... You need one hell of a great guitar. Not every guitar can reproduce such great sounds (BTW ... those underwound hums sound really, really good .. Not to mention that JB is a total MO FO and makes it look soooo easy .... :)
I'm not a Gibson fan... but all the other brands have volume, tone and pickup selectors too. Valuable lesson here, from the maestro himself.
What he didn't talk about on the video was the wiring on the les paul. On a regular stock one if you lower the volume knob you won't get that clear sound
shawdown if you a lower your volume on any guitar it will be less distorted
You need a 50s wiring or a treble bleed cap. Without it, if you turn down your volume you will get dark mud.
Great playing and sound advice. I only recently discovered the tone and volume knobs on my LP after 30+ years of playing. Another obvious but often neglected thing to remember is playing dynamics. Pick hard and it gets louder and more distorted: back off a bit and it cleans up. And picking at the bridge gives more treble than picking at the neck. Picking dynamics mean you can leave all the knobs on ten but still get variety!
Maybe it's worth mentioning that the volume knob is usable only when a treble bleed mod has been made and/or the circuitry components are all prime quality?
Not necessarily. 50s wiring is the key
This video demo is what made me finally fall in love with P.A.F. pickups (not that I ever disliked them before) and I'm currently working on a Les Paul guitar project that will have P.A.F. style pickups by Seymour Duncan.
Ladies and gents, if you want to buy the actual guitar Joe is using in this video, it was kindly loaned to us by Peach Guitars on the day of the shoot and you can get it here: www.peachguitars.com/guitars/electric-guitars/gibson-collectors-choice-12-1957-les-paul-goldtop.htm
What pickups are in this guitar?
But it's £4500. Get outta here.
You can do that with a Les Paul Studio off eBay for $500 and a Fender Mustang 1 for $75 off eBay!
*****
I am using Cort G 254 which is like 300 euros and it's H-S-S configuration (5-way switch) with only one tone and only one volume knob, but I still can get lots and lots of different sounds while plugging only in amp. There is a guitar player called Radomir Mihajlovic Tocak, his gear is based only on Fender Strat and Marshall JCM 800, but the kind of tones that guy gets out of that rig is sick. Check him out watch?v=DEUv0J6WV1s watch?v=XCTuUDE-8FI
Juan Carlos Villar it's a Lazy J 20, great great amps
My 2000 murphy custom authentic ,Murphy Aged crushes this.Tom told me it was the 1st year he aged gold tops and he did everything. Mine has a Brazilian board,which is 1 of 3 In 2000.Joe is a monster man.
joe could make a broom with string sound great hes amazing
Thanks Joe. Loved the visit to the Doug and Pat show.
So well said and done JB!
So precious lesson for short time! It's like Ureka to me cause I've never thought tone knob would take important role in making good sound.
uh, digging the 2:50 country licks! Im sure though brad paisley can show a lick or two..two of my favorites
There are 2 things that get in the way of me achieving this kind of effect -
1) it does seem to depend on having an amp that suits the venue and band, insofar as you can only get the lead tones with the volume wide open if the amp is being pushed significantly - unless you have a booster. This is obviously not always the case - Joe mentions at the end that it can still be done with a powerful Marshall but I'd be interested if he could elaborate on how you do it without your solo being too loud.
2) I think it takes a lot of practice to quickly and accurately adjust the volume knob in different places throughout a song!
It does take practice but came natural for me over time. I'd suggest practicing with the same amp so that you can get used to how it responds to knob adjustments. Each amp responds uniquely. As far as the amp goes, I use non-master volume amps. These are often (usually?) more sensitive to guitar control adjustments. And regarding volume, I have to use an attenuator most the time to control the volume of the amp.
I don’t know how many times I watch this video.
Such great advice! Volume on 9, tone on 1 and bridge pup and I’m a happy LP playing blues man!
Oh, how stunning you are Gibson Les Paul.....
I learnt so much from this. Before watching this I was always, a 'everything on 10' guy. But there's so many nuances through all the pot positions.
And this is one of the traits that separates the good from the great guitarists. Joe is a great guitarist....
I'm a beginner and still learning what all the knobs do on my LP, very helpful video!!
When the master speaks, the instruments has to play along!
Know your instrument is the key takeaway ... cheers 👍
Nothing more charming that a quality guitar straight into a quality amp - no pedals,
ruclips.net/video/s7LieKTbC2E/видео.html
I like to blend the neck and bridge pickups which with tone adds even more sounds.
Middle position FTW.
Or, you know, there are an almost endless number of genres and subgenres, and pedals are paramount to making SO many of them work.
It helps to have an amp like that as well haha.
Wow! I just learned SO much in 3+ minutes. Joe B. is truly a gifted teacher. Thanks, Guitarist mag!
Tone tip #1: Have more money than me.
It's nice to have nice equipment :-) and he definitely has more money than you and me put together, but
...you can do this with an Epiphone LP and a good small tube amp. No doubt.
Yeah. The comment is not as bitter as it may sound. I certainly don't begrudge Joe the things that I know he has worked hard for and deserves. You're right. I have some guitars and other gear that is better than stuff that costs twice as much.
dETROITfUNK
It in no way takes expensive or vintage gear to get the tonal variations he demonstrated in the video. Yes, the quality of the tone might not compare, but that's not the point of the demo. The point is using the controls on the guitar to get a variety of tones.
Roll off the tone knob: woman tone. Roll back the volume, the grit cleans up. Switch pickups, it gets brighter or darker. It all works pretty much in the same way. It's as much about the amp as it is the guitar. And what he didn't mention is that it takes setting up the amp to respond in that way -- right on the edge of breaking up.
People love that cheap little 5 watt Epiphone head for this very reason -- it sounds good at a volume that's tolerable at a price that won't break the bank. Yeah, some amps sound better than others, but it is a marketing myth that only if one buys expensive gear will they sound good. I'm quite sure Bonamassa could replicate this demo with a Cort and a Valve Junior, and so could people whose budgets limit their choices to a Cort and a Valve Junior.
So take heart: there's hope for the blues yet :-)
***** I have a gibson les paul, epiphone les paul, some bc rich's. my gibson has the best tonal range, but the epi is ok at it, it has emg's so it's not really built for it. The volume pots on my b.c rich's are like on/off switches. Really isn't hard to tell the difference between pots. some nice cts 500k pots would improve the bc rich's, but it's a metal guitar so I only use it for that anyway.
And me
Probably one of the best guitar reviews I've seen
Very true but you have to have the amp cranked which pretty much no one but Joe can do in today’s gigs.
Very helpful for someone like me just beginning to experiment with tone & volume controls. One good guitar and amp equals a multiplicity of tones.
That axe is frikking expensive. Of course u can get so many tones outta there by just tweaking the knobs even just a lil bit... And of course there's Joe.
But watch his playing carefully and you will see the attack make a big difference. Anyway all I'm saying that it takes a relative seasoned player to get tones like that :-)
You can do the same thing on a Made in Mexico Telecaster used for $275.
It will sound like you playing a Telecaster rather than Joe Bonamassa playing a LP, but the principles he's showing work just the same.
no way, you got it all wrong. any beginner can sit down and get those tones right away. it's got nothing to do with technique or any of that. babies can do it. no for real, stop laughin'. go get a random baby and see for yourself. thy're tone junkies. everybody knows that.
! wrong on both counts, ha-ha! i'm neither intelligent, nor an insurance salesman!
It's also the relationship between the guitar and an amp (tube or SS). I tend to notice tube amps are more reactive to certain pickups and player dynamics. Rolling the volume off makes it clean up quite well while running it wide open drives the amp hard.
When you play through a solid state or one of those cheaper computer units, when you turn the volume down...well the volume just goes down but it's still distorted lol.
***** Boys, boys, stop fighting. The cartoons are about ready to start.
Wow.. I just learned more about tone, than in all the other guitar vids I've watched.
(bows..)
Thank you, Master Bonamassa. I shall forever be in your debt.
MachOverspeed
wow joe ur just awesome,, thanks for the lesson
Just went back from a zillon pedals to THIS! Brilliant that you (with the help of Joe) highlights this "forgotten" ART!
Yea I agree, the pedal madness is a huge pit that never ends haha.
yeah!!! so much to learn
I just fell inlove with that guitar. Nice tutorial. Mabuhay ka 🔥😍
Joe uses a fender 59 bassman , a 50s twin , a 50s tremolex , but he also has a signature Marshall amp . On stage he uses a Marshall and a Fender . This man has signature cables , picks , amps , guitar , pedals etc. I wouldn't doubt if he had signature toilet paper lol so on this tutorial I didn't see what amp but its probably a 15 , 40 or 65 watt Fender in beige tolex cover .
Lazy J, think it's a 40w
Blues Deluxe maybe?
I did this for about three to four months and then bought an Analogman Prince of Tone. In love.
will try on epi lp 100...
Awesome playing. You forgot to mention the amp, Joe!! Also, a McCarty 594 takes all this to the next level... JS....