Another great video Nicky, I just recorded a pass the other day with Justin O’s tip. Funny enough combined with your tip on fuzz 😆. On my 335 I rolled the bridge tone all the way dark with Justin’s in between sound and turned a fuzz on with a slight chorus sprinkle for a shoegazer solo “riff”. Was through a VOX ac15…. Was a really cool synthy kind of sound. I have an interesting idea, although many have done it, how about a video on the 3 main amp flavors, Fender/VOX/Marshall. I’m sure you’d bring something new to that table. 🤷♂️. Thanks again brother! PS. That shell pink strat looks and sounds fantastic. -Dave
@@dave_d_i_a_lDave you rock man. Appreciate the comment/kind words and thank you for sharing that! I’ll have to give that one a shot with the fuzz. The three primary amp color video would be a good one…I’d try to find a way to do my own spin on it or bring something new to the table.
@@NickyV thx for the shout back. I’ve seen several videos on what all those amps offer, but I haven’t seen a video showing their actual application. That would be cool, showing this is where I would use a VOX sound or here I would used more of a scooped Fender sound….
Love it. When I played as a bar band guy in the 60’s and 70’s I played with a Les Paul Deluxe and a Fender twin. I did have a Cry Baby pedal but that was it. I worked with my tone and volume knobs to get everything I needed in tone. It was always about balance, cutting thru the mix and small adjustments were the difference in standing out, blending in and getting lost. Good stuff
No you didn’t. Folks…. This guy just makes stuff up. He’s all over UA-cam. Amongst his lies are…. He was a f1 test driver for bmw sauber. He played soccer at international level for Nigeria. He sold 3 million albums in the 1970s. He found 12 dinosaur remains in his backyard . Don’t listen to him Ps….. he served 11 years for SA …. For real !!
Dude, you hit my feed and half way through this video I subscribed. Can tell you’re not messing around - straight to delivering great info and perspective. Look forward to checking out your other videos
Thos is the first video of yours I've seen, I enjoyed it quite a bit. As a Strat fan and a fan of guys like SRV, Gilmour, Knopfler and others, I've always been a knob twiddler. Too many players just set it and forget it, and it robs them of dynamics and subtleties. Good video, nice playing.
Van Halen called his volume knob his tone knob! Really digging your channel dude! Glad I found it. Awesome tips for live and recording. I’m a hobby musician and gig when I can but I still try to take pride and be as good and professional as I can and these videos help that aspiration! Many thanks and greetings from Ireland!
I’d love to see a video from you! I already have guitars wired both ways-one with ’50s wiring and one with modern wiring-and I really appreciate the unique qualities each setup has to offer. It would be amazing for others to see an A-B comparison of how the volume and tone knobs interact in ’50s wiring versus modern wiring. On top of that, it would be incredible if you could do a video covering other wiring setups as well-like treble bleed circuits, series/parallel switching, coil-splitting, phase reversal, and even setups like the Jimmy Page wiring. There’s so much out there beyond the basics, and a video breaking down those options would be super helpful. I love your videos-keep it up, man!
Honestly I would benefit from a video like that myself haha. Wiring is probably one of my biggest weaknesses in this field. If I ended up doing a video down the road it would probably be more of a "hey lets figure this out together'" type of video haha.
I always ran everything wide open until I bought a tele. A tele forces you to learn how to use your knobs. Now I use them on every guitar. It was an interesting point you brought up about the strat bridge pickup (rolling down the tone). I had to wire my strat bridge pickup into a tone knob because it previously had not been wired through a tone control. I never felt the need to do this until I learned how to use knobs on a tele. Now I’m rolling down my tone all the time on my strat. Bridge pickup with tone all the way down, add some mid-heavy drive, beautiful.
Good stuff! I've played Strats for over 40 years and have also had the same feeling about Strat bridge PUs. I simply avoided it for years, but as you said hear, with the tone rolled off and the right OD, I started to find a use for it. I also have a Guild Starfire V that I've used a lot for the last 20+ years and love that middle position with the neck PU rolled off a bit. I also roll some of the tone off when using the bridge PU for solos. Thanks, man.
Killer straightforward advice. I knew the gibson trick, but the strat bridge thing helped me a lot with 2 guitars. I hated the bridge pickup on strats too, they always sounded too bright while also being weaksauce. And I hated the bridge pickup on my ‘66 Coronado II by itself, though the neck pickup on that is level 99 cheat code stuff. Actually I had never thought to do the gibson trick on my coronado II, and that also worked for it. Thanks man. I always used Aunt Ruby my coronado for neck pickup only stuff, and I can see using the bridge once in a while now too. Idk why but I’ve always sorta felt like on a thin/bright bridge pickup that the tone knob was taking even more sauce away. We guitar players can put on some weird self imposed blind spots on ourselves. Another you mentioned was not being afraid to zero out knobs on amps- that sorta gets a PRRI or DRRI into an almost marshally/champ kind of area
Self Imposed Blinders needs to be its own video. That’s pure gold man and so incredibly true. It’s wild how we get set in our ways and then complain about sounding the same haha. Really appreciate you and your kindness
@@NickyV hey no problem, I appreciate the studio guy advice. Yeah self imposed blinders is the guitar players curse lol. We’re pretty neurotic people usually
You found out the same way I did, through experience and continued searching for options. I know of nothing more difficult,yet satisfying as finding the sound you have always wanted.
Nicky. I totally agree about strat bridge single coils. I think they are way too ice pick in the ear. I am using EMG SAs and I use an EQ to get a boost and a humbucker tone out of the bridge pickup. I just roll back the tone for cleanish stuff. Lynard skynard type tones, etc. Very cool strat and yeah, the knobs are there for a reason, although with the music I play sometimes a strat with an alinco 2 high output humbucker works for me with just a volume knob. ❤.. Great video brother. ❤
Man, this just opens up a whole new world for me. I’ve just been so set. on everything being flat out for so many years I’ve never really given it much thought but yeah it makes so much sense. Just roll those knobs back and search for that tone.
When I was starting out I was guilty as well. When I started playing teles I got hip to the knobs. When I started recording I got more dialed in on pulling as much out of them as I could
@@NickyVKind of embarrassing that I went almost 50 years not really knowing about the knobs. In addition to the wide variance of vibes available with the tone and volume knobs, I recently discovered that I can run one overdrive, (prince of tone), gain fairly high and with the volume knob I can go from clean to filthy and everything in between using picking dynamics and the V knob without needing 7 "gain staging pedals" to mess with!!! Cheers!
@@NickyV Made in the UK , available on Stewmac USA.. Fairly inexpensive. Keep up the good work Maestro ! A cool feature is , it fits in the 5 switch opening with no mods . and appears to be a regular 5 way externally .
Thanks for the vid, really appreciate that you show the adjustments for each guitar. A strat video would not help me as I play LP/335, but showing how you adjust all gits a bigger audience.
DUDE!! SO KEWL , you came across my feed!! I WAS LIKE.......DID I GET UNSUBBED? Wheres He been?? Glad you used a strat and talked about pedals! I just got an American Pro 2 for my Bday- dark knight color...Awesome! Glad to come across your video!
The trouble with turning the tone knob back the other pickups are brighter and louder. I can’t understand why Strats don’t have fatter sounding pickups and have a bass cut tone controls.
I use an HH guitar now and don't have any strat currently in my possession, but I used to wire the middle pick up to the tone knob one and keep the bridge pickup to the knob 2 and just control the tone of the bridge pick up with the knob, because neither did I really get along with the strat bridge pick up with its tone all the way up when I had a strat. Great tip.
@@NickyVI never liked strat bridge pickups until I learned about the way to mod it to where you could control the tone of the bridge pickup by itself (isolated). Greatest strat mod next to the Gilmour mod.
great vid man, had been struggling with my fender elite , you just unlocked the tones I`m trying to get, had them dialed in on my Mexican but the USA was a mystery, cheers
I'm not a guitarist (yet) but I've always been curious about how guitars can have such a wide variety of tones. THIS is the information I've been looking for which explains that to me in terms I can understand. I remember asking someone about this in the 90s and he couldn't give me any answers. Thanks!
When I was a teen I didn't know anything but everything wide open with as much distortion as possible. I'm learning to experiment with different more subtle tones this time around. This is also the first time I've owned a guitar with single coils. A bit of a learning curve there.
Thx Nicky. Very informative demonstration of controlling tone. We tend to forget all the options at our fingertips, just using the knobs on our guitars! The masters never relied on pedals back in the day. Hands guitars amps and Talent! Peace...
Good morning (Sat morning 10/12/2024 at 9:15 AM in rural NW TN) Nicky V., so cool to drink my morning coffee and watch a new video. Thanks for the invite to your studio and running through some amazing guitar details, so very interesting. I'm still a weekend guitar enthusiast, limited experience with only major and minor chords and pluck around, and I really appreciate the Nicky V. hang outs to listen to a professional breakdown from Nicky V. My ears aren't tuned in to hear all of the differences, but your explanation today is absolutely amazing to me. Love your presentation style. All that in less than 20 mins, very nice. Oh, only you can get away with the funky looking Nicky V. guitars too - pink special Fender, black Gibson repainted funky paint job, and then the light blue TELE, just shows that it doesn't matter what it looks like if the sound is off the charts amazing. You have created your own style. Cool - thanks for the video. Around the 15 min mark it almost sounds like an acoustic or nylon string guitar sound a little.
Man I love this comment. Appreciate you hanging out and you can thank my wife for a lot of this. When I started the channel she said “just make it feel like they are hanging out with you in the same room”. She’s a smart cookie. Appreciate the kind words and the Easter egg guitars for the win haha
@@NickyV I've watched thousands of UA-cam videos, and none quite capture this relaxed and real close kind of feeling that you're getting (you're only talking to me, right? ha ha). Even doing super technical geeky guitar stuff, it isn't boring. There is a good flow - and thanks to your wife. I've been married since 2001 and only by God's grace have we survived - through some tough, tough times - and we now have 4 kids, 4 dogs, and 3 cats (down from 7 - yikes), and 10 chickens :) Remember, your wife is always right, and you'll be fine. Argue til you're blue in the face and you'll have a cold night on the couch (again) - at least make up and appreciate all she does every day.
@@NickyV Hope we can meet and hang out sometime. I know you are super busy. Happy 2 yrs, keep on going - you are blessed to have a loving and caring wife. We waited 5 yrs (long honeymoon), then we had our first child, our son who is now 18. We have 4 kids, but also had 4 miscarriages. Wife and family life is absolute best. We had fun our first 5 yrs, but honestly, after we started having kids, we never talk about or look at the pics from when it was just my wfie and I. now we have four kids, of which 3 are boys, 8, 10, 13 (daughter), and 18. Bye for now - have a great week.
@@vfam5860that’s fantastic man. We have our first on the way this coming January. Very excited. Thank you for sharing and take care man, if you are ever around shoot me a message through my site or instagram.
Really I usually set it and forget it. Nice to have your experience and insights into the mysterious knobbery. I have a G&L Comanche, a black gilmour strat and Casino to explore. Have been most an acoustic strummer and bass player so far it’s be3n fun
I have a strat style guitar I built after my carpal tunnel surgery to get back into playing that I moved the volume knob near the center pickup, and gave each pickup it's own tone control, with a Fender 'Greasebucket' tone circuit. When you turn the tone knobs to between 4 and 7, you get the effects you describe with each pickup. I also added an on/off mini toggle to the neck pickup, to get the Bridge/Neck setting of a Tele, and a Bridge/Middle/Neck setting like Brian May. It also has a ghost pickup for hum elimination hidden in the tremolo pocket. It's a great studio/stage workhorse for when you're playing rough neighborhoods where you would never bring a 'real Fender' or'real Gibson'...
Thank you Nicky. One simple but essential concept articulated perfectly. You are able to give more useful guitar information in any given 60 seconds than just about anyone else on UA-cam. No waffle, no bullshit, straight talk. Oh, and for anyone who thinks “that’s obvious”, it’s pretty incredible how many players, myself included, take sooooo long to fully investigate the tone permutations on any guitar. As the comments below will testify.
Man this is so kind of you to say. Really appreciate and thank you for the backup haha, some in the comments are a little harsh and I don’t want that discouraging others. Music is nothing but a good thing and thank you for the kind words.
Thanks for this. I play a Tele thru a mesa boogie head & cabinet. I turned the bass knob way back several weeks ago from a previous video. Helped. Our lead singer likes the dirty sound, not full on overdrive. I’ll mess around with this info.
@@NickyV Ya know…I just had a thought. I play a 99 Telecaster with hot Rodded pickups. I play through a Mesa boogie Filmore 50. I was using Stringjoy Orbitals 9’s. I changed strings last night to Stringjoy Signatures, 10’s. A big difference this morning. I had to make a couple adjustments. Have you ever talked about string choices? If you have I missed the video somehow.
@@rondawnshelton5713 I haven't done a video on that subject yet. I use elixir 10s on most of my electrics. They last about a year for me an other brands last maybe a week before I rust through them. On acoustic I change my mind every time I change my strings and slip flop back and forth between brands.
Haha nobody makes it that far. I wrote a whole album of that two and three part counterpoint stuff a few years back but it’s for the deep nerd dive haha
I’ve gotten around the tele pickup problem by replacing the selector with a blend knob. So “0” on the knob is all bridge, “5” is the middle position, and “10” is all neck. That really gives you that four knob control like you had on the Gibson but keeps the simplicity of the tele controls. Might check that mod out. I absolutely love it and will ride on like the “2” to give me a lot of bridge but adding just a bit of neck to fill out the sound.
Great video. I've been playing badly for 20yrs...did not know some of this stuff. Just tone all the way down on p-90 neck for Slash/Gilmour and tone all the way up on tele bridge for Albert Collins/Roy Buchanan. Now with this video, I can showcase my crappy playing in even more different shades of tones, lol...shades of crappiness...great!!!
Great advice!! I use the tone knob roll off (Justin trick) with the middle position all the time! I tried it one day beacuse my bridge was too bright. Great trick!!
I love the sound of the bridge pickup on a Strat when it’s warmer and thicker. I cut the tone down to 4 or 5 and sometimes bump the volume down to 9 just barely past full on. With the volume up on the amp it starts to pickup completely different overtones and gives a slight cocked wah or the Jeff Beck effect.
With all 2 strats 1st thing I do is have 3 on off switches installed as soon as I buy them-being doing this since 1979...gives me HEAPS of pickup combinations. All 3 pickups on virtually reproduces Mark Knofflers sound on Sultans. I also like the bridge and neck pickup on together.
@@NickyV Well my 1st Strat only had a 3 position switch and I thought only 3 positions plus in be-tweens? Madness! I immediately thought 3 on and off switches would be way better than the dull only 3 position switch and I a s SO RIGHT. Did that with my 2 strats AND my Gibson SG 3 pickup-never looked back-all have the 3 on and off switches taken from Fender Jazzmaster. parts U can buy Looks VERY neat.. One wld think there would be HEAPS of this configuration on U Tube but I can't even find one and i am no genius!
Common mods that I do in my shop for Strats and Teles: Strats: - Wire Tone 1 for Neck and Middle, wire Tone 2 for Bridge only. A lot of Strats don’t have a tone control for the bridge pickup from factory. It’s the pickup that needs it most. - Replace Tone 2 with a Blender, enabling neck/bridge or all 3 pickups on in variable combos. Excellent sounds. Tone 1 becomes a global tone for all 3 pickups. - Freeway 10-way switch for Strat. Lots of extra tones. May be too many choices for some. I have one Strat set up with a Freeway, the other four of mine with Blenders. - Treble Bleed… helps with preserving high end for those of us who use our guitar volume as our main gain stage. Tele: - 4-way switch replaces the 3-way for extra series pickup setting. Requires a second ground for the neck pickup (separate coil from cover) but looks completely traditional. Way better than a humbucker in the neck to my ears. I’ve done this to two of my Teles (and countless clients’) and love it. - Change pot values. Use a 500k tone pot and a 250k volume. Experiment. It can open up a darker Tele or going down to 250k can warm up a Tele that’s too bright. - Treble Bleed… helps with preserving high end for those of us who use our guitar volume as our main gain stage. I see benefits to using one but understand if people embrace the darker tones at lower volumes. And don’t be afraid to experiment with string gauges, saddle alloys/materials, nut materials, swap pickups, cap values, etc. It all adds up.
I’ve probably tired a good handful of the mods you mentioned. The more I’ve gotten into the studio side of the spectrum and away from live I seem to mod less. And sometimes taste just change. It’s nice to have access to all the information around mods because I’ll probably cycle back to it before I can’t play someday hahaha. Thank you for sharing and watching the video!
For soloing, I’m always looking for the thicker tone with some sustain. That silky smooth tone. To me that’s the sweet spot. For intros I’m wide open on the bridge and I roll off the volume for the verses, back up for a chorus, if not all the way up.
Hey Nicky just wanted to say thanks for your video on tone. After listening and paying closer attention to my sound, I found that I was indeed using too much equalization and too much gain on my overdrive channel. Thanks again for the tips, Jay
Thanks for the tips, I have a G&L ASAT with humbucker in the neck position. The tone sweep on the guitar is really wide, and it almost seems intuitive to ride the tone knob.
Great video! I've been playing professionally for 50 years, and although I guess I kinda knew some of this, I never use it! I will now though ... Thanks
Thanks for the very helpful tips on using the pickup controls. I discovered the middle position with the neck pickup rolled back a long time ago searching for the Dickey Betts sound. For me it remains a go to setting for lead on any 2 hum buck guitar. I am working on using the tone knob more across the board so this video was very helpful!
Thanks! There’s a trick to angling the springs in the back to make them stay in tune and when I pull the bar all the way up the G strings goes a whole step and the B string goes a half step. Learned it from Carl Verheyen at the Musicians Institute. Basically it balances the string tension. The pickups are whatever stock 60s custom shop pickups came with it. They are very un-stratty sounding strat pickups haha
Good video and good playing. Getting the knobs on a amp would be helpful. It might be really simple, but for we 'low volume level players' its sometimes difficult to get a good tone. Cheers!
I actually did a video a few weeks back on dialing in an amp. To get the edge of breakup thing I have in this video at lower volume you could just put a subtle low to medium gain overdrive in front of your amp. Not quite the same as a cranked amp but gets it in the ballpark :)
Nicky, Im building a tele and Im going to buy the tele pickups you recommend from your links to help out a bit. I really enjoy your down to earth, Im not the man attitude. Really like the teaching also, even if I still suck at playing.
That’s so kind of you man, really appreciate it and so glad you enjoyed the video. Best of luck with the Tele build! Please report back once you get it finished up and check out those pickups
The “best” Strat mod regarding the bridge single being shrill AF is to rewire your tone knob to only that pickup and roll back to 60%-ish like you did. You don’t need a tone knob for your neck pickup unless your chasing Santana/Clapton “woman tone”. And if you have a two tone knob Strat then you’re all set. The other no cost trick is to lower the treble side of the bridge pickup and raise the bass side (Or lower adjustable pole pieces). Last you can buy a reverse angle pickguard (like Hendrix) with the treble side tilted away from bridge and neck toward bridge.
This is great stuff- Thanks for taking the time to do these. I’ve seen some country Tele players reverse the control plate so selector switch is in rear-then tone then volume front. Do you have any thoughts on this? I find myself on the knobs quite a bit and it would be nice to get there w pinky. Thanks again!
I did the reverse plate for a few years but for some reason gravitated back to the standard configuration. Probably because I need the tone knob more than the volume knob and didn’t want the pickup selector next to it.
Useful hints. Do I see you adjust tone on the Strat mid PU using the lower tone knob? On my Strat the upper tone knob (or middle knob) serves both neck and middle pickup. So any tone changes on the mid PU you have to apply using the upper tone knob.
I like to have the tone knob option for the bridge pickup on a Strat. For certain things I like the wide open tone of that pickup but sometimes it's too harsh. Dialing it back to around 7 removes some of the excessive treble and rounds it out making it way more musical and usable for certain things especially when playing Rock stuff with overdrive where you want a thicker tone..
I discovered the utility of the vol knob reduction for altered tones.. but sometimes the treble rolls off too much.. So I added a tone bleed to the vol know. But then that takes away the more even vol control.. making it ultra sensitive towards the lower numbers.. and then between 3 and 10.. almost no difference.. Hard to have the cake and eat it.. (I can never leave anything alone! ;-) ) Ill just sit back and learn something! Thanks!
Thank you for sharing that. I don’t have tone bleeds on any guitars. I like the volume knob being as even as possible and if I need to lower the volume and not lose treble I just use my volume pedal. I like the way a traditional volume knob interacts with overdrives and cranked amps
@@NickyV I was thinking of trying a Linear pot instead of a Audio taper.. just for fun.. Also. my low budget Ernie ball volume pedal seems to suffer the same fate in that it cuts treble as the volume lowers. Was thinking of trying a treble bleed on that too.. Some guitars come with it in place.. like PRS.. Either way.. the lesson here is the use of the volume knob.. and its a pro move.. (not that I am a pro) just a guy in a band. Thanks!
Fantastic stuff! My own approach to the Strat bridge pickup was always to--think of it as/make it at least as useful as--the bridge position on a Tele. Yes, this may mean a bit of a compromise here or there on your other Strat sounds, but if/when you go for (or find yourself) on the bridge pu with the vol & tones maxed, you won't be bumming out. Seems obvious, but if you tame/shape the highs and dial in some throat for the bridge position (so that when flat out, it gets your attention without being unacceptable) then the rest are going to sound great too. Also, I can't recall seeing 335 like that, with LP-style crown inlays...? Gotta research it now! 😉😄
Useful information! I like the tip for rolling off the tone just a bit to counter the shrill notes way up on the neck. Do you leave the tone on 8 all the time or just roll it down when you move up the neck?
My comment is on a little bit different subject. I watch numerous videos and they will have very awesome sounding gain and turn their volume down to seven and it cleans it up almost to where you don’t hear the distortion. I’ve tried numerous compressors. How do you get this to where there is no loss of volume just clean up?
Man I honestly don’t know on that one. If you turn the volume down, you are going to lose some volume but gain some clarity which might be perceived as louder. Sorry I don’t have a more insightful take on that one.
@@NickyV thank you for your input. Maybe it’s more of the digital stuff that keeps it consistent. Which I’m not a big fan of thank you for your time.👍🏻
You need to be running hot and loud to get the most from this in my experience. Depends on the amp and your guitar wiring as well. Dial things up with more gain / drive than you need, so that just rolling off the volume a hair has you where you want to live. Normally this will give you a decent range of clean-ish to drive to control from the pot, with a little extra on tap when you want to run things wide open. YMMV. Hope this helps 👍
The Strat part was helpful with the bridge pickup. It’s interesting to me that you didn’t utilize the middle position on the Tele at all. One thing I like to do in a Gibson, is to set the bridge wide open, and mix in the neck pickup to taste.
Ya I’m not sure, for some reason I don’t find myself using the knobs on the Tele middle. That bringing in the neck pickup to taste trick is the money. Thanks for watching
Nice job. Subscribed. That strat has its thing going on, nails the radio country sound with the setup you're running. I'm guessing you've got things dialed in for tracking tones by the sound of it. An idea for a future video might be how to tweak things for live versus studio. Good luck and success with the channel. 👍
Thanks man! Appreciate the kind words. Might have to do a video on that. This Strat kind of has its own thing going for sure. Its a very un-straty strat haha
@@NickyV- More trying to get a better handle on what it has going on. Those pickups and the Archer really seem to do something different, with a big shift when you switch to great sounding cleans.
Love this channel! Anything that inspires me to pick up an instrument and play better and experiment is a positive thing. Once I started playing better guitars and especially vintage Fender tube amps I noticed that the knobs actually do stuff. For years I played a Fuzzrite style fuzz, which does not roll off the volume that well, but recently started playing an Analogman Sunface BC183 (based on and old Fuzz Face) and gosh that thing cleans up nice when I roll off the guitar volume. Tons of new tonal possibilities there. I used to think having all the knobs all the way up is the way to go, and this will work on Silvertones and Danelectros, but Fender knobs have quite a range. My fave Tele has a Broadcaster bridge pickup (with a no-load tone control that sends the PU straight to the output) that I play on all the time. I've had about 5 different neck pickups and have not liked any of them. I also have a '60s Baja Tele MIM that has great vintage style pickups that blend really well and I play that one on the neck a lot more and it really nails that Steve Cropper tone. Thanks for the genuine, honest and accessible content. Don't be afraid to mess with those knobs!
Man thank you for sharing this and I’m with you. Some Guitars and pedals just react differently and inspire us differently. Appreciate you checking the channel out and thank you for the kind words!
I’m 61 yrs old and just realized that with the bridge pu on a strat. Am I a slow learner? No. I’m a damn slow learner. Honestly, I came off allot of acoustic work. Plug in my strat and kind of reworked all my tone starting with everything off and moving everything up slowly. Maybe you younger guys can listen to this gentleman and get a huge head start.
Don't beat yourself up too bad, this stratocaster is modded for the tone control on the bridge pickup isolated. They don't generally come that way. Generally, the only way to effect the tone on a bridge pickup is actually position 4 which makes it share the current with the middle pickup which is where the tone capacitor is from the factory. So, the only reference is a non reference saying something about not talking about amps, effect mods or whatever. The strat demonstration of the tone control on the bridge pickup is bound to have many many stratocaster owners either confused or thinking maybe something is wrong with their guitar. A quick search will show you a bunch of examples of how to modify the wiring to accomplish this. And I can't really believe that stratocasters default wiring is the way it is. But....
@ Gotcha. I have a '60 reissue. It seams the tone nob is definitely responsive in the bridge pu position. It's like a hole new guitar for me. Thanks again.
NICKY V, make a video lesson about using the tone knobs for TRICKS you can do using overdrive pedals or compressor pedal by using the guitars tone knobs. Also try to include which rock guitar players use the tone knobs on the guitar to do TRICKS with
I’m honestly not sure on who uses what. Would have to do some research for that one. The Clapton “Woman Tone” trick is pretty iconic but already covered quite a bit
@@NickyV Santana also rolls down the tone control on his PRS listen to all the Santana albums using his gibson SG P90 rolls back the volume knob often with the tone knobs rolled down
"Too much contrast between the neck and bridge". Yes, indeed. I call the Tele 'a one pickup guitar with two pickups' for that very reason. Meaning that only one is going to work properly sound-wise with the amp settings you have dialed up at any given moment. My solution was to connect the tone control to the bridge pickup only. I also remove the covers from my neck pickups. Some will prefer that, some won't, but it works for me.
Strat is whatever stock custom shops came in it, Throbaks in the 335 wound to my buddies specs, Tele has DiMarzio Area Ts (hot T in the bridge). Appreciate you checking the video out man!
Thanks for the info! Do you have any recommendations on studio monitors for my office that is about 10x12 for enjoying playing guitar through when I need to be a hint quieter than my tube amps? Which ones do you use?
All fascinating stuff. I'm sitting here with my Epi SG following along w/you. It only has one volume and one tone (Like a Tele) and I can't imagine the pickups are any account from what I paid for it. But I'm hearing what you're talking about, definitely. If (like me) a player has a "Les Paul" style guitar with only one each of a volume and tone knob, how would you modify your approach to deal with that?
If you are on a less Paul with one tone knob and one volume knob I would just use the volume knob to clean up your amp a bit if needed or provide a bit more clarity. Then if you wanted to have full on punch but a little more body on the bridge pickup you could crack the tone knob back a bit. The neck pickup with the tone rolled off and a fuzz trick would would probably translate as well.
What would you guys like me to cover next?
Another great video Nicky, I just recorded a pass the other day with Justin O’s tip. Funny enough combined with your tip on fuzz 😆. On my 335 I rolled the bridge tone all the way dark with Justin’s in between sound and turned a fuzz on with a slight chorus sprinkle for a shoegazer solo “riff”. Was through a VOX ac15…. Was a really cool synthy kind of sound. I have an interesting idea, although many have done it, how about a video on the 3 main amp flavors, Fender/VOX/Marshall. I’m sure you’d bring something new to that table. 🤷♂️. Thanks again brother! PS. That shell pink strat looks and sounds fantastic.
-Dave
@@dave_d_i_a_lDave you rock man. Appreciate the comment/kind words and thank you for sharing that! I’ll have to give that one a shot with the fuzz. The three primary amp color video would be a good one…I’d try to find a way to do my own spin on it or bring something new to the table.
@@NickyV I’d agree with the amp video. Actually been kicking around buying a new one. So any insight on them would be appreciated.
@@NickyV thx for the shout back. I’ve seen several videos on what all those amps offer, but I haven’t seen a video showing their actual application. That would be cool, showing this is where I would use a VOX sound or here I would used more of a scooped Fender sound….
@@rondawnshelton5713right on man…I usually tell people Fender, Plexi, Vox in that order. Might have to work one up
Love it. When I played as a bar band guy in the 60’s and 70’s I played with a Les Paul Deluxe and a Fender twin. I did have a Cry Baby pedal but that was it. I worked with my tone and volume knobs to get everything I needed in tone. It was always about balance, cutting thru the mix and small adjustments were the difference in standing out, blending in and getting lost. Good stuff
Spot on! Thanks for checking the video out and the feedback
No you didn’t.
Folks…. This guy just makes stuff up.
He’s all over UA-cam.
Amongst his lies are…. He was a f1 test driver for bmw sauber.
He played soccer at international level for Nigeria.
He sold 3 million albums in the 1970s.
He found 12 dinosaur remains in his backyard .
Don’t listen to him
Ps….. he served 11 years for SA …. For real !!
Dude, you hit my feed and half way through this video I subscribed. Can tell you’re not messing around - straight to delivering great info and perspective. Look forward to checking out your other videos
That makes my day man. Appreciate the kind words and hope you enjoy the other videos!
@@NickyV same for me. Halfway through the 2nd video of yours and I'm a subscriber.
@@thelpw2608 Thanks man! So glad you are into it.
Great video! Very informative. A lot of people constantly switch gear when they really need to just turn a knob.
Thanks! Exactly, on my last artist gig I played the whole show on a Les Paul Jr double cut with one p90 haha
This is great stuff! Totally with you on the 4 knob Gibson layout. There's so much to be found in the volume and tone knobs.
100% thanks for checking the video out man!
Thos is the first video of yours I've seen, I enjoyed it quite a bit. As a Strat fan and a fan of guys like SRV, Gilmour, Knopfler and others, I've always been a knob twiddler. Too many players just set it and forget it, and it robs them of dynamics and subtleties. Good video, nice playing.
Very very true. So glad you enjoyed the video and I’ll do my best to keep them coming!
Van Halen called his volume knob his tone knob!
Really digging your channel dude! Glad I found it. Awesome tips for live and recording. I’m a hobby musician and gig when I can but I still try to take pride and be as good and professional as I can and these videos help that aspiration! Many thanks and greetings from Ireland!
So kind of you to say. Really appreciate the kind words and thank you for checking the video out!
I’d love to see a video from you! I already have guitars wired both ways-one with ’50s wiring and one with modern wiring-and I really appreciate the unique qualities each setup has to offer. It would be amazing for others to see an A-B comparison of how the volume and tone knobs interact in ’50s wiring versus modern wiring.
On top of that, it would be incredible if you could do a video covering other wiring setups as well-like treble bleed circuits, series/parallel switching, coil-splitting, phase reversal, and even setups like the Jimmy Page wiring. There’s so much out there beyond the basics, and a video breaking down those options would be super helpful. I love your videos-keep it up, man!
Honestly I would benefit from a video like that myself haha. Wiring is probably one of my biggest weaknesses in this field. If I ended up doing a video down the road it would probably be more of a "hey lets figure this out together'" type of video haha.
@ that could be cool 🙃
Thanks for all of this information. Very few players on UA-cam share like you do. Your humility is refreshing.
So kind of you to say. Ive had people be kind and giving to me beyond what I deserve so just trying to pass it along.
I always ran everything wide open until I bought a tele. A tele forces you to learn how to use your knobs. Now I use them on every guitar. It was an interesting point you brought up about the strat bridge pickup (rolling down the tone). I had to wire my strat bridge pickup into a tone knob because it previously had not been wired through a tone control. I never felt the need to do this until I learned how to use knobs on a tele. Now I’m rolling down my tone all the time on my strat. Bridge pickup with tone all the way down, add some mid-heavy drive, beautiful.
Spot on man. Crazy how a Tele makes us better in multiple ways. My fender tone journey has been similar
Good stuff! I've played Strats for over 40 years and have also had the same feeling about Strat bridge PUs. I simply avoided it for years, but as you said hear, with the tone rolled off and the right OD, I started to find a use for it. I also have a Guild Starfire V that I've used a lot for the last 20+ years and love that middle position with the neck PU rolled off a bit. I also roll some of the tone off when using the bridge PU for solos. Thanks, man.
Right on! Thanks for checking the video out and sharing man!
Killer straightforward advice. I knew the gibson trick, but the strat bridge thing helped me a lot with 2 guitars.
I hated the bridge pickup on strats too, they always sounded too bright while also being weaksauce. And I hated the bridge pickup on my ‘66 Coronado II by itself, though the neck pickup on that is level 99 cheat code stuff.
Actually I had never thought to do the gibson trick on my coronado II, and that also worked for it.
Thanks man. I always used Aunt Ruby my coronado for neck pickup only stuff, and I can see using the bridge once in a while now too.
Idk why but I’ve always sorta felt like on a thin/bright bridge pickup that the tone knob was taking even more sauce away. We guitar players can put on some weird self imposed blind spots on ourselves. Another you mentioned was not being afraid to zero out knobs on amps- that sorta gets a PRRI or DRRI into an almost marshally/champ kind of area
Self Imposed Blinders needs to be its own video. That’s pure gold man and so incredibly true. It’s wild how we get set in our ways and then complain about sounding the same haha. Really appreciate you and your kindness
@@NickyV hey no problem, I appreciate the studio guy advice. Yeah self imposed blinders is the guitar players curse lol. We’re pretty neurotic people usually
@@WithCarePlz True that.
You found out the same way I did, through experience and continued searching for options. I know of nothing more difficult,yet satisfying as finding the sound you have always wanted.
You sell your ideas easy, as you can walk the talk. Not a common thing, especially on media outlets nowdays!
Excellent information!
Glad it was helpful!
Nicky. I totally agree about strat bridge single coils. I think they are way too ice pick in the ear. I am using EMG SAs and I use an EQ to get a boost and a humbucker tone out of the bridge pickup. I just roll back the tone for cleanish stuff. Lynard skynard type tones, etc. Very cool strat and yeah, the knobs are there for a reason, although with the music I play sometimes a strat with an alinco 2 high output humbucker works for me with just a volume knob. ❤..
Great video brother. ❤
Nice! Thanks for sharing and the kind words. Much appreciated and so glad you enjoyed the video
Just subscribed. I really like the vids. Keep em coming!
Stellar! So glad you enjoyed it and appreciate the sub.
Man, this just opens up a whole new world for me. I’ve just been so set. on everything being flat out for so many years I’ve never really given it much thought but yeah it makes so much sense. Just roll those knobs back and search for that tone.
Lots of magic around 7 on the knobs. Thank you for checking the video out!
Very informative good info. Thanks
You got it! Thanks for watching
The Gibson sounds amazing! Sold
Thanks!!! Appreciate you checking the video out
Nice presentation style! Keep em coming.
Thanks! Much appreciated and I’ll do my best to keep them rolling in!
Another great vid with real professional knowledge.
Much appreciated man!
Thank you that has helped me so much
Love hearing that!
Beautiful vid, man! You're one of my new faves! Great practical advice!
Appreciate that, man! Hope you enjoy the rest of the channel.
Love these tips brother! Until recently I didn’t ever touch the knobs on the guitar 🎸 Treated them more like ON/OFF switches.
When I was starting out I was guilty as well. When I started playing teles I got hip to the knobs. When I started recording I got more dialed in on pulling as much out of them as I could
@@NickyVKind of embarrassing that I went almost 50 years not really knowing about the knobs. In addition to the wide variance of vibes available with the tone and volume knobs, I recently discovered that I can run one overdrive, (prince of tone), gain fairly high and with the volume knob I can go from clean to filthy and everything in between using picking dynamics and the V knob without needing 7 "gain staging pedals" to mess with!!! Cheers!
@@brianmiller3287This is spot on man. Crazy how we are all constantly learning and evolving musically with our approach and habits.
@@NickyVso cool of you to respond!!!
Just put the Free-Way , 10 position switch on my Strat. Game changer ..I was surprised. Great channel , thank you.
I'm not familiar with those. Will have to check them out! Thanks for the kind words and checking the video out!
@@NickyV Made in the UK , available on Stewmac USA.. Fairly inexpensive. Keep up the good work Maestro ! A cool feature is , it fits in the 5 switch opening with no mods . and appears to be a regular 5 way externally .
10 position? Why not 20 position?
@@captainsalty5688 Good question . I like 3 position too for that matter.
Great vid!! Glad I found you😎👍
So glad you enjoyed it man! Thanks for stopping by.
beautiful solo
Thank you so much!
Thanks for the vid, really appreciate that you show the adjustments for each guitar. A strat video would not help me as I play LP/335, but showing how you adjust all gits a bigger audience.
Nice man. Glad you enjoyed it. Appreciate the kind words
Great to see how your channel has grown Nicky. Well deserved!
Thank you so much. Everybody has been so kind and I love that people are enjoying it!
DUDE!! SO KEWL , you came across my feed!! I WAS LIKE.......DID I GET UNSUBBED? Wheres He been??
Glad you used a strat and talked about pedals!
I just got an American Pro 2 for my Bday- dark knight color...Awesome! Glad to come across your video!
Killer! I try to post every two weeks. I’ll do my best to keep them coming
blown away by what u played around 15 minutes til 15:30 during the tele segment, love that, great video too
Man nobody makes it that far haha
@ haha it’s their loss then! Thank u for your videos man! I’m road tripping down from Jersey this coming week for my first visit!
@@MNGuitars Killer! Hope you enjoy your trip. Make sure to get some hot chicken!
@ thank u brother!!
Great video Nicky! You are growing like crazy! Congrats! You deserve it Brother! 🎸🎸🎸🤘🤘🤘
Awe thanks man! You are the best, and the continued support is appreciated. Hope all is well on your end!
Great tips. Right hand position can also affect the sound. I tend to play rhythm closer to the neck pickup; bridge pickup for leads. YMMV.
Definitely. One of the good things that comes from starting out on acoustic
Beautiful strat ❤
Thanks! Had that one since I was 18
AFAIK, for most strats, the tone knob doesn't work on the bridge position unless you do the wiring mod
I think ALL standard strats are this way.
Ya the mod is kind of a must for me. Thanks for checking the video out!
The trouble with turning the tone knob back the other pickups are brighter and louder. I can’t understand why Strats don’t have fatter sounding pickups and have a bass cut tone controls.
I thought fender realised this was a problem, so now all strats come with a tone knob for the bridge as well.
@@DanielWeber-vf8hk thats killer that they actually fixed the issue.
Super helpful! Thank you!
You got it! Thanks for watching!
I use an HH guitar now and don't have any strat currently in my possession, but I used to wire the middle pick up to the tone knob one and keep the bridge pickup to the knob 2 and just control the tone of the bridge pick up with the knob, because neither did I really get along with the strat bridge pick up with its tone all the way up when I had a strat.
Great tip.
Right on man! Appreciate you checking the video out. It’s funny how polarizing strats are…people are disciples or don’t get along with them.
@@NickyVI never liked strat bridge pickups until I learned about the way to mod it to where you could control the tone of the bridge pickup by itself (isolated). Greatest strat mod next to the Gilmour mod.
great vid man, had been struggling with my fender elite , you just unlocked the tones I`m trying to get, had them dialed in on my Mexican but the USA was a mystery, cheers
Killer! So glad it was helpful.
I'm not a guitarist (yet) but I've always been curious about how guitars can have such a wide variety of tones. THIS is the information I've been looking for which explains that to me in terms I can understand. I remember asking someone about this in the 90s and he couldn't give me any answers. Thanks!
So glad it clicked for you and thanks for checking it out!
This is great, thanks man
Glad you liked it!
When I was a teen I didn't know anything but everything wide open with as much distortion as possible. I'm learning to experiment with different more subtle tones this time around. This is also the first time I've owned a guitar with single coils. A bit of a learning curve there.
Thx Nicky. Very informative demonstration of controlling tone. We tend to forget all the options at our fingertips, just using the knobs on our guitars! The masters never relied on pedals back in the day. Hands guitars amps and Talent! Peace...
Exactly man. I’m so glad you enjoyed it, appreciate you checking the video out.
loving your content, I just stumbled upon it.
Love that UA-cam is pushing it out to the right folks. Thank you for the kind words man and I’ll do my best to keep it coming :)
Nice! Thank you.
Ya man!
Good morning (Sat morning 10/12/2024 at 9:15 AM in rural NW TN) Nicky V., so cool to drink my morning coffee and watch a new video. Thanks for the invite to your studio and running through some amazing guitar details, so very interesting. I'm still a weekend guitar enthusiast, limited experience with only major and minor chords and pluck around, and I really appreciate the Nicky V. hang outs to listen to a professional breakdown from Nicky V. My ears aren't tuned in to hear all of the differences, but your explanation today is absolutely amazing to me. Love your presentation style. All that in less than 20 mins, very nice. Oh, only you can get away with the funky looking Nicky V. guitars too - pink special Fender, black Gibson repainted funky paint job, and then the light blue TELE, just shows that it doesn't matter what it looks like if the sound is off the charts amazing. You have created your own style. Cool - thanks for the video. Around the 15 min mark it almost sounds like an acoustic or nylon string guitar sound a little.
Man I love this comment. Appreciate you hanging out and you can thank my wife for a lot of this. When I started the channel she said “just make it feel like they are hanging out with you in the same room”. She’s a smart cookie.
Appreciate the kind words and the Easter egg guitars for the win haha
@@NickyV I've watched thousands of UA-cam videos, and none quite capture this relaxed and real close kind of feeling that you're getting (you're only talking to me, right? ha ha). Even doing super technical geeky guitar stuff, it isn't boring. There is a good flow - and thanks to your wife. I've been married since 2001 and only by God's grace have we survived - through some tough, tough times - and we now have 4 kids, 4 dogs, and 3 cats (down from 7 - yikes), and 10 chickens :) Remember, your wife is always right, and you'll be fine. Argue til you're blue in the face and you'll have a cold night on the couch (again) - at least make up and appreciate all she does every day.
only been married two years but this is all spot on hahaha. Thank you again for the kind words and feedback.
@@NickyV Hope we can meet and hang out sometime. I know you are super busy. Happy 2 yrs, keep on going - you are blessed to have a loving and caring wife. We waited 5 yrs (long honeymoon), then we had our first child, our son who is now 18. We have 4 kids, but also had 4 miscarriages. Wife and family life is absolute best. We had fun our first 5 yrs, but honestly, after we started having kids, we never talk about or look at the pics from when it was just my wfie and I. now we have four kids, of which 3 are boys, 8, 10, 13 (daughter), and 18. Bye for now - have a great week.
@@vfam5860that’s fantastic man. We have our first on the way this coming January. Very excited. Thank you for sharing and take care man, if you are ever around shoot me a message through my site or instagram.
Really I usually set it and forget it. Nice to have your experience and insights into the mysterious knobbery. I have a G&L Comanche, a black gilmour strat and Casino to explore. Have been most an acoustic strummer and bass player so far it’s be3n fun
Hahaa I should have worked “knobbery” into the title. Love that!
Appreciate you checking the video out!
I have a strat style guitar I built after my carpal tunnel surgery to get back into playing that I moved the volume knob near the center pickup, and gave each pickup it's own tone control, with a Fender 'Greasebucket' tone circuit. When you turn the tone knobs to between 4 and 7, you get the effects you describe with each pickup. I also added an on/off mini toggle to the neck pickup, to get the Bridge/Neck setting of a Tele, and a Bridge/Middle/Neck setting like Brian May. It also has a ghost pickup for hum elimination hidden in the tremolo pocket.
It's a great studio/stage workhorse for when you're playing rough neighborhoods where you would never bring a 'real Fender' or'real Gibson'...
Nice man! Sounds like you have a Swiss Army knife of an axe there. Thanks for sharing and checking the video out!
Thank you Nicky. One simple but essential concept articulated perfectly. You are able to give more useful guitar information in any given 60 seconds than just about anyone else on UA-cam. No waffle, no bullshit, straight talk. Oh, and for anyone who thinks “that’s obvious”, it’s pretty incredible how many players, myself included, take sooooo long to fully investigate the tone permutations on any guitar. As the comments below will testify.
Man this is so kind of you to say. Really appreciate and thank you for the backup haha, some in the comments are a little harsh and I don’t want that discouraging others. Music is nothing but a good thing and thank you for the kind words.
That Tele just sounds SO good
Thanks! Hunted this one down after 15 years. It’s a freak for sure
Thanks for this.
I play a Tele thru a mesa boogie head & cabinet. I turned the bass knob way back several weeks ago from a previous video. Helped. Our lead singer likes the dirty sound, not full on overdrive. I’ll mess around with this info.
That’s great man! Glad it’s helpful and appreciated you listening to me ramble on here
@@NickyV Ya know…I just had a thought. I play a 99 Telecaster with hot Rodded pickups. I play through a Mesa boogie Filmore 50. I was using Stringjoy Orbitals 9’s. I changed strings last night to Stringjoy Signatures, 10’s. A big difference this morning.
I had to make a couple adjustments.
Have you ever talked about string choices?
If you have I missed the video somehow.
@@rondawnshelton5713 I haven't done a video on that subject yet. I use elixir 10s on most of my electrics. They last about a year for me an other brands last maybe a week before I rust through them. On acoustic I change my mind every time I change my strings and slip flop back and forth between brands.
For me video best moment is awesome sounding classical music chord chains from telecaster!
Haha nobody makes it that far. I wrote a whole album of that two and three part counterpoint stuff a few years back but it’s for the deep nerd dive haha
Thanks
You got it! Thanks for watching
I’ve gotten around the tele pickup problem by replacing the selector with a blend knob. So “0” on the knob is all bridge, “5” is the middle position, and “10” is all neck. That really gives you that four knob control like you had on the Gibson but keeps the simplicity of the tele controls. Might check that mod out. I absolutely love it and will ride on like the “2” to give me a lot of bridge but adding just a bit of neck to fill out the sound.
Nice! That’s killer, might have to check that out
Great video❤
Thanks babe
Great video. I've been playing badly for 20yrs...did not know some of this stuff. Just tone all the way down on p-90 neck for Slash/Gilmour and tone all the way up on tele bridge for Albert Collins/Roy Buchanan. Now with this video, I can showcase my crappy playing in even more different shades of tones, lol...shades of crappiness...great!!!
Hahaha this comment got me. But the fact you know Buchanan puts you ahead of most. Appreciate you checking the video out!
Tres bien merci! 🍀✌️
You got it! Thanks for watching
Great advice!! I use the tone knob roll off (Justin trick) with the middle position all the time! I tried it one day beacuse my bridge was too bright. Great trick!!
Nice man, amazing what cracking a few knobs can bring out of the same rig
Done! I just subscribed. Excellent!
Right on! Hope you enjoy the content.
I love the sound of the bridge pickup on a Strat when it’s warmer and thicker. I cut the tone down to 4 or 5 and sometimes bump the volume down to 9 just barely past full on. With the volume up on the amp it starts to pickup completely different overtones and gives a slight cocked wah or the Jeff Beck effect.
100% that’s where the magic lives on most of them.
Nicky, you are an amazing person. Thanks for your time.
You are too kind. So glad you enjoyed it!
With all 2 strats 1st thing I do is have 3 on off switches installed as soon as I buy them-being doing this since 1979...gives me HEAPS of pickup combinations. All 3 pickups on virtually reproduces Mark Knofflers sound on Sultans. I also like the bridge and neck pickup on together.
Nice man. I haven’t heard of that one yet. Sounds cool
@@NickyV Well my 1st Strat only had a 3 position switch and I thought only 3 positions plus in be-tweens? Madness! I immediately thought 3 on and off switches would be way better than the dull only 3 position switch and I a s SO RIGHT. Did that with my 2 strats AND my Gibson SG 3 pickup-never looked back-all have the 3 on and off switches taken from Fender Jazzmaster. parts U can buy Looks VERY neat.. One wld think there would be HEAPS of this configuration on U Tube but I can't even find one and i am no genius!
@@DerekEvans-j9j Thats killer. Strange that its not more popular or known. Thank you for sharing!
Common mods that I do in my shop for Strats and Teles:
Strats:
- Wire Tone 1 for Neck and Middle, wire Tone 2 for Bridge only. A lot of Strats don’t have a tone control for the bridge pickup from factory. It’s the pickup that needs it most.
- Replace Tone 2 with a Blender, enabling neck/bridge or all 3 pickups on in variable combos. Excellent sounds. Tone 1 becomes a global tone for all 3 pickups.
- Freeway 10-way switch for Strat. Lots of extra tones. May be too many choices for some. I have one Strat set up with a Freeway, the other four of mine with Blenders.
- Treble Bleed… helps with preserving high end for those of us who use our guitar volume as our main gain stage.
Tele:
- 4-way switch replaces the 3-way for extra series pickup setting. Requires a second ground for the neck pickup (separate coil from cover) but looks completely traditional. Way better than a humbucker in the neck to my ears. I’ve done this to two of my Teles (and countless clients’) and love it.
- Change pot values. Use a 500k tone pot and a 250k volume. Experiment. It can open up a darker Tele or going down to 250k can warm up a Tele that’s too bright.
- Treble Bleed… helps with preserving high end for those of us who use our guitar volume as our main gain stage. I see benefits to using one but understand if people embrace the darker tones at lower volumes.
And don’t be afraid to experiment with string gauges, saddle alloys/materials, nut materials, swap pickups, cap values, etc. It all adds up.
I’ve probably tired a good handful of the mods you mentioned. The more I’ve gotten into the studio side of the spectrum and away from live I seem to mod less. And sometimes taste just change. It’s nice to have access to all the information around mods because I’ll probably cycle back to it before I can’t play someday hahaha.
Thank you for sharing and watching the video!
For soloing, I’m always looking for the thicker tone with some sustain. That silky smooth tone. To me that’s the sweet spot. For intros I’m wide open on the bridge and I roll off the volume for the verses, back up for a chorus, if not all the way up.
The never ending battle of what’s cutting verses what’s inspiring under the hand. Thanks for watching!
@@NickyVthanks for the pro tips
@@repetitivemotion You got it!
Hey Nicky just wanted to say thanks for your video on tone. After listening and paying closer attention to my sound, I found that I was indeed using too much equalization and too much gain on my overdrive channel. Thanks again for the tips, Jay
You got it Jay, appreciate the feedback and thanks for watching man!
Thanks for the tips, I have a G&L ASAT with humbucker in the neck position. The tone sweep on the guitar is really wide, and it almost seems intuitive to ride the tone knob.
Nice man. Appreciate you checking out the video!
lot of questions answered, superb thank you
Killer! So glad it was helpful!
Didn't know your channel, heard the intro, saw the shell pink strat, instant sub!
Hahha thanks! So glad you enjoy it and thanks for the sub!
Great video! I've been playing professionally for 50 years, and although I guess I kinda knew some of this, I never use it! I will now though ... Thanks
Killer man, so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching
Thanks for the very helpful tips on using the pickup controls. I discovered the middle position with the neck pickup rolled back a long time ago searching for the Dickey Betts sound. For me it remains a go to setting for lead on any 2 hum buck guitar. I am working on using the tone knob more across the board so this video was very helpful!
Love hearing that. So glad you enjoyed the video!
I like your delivery Nicky...keep it up you're good
Very kind of you, appreciate you watching!
Love your vibrato man. Great video
Thanks!!! Appreciate you watching
How is your strat trem set up, and what are the pickups, very nice tones and bending.
Thanks! There’s a trick to angling the springs in the back to make them stay in tune and when I pull the bar all the way up the G strings goes a whole step and the B string goes a half step. Learned it from Carl Verheyen at the Musicians Institute. Basically it balances the string tension.
The pickups are whatever stock 60s custom shop pickups came with it. They are very un-stratty sounding strat pickups haha
Good video and good playing. Getting the knobs on a amp would be helpful. It might be really simple, but for we 'low volume level players' its sometimes difficult to get a good tone. Cheers!
I actually did a video a few weeks back on dialing in an amp. To get the edge of breakup thing I have in this video at lower volume you could just put a subtle low to medium gain overdrive in front of your amp. Not quite the same as a cranked amp but gets it in the ballpark :)
Awesome video. Thank you.
Absolutely! So glad dig it.
Nicky, Im building a tele and Im going to buy the tele pickups you recommend from your links to help out a bit. I really enjoy your down to earth, Im not the man attitude. Really like the teaching also, even if I still suck at playing.
That’s so kind of you man, really appreciate it and so glad you enjoyed the video. Best of luck with the Tele build! Please report back once you get it finished up and check out those pickups
The “best” Strat mod regarding the bridge single being shrill AF is to rewire your tone knob to only that pickup and roll back to 60%-ish like you did. You don’t need a tone knob for your neck pickup unless your chasing Santana/Clapton “woman tone”. And if you have a two tone knob Strat then you’re all set. The other no cost trick is to lower the treble side of the bridge pickup and raise the bass side (Or lower adjustable pole pieces). Last you can buy a reverse angle pickguard (like Hendrix) with the treble side tilted away from bridge and neck toward bridge.
Stellar advice and spot on! I’m surprised we don’t see the revere angled bridge pickup more.
This is great stuff- Thanks for taking the time to do these.
I’ve seen some country Tele players reverse the control plate so selector switch is in rear-then tone then volume front.
Do you have any thoughts on this? I find myself on the knobs quite a bit and it would be nice to get there w pinky.
Thanks again!
I did the reverse plate for a few years but for some reason gravitated back to the standard configuration. Probably because I need the tone knob more than the volume knob and didn’t want the pickup selector next to it.
Great information.
Thanks for checking the video out!
Useful hints. Do I see you adjust tone on the Strat mid PU using the lower tone knob? On my Strat the upper tone knob (or middle knob) serves both neck and middle pickup. So any tone changes on the mid PU you have to apply using the upper tone knob.
Yes, I have the bridge and middle pickup on the lower tone knob. Modern stock wiring might be different...I'm not sure.
I like to have the tone knob option for the bridge pickup on a Strat. For certain things I like the wide open tone of that pickup but sometimes it's too harsh. Dialing it back to around 7 removes some of the excessive treble and rounds it out making it way more musical and usable for certain things especially when playing Rock stuff with overdrive where you want a thicker tone..
Absolutely, that simple wiring mod is an absolute must for me. Appreciate you checking the video out!
Nicky you da man. Awesome video. I want to play hooky from work now and try out your Gibson EQ sweep trick from 9:15 on my Les Paul.
Hahaha right on man. Call in sick…it’s just rock and roll
I discovered the utility of the vol knob reduction for altered tones.. but sometimes the treble rolls off too much.. So I added a tone bleed to the vol know. But then that takes away the more even vol control.. making it ultra sensitive towards the lower numbers.. and then between 3 and 10.. almost no difference.. Hard to have the cake and eat it.. (I can never leave anything alone! ;-) ) Ill just sit back and learn something! Thanks!
Thank you for sharing that. I don’t have tone bleeds on any guitars. I like the volume knob being as even as possible and if I need to lower the volume and not lose treble I just use my volume pedal. I like the way a traditional volume knob interacts with overdrives and cranked amps
@@NickyV I was thinking of trying a Linear pot instead of a Audio taper.. just for fun.. Also. my low budget Ernie ball volume pedal seems to suffer the same fate in that it cuts treble as the volume lowers. Was thinking of trying a treble bleed on that too..
Some guitars come with it in place.. like PRS..
Either way.. the lesson here is the use of the volume knob.. and its a pro move.. (not that I am a pro) just a guy in a band.
Thanks!
@@mg43472 Right on man :) All good and so glad you enjoyed the video.
Super helpful and useful video, thank you! I haven't mod'ed my strat so the tone nob works on my bridge pickup. I will look into it.
Thanks man, so glad you enjoyed it! It’s a pretty simple mod :)
Thanks Nicky, great channel.
Killer! Appreciate you checking it out
Fantastic stuff! My own approach to the Strat bridge pickup was always to--think of it as/make it at least as useful as--the bridge position on a Tele. Yes, this may mean a bit of a compromise here or there on your other Strat sounds, but if/when you go for (or find yourself) on the bridge pu with the vol & tones maxed, you won't be bumming out. Seems obvious, but if you tame/shape the highs and dial in some throat for the bridge position (so that when flat out, it gets your attention without being unacceptable) then the rest are going to sound great too. Also, I can't recall seeing 335 like that, with LP-style crown inlays...? Gotta research it now! 😉😄
Right on man! The 335 is a one off weird custom job.
Useful information! I like the tip for rolling off the tone just a bit to counter the shrill notes way up on the neck.
Do you leave the tone on 8 all the time or just roll it down when you move up the neck?
It usually just depends on the part I'm tracking. Live I'm riding it the whole gig usually.
Nice video!
Thanks! So glad you enjoyed it and appreciate you watching.
My comment is on a little bit different subject. I watch numerous videos and they will have very awesome sounding gain and turn their volume down to seven and it cleans it up almost to where you don’t hear the distortion. I’ve tried numerous compressors. How do you get this to where there is no loss of volume just clean up?
Man I honestly don’t know on that one. If you turn the volume down, you are going to lose some volume but gain some clarity which might be perceived as louder. Sorry I don’t have a more insightful take on that one.
@@NickyV thank you for your input. Maybe it’s more of the digital stuff that keeps it consistent. Which I’m not a big fan of thank you for your time.👍🏻
@@mikecyr1108you got it man. Might be a contributing factor
You need to be running hot and loud to get the most from this in my experience. Depends on the amp and your guitar wiring as well. Dial things up with more gain / drive than you need, so that just rolling off the volume a hair has you where you want to live. Normally this will give you a decent range of clean-ish to drive to control from the pot, with a little extra on tap when you want to run things wide open. YMMV. Hope this helps 👍
@@toddnearythanks for jumping in man. Love that people in the comments help eachother out.
The Strat part was helpful with the bridge pickup. It’s interesting to me that you didn’t utilize the middle position on the Tele at all. One thing I like to do in a Gibson, is to set the bridge wide open, and mix in the neck pickup to taste.
Ya I’m not sure, for some reason I don’t find myself using the knobs on the Tele middle. That bringing in the neck pickup to taste trick is the money. Thanks for watching
Nice job. Subscribed.
That strat has its thing going on, nails the radio country sound with the setup you're running.
I'm guessing you've got things dialed in for tracking tones by the sound of it. An idea for a future video might be how to tweak things for live versus studio.
Good luck and success with the channel. 👍
Thanks man! Appreciate the kind words. Might have to do a video on that. This Strat kind of has its own thing going for sure. Its a very un-straty strat haha
@@NickyV- Rock strat thing, funky cleans, etc. A lot of separation between distinct tones.
@@NickyV- If you mentioned it I didn't catch it... doesn't happen to have an ash body by any chance does it? Or is it super light?
@@toddnearyit’s actually on the heavier side…alder. Never play live anymore really so doesn’t bother me.
@@NickyV- More trying to get a better handle on what it has going on. Those pickups and the Archer really seem to do something different, with a big shift when you switch to great sounding cleans.
Love this channel! Anything that inspires me to pick up an instrument and play better and experiment is a positive thing. Once I started playing better guitars and especially vintage Fender tube amps I noticed that the knobs actually do stuff. For years I played a Fuzzrite style fuzz, which does not roll off the volume that well, but recently started playing an Analogman Sunface BC183 (based on and old Fuzz Face) and gosh that thing cleans up nice when I roll off the guitar volume. Tons of new tonal possibilities there. I used to think having all the knobs all the way up is the way to go, and this will work on Silvertones and Danelectros, but Fender knobs have quite a range. My fave Tele has a Broadcaster bridge pickup (with a no-load tone control that sends the PU straight to the output) that I play on all the time. I've had about 5 different neck pickups and have not liked any of them. I also have a '60s Baja Tele MIM that has great vintage style pickups that blend really well and I play that one on the neck a lot more and it really nails that Steve Cropper tone. Thanks for the genuine, honest and accessible content. Don't be afraid to mess with those knobs!
Man thank you for sharing this and I’m with you. Some Guitars and pedals just react differently and inspire us differently. Appreciate you checking the channel out and thank you for the kind words!
I’m 61 yrs old and just realized that with the bridge pu on a strat. Am I a slow learner? No. I’m a damn slow learner. Honestly, I came off allot of acoustic work. Plug in my strat and kind of reworked all my tone starting with everything off and moving everything up slowly. Maybe you younger guys can listen to this gentleman and get a huge head start.
Appreciate the kind words man. A lot of this stuff just takes time to figure out.
Don't beat yourself up too bad, this stratocaster is modded for the tone control on the bridge pickup isolated. They don't generally come that way. Generally, the only way to effect the tone on a bridge pickup is actually position 4 which makes it share the current with the middle pickup which is where the tone capacitor is from the factory. So, the only reference is a non reference saying something about not talking about amps, effect mods or whatever. The strat demonstration of the tone control on the bridge pickup is bound to have many many stratocaster owners either confused or thinking maybe something is wrong with their guitar. A quick search will show you a bunch of examples of how to modify the wiring to accomplish this. And I can't really believe that stratocasters default wiring is the way it is. But....
@ Gotcha. I have a '60 reissue. It seams the tone nob is definitely responsive in the bridge pu position. It's like a hole new guitar for me. Thanks again.
NICKY V, make a video lesson about using the tone knobs for TRICKS you can do using overdrive pedals or compressor pedal by using the guitars tone knobs. Also try to include which rock guitar players use the tone knobs on the guitar to do TRICKS with
I’m honestly not sure on who uses what. Would have to do some research for that one. The Clapton “Woman Tone” trick is pretty iconic but already covered quite a bit
@@NickyV Slash November rain solo uses his trademark woman tone which not sure how he gets that November rain solo tone.
@@NickyV Santana also rolls down the tone control on his PRS listen to all the Santana albums using his gibson SG P90 rolls back the volume knob often with the tone knobs rolled down
@@waynegram8907one of my favorite solos of all time.
I love your tone. Great video man. I am your new subscriber.
Thanks man! Much appreciated and so glad you enjoyed the video.
Great stuff and well presented! All very useful. Nice chops BTW. And as we all know, never, ever under estimate the players contribution to tone.
Very kind of you to say man. So glad you enjoyed it and thanks for checking the video out.
"Too much contrast between the neck and bridge". Yes, indeed. I call the Tele 'a one pickup guitar with two pickups' for that very reason. Meaning that only one is going to work properly sound-wise with the amp settings you have dialed up at any given moment. My solution was to connect the tone control to the bridge pickup only. I also remove the covers from my neck pickups. Some will prefer that, some won't, but it works for me.
Right on man! It’s definitely a bit of a hurdle but hard to beat them when they are dialed in. Thanks for sharing!
Great tips. What pickups are you running in those guitars?
Strat is whatever stock custom shops came in it, Throbaks in the 335 wound to my buddies specs, Tele has DiMarzio Area Ts (hot T in the bridge). Appreciate you checking the video out man!
Thanks for the info! Do you have any recommendations on studio monitors for my office that is about 10x12 for enjoying playing guitar through when I need to be a hint quieter than my tube amps? Which ones do you use?
I use Yamaha HS5’s. Very happy with them for my needs :)
Great video man
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it
All fascinating stuff. I'm sitting here with my Epi SG following along w/you. It only has one volume and one tone (Like a Tele) and I can't imagine the pickups are any account from what I paid for it. But I'm hearing what you're talking about, definitely.
If (like me) a player has a "Les Paul" style guitar with only one each of a volume and tone knob, how would you modify your approach to deal with that?
If you are on a less Paul with one tone knob and one volume knob I would just use the volume knob to clean up your amp a bit if needed or provide a bit more clarity. Then if you wanted to have full on punch but a little more body on the bridge pickup you could crack the tone knob back a bit. The neck pickup with the tone rolled off and a fuzz trick would would probably translate as well.
One tip for a more usabel Strat. Get one with HSS pups. My Strat on the humbucker bridge is a total different instrument...
Haha right on, got one of each.