Tone Control?...I don't need no stinkin' tone control!

[JIO]

I did no volume, tone only

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Wow! You should start a tb thread!... "is anyone brave enough to only have a tone control?"

 

[gtirard]

I did no volume, tone only

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Original and interesting, what are the switches doing?

 

[subdude67]

Wow! You should start a tb thread!... "is anyone brave enough to only have a tone control?"

Tempting......

 

[subdude67]

Original and interesting, what are the switches doing?

The 2 between the pots are on/off switches, the lower ones are 3 way cap selectors.

 

[Yahboy]

Tone-less......

 

[Yahboy]

Bridge J pup work as well as tone knob ..... but , more useful on tonal shape than tone knob for me.

 

[Hawk256]

I never used a tone knob on passive basses in the respect that it was always wide open. No need for one on my basses but I really dig active controls now with a mid. Active bass and treble doesn't cut it for me anymore.

 

[Kijuer]

As far as I'm concerned, my ideal bass would have neither a tone knob or a volume knob. I've always had both maxed out and never, never, never needed to use different "settings". (Passive P bass)

 

[MtManiac]

I have my pickups wired directly to my amp’s input jack. Considering just wiring it directly to the auditory centre of my brain next. Wish me luck!

 

[Bassinthemudd]

I'm waiting for the guy who's such a purist he forgoes tone controls, volume controls, and the output jack. Anyone that brave?

Built in wireless. EQ at the head.

 

[Pedullist]

Stinkin'? Your tone could use some control, sir!

 

[micguy]

As far as I'm concerned, my ideal bass would have neither a tone knob or a volume knob. I've always had both maxed out and never, never, never needed to use different "settings". (Passive P bass)

We live in different worlds. At the start of the majority of my gigs, we swell in on the opening chord. I wouldn't get past the first note without a volume control.

 

[Guitalia]

The tone control was developed by Leo Fender as a way to know when to change your strings. With fresh strings, it is often necessary to roll the treble almost all the way off just to get an adequate bass tone. As the evening, tour, career progresses, and the freshness of your strings decrease, so does the tone pot increase. OHHHHmmmmmm.... Once you get the tone pot all the way open, and there is still more tone wanting, then and only then is it time to change your strings. Some players might never open the tone pot all the way, hence they never change their strings.
None of this is truth, but it also kinda is...

Since many TalkBass posters never read past the first sentence of any post, if that far, it'll be interesting to see this bit of musical misinformation propagate online.

 

[Bassinthemudd]

As far as I'm concerned, my ideal bass would have neither a tone knob or a volume knob. I've always had both maxed out and never, never, never needed to use different "settings". (Passive P bass)

You probably have 250k pots for both volume and tone. Your bass would sound quite different without them.

 

[brianrost]

I'm waiting for the guy who's such a purist he forgoes tone controls, volume controls, and the output jack. Anyone that brave?

I’m thinking about skipping the tuning machines and the bridge, too.

Seriously, when I play dB it’s just a piezo pickup straight into the amp…no controls. A lot of early AEGs and ABGs had no controls, either. Nowadys of course it’s common to have a preamp with EQ and even a tuner built-in.

 

[micguy]

I’m thinking about skipping the tuning machines and the bridge, too.

A big bucket, a broomstick, a piece of rope, and a small piece of lumber to tilt the thing will get you a bass that is (If you've never heard one) a lot more effective than you might think.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

To me the tone knob is the best part of the bass. I’m keeping mine. Different goals for different souls, or something like that.

 

[Stylee Mousse]

I’ve been thinking about this for a long time: could any of this have to do with tweeters in bass cabs?

I’m also a WFO controls guy. Playing bass-forward music genres through paper only cabs, I never wanted to darken the bass tone. That said I also never ran a treble boost button on my gk400rb, SVT or V4B. I always turned off any tweeter in a backline rig and wouldn’t allow bass in my monitors. I do play a high output passive.

so it’s probably habit at this point. I now work in my studio with my bass through a powered pa speaker most of the time and that’s what makes me think that in order to cop vintage sounds through bright rigs tone controls are useful?

 

[tb-player]

I need control… lots of control.

 

[groooooove]

I leave the volume and tone controls wide open on my P bass, and have since I bought it 50 years ago.

My question is whether the bass sounds different with the tone control removed than it does installed, yet unused?

Is there any sonic benefit to physically removing the tone control from the instrument?

there most certainly is!

now here's how i see it:

tone control installed but wide open, you are losing lets say 2-4% of the high end of that instruments output. these numbers are small, and truthfully most people with less experienced/careful ears, will not notice.

but that 2-4% is the most valuable. that' where the smallest details, the 'richness,' comes from.

I noticed an obvious improvement in tone when i removed the tone control from the 6 string i mentioned earlier. if you leave your tone wide open all the time, you'd probably be better off removing it from the circuit.

it's also very easy to leave the knob, disconnect it, and reinstall later should you choose to.