Something I haven't seen talked about yet. Tone knobs!

[Voden]

Hey guys,

So I'm digging Rocksmith like most everyone else, but as I get more interested in what my bass can do, I realized that I don't really have any idea how to use the tone knobs. Normally I either have them all set to zero, or I crank them all the way up.

Anyways, I'm reading up on them now, but has anyone actually used theirs in Rocksmith, or do the amp effects in each song kind of cancel out the need to bother with them?

My bass is an Ibanez SR400QM, and has three tone knobs, if anyone needs to know. :P

[tautologico]

The amp effects don't cancel your tone knob and pick-up selector settings, although the effect in the end is the same but you'll notice variations in the sound if you change settings.

My experience is mostly on the 6-string, although I have been playing a bit of bass now thanks to Rocksmith. At least for guitar some effects work better with some kinds of pickup (bridge or neck). Also, most of the time you don't want to set the tone knobs to 0 because it sounds bad. I usually set the tone knobs to around 7-8 in my guitar, I think it's where the pickups sound better, and I don't change them much. I select for different sounds (for lead or rhythm for example) by changing pickups.

My bass is a simple Ibanez RBX with three knobs. One of them is the master volume, the other is a combination of tone knob and pickup selector, the third one I'm not sure what it does :)

[tautologico]

Just found out that the knob I though was tone and pickup selector is just a pickup balance knob, it selects how much from each pickup is mixed in the sound. The third knob is really the tone knob. I think all Ibanez bass guitars with two pickups have this pickup balancer, so your configuration must be similar: volume, pickup balance and tone are probably the 3 knobs in your bass. The pickup balancer has a "stop" in the middle of its range, it's the point where pickups are mixed 50%-50%.

[Joris]

Is that really a knob? Most of the times that I know of it's a switch that selects which pickup to use.

Most Gibson-style guitars for example have a switch for it, but two separate volume controls for the two pickups. So you set the switch to use both, and then tweak with the 2 volume knobs what you want of which pickup.

Having a crossfader-style knob for the pickups is new to me.. but then again, I know little of bass guitars.

[givemeanamedammit]

The tone control basically filters out a range of frequencies coming from the pickup, depending largely on the resistance of the pot, and the size of capacitor used.
As a general rule, rolling back to 0 results in a bassier sound, and up at 10 is treblier.

[Just]

If you role a guitar back to 0 that has more than 1 pickup and a pickup selector you mute the guitar. Rocksmith won't pick it up and will tell you the cable is not plugged in... I did that on accident once. :-p

Those knobs matter little with the game. The game auto tunes through the built in AMP for each song. Though it will make a difference, it doesn't make NEAR the difference it does on a real AMP.

[Azrael]

As al_ide said, the tone knob actually controls the frequency of your pickups. Basically it's going to allow you to adjust the bass to treble range. Since this control comes straight form the guitar, it will actually make an impact on the sound of the guitar in game. Turning it all the way up or down doesn't make a difference so long as it is actually the tone knob, and not the volume knob (which I'm guessing is what Justiful was referring to, or he's got some faulty hardware on his guitar).

As for bass guitars, if there isn't an actual switch (which some bass guitars do not have) then yes, it will be a crossfading knob. It actually gives you a lot more control on the tone you're producing.

[⛧Hexenritter⛧]

I've always avoided messing with my tone knob because why would I want to reduce my guitar tone? Besides, I never really notice much of an appreciable difference faffing around with it.

[Riavan]

NFI what the knobs do on my thunderbird, I assume one for each pickup and one for volume?

[Voden]

I think you'll have anywhere between 2-5 knobs. One is volume, the others control the pickup balance (one or two knobs) and tone (usually 2 or 3 knobs). My Ibanez bass has 5 total knobs... volume, pickup balance, and a knob each for low, mid, and high tones. On my old epiphone, i have three knobs. One is volume, and the other two control the volume for each of the two pickups.

I'm not sure how many knobs you have on your thunderbird, but usually just looking it up online at Guitar Center or the Gibson/Epiphone site will tell you more.

[BLOODTOXIC75]

tone knob is simple all the way clockwise you have a clean clean tone turning counter clockwise the tone usually gets warmer muddier or muffed a bit
some guitars and basses dont even support a tone knob anymore as many dont use it except to warm the tone which can all be done via your fx gear or via a pickup selecter switch

[Riavan]

Griffin původně napsal:

I think you'll have anywhere between 2-5 knobs. One is volume, the others control the pickup balance (one or two knobs) and tone (usually 2 or 3 knobs). My Ibanez bass has 5 total knobs... volume, pickup balance, and a knob each for low, mid, and high tones. On my old epiphone, i have three knobs. One is volume, and the other two control the volume for each of the two pickups.

I'm not sure how many knobs you have on your thunderbird, but usually just looking it up online at Guitar Center or the Gibson/Epiphone site will tell you more.

Yeah, cheers, I only have 3, so I figured 2 pup's + volume is what It is, I have not found the gibson/epi site to be very informative, lol.

[BLOODTOXIC75]

Most 4 know setups is individual vol ffor each pickup and individual tome knobs for likewise. such as in gibsons and epi's sometimes when i flick the pickup selector volume goes quiet because i have the second know all the way down but some maybe wired differently especially depending on pickups altogether. i had a gibson Sg goth once with a seymorduncan dimebag pickup that gave distortion woth no pedal and was wired to a know for saturation and gain. so there at the bridgeis really no right or wrong answer as it depends who wired the instrument