Halp! Guitar settings question - pickup, tone, etc

[rivid]

So I just bought my first guitar ever to go with this game. It's this thing:
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Squier-Bullet-Strat-with-Tremolo-104494315-i1385540.gc

And my god, there's so many knobs and levers. My question is, where should my tone be at (I have two tone knobs), where should my volume be at (I've been playing at max), and where should my pickup be at? My pickup is broken down to:

Position 1. Bridge Pickup
Position 2. Bridge and Middle Pickup
Position 3. Middle Pickup
Position 4. Middle and Neck Pickup
Position 5. Neck Pickup

I'm clueless, so any advice would go a long way! (PS wtf do pickup positions even mean)

[givemeanamedammit]

Keep the volume up at 10, the game responds best that way. Same with both tones, really.

What the pickup positions mean...

The angled pickup is in the bridge position, because it's closest to your guitar's bridge. The one nearest the neck is the neck pickup because... well, you see where this is going, right?

They are wired up so that the selector switch can send the signal from any one of the individual pickups to the output, or a combination of bridge/mid or neck/mid. They'll all sound slightly different, so if you use the tone designer in game, you'll be able to play around with it and see what I mean.

[caldaar]

First. Congrats on your new guitar! For playing on the game I usually suggest to stay away from Tremelos, but that is only cause they take a little more practice to tune. And no, I am not saying return it... just take a little time to learn how to tune it perfectly.

Ok, now on the pickups, volume, and tones.

First, most people tend to have the best experiance in the game having the selector switch set to the bridge pickup... and having the volume and tone knobs set to full... or close to it.

When you plug the guitar into an amp... that is where the pickup selector, volume, and tone knobs really come into play.

Now on what do those do? Here is the best explaination I can give. And I am sure there are people that will correct me.

For the pickup selector:

If you think about it, when you pick a string... The string will vibrate back and forth... with the most vibration in the middle of the string, and the least amount of vibration closer to where the string connects to the guitar. Each pickup is positioned in different spots and depending on the postion it will get more vibration from the strings, or less providing slightly different sounds due to the amount of vibration.

Now, those sounds you can adjust with the volume and tone knobs:

The volume, of course can make it loud or quiet. The loudest setting, gives you the full sound of the guitar.

Now, the tone knobs. Those affect the tone of the pickup in combination with the volume. If you have the guitar at full volume... the tone knobs have little affect on the sound. But when you have the volume really low, those tone knobs can make some major changes in the sound of the guitar. Two tone knobs, each controlling one of the pickups, giving you the option of combining two different sounds on one guitar.


Here is a video that will show a little of what you can do with those:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee70FmzMkiU

[caldaar]

Btw... I would strongly suggest to have a shop do a full setup on the guitar. I know it is new, but they do get bounced around during shipping and while at the store. And the quick look over that the sales person does, is not the same as a full setup.

I learned that the hard way. When I bought mine, sales person played a few notes. Said yup, everything looks good. And when I got it home to play RS, I had tons of problems. I was about ready to return it. Did a quick check myself and the intonation was off, the action didn't look right.... Took it to another shop for a full setup... when I got it back... it was like wow, this sounds and works great!

[rivid]

You rock, thanks for all the advice, guys! The pickup explaination in particular was huge. I'm gonna mess around, see what feels best.

[SLAVA UKRAINI]

When you are not very experienced with guitar I'd say keep to the neck pickup, so with the pick up switch away from you. And as the other people said I advise keeping all the dials turned to 11. This is the most used setup for rythm guitar and will also work for riffing and solos just fine.

Constantly adjusting the settings on the guitar is only something very seasoned guitar players tend to do, most of us just pick a setting that works and maybe switch to the neck pickup for a solo or clean part, that's it.

If you play strat and want a Jimi tone, try combining the bridge and middle pickup, that is a setting he often used for clean parts.

And good luck playing guitar! Have fun and remember to wash your hands after playing, the metal from the strings is toxic. I also advise to do some warmup exercises before you start rocking with Rocksmith, just play a chromatic scale (every single note) up and down slowly and then speed it up for a few mins to avoid hurting your fingers.

[edit] Here is a youtube video that shows chromatic scale warmup exercises:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO4GaF4uTeI

One more tip: to avoid your guitar going out of tune all the time when tuning your guitar always tune down below where the pitch should be, then bend the string a couple of times and end with tuning up. If you tune up too far repeat the process.