I've had this dumb question in my head for months so I'll just go ahead and ask it already. Being fairly new to playing (a year and a half) I've been wondering how to best use my amp. As most new players I had the volume control on my guitar cranked and the master volume at maybe 2 or 3 so that I don't piss off the neighbors or scare my kids at home. I then started rolling back the volume on the guitar and turning up the amp to control it that way and it gave me some different options as well. My playing occurs strictly in my basement at home so I don't have a chance to really let loose and crank it ever. That said I only have a Spider III 15w amp and even at 4 it's very loud. If I want to play loud I'm stuck with headphones. I envy everyone out there who gets to let loose with a stack. I guess my question would be what is the best way to control my volume to get the most out of my amp and guitar combo and get some good tone?

It really makes no difference with a solid state amp. A tube amp gets natural distortion through saturation. A SS amp can get it though modeling. If you crank a solid state amp to distortion it gets nasty.

Get a couple of decent pedals. Go to GC or Sam Ash early and sit down at the effects display and play. You can get some pretty big sounds at lower volumes with effects. You'll have some fun too.

I run my volume on my guitar wide open all the time, to maitain my tone, i set my amp where i want it, then back off the volume on the volume pedal on my board. i use an ernie ball jr, there are lots of great ones out there, like goodrich etc. I find that way i get all the same sounds with out the volume, you will loose some of that punch, but that just happens when u turn down no matter what, if u adjust ur compressor, assuming u use one, u can turn down the gain on it and set everthing else where u want it, or you can look at an attenuater(chk spl) they cut the volume with out cutting the tone...

hope these ideas help you

peace

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Interestingly enough, Not enough people experiment with their guitar volumes.

I can guarantee if you roll it down to 8 or 9 then you make the difference on the amp, you will actually get a better tone. I notice this anyway.

Furthermore, if your in a band situation and you have to rush a sound check then you start playing and your not loud enough, you can roll it up a bit without having to jump on over to your amp to have a fiddle.

Guitars have volumes for a reason =)

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You might consider a combination of a BBE Sonic Maximizer and a TS-808 "Tube Screamer" (or similar). You can get a more even tone this way and get solo grade sustain without the high volume. Even without the BBE, an OD or distortion pedal would help you with the volume issue.

Sweet! Thanks for the tips guys I'll have to start doing some shopping around and I'll keep on tweaking my set up.

i always gauge my volume and gain very often while playing by use of the guitar volume knob. luckily, the proportion between both elements works for what i need.

sometimes its best not to max out the guitar volume, especially with humbuckers. i've heard input stages on decent tube amps getting overwhelmed by the awesome output. in that case, you might have to treat "7" as your typical "10", and then up the vol. and gain, if applicable, on the amp just a tad. the ideal place to do that would be the power stage. this way movements on your guitar vol. are more drastic.
of course, there's always Input 2 if you got one. scooping the mids a tad before the amp also helps. in that case, you can forget this whole paragraph.



interesting. do volume pedals not have the treble bleed that tends to occur with guitar volume pots?

Another option but an expensive one would be to get a THD HotPlate. Haven't seen one in years and I'm not even sure if they still make them or not but they allow you to run any amp full bore and reduce volume to whatever you wish without affecting tone (much). The Marshall PowerBrake was similar but it was not nearly as good because it severely colored the tone. I knew a guy who ran a 100 watt Marshall half stack and he would cover his cabinet with 3 or 4 layers of heavy comforters and he'd run the amp loud without rattling the windows. That's a much cheaper solution but it does alter the tone considerably.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Simple way to look at it is use your Guitars volume control as what it was meant to be and that is a remote control for you amps volume control. That's why they both have them.I set My guitar near mid then set amp level where I want it and the adjust as I needed with My guitar.

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You can try what I did... talk to your neighbors. I went to mine and told them that if I'm too loud to give me a call before they call the cops. I also told them I would only play really loud in the afternoons and semi loud in the evening, and very low after 8. No complaints so far. One of my neighbors even said he didn't mind at all because it gives them something to listen too while they relax outside.

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interesting. do volume pedals not have the treble bleed that tends to occur with guitar volume pots?[/quote]

Not usually. That why a lot of people run the guitar flat out. Some guitars just get muddy.

Like I said, a SS amp just gets louder, it won't really get sweeter loke a tube amp. I tried an Electro Harmonix English Muffin a while back, it's a great distortion pedal and it's tube driven so you can play around with preamp tubes.
Big fun.

Pick up an original Marshall Guvn'or,it can give you lots of gain and wallop at bedroom volumes,you may get one on ebay for a decent price.Make sure you get the English made metal bodied one,the MIC one is plastic and although pretty good doesn't pack the punch of the metal one.

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I play thru a similar amp VOX VT15 and i set both amp volumes to 5 and then adjust the guitar volume mostly on 10 and the gain for what i'm playing and i'm happy with it unless im running effects then thats all different. Your amp should have presets so just experiment with it and reset the presets to your tastes and you should find a happy medium for everyone. Good Luck