Demystifying Guitar Amplifier Controls
If you’re an electric guitar player or even an acoustic electric guitar player and you want to use an amp you’ve got to know how it works or your sound will be sub-par. The good news is it isn’t hard at all to get a basic understanding of them.
Amplifier controls can be quite tricky and intimidating at first. Things like gain, overdrive, or even the EQ knobs are not something everyone is born knowing. This article is just going to touch on the basics. Since there are many different amp set ups it would take quite a while to get to them all, but this will give you a great understanding of some very universal concepts.
Let’s take a look at a basic and very common amplifier control setup.
In our first example there is a POWER SWITCH. This is pretty much on everything. Turn it on.
Next there is a STANDY SWITCH. This appears on tube powers amplifiers. Tube amps have a big and rich sound which has been treasured by almost every seasoned guitar player since they first became available. Tube amps need to warm up, so you can turn the amp on and wait a minute to turn on the standby switch. It is also very useful when you aren’t suing the amp for a short while, you can turn the standby off temporarily.
The MASTER section contains VOLUME and TONE CUT. The volume is simple, loud and quiet. The tone cut will dull the tone or how it sounds when you turn it counterclockwise. These controls effect both the normal and Top Boost channels. More on that below.
The TREMOLO and REVEBS are effects. Not all amps have these, but they are common. Tremolo gives it a cool wavering effect and reverb makes it sound like you are playing in a big empty room. Playing with the effect knobs is safe since they don’t effect the volume. Twist and turn them to get the desired sound you like. Other amps, especially newer amps have a lot of effect options. It can be a lot of fun to experiment with these funky sounds.
Next up is the TOP BOOST. This is unique to Vox, but other amps have similar things. This is a different channel which gives you more extreme sounds and control. The BASS & TREBLE when turned up increase those specific frequencies. This is what is known as EQ. Often amps like the Fender Twin pictured below have a middle control. The more controls you have the
more you can shape the sound to your preference.
The Vox also have another volume at the end for the normal setting. As you can see on the right there are 2 input jacks you can use to get different sounds.
The Fender Twin Mini pictured below. Is much smaller and very simplified version on the Fender Twin. It does not have specific EQ knobs such as bass, middle, and treble. But it does have a tone knob. This is the same as the tone cut knob on the Vox. It is a general tone shaping knob which allows you to add or remove bass or treble. It is very limited, but for a simple practice amp it does the job.
Another common control knob you will see on the Fenders and many other guitar amplifiers is GAIN. This is also known as overdrive. The gain compresses the sound and ads distortion which is very cool. But be very careful. When you turn up the gain, the volume will go up, so turn your volume down quite a bit before turning up the gain. Then after you get the amount of distortion you prefer turn the volume up to what you want. This will take a little time to get
used to, but not long.
So, now you have the basic idea of how many common electric guitar amps work. I highly recommend you spend an hour playing with the knobs and testing different combinations. Once you get it how you like it take a photo so you don’t forget the settings.