A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

Last night I sat in on a jazz gig with my new Monoprice amp—I was having some difficulty dialing in my tone, and in the light of this morning I figured out why …
It appears there is no standard layout for EQ knobs on different brands of amp!
My Fender Acoustasonic 40 is laid out L-R Bass, Mid, Treble but my Fender Mustang III and Monoprice are both Treble, Mid, Bass.
I surfed the interwebs and found out there is no consistency, even among amps from the same manufacturer!

It’s gonna be fun when I take two different amps on a gig, just as unsettling as switching between my Guild T100D and my other guitars, all off which (apart from Tele and superstrat) have standard "Gibson" layout for tone and volume knobs. To my mind the Guild is more logical, front knobs for neck pickup, back knobs for bridge …

I guess there are worse problems in life, but "sheesh!"

What say you all?

That's similar to the fun of being a lefty. It seems pots can be made lefty, but seldom are, and sometimes don't work correctly if you try to wire them as such. The net result is that one would have to buy a boatload of pots if they found a consistently good truly lefty offering, and rewire all their guitars. Instead, every time I pick up a guitar, I test the pots to see which direction has what effect before actually playing the guitar.

BatUtilityBelt wrote: ↑Mon Dec 11, 2023 1:23 pm That's similar to the fun of being a lefty. It seems pots can be made lefty, but seldom are, and sometimes don't work correctly if you try to wire them as such. The net result is that one would have to buy a boatload of pots if they found a consistently good truly lefty offering, and rewire all their guitars. Instead, every time I pick up a guitar, I test the pots to see which direction has what effect before actually playing the guitar.

I had been playing for at least 10 years before I learned that "lefty pots" actually existed, so I've never worried about it.

I'd be floundering around in the dark no matter what. Just have to fully turn the knob to hear what they do, then set it. Audience be damned.

One could use differing colored tape to denote differences. Blue /red/ white ought to be discernible.

I get that 'muscle memory' confusion when I play some PRS guitars that have 4 knobs, but are not oriented like a Gibson.

Instead of being Neck Volume-Tone on tope and Bridge Volume-Tone on bottom, they are like Bridge Volume - Neck Volume on top and Bridge Tone- Neck Tone on the bottom. Very confusion, to the point I could never go from one to the other in a gig.

andrewsrea wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 6:24 pm I get that 'muscle memory' confusion when I play some PRS guitars that have 4 knobs, but are not oriented like a Gibson.

Instead of being Neck Volume-Tone on tope and Bridge Volume-Tone on bottom, they are like Bridge Volume - Neck Volume on top and Bridge Tone- Neck Tone on the bottom. Very confusion, to the point I could never go from one to the other in a gig.

The 330 Rickenbacker I have is neck/bridge volume on the bottom (the bridge being furthest back) and neck/bridge tone on the top. I recently played it for the first time in couple years, had forgotten the layout and it was "Damn it, something else broken I've got to add to the fix list"

tobijohn wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 7:27 pm

andrewsrea wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 6:24 pm I get that 'muscle memory' confusion when I play some PRS guitars that have 4 knobs, but are not oriented like a Gibson.

Instead of being Neck Volume-Tone on tope and Bridge Volume-Tone on bottom, they are like Bridge Volume - Neck Volume on top and Bridge Tone- Neck Tone on the bottom. Very confusion, to the point I could never go from one to the other in a gig.

The 330 Rickenbacker I have is neck/bridge volume on the bottom (the bridge being furthest back) and neck/bridge tone on the top. I recently played it for the first time in couple years, had forgotten the layout and it was "Damn it, something else broken I've got to add to the fix list"

I immediately thought of my Rickenbacker 4003. I'm only just now starting to be able to adjust it without looking at the layout all the time!