Tone knobs

Hey yall. Kind of a moronic question here, but how much affect does monkeying with the tone knobs really have? Ive always just had mine turned most the way up, (I think a lot of people play with em like that) I dont get a chance to play at high volumes much either and I dont know if that would make a difference in the "tone" sounds.
When I have toyed around with the knobs, I have never noticed a ton of difference, which is why I just pretty much keep em cranked. I wondered if anyone could elaborate on this subject a little, what do you do with your tone knobs? Thanks all!

Hey dude !

Welcome to GT !

Tone knobs, well it depends on Werther they are positioned before or after the preamp. Passive EQ before the pre will have a huge influence on volume, distortion ans EQ, pulling down your mids on a blues crunch amp with EQ before the pre can really clean up your tone.

However, it also depends on the amp and the way it is designed.

Death Metal / mid 80s metal usually relies on scooped mids and pumped top and bottom end which I cant say I'm that fond of.

Doc!! The most helpful man on the net you are!!
I was actually referring to the tone knobs on the guitar itself. The knobs on my amp have a great deal of affect on the sounds, thats clear. But the knobs on the guitar are not nearly as "obvious" when I muck with them. I just wondered how most people kept the knobs on the guitar itself. Maybe that was included in your response and I just have to read it over, Im kinda slow. Thanks man, good to hear from ya!

I must admit I never use mine, I have em all set in the treble full on pos and forget about them. Volume is another story and you can use it to change the way the amp responds to you and the point at which the signal brakes up...yummm !

It really depends on the guitar, the pick-ups and the way you set up your amp, just having a tone control in the guitars signal path actually takes a little top end off your pick-ups, it comes down to what do you want the tone controls to do, are they fine the way they are and you leave them turned up all the way, or do you desire to use them but they have little or no effect? Volume and Tone controls are very easy to customize, if you have any more questions, come down to the TECH TALK section of this forum.......

Cool, thanks Pstring!

I find that my tone knobs have a good deal of effect on my sound. But when i really notice it is between switching pick ups. When i go to neck i like to remove some tone and when i go bridge i like to add more tone. I also find that rythem/ solo is affected. But as most musicians have presets and stomp effects they kinda just get played out.