The Tone Control

By The Tone Control

The Tone Control is a sometimes side-eyed look at the guitar world and making music! We talk about everything good, bad, smart, stupid, and weird about guitar gear and bring it to you every other Mond... more

4.9

1717 ratings

Download on the App Store

Download on the App Store

Get it on Google Play

FAQs about The Tone Control:

How many episodes does The Tone Control have?

The podcast currently has 339 episodes available.

The Tone Control episodes:

September 07, 2020Ep. 170 - I'm Used to the Dive
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/yy4brEM
PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/thetonecontrol
Happy seven year anniversary!
Seriously absolutely mega huge thank you to everyone for supporting the show for so long! We love the community that is growing around the podcast and we can't wait to share what we have in the works for the coming year. Cheers!!

Bass gear for guitarists? (stab: Analog Man SunFace)
Affordable options for gear (either amps or modeling)
“Options for the guitarist who is plenty far along and knows how things work but hasn’t spent time with a bass”

Why are we never satisfied with our signal chain? (stab: Killbyte delay)

Pedal Genie
MojoHand Rook $159

Top 5 things for boards, gig bags, shows, studio, etc? (stab: Wampler Latitude)

What gear do we each want to get? (stab: I forgot to do one, and it’s already late so… too bad!)
Not stuff from Pedal Genie, but what gear is on your wishlist?

Thank you to our Patreon supporters!
Brian Gower and Kyle McIntyre of The Tone Jerks Podcast

Andrew Walsh

Jamie Evans

Jeffrey Wright

Doug King

Sean Wright of Lollygagger FX

Doug Gann

Righteous Ryan Johnson

Doug Christ of Thirty7 FX

Steve Huffman

Jonas Sabatini

OG Friend of the show Brian Rizzi

Eric Girabaldi
...more
1h 29min
August 24, 2020Ep. 169 - They Should Have Called it the Vint-Ish Line
New stuff from Fender (stab: Keeley Aria)
Road worn vintera strat and tele
Vintera series has been out for a little bit (talked about in ep139)

Road worn series has some light factory aging which I think looks pretty cool!

Limited edition 50’s and 60’s strats and teles, a 70’s deluxe tele

50’s strat comes in surf green or fiesta red, 60’s strat in firemist gold or lake placid blue

50’s tele in vintage blonde or lake placid blue (both with black guards, hot)

70’s tele in daphne blue or Olympic white w/black guard

60 year anniversary Jazz Bass

Alder body, U shape maple neck with a 20-fret rosewood fingerboard.

Fretboard binding! Painted headstock! CHROME!

Concentric stacked pots

Arctic pearl with 4-ply tortoiseshell pickguard

Pedal Genie
Supro Delay - $219

MXR Phase 95 - $99
Wong Notes Podcast (stab: CB Sabbra Cadabra)
Cory Wong of Vulfpeck and The Fearless Flyers is hosting a podcast on Premier Guitar called Wong Notes

Interviews other guitarists and it’s really well done!

Episode 11 just dropped with James Valentine of Maroon 5.
Passthrough Frequencies Podcast (stab: WA Mayflower)
Hosted by Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World

Interviews musicians about music, songwriting, making albums, touring, etc

Mark Hoppus, Steve Aoki, Nate Ruess, Chris Carraba, and Ben Gibbard so far
...more
1h 5min
August 10, 2020Ep. 168 - Axel Rhoads is the Nicholas Cage of Music
This is the one where we barely talk about guitars. Enjoy.
Many thanks to our Patreon supporters!
Andrew Walsh

Jamie Evans

Jeffrey Wright

Sean Wright of Lollygagger FX

Steve Huffman

Righteous Ryan Johnson

Kyle McIntyre and Brian Gower of The Tone Jerks Podcast

Jonas Sabatini

Eric Girabaldi

Doug Christ of Thirty7 FX

Doug King

OG Friend of the show Brian Rizzi
...more
1h 14min
July 27, 2020Ep. 167 - We're Obviously Great; Some would say, mammoth.
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/yy4brEM
PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/thetonecontrol
Ernie Ball Music Man Dustin Kensrue Stingray RS (stab: Bogner Oxford)
Modified version of the Stingray RS, such as a stacked volume/tone pot and a relocated selector switch

HS configuration, “hot vintage” pickups. Middle of the road rock and roll

Mahogany body, maple neck, 22 stainless steel frets, satin finish, locking tuners. 25.5” scale.

Push/push button on the pickguard toggles between normal guitar operation and bypassing the controls to a stereo cable.
The guitar is stereo. Using a Y cable, you can send each pickup to a different destination.

Dustin uses Helix live and this allows him to create patches that also control the pickup selection on his guitar. One into the guitar input, the other into the FX loop return.

Expression can blend between the two pickups, or you can use a block on/off to switch

$2600
The Genie
ChaseBliss Audio Condor - It’s an EQ!
Thirty 7 Effects Fat Guy Little Coat Fuzz (stab: Lovepedal high power tweed)
Made by our very own Doug Christ!
Hand-built effects from Fairhaven, MA

Many thanks to our Patreon supporters!
Jamie Evans

Jeffrey Wright

Sean Wright

Steve Huffman

Righteous Ryan Johnson

Kyle McIntyre

Jonas Sabatini

Eric Girabaldi

Doug Christ

Doug King

OG Friend of the show Brian Rizzi
...more
59min
July 13, 2020Ep. 166 - Metal Zone For Scale
Coppersound Broadway and Strategy (Red Witch Factotum)
Thanks to Alex and Coppersound pedals for sending us some pedals to try!

Strategy Analog Preamp and Boost (featured on Tone of the Week on 7/7!)
Based on a hi-fi grade op-amp with controls for volume and tone.

Very musically tuned tone control. Lots of range on the volume. Great for hitting the front of your amp.

Broadway Treble Booster and Germanium Preamp
Inspired by the original Rangemaster circuit

Three way pickup selector emulates the pickup positions on a tele

Internal trim pot for compression and dynamics

$249 each

Both of these can be customized to match YOUR strat or tele.

Walrus Audio Slo and Fathom combo (DBA Ghost Delay)
Slo is a multi-texture reverb
Has cool things like a sub octave in the echo, an auto swell mode, dream mode which has a latching mode

Really powerful filter controls, a sustain switch, and an X knob that changes its use based on what setting you’re on.

Fathom is a multi-function reverb with 4 different reverb algorithms
Hall, plate, lo-fi, and sonar

Lo-fi is a filtered reverb with an AM radio sound, or really lush chorus-y/tape sounds

Sonar has both a low and high octave included. The X knob blends the high octave in.

Now both of these are in one enclosure

In/Out for each pedal? Like that weird distortion from last week. BUT, this allows you to insert other pedals between the two reverbs. When not in use, it’s still one input and one output. SMART.

$350

Pedal Genie
Idiotbox Effects Lazer Fuzz

Want to talk about Hamilton? (stab: Catalinbread Perseus)

Many thanks to our Patreon supporters!
Jamie Evans

Jeffrey Wright

Sean Wright

Steve Huffman

Righteous Ryan Johnson

Kyle McIntyre

Jonas Sabatini

Eric Girabaldi

Doug Christ

Doug King

OG Friend of the show Brian Rizzi
...more
1h 9min
June 29, 2020Ep. 165 - I Fixed You, Miku! Now You Can Be Music!
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/yy4brEM
PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/thetonecontrol
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A couple of things:
I got some AirPods Pro

Apple is moving to its own silicon. Does that mean anything for stuff like Protools?
Neural DSP Quad Cortex (stab: KHDK Abyss)
A challenger appears!
This is a new floor modeler and is INSANELY powerful.

2GHz quad-core SHARC chip

7” multi-touch display

The footswitches are knobs to turn parameter dials

“Want to run four amplifier models, stereo reverbs, and a plethora of other effects simultaneously? Quad Cortex won’t even break a sweat.”

Neural Capture included, which I think is like a Kemper profiler

50 amps, 70 effects, and more than 1000 IRs

Bunch of modes: Stomp mode, scene mode, preset, etc

2 combo inputs (XLR and ¼”) 2 sends and returns, 2 XLR out, 2 TRS out, headphone out, MIDI, 2 EXP inputs, USB.

SMOL BOI. ~11.5” x 7.5” x 2”

Pedal Genie
Lone Wolf Audio Twin Snake ($350)

Korg Miku Stomp (lol)
TC Electronic Ditto+ Looper (Stab: Meris Mercury 7 Reverb)
60-minute loops!
Dynamic loop length allows you to add overdubs that are longer than your original loop

Unlimited overdubs and undo/redo functions still.

Import/Export via USB.

It now has a color display with real-time loop info on it

Many thanks to our Patreon supporters! For only $1 a month you get a super cool shoutout on the show and your name in print here in our show notes. If you're feeling extra generous and pitch in $2 (or more!) per month, you get access to our exclusive Discord channel where you can listen to us record the show LIVE every other Thursday at 8PM eastern time.
Jeffrey Wright
Sean Wright

Steve Huffman

Righteous Ryan Johnson

Kyle McIntyre

Jonas Sabatini

Eric Girabaldi

Doug Gann

Doug Christ

Doug King

OG Friend of the show Brian Rizzi
...more
1h 2min
June 15, 2020Ep 164 - The Ark-Uh-Duhs
New Delaney Single! “A Small Remaining Quantity of Something” is out everywhere on June 26th!

Cooper FX Arcades (stab: OBNE Dark Star)
This pedal is designed to receive a proprietary PCB card with 8 effects in a category.

Delay, pitch, reverb, and lo-fi out at the moment

Four knobs labeled ABCD change their function depending on card/effect.

On/off switch and an aux/tap switch for effect-specific secondary functions

Two buttons for PRGM and PAGE allow you to control the card parameters

Card details: https://www.cooperfx.com/card-details

Pedal manual

Demo video

Walrus Audio Ages (stab: Darkglass Alpha Omicron)
Five state overdrive designed to stack with other drives or a dirty amp

Five way rotary knob lets you select different gain mode and clipping options
Low-gain mode with symmetric silicon soft clipping. Compressed and smooth.

Low-gain mode with symmetric LED soft clipping. Pushed, open, and sparkly.

High-gain mode with symmetric silicon soft clipping. Increased saturation and tight.

High-gain mode with symmetric LED soft clipping. Saturated, punchy and big.

High-gain mode with symmetric silicon hard clipping. Heavy compression, thick and chewy.

Boost/cut bass control comes before the overdrive stage

Blend knob dials in some of your clean tone, which means this can stack beautifully with other overdrive pedals or into a broken up amp.

Here’s a great video on what diode clipping is and how it works in the Ages

Pedal Genie
BIG EAR LOAF! AGAIN!

Fulltone
Guitar center is no longer carrying Fulltone

Reverb will no longer sell new, mint condition, or b-stock fulltone.

You can still sell your used fulltone pedal. The seller fees Reverb earns will be donated to a racial justice organization.

Spraypaint your Fulltone pedals black and send them to us and we'll reshare!

Many thanks to our Patreon supporters!
Jeffrey Wright

Sean Wright

Steve Huffman

Righteous Ryan Johnson

Kyle McIntyre

Jonas Sabatini

Eric Girabaldi

Doug Gann

Doug Christ

Doug King

OG Friend of the show Brian Rizzi
...more
1h 19min
June 01, 2020Ep. 163 - Death Is Better Than This!
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/yy4brEM
PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/thetonecontrol
00:00:00 - 00:12:00 Show Intro
Tone of the Week project (stab: Wampler 30 Something)
We’ll see how this goes!

Send suggestions!

The goal is to build a new tone every week and use it as inspiration for playing guitar at home.

Derek might want some studio monitors… (OBNE Haunt Fuzz)

Pedal Genie
Dwarfcraft Devices Gears

PRS Parlor Acoustics (Keeley 1962x)
SE P20 and SE P20E (E for Electronics. It has a fishman pickup! Otherwise they are the same guitar)

Mahogany top, back, and sides. Ebony bridge. Bone nut and saddle!

Neck/body joint at the 14th fret

Double bound with herringbone binding, matching rosette

Bird inlays, PRS headstock with vintage “butterbean” style tuners

Does the PRS headstock look a little out of place here?

SE P20: $500, P20E $579

Patrons
Jeffrey Wright

Sean Wright

Steve Huffman

Righteous Ryan Johnson

Kyle McIntyre

Jonas Sabatini

Eric Girabaldi

Doug Gann

Doug Christ

Doug King

OG Friend of the show Brian Rizzi
...more
1h 10min
May 18, 2020Ep. 162 - It's Too Wooly and Powerful!
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/yy4brEM
PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/thetonecontrol
Let Er Riff recap. Congratulations Kyle! (stab: Snow White)

Derek Pedal board update (stab: BIAS)
Running the whole “traditional” pedal board through the FX loop on HX Stomp

Seymour Duncan PowerStage 200 (stab: Strymon Volante)
Pedalboard sized power amp we all know and love. Attention Helix users!

Some expansion on the PowerStage 170

More I/O, presence control, headphone output, cab sim, and EQ on/off

Input, two speaker outputs, balanced XLR output, AUX in

170W version is $400. New 200W version is $500

Slightly larger footprint than the 170

Pedal Genie
Big Ear pedals LOAF - $179

RockBoard Pedal Safe (stab: CB Spectre)
Little plastic covers for your pedals

There’s a top piece that comes off to access the knobs

Two part assembly. The pedal sits on a base plate that connects to the top clear part.

This is stupid, right?

Update: it is.

Patrons
Jeffrey Wright

Sean Wright

Steve Huffman

Righteous Ryan Johnson

Kyle McIntyre

Jonas Sabatini

Eric Girabaldi

Doug Gann

Doug Christ

Doug King

OG Friend of the show Brian Rizzi
...more
1h 3min
May 04, 2020Ep. 161 - If You Can't Tell, This Is Our First Time
Big thanks to everyone who entered and voted in our first ever Let 'er Riff contest! We'll be doing more promotions and giveaways in the future.
Remember! If you dig the show and want to support us, head over to patreon.com/thetonecontrol! You can also join our Discord server which is open and free to everyone! Come hang and talk with us about guitar stuff!
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/yy4brEM
PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/thetonecontrol
The winner of the let ‘er riff contest is….??!?!

Round 1 of Delaney mixes are back. A few things to update but sounds great! We’re in the home stretch. (stab: Caroline Shigeharu)

Fender is discontinuing Ash in production model guitars (stab: DBA Interstellar Overdriver)
The remaining inventory will be used on “select, historically appropriate vintage models”

A steady and predictable supply of ash has been hard to obtain

Ash trees are at risk due to an invasive beetle

Strymon Compadre (stab: Fat Drive)
Compressor/Booster!

All analog sound with digital control

Two analog compressor circuits: Studio and Squeeze
Studio: Smooth compression based on vintage rack gear.

Squeeze: Hard compression typical of compressor pedals.

Boost EQ switch lets you choose which frequencies are impacted by the boost
Treble: Tightens bottom end by boosting mid to high frequencies

Mid: Fattens tone by pushing midrange forward

Flat: Full range frequency response

Independent footswitches for each side

Toggle switch for clean or dirty boost

VCA Volume control via expression pedal (no scratchy pots!)

3 presets via Strymon Multi-Switch, 300 presets with MIDI.

Pedal Genie
Dwarfcraft Devices Super Wizard

Temple Audio LED Lights (stab: Walrus Audio Luminary)
This has probably been out for a while but I just found it

RGB LED Light strip for your pedalboard with a regular 9VDC center negative connector on it so it’ll tap right into your power supply

Includes remote and cable ties

THANK YOU PATRONS!

Jeffrey Wright

Sean Wright

Steve Huffman

Righteous Ryan Johnson

Kyle McIntyre

Jonas Sabatini

Eric Girabaldi

Doug Gann

Doug Christ

Doug King

OG Friend of the show Brian Rizzi
...more
1h 15min

FAQs about The Tone Control:

How many episodes does The Tone Control have?

The podcast currently has 339 episodes available.