Presence control

[supedupviper]

What does it really do? I have a presence knob on my amp, and I've messed around with it, and cant quite distinguish what it really does. All I noticed is that it changes the tone a little, but it must do more than just that

[Steelpriest]

The presence control can be considered as the power amps tone control. It adds brilliance to the sound and has an effect only on the poweramp. Normally you found presence controls only on tube amps. Stand alone tube power amps (19" rackmountable) like Marshall´s 50/50 and 100/100 also have a presence control along with the level control. Meanwhile lots of solid state amps and modelling preamps have a presence control, too. Sometimes they are called "contour" or "brilliance" and can be considered as controls for an "overall amount" of high mids and highs. You can amazingly change the sound of an amp by turning this knob. Too high settings in any case lead to an unwanted sharp and harsh sound, at least on overdriven or distorted sounds. I hope I explained it somewhat understandable in my "german english"... Keep in mind: originally on tube amps this knob had an effect on the power amp only, thus you can always find it besides the master volume control. In any case it´s worthwhile to play around with it a bit. Try to add some "presence" and then lower the "highs" somewhat if the sound becomes to shrill... simply adjust it to your personal taste.

[supedupviper]

thanks for clearing that up ;D