The Subtle Genius of the Middle-Position Selector of the Les Paul

I’ve recently come to appreciate the subtle genius of the middle-position selector of the Les Paul.

Need to turn the guitar down but don’t want to walk back to the amp / digital controller? Just turn either of the volume pots to 0 - shuts down the guitar output. (It’s a feature of the circuit design, not a bug.)

Need to turn it up for a solo? Turn the dominant (or both) pots to 9 or 10 - doubles the volume. (That’s a feature of the volume pots, not a bug.)

Need to turn it back to play rhythm again? Turn the pots back to where they were, usually 8 or below.

But most of all…

The middle position lets us mix the outputs of the pickups to taste using the volume pots. (The Rhythm / Lead positions are limiting cases of the mixes available with the middle position.)

Is the bridge too thin and nasal? To get a bridge-y tone with a bit more body, put the bridge pot somewhere between 7 and 10, and the neck somewhere between 2 and 4. (*)

Is the neck too full and jazzy? To snap it up a bit, put the neck pot somewhere between 7 and 10, and the bridge pot somewhere between 2 and 4.

Something balanced? Put both on 6 or 7, or 9 / 10 if you want to be loud.

A Strat offers five discrete mixes of its pickups, the Les Paul offers a (theoretically) continuous variation.

When I’m creating a Preset on the HX Effects, I set the volume pots at 6 (which is the actual mid-point when using a Katana) and the tone pots at 7. Then I can use the volume pots to get a more bridge-y or more neck-y version of the tone, and I’m not having to create something that will deal with the nasal bridge signal, and consequently be useless on the neck, or vice-versa.

The Creation of Marshall Amplifiers

On the third day, the Lord did create Marshall amplifiers, and he played his Les Paul through them, and heard the distortion, and even with the Telecaster and the Stratocaster, even the ES335 and SG, it was good.

Sayth the LORD, this sound shall be only for Marshalls. Not even unto the Hi-Watt and Mesa/Boogie. And the Fender shall be clean, and scooped in the mid-range. Even the amp that is Orange shall not have this sound.

He who wishes for this sound shall not find it in the pedals that are between the guitar and the amplifier. This sound shall be unto the gold-and-black that shall be the sign of the Marshall for evermore.

And those who despair that their guitar may be un-blessed, and have a nasal bridge tone, shall play into a Marshall, and what they hear shall be as from a blessed guitar. For the Marshall is the amplifier of the LORD, and all who play through one shall have good tone.

(Yep, my guitar friend recently acquired an f-off JCM800 head to go with a 2x12 Marshall cabinet. I had a play with it recently. Everything you have heard about the ineffable nature of that Marshall sound is true.)

Politics, Politics, Part One

I have known times when politicians have been out of touch, or have failed to read the electorate. I have known times when they have proposed policies that belonged to a world that had passed already. Even during those times, I had the feeling that they knew what was happening in the world, what were the important issues, and that they shared, broadly, the same hopes, fears and dreams as the rest of us.

Same for journalists, civil servants, local government officials, and to a slightly lesser extent, academics and the managers of State or quasi-State organisations.

But now I feel that our politicians are actually freaking clueless: they do not understand what is happening in the world, they can’t read the electorate, they are focussed on trivial issues to distract themselves and us, and most of all, that they do not share our hopes, fears and dreams. Instead, the politicians, and a significant proportion of civil servants, local government officials, academics and the managers of State or quasi-State organisations, have completely different priorities, leading them to propose policies that make our lives more difficult, and worse than that, think that we should not have the hopes, fears and dreams that we do have.

Most of them were around in 2020-2022. The era of the Coronavirus Act, and the restrictions imposed under a dubious interpretation of powers granted by the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984, was the most shameful period in the history of UK politics, journalism, academia and public administration, which fell over themselves to outdo each other in their fealty to the Church of the One True Virus, its prophet on Earth, Anthony Fauci, and his Bishop in the UK, Matt Hancock.

Events proved that none of those prophets, nor any of their followers, had the slightest clue what they were doing or talking about. They were panicked and bullied by the press - who wanted to Get Boris - and their own advisors, who had delusions of competence and held us in contempt. None of them had the gumption to ask: if this is so deadly, how come anyone was left alive on those cruise ships?. It’s a simple, common-sense question, and nobody asked it.

Most of them are still in one post or another. But now they know they aren’t up to the task of sorting out the cultural, economic and political mess that is post-Brexit UK. So they are in denial, and sling distractions in the political air like so much chaff.

Part of this is a moral and psychological panic caused by the events of the annus horribilus of liberal politics, 2016. I’ll talk about that later.