What does presence mean on a guitar amp

Sometimes, sometimes not! Oh, and then there is the issue of certain manufacturers mudding the water. It just ain't right Here is a question I received via email: The issue is that I have my presence control cranked really high for clarity. By decreasing the amount of high frequencies that are fed back, the high frequencies at the output of the amplifier are boosted As you can see then, the function of the presence control varies with volume.

The louder you play, the more it does and the more noticeable it becomes. Skip to main content. Tech Talk. By Jeff Owens. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. Like the Strat quack or the fat humbucker sound, there are numerous examples of imaginative descriptions when it comes to music.

But players aren't the only ones that use lively language to describe tones in the world of music gear. Take Fender's amps for example: along with the standard volume, gain and EQ knobs, a few of their amps also feature a setting labeled "Presence.

In this article, we discuss what this knob actually controls, how it works and how it differs from other amp settings. The presence control on an amp is used to boost the upper midrange and treble frequencies in a certain way that makes a guitar's tone sound notably livelier, raspier and wilder than normal. In other words, it makes the tone more pronounced and present, especially in a mix, hence the name. This doesn't mean that the upper mid and treble frequencies become louder though as an amp's volume control affects all frequency at an even rate.

The presence control also doesn't affect a guitar's tone the same way as the Mid and Treble EQ controls do either. But before we get deeper into how the presence control actually works, we need to lay down a few basics of amp design, namely, the preamp and poweramp stages.

The preamp stage is where most of the tone shaping is done while the poweramp section provides the necessary power needed to drive the speakers and produce your desired sound level.

An amp's traditional Bass, Mid and Treble controls reside in the preamp stage and, therefore, do their EQing before the signal reaches the poweramp.