I was wondering if people would like to share the settings that they found useful with their Knockout. I know it’s all relative to the guitar you’re using, so be sure to post either the type or the specific model of guitar that you are using, too.

Here’s a little background… I recently got rid of my Line 6 Variax 300. I loved playing with all of the different tones it offered and while it may not be a perfect simulation of the guitars it modelled, it was close enough for my purposes. The problem was I was repairing the piezo saddle pickups way too much. But after I sold it, I began to miss the tone variety. The new Variax is way over priced, and I didn’t want to get another used one only to relive the reliability issues with the piezos. I looked at a lot of different options, and although I was very skeptical I decided to give this pedal a try. I’m not a big pedal guy. When I tried the knockout I was really happy with the results. Essentially I can get something similar to the model tones that I used the most from the Variax. I’m not saying they’re the same as the Variax or that they’re the same as the original models the Variax used. I’m saying that like the Variax, the tone is good enough for me and it was much more than I expected from this pedal. I was just hoping to get a decent single-coil tone out of the knockout. It’s much more than that. A small knob movement makes a big change and the variety is awesome even with just three knobs.

So now I’m playing with a full hollowbody with two humbuckers (Ibanez Artcore AF55) since that is the tone I use the most. It’s great for warm jazz tones and it seems to be perfect for the knockout because its much easier to rollback the hollowbody tone with the dry knob for simulating semi-hollowbodies and solidbodies. Here are my favorite settings using the AF55 to get other guitar tones. All the number settings are relative to a clock face (12 = 12 o’clock or pointing straight up). The numbers are in order of the knobs from left to right on the pedal: Low, Dry, High –

Strat – 11 10 3
Tele – 10 8 3
Tele Thinline – 10 1 3
Ric – 11 1 5
Les Paul – 2 8 5
Les Paul Jr – 11 10 1
Gibson ES 335 – 1 11 1
Epiphone Casino – 12 2 2
Gretsch 6120 – 12 1 3
Acoustic – 10 9 4 (played on the Acoustic Simulation setting on my Roland 80XL amp)

I wish I still had the Variax to do a side-by-side test and do some tweaking to the settings, but after having played it for so many years, those tones are pretty well burned into my memory. The real test is the list of tunes I’d play on each of the Variax models and doing the same tunes with the knockout. I’d say they all pass the test with the exception of the LP and the acoustic. Those two are off, but the rest I am having a blast with.