Yes jump in Willabe. I like to hear other players take on the 5E3. I'm expermenting. I play my own lead and rhythem, so I like a sound thick enough to make a good solid rhythem sound and yet have enough cut through tone for lead. I can't stand too bright of a tone or too dark, needs to be right in between. Today I played it with my Church group. Real happy with the tele tone on the bridge, bridge/neck but the neck was little too mellow. Hard to find the perfect balance. The touch response was awesome. Believe it of not the volume was a little too loud with the guitar volume fully cranked, need to bring it down a hair. My setting were as follows:
Plugged into Bright Channel
Volume=2:00 oclock
Tone=8:00 oclock
Normal Volume=4:00 oclock
COMMENT/my take on it: Without the normal up to 4:00 oclock, the bright channel at 2:00 oclock on it's volume, the amp would be cranking loud but turning the normal volume clockwise to 4:00 oclock adds mids, compression and surpresses the volume. With this setting you fine tune your volume by turning the normal vol counter clockwise to about 3:00 oclock for peak vol and clockwise to about 5:00 oclock for the most surpression/lowest volume. Backwards from your normal vol movement. Of course this is for my hwy 1 tele and if you plugged another guitar into it, all setting would change and truthfully, a different 5E3 would act slightly different from this. These settings would be a good starting point for someone with single coils looking for clean sound with nice sustain and touch responsiveness. Like you say Willabe, every player would have to seek out their fav settings.
