Newbie: amp settings explained

Could someone explain amp settings and some of the jargon to me in newbie terms? I have a cheapo 10W practice amp, which has a single input. Guitar is a Telecaster.

It has Bass, Mid &Treble settings

Steve dealt with most of the points well, so I'll focus on the following

As Steve said, they don't 'override' at all, but they can be used in conjunction to make more interesting sounds, particularly regarding distortion.

Here's the neatest little trick.

If you put the guitar volume up high and set the amp so that you get a lot of distortion, then turn the guitar volume down, you will get a cleaner sound without a large drop in volume. In this respect you can use the guitar volume as a distortion control. (NB it is the amp that provides the distortion, but the louder the signal you put into the amp, the heavier it will distort.)

If you set the guitar volume up high and set the amp 'clean' then turn the volume down, the volume will drop noticably and the volume control will be working as a volume control.

Thanks. I'll experiment with that.

I try to keep the guitar volume to about 60% max. in the belief that turning the guitar volume up to max introduces pick noise & fingering

ummm not really, no. Firstly, you are just turning the amp up more to compensate for the reduced volume of the guitar, so the pick / fingering noises will still be the same. Also this will create extra noise (hiss etc) from the amp. Thirdly, not only does a guitar volume control reduce volume, but usually it has an effect on the tone as well (although this can be altered to some extent with additional electronics). Ideally you probably do want the volume at 100% - try backing it off whilst playing the same thing, and see what a difference it makes. At the end of the day, you can only minimise pick / fingering noise, and thats down to you to a large extent.

Well a *proper* amp will certainly help you to get the sound that you want to hear, but again the sound really comes from you - you will sound like you no matter which amp / guitar / fx you use, but having quality equipment makes it sound better, and is easier to achieve.

Cheers