AX8 Clean Tones? Input Trim is the key...

Will Chen

Experienced
I like clean tones, and I can not lie. I mean clean tones, not edge of breakup. For many years I had a JC-120, and that is a very clean amp, to the point where many hate it for the very reason I loved it. Digital modelers (outside Boss stuff, of course, which is pretty authentic) never seem to capture it perfectly. The pick attack and response always seems off. My initial audition of the JC-120 in the AX8 was the opposite of what I've experienced with other models...it was too warm! Digging in resulted in some distortion which I never experienced on my JC-120 which was clean to near ear splitting levels. Looking at the Wiki I read about the input trim settings to emulate the lo and high input. I cut the input trim and...PERFECTION!

I've tried this with a few other amps which I've wanted to be just a bit cleaner without lowering the input drive (Deluxe, AC20) and it's been absolutely wonderful cleaning up the amps further without affecting the dynamics and gain/bright switch interaction. Such an obvious solution which took me weeks to actually experiment with and discover...
 
just curious, what guitar are you using? i've found if I'm using humbuckers and looking for clean to edge of breakup - setting input trim to .5 is the key
 
just curious, what guitar are you using? i've found if I'm using humbuckers and looking for clean to edge of breakup - setting input trim to .5 is the key

Couple different ones with either humbuckers or mini-hums. Yeah, with single coils no issues at all. I should have been more specific that emulating the Lo input by cutting input trim is the key for hotter humbucking guitars.
 
Thanks for the info i will give that a try with my patches too. Do you have any good funk type cleans you can share? Like Nile Rogers or James Brown type stuff?
 
All the models assume the "Hi" input on the amp was used if there are multiple inputs. If the amp has a Lo input this is typically half the sensitivity so you would set Input Trim to 0.5 to replicate. The beauty of Input Trim is you can set it to any value you like rather than being stuck with a switch with only two values.
 
All the models assume the "Hi" input on the amp was used if there are multiple inputs. If the amp has a Lo input this is typically half the sensitivity so you would set Input Trim to 0.5 to replicate. The beauty of Input Trim is you can set it to any value you like rather than being stuck with a switch with only two values.
Cliff I have an issue getting the Trip Tik Clean loud enough. My Trip modern is perfectly level via VU meter but I have to crank amp level on Trip clean to 12 (gain set at 5) and I still feel like it is not loud enough. I believe I raised the input trim up a bit too. Any chances there is an issue with that amp?
 
The input trim is absolutely an important step in achieving clean tone with many amp models. Used in conjunction with all the other tools, our options are nearly unlimited.
 
Cliff I have an issue getting the Trip Tik Clean loud enough. My Trip modern is perfectly level via VU meter but I have to crank amp level on Trip clean to 12 (gain set at 5) and I still feel like it is not loud enough. I believe I raised the input trim up a bit too. Any chances there is an issue with that amp?

Turn up the MV.
 
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