For some reason, the sensitivity of the AXE FX III to different guitars really surprised me.

mngolf

mngolf

Inspired
I find that presents that work for my Tele don’t work for my Silver Falcon. This generally wasn’t the case with my amp and pedal set up. It’s not a problem with the AXE FX III as I can just build presets custom set for different guitars. The individuality of every guitar really comes out. So cool!

Others finding this as well?
 
Yeah it's a funny thing. Years ago the L6 Pod used to kind of make every guitar sound the same.
But using the Axe III, it's like looking at each guitar's tone through a magnifying glass. I find using headphones makes it even easier to get a feel for the true nature of the guitar's specific tone.
 
Absolutely. Works out great as my two main players are an Ibanez JEM and an Ibanez SZ, which is kind of like a Strat mixed with a Les Paul. They’re really different pickup wise and with the body/neck woods and always sounded different, but I’d still change amp settings when double tracking. Now I don’t bother.

I also noticed EVERY flaw in my guitars as soon as I started using the III. There was some fret buzz on my JEM and it was so blatant when I got my III that I went and leveled and crowned. I was using a Peavey XXX before the III and you couldn’t hear it at all, but no amount of distortion would cover it up with the III.
 
RevDrucifer said:
I also noticed EVERY flaw in my guitars as soon as I started using the III.
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Same here. I noticed it back when I started using the II.
If you dial in a preset on one type of guitar don't expect it to sound the same on another. Especially when going from a single coil to humbucker, or vintage low output pickups to one of the modern high output pickups.

I recently dialed in a preset with an Ibanez JS2400 and the Joe Satriani Marshall in the Axe FXIII that sounded great. I tried the same preset with my vintage Stratocaster the next day just for kicks and it sounded awful. So I try to dial in presets for the type of guitar I am going to use them with.
 
Yep, I see the same thing. It's great, but it means I have to be sure to dial in gig presets using the guitar I plan to play for that song. (I use 4 guitars at gigs...5 if you include the guitar synth.)
 
I'm not surprised at al. None of my guitars are quite identical, so I don't expect the preset built with my jazzmaster to sound great with my HH 'hog slab in C standard. It does, but that's a fluke :p. Since I'm not actively in a band, I've been building presets based on various guitars. I have my kitchen sink preset, bass kitchen sink preset, and a couple guitar-specific ones.
 
this has always amazed me too, and its why I think other people's presets never work for me. It's frankly more than the guitars... I feel like I can hear a difference in my hands when it's "one of those days" where my heart isn't in it.

I've never wanted to bring it up because I don't notice such drastic differences with "real" amps and it feels almost like a backhanded compliment at the accuracy of the modelling, but I would have regretted selling my amps a lot more if they reacted the way they do in the AxeFXIII
 
Doesn't it suggest something "inauthentic" in the models if real amps don't behave like this so much? Or is it more of a question about usually listening to amps through guitar cabs instead of via a mic'd signal path?
 
Melten said:
Doesn't it suggest something "inauthentic" in the models if real amps don't behave like this so much? Or is it more of a question about usually listening to amps through guitar cabs instead of via a mic'd signal path?
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I think it's the latter.
Most of that sensitivity comes from listening to IRs from FRFR speakers or headphones, which have a lot of detail in the upper region compared to a beamy guitar cab heard off-axis.
 
I was wondering what the best way to deal with it is. PEQ block? Could use a mutliplexer to switch between PEQ blocks OR between Control Switches.
 
Bman said:
I was wondering what the best way to deal with it is. PEQ block? Could use a mutliplexer to switch between PEQ blocks OR between Control Switches.
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I use a Tele, Strat and Les Paul pretty much all the time with my main "does 80% of my songs" preset. All 3 guitars do sound very different through that preset, and I love that because I choose the relevant guitar for the sound I want for that song.

The only thing I do change is the drive type, because the same drive will interact with the guitars differently and I find certain drive types match each guitar differently to others. When I'm playing my Tele, I know to use Drive1 Channel A, and the Les Paul would be Drive 1 Channel C (or along those lines). So I use 2 drive blocks, each has a couple of channels per guitar and I just switch between those.

Not sure if that helps in any way, it works for me and might not for you.
 
Out of curiosity, are we talking no adjustments to the real amp or did you make some adjustments because the knobs were right there?

Another consideration is listening position. Most people have a tube amp pointed at their calves so they aren't hearing the detail in the high frequencies that a mic would pick up.
 
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