JB clipping using 5150 Red & Blue Channels with firmware 22.0

[mr_fender]

EMG pickups are fairly hot, but they are often less dynamic compared to passive pickups due to the compression of their own preamp circuit. That means harder hits on something like a JB can be higher and more easily clip. Running EMGs on 18V give them more headroom and less compression.

 

[javajunkie]

Might have been true 10 years ago on the II, but as Mr Fender demonstrated in the link above, definitely not true for the III today.

But there’s no need to guess. It‘s pretty simple to see for yourself there is no soft limiting.

P..S. That’s a good thing. A soft limiter that modifies a non clipping signal is probably not a good idea at the input anyway.

Yeah, checked for myself. It hard clips. That said, I sent a sine wave tone from the synth block of am FM-9 (output 1 L) 100% on Out 1 knob. out 1 config copy l->R, +4dbu. The input 1 level was at 100% on the Axe-fx III. With the sine output turned up to the point where the input led was red constantly, no clipping, I turned up the synth level to -4db , no clipping. At -3.9db on the synth level the clipping just starts happening, at -3db it is hard clipping. when it does, there is no questioning it. It is very audibleIf I turn the input1 level down on the Axe-f. Using ears and not looking at the wave form at -4db with the synth I just barely hear the clipping starting. -3.9 it is low but easily heard. If turn down the Axe-fx input 1 level to around 95%, clipping stops.
-4db w/ synth

-3.5 with stnth


-3 with Synth

That is a ton of gain going in to the front input. Now a sine wave doesn't have the transient of a raw guitar signal, but with my Ibanez Jem (even though the in1 clip light came on) there was no evident clipping with input 1 at 80%. At 90-94% I could get intermittent hard clipping.

 

[yyz67]

Sorry but that's wrong. https://www.guitarworld.com/features/jeff-beck-seymour-duncan-jb-humbucker-history

At the End of this article it says this:
Although we’ve all called it the ‘Jeff Beck’, officially Seymour Duncan will tell you those letters stand for ‘Jazz-Blues’.
So it seems that both of that is right.

That article was confusing to my skimming LLM. So I asked another LLM to summarize it:

 

[javajunkie]

Food for thought about guitar signal clipping. Clipping the A/D converters is not the only the that can cause hard clipping. With my PRS Tremonti, I can get the Axe-fx III input to clip at much lower levels than my Jem. I likely need to lower my bridge pickup. Howeverm even lowering the input 1 level to not show any clipping on the Axe-fx, it is fairly easy to make it sound like it. If I take medium of heavy pick and do a hard downward rest stroke type pick, I get the a very similar clipping sound as the string rebounds from the pick and hits a fret.

 

[Admin M@]

Clipping the A/D converters is never a desirable sound.

 

[Ocnor]

LOL! It sounds like he's playing through a Honeytone mini amp.

 

[jimmynorrisjr]

I just did a full backup to be safe. Then I did a system settings reset. I was able to turn my input 1 Sensitivity up from 8% to 17.3% without clipping. Maybe try that.