Do you ever get those days where it just sounds like _ _ _ _ ?! What do you do?!

Georgy

Inspired
Yep.. sometimes it's option paralysis, sometimes it's just not sounding good, or jelling, or anything.. You know the tones are pretty darn good... but then sometimes, that same tone just sounds like ass...

What do you guys do when this happens? Whether it's FRFR or via a power amp, doesn't matter, it happens to the best of us..
 
Have always found the AX8 to be consistent no matter what. Usually it is my attitude or being tired when the "sounds like___" happens.

So I just switch guitars, find a different preset (usually a clean with lots of reverb and delay), and play around with that for awhile. No gain, distortion, or anything heavy. Basically, unclogging the ears. After an hour or two or even the next day I find that everything is everything. Back the way it should be.
 
The WORST thing you can do is start tweaking your tone on those days without creating a copy of the preset first.

I agree I just tend to scroll to a different preset and play with that for a bit. For that very reason I have three or four different high gain (my primary) tones set up so it's easy to just pop over to a different patch. Sometimes it takes all of five minutes, sometimes I'm on the secondary tones for a week at a time... Inevitably though, I come back to my main engl tone and fall right back into place.
 
Same here. Change guitar, perhaps grabbing my strat and playing some 1978 Dire Straits. Playing some total different kind of music and tones compare to what I usually play.
Or just practicing the guitar un-plugged. Amazing how my crappy picking stands out when not covered in gain and delay ;)
 
This the problem with having such magical technology at your disposal; you actually begin to believe that the equiprment is some how responsible for weather or not your playing is good or not.
Guess what? If it sounds like s&>t...its your playing, not the machinery.
 
When I'm having a bad ear day, I just don't tweak.


The WORST thing you can do is start tweaking your tone on those days without creating a copy of the preset first.
Never tweak without saving a copy first. In fact, never end a session without saving any changes you made. Then you never have to sorry about "Did I save it?"
 
1) go take a dump and think about stuff (no phone)

2) unplug from all electronics for the day, go hiking in the woods or walk thru the city w/o a phone, just being a friendly passerby and thinking about your goals as a musician or artist.

3) come back later and play the same preset. If it's still bad, change guitars or IR's.
 
I don't get those days as often as I used to. One of my issues was trying to make tones that sounded freaking amazing on old FW to sound that way with newer firmware. I failed more times than I succeeded and got bummed out. So I just stuck with a few versions that worked for me so I'm playing more than I'm tweaking. Sometimes the new FW has elements that I love and when I compare to my old tones made with older FW, the new stuff makes me hate my old sound...so I start from scratch and create new tones and archive them with that FW.

At the end of the day, instead of 259 amps, I end up with a bunch of different sounds using multiple FW versions that are archived and cataloged. This way I can enjoy loads of different FW versions and get out of that depressed mode when something may not be for me. I just load up an old FW with sounds that are tried and tested and I'm happy again. Sometimes the newest isn't the best for everyone.

So if you find you're in a funk after a FW update, try going back a version or two and see if the sound improves. Quite a few changes go on with an update to where you THINK you may not have been affected. I always record my sounds from FW to FW. I save the stuff that sounds good so I always have something to compare to. This way when I update and think "hey, this sounds like my old sound" and then I compare it, I can tell in 5 seconds whether it's better or if my tone changed. Other than when a new FW hits, my stuff always sounds exactly the same thank God. :)
 
I always record my sounds from FW to FW. I save the stuff that sounds good so I always have something to compare to. This way when I update and think "hey, this sounds like my old sound" and then I compare it, I can tell in 5 seconds whether it's better or if my tone changed. Other than when a new FW hits, my stuff always sounds exactly the same thank God. :)

Great idea!
 
Honestly, I never get those days anymore.
AX8 always sounds the same, just fantastic.
It has however spoiled me on other gear.
Everything I play I compare to the AX8...and there is no comparison.
 
1) go take a dump and think about stuff (no phone)

2) unplug from all electronics for the day, go hiking in the woods or walk thru the city w/o a phone, just being a friendly passerby and thinking about your goals as a musician or artist.

3) come back later and play the same preset. If it's still bad, change guitars or IR's.

+1. On those days, I just put down the guitar and find something else to do and come back later and typically the problem is solved.
 
Here's one I just experienced (I've used FAS gear for 10 years). I have a new Tele with P90's so I am really trying to dial in a tone I like. I think I'm close. (Dirty Shirley patch) Last night I plug in and it sounds thin, VERY thin. I check my patch, settings, my guitar, leave the patch, go back to it. Nothing. Still sounds thin. I happen to glance down at my volume pedal and it's only 80% engaged! I press the toe fully down... VIOLA! Sometimes it's stupid stuff like that. I have also experience "ear fatigue". Like others have said, sometimes it's good to put the guitar down all together, or play a completely different style of guitar, (Clean, acoustic, etc.)
 
Here's another that just happened to me today! So my main guitar that I've been recording my new album with has been driving me insane. I've been working on everything from crowning frets, truss rod removal and adjustment, new saddles, new springs for the Floyd, new saddle lock blocks....it's been a nightmare.

Last night I finished everything up and am astonished at how awesome my guitar sounds and plays. It's back to itself...with one weird thing....a bit of a mid range push that I never had before. Now granted, with that much work, action, truss, Floyd etc...you are NEVER going to get the same sound you had. You'll come close...but chances are there will always be something missing. Well, the perfectionist that I am, I had to figure out what was different.

After some trial and error, the major tone change came from....get this....the pups being adjusted too high to the strings! I had forgotten to adjust the pup height. As soon as I moved it away from the strings, the added mid range boost I was puzzled about, disappeared. I'm not one that likes my pups nearly touching the strings like some people do. Mine are usually right in between. But these particular pups are powerful...so I usually have them set more "into the body" so to speak. The adjustment instantly cured my little mid range anomaly. :)

This is another thing with modeling that I've noticed. Any little changes to your guitar can drastically effect how your tone sounds. Even a string company change with the same gauge strings can alter your tone....that was my other issue. My GHS order was a little late (I get a case of Boomers per month...I know, you guys hate them. LOL!) and I put a set of Ernie Ball on. Sound was good, but something was missing.

So though we have the best of all worlds with our incredible, magical black box, it's a very spoiled box. Sometimes sounds I've created with one guitar REALLY sound different when I use another. Other times, the same sound works great. Finicky black box we have...but I'd not change it for anything. ;)
 
I'd make sure no alcohol or wacky tobacky is involved.... Seriously, I couldn't be happier with the tones I'm getting, I love my AX8

The WORST thing you can do is start tweaking your tone on those days without creating a copy of the preset first.

And this is great advice.
 
Yep.. sometimes it's option paralysis, sometimes it's just not sounding good, or jelling, or anything.. You know the tones are pretty darn good... but then sometimes, that same tone just sounds like ***...

What do you guys do when this happens? Whether it's FRFR or via a power amp, doesn't matter, it happens to the best of us..

I plug in a real amp... just to confirm its my ears and brain and not the Fractal :)
 
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