Thin sounding tone

hello! I have a Axe FX II, Matrix GT1000FX, Marshall 1960BV 4x12 cab and the MFC101 controller. I have amp sims turned on and can sims turned off.
I play classic rock like Journey, Styx, Boston, kansa and Van Halen to name a few. It seems every time I play out sound guys tell me my tone is thin and weak. I recently bought a 31 band graphic EQ and tried to use it in live shows to boost mids on the fly and what not. I not sure what I’m doing wrong but I’m looking for some ideas?
Thank you!!
 
what is the sound guy listening to to make that judgment? your tone from the cab? mic'd? are you going direct as well?
 
Not that I can tell but it will doesn’t have the punch of a tube amp like my JVM410H?
just to clarify, to you it doesn't sound thin, but with a mic on it the sound guy is saying it's thin?

and while you don't think it sounds thin, you do think it doesn't have the "punch"?

just trying to figure out if you don't feel like anything is wrong, but the sound guy does, then maybe it's just his opinion vs yours.
 
What do I check for? What is indicative of thin sounding tone?
If you have a low-cut frequency high (ie. 300 vs 100-150) it will sound thinner. Same if you have a high cut to high, you will get hi-freq that is too high. I usually tame these in my cab blocks to what makes sense for band situation I’m in.

I have mistakenly set them elsewhere to diff values in other blocks (i.e. amp block) and this affected.

If you are using a standard preset, this is likely not the case. I happened to be messing with low cut today and it really made a difference in the low E string and made the whole rhythm sound thinner.
 
just to clarify, to you it doesn't sound thin, but with a mic on it the sound guy is saying it's thin?

and while you don't think it sounds thin, you do think it doesn't have the "punch"?

just trying to figure out if you don't feel like anything is wrong, but the sound guy does, then maybe it's just his opinion vs yours.
Well it may be a matter of not having the boomy sound or cut through on stage. I do tend to use more effects like reverb and delay but I’ve toned them down quite a bit
 
Try a different power amp. This seems to be a common problem with the Matrix. Every now and then someone gets a duff one that sounds thin.
 
I do have a QSC KW122, should I just use that and go FOH? Just don’t know how that will work for classic rock?
I play rock and classic rock through a Yamaha DBR10 Via OUT2 and OUT1 to FOH. Sounds great. However i have never played through a AX8–>PowerAmp/Cab. My setup was boutique mic’d Tube amp prior to going Fractal FRFR setup.
 
Different amps and amp settings can fix this. If you play tightly enough that it doesn’t sound like diff rhythmic patterns compared to bass, you can just add more bass- the bass knob in the basic amp section can change the tone more, affect how much growl there is, and then eq section in amp block (or better yet, the low frequency resonance) can thicken stuff up without changing the character of the distortion. And small changes in the low cut frequency in cab block can make a big difference- e.g. 80hz vs 110hz is a world of difference.
 
Matrix sounds best with its Level at around 2 o’clock. Just turn down output on the II to compensate. This is no fairytale. Metallica’s techs and Matrix will tell you the same.
 
Usually I turn up the master in the amp block if my patch sounds thin. It fixes what no amount of eq can. This is assuming your tone actually is thin and it's not a monitoring issue.
 
Matrix sounds best with its Level at around 2 o’clock. Just turn down output on the II to compensate. This is no fairytale. Metallica’s techs and Matrix will tell you the same.

I've been maxing out the matrix volume and just setting level via the axe output knob...Have I misunderstood and its actually better around 2 & not higher, or is it just 'push it at least to 2 for the tone to start opening up' ?

To the OP: Don't forget to look at the speaker page in the amp block and read up on the Low Frequency Resonance. Can make a huge difference.
 
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