Optimizing for different guitars?

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willhutch

Member
How do you guys deal with matching your presets to different guitars? Due to string breakage, I played my HB equipped guitar instead of my strat style Tyler - the guitar on which I built my presets. I noticed my lead sounds were more mushy and didn't jump out from my core rhythm sound. Not horrible, but not as good.

What tips do you have for tweaking your presets to accommodate different guitars? First, what types of tonal adjustment is wanted when switching from, say, a strat to a Les Paul, to a ES335? Second how do apply this in a live situation?

I can see having separate group of "sister" presets optimized for different axes. Or perhaps a filter block in your presets.

I just remembered that Austin Buddy has scenes in his presets he indicates are optimized for single coils. I'll see if I can gain insight there. But I welcome comments from users with experience. Thanks!
 
This is one of the downsides of Fractal from my experience, I really don't like having presets multiply with all the guitars I use. I've tried adding a Micro Boost pedal for a single coil version of my normal stage presets, which works OK. Lately though I have added the Input Trim amp control to my global performance page, so I can modify on the fly when I do a guitar switch.
 
An external 10bd eq like the MXR KFK can solve most of the problem in a live situation. Though I prefer to not needing any additional stomps, cables and wall warts lying around.
If you have some cpu reserves left in your presets you could add a switchable eq block as first block in all of your presets.
 
JRkelley said:
This is one of the downsides of Fractal from my experience, I really don't like having presets multiply with all the guitars I use. I've tried adding a Micro Boost pedal for a single coil version of my normal stage presets, which works OK. Lately though I have added the Input Trim amp control to my global performance page, so I can modify on the fly when I do a guitar switch.
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Global performance page knobs to tweak bass, midrange, gain might be useful for this
 
sprint said:
I make different presets for very different guitars (HB, strat, tele).


downside? the only thing this has to do with Axfx imo is that like any good amp or modeller, it allows the uniqeness of a given guitar to show thru.
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Yes, downside, but didn't mean to single out Fractal though. I've never hesitated to have a single pedalboard/ tube amp and simply switch guitars in the past, maybe adjust a knob or hit my Micro Amp. My "user story" doesn't include wanting or needing dozens of presets.
 
JRkelley said:
Yes, downside, but didn't mean to single out Fractal though. I've never hesitated to have a single pedalboard/ tube amp and simply switch guitars in the past, maybe adjust a knob or hit my Micro Amp. My "user story" doesn't include wanting or needing dozens of presets.
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understood, but to me, my SG will never sound good thru my strat settings and vise versa, so regardless of what I'm plugging into (except crappy devices that make all guitars sound the same), I'll need different settings for each - which I agree, is a pita to maintain (or even do in some scenarios). Throwing an eq on a shared preset, ime, can make it workable, maybe, but usually just makes both guitars sound mediocre or bad.
 
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sprint said:
understood, but to me, my SG will never sound good thru strat settings and vise versa, so regardless of what I'm plugging into (except crappy devices that make all guitars sound the same), I'll need different settings for each - which I agree, is a pita to maintain.
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Do you think that is intrinsic to your specific presets, or do you feel that way across the board, regardless of complexity? I used to gig with three guitars and my vintage Fender amps all the time, and I never had the thought that I couldn't get a great sound with a (very) minor adjustment. When I try to replicate that rig with the fractal and multiple guitars, I share your experience.
 
willhutch said:
I just remembered that Austin Buddy has scenes in his presets he indicates are optimized for single coils. I'll see if I can gain insight there. But I welcome comments from users with experience. Thanks!
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That is just a boost with some low cut if I remember correctly. I have presets for guitars because it’s easy to do with a FAS modeler. If I didn’t want to do that then I would use a GEQ to alter my main presets
for a Strat. They don’t use a lot of CPU. Turn on scene ignore, then all you need to do is turn it on or off depending on your guitar. Try it. Plug your Strat in, pick a humbucker preset, and put a GEQ at the input of your chain. Make it sound good to your ears. Save it to the library. Then drop it into your other presets.
 
willhutch said:
I just remembered that Austin Buddy has scenes in his presets he indicates are optimized for single coils. I'll see if I can gain insight there. But I welcome comments from users with experience. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Interesting, I just opened a couple of AB presets to see his approach to this. I was amazed at the simplicity, just a flat 3-5 DB boost with the filter block, depending on the scene, and wondering if anyone has thoughts about how effective this is. It certainly would make the process easier......if only...

Hope I didn't give away proprietary info here :)
 
I play with a PRS, but have a Strat as a backup in case of string breakage. (I use an Axe III, but I think this can all apply to the FM3?) The PRS goes through In1, and the Strat stays plugged into In2. All my gig presets have In2 and In1 flowing into an M-Plex that can be switched between the two via MIDI. For a quick guitar swap I can initiate a MIDI command (have a button on my iPad running BandHelper to do that) to swap the inputs (which will affect all presets).

The gigging presets have been optimzied for my PRS. I've also played each preset/scene with my Strat, tweaking the Output level of In2 and experimenting with different pickups, level, etc. to get something similar to the PRS vibe from the Strat. (I also have a PEQ between the In1 and M-Plex for some modest EQ and gain tweaks for the PRS, which further control the delta for Strat vs PRS.) Of course the two guitars will never sound identical no matter what, but with experimentation they get close enough that nobody listening and drinking beer will care.

Lastly, for every song I've annotated my notes at the top of BandHelper crib sheets to indicate which pickups/levels/tones to use for the PRS and Strat for that song (because my memory sucks).

Originally I had conceived of switching guitars more often depending on the song, but (a) I just love the PRS too much and (b) guitar swap is a PIA, so now the Strat is just a lonely backup.
 
JRkelley said:
Do you think that is intrinsic to your specific presets, or do you feel that way across the board, regardless of complexity? I used to gig with three guitars and my vintage Fender amps all the time, and I never had the thought that I couldn't get a great sound with a (very) minor adjustment. When I try to replicate that rig with the fractal and multiple guitars, I share your experience.
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I should have prefaced that I'm commenting from a home music room perspective, not live, but I don't really see that it would make a difference for me in this context, though I guess I would just tolerate the difference if I had to. I think in my case it stems from the guitars I've chosen and my ears, ie, in the SG / Strat example: the strat I have is very vintagy sounding - pups have super weak output - a completely different animal from the SG. I have other amps and modellers here for which I get the same result so I don't think it's Axefx related, but I've never owned a real fender amp so maybe that would be different.
 
I don’t make separate presets, I make small modifications to the global gain and the mids with settings in the Global Performance page if I don’t like the sound. I also have a compressor and/or drive I can enable to thicken the sound, and have different drives on the channels and a Hold function for the Drive switch to change its channels. Also, the Master Volume in the Amp block can thicken the sound.

In general though, I don’t want to lose the character of the different guitars, that’s why I like them.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
I don’t make separate presets, I make small modifications to the global gain and the mids with settings in the Global Performance page if I don’t like the sound. I also have a compressor and/or drive I can enable to thicken the sound, and have different drives on the channels and a Hold function for the Drive switch to change its channels. Also, the Master Volume in the Amp block can thicken the sound.

In general though, I don’t want to lose the character of the different guitars, that’s why I like them.
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Never even considered using presets to make different guitars sound the same, is that even a thing?
 
When I used to use different guitars, it was a simple thing to build a preset for each. Using the same cab on both helps keep it cohesive for FOH and monitors. Quite a while back I went to carrying a second guitar which was the same or very similar to my #1. I don’t change guitars except for malfunction, so that eliminates any issue for me.
 
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