Advanced parameters for the incorrigible tweaker

Iatros

Iatros

Member
Hey Hey People,

I've owned my 2XL+ for a few years now, and I've gotten quite used to tweaking the 'go to' knobs; Amp EQ, pres/depth, input trim, gain, more gain, power amp gain(M-volume), All the cab parameters. I've even had some luck with the stranger, more interesting knobs, namely Amp harmonics, variac power %, transformer match, dynamic pres/depth and preamp dynamics, and resonant peaks.

Question is are there other rabbit hole parameters y'all like to play with? Maybe something that has become a staple of acquiring your 'TONE OF THE GODS!!!'? Maybe the one knob you would've never thought to tweak until you did?

And since "Show me yours, Ill show you mine" is not an uncommon practice in many cultures, I'd recommend anyone who hasn't played with Variac power to do so. Shaving off 2.5-7.5% on this parameter has really made my patches, for lack of better terms, bonerific. Oh! And who could forget to mention cab proximity effect? What a game changer this parameter was. Between the sponginess added by the variac and the pushy nature of the proximity effect, I have a hard time differentiating the Axe from the real deal when using monitors or headphones.

Look at it this way, we've got a lot of Axe 2 users incoming as everyone is upgrading to the latest and greatest and your answers here may initiate many into the ever-growing FAS cult...

Best,
Iatros
 
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@Tonedeaf - Nice! Do you also roll off some of the bass at the amp or the cab block or rely solely on power tube bias? And do you find that this works better with certain amps?

@Admin M@ - Very cool. I looked and there are four parameters associated with output compression. Do you tweak all of them or go straight for the threshold?
 
Iatros said:
@Tonedeaf - Nice! Do you also roll off some of the bass at the amp or the cab block or rely solely on power tube bias? And do you find that this works better with certain amps?

@Admin M@ - Very cool. I looked and there are four parameters associated with output compression. Do you tweak all of them or go straight for the threshold?
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According to the preset I will also use the bass cut, which seems to greatly improve or make it far worse. The gainier the amp the more I cut back on the bias as a general rule. BTW, I got this tip from the man himself, Cliff on an old post.
 
@AlGrenadine - Transformer drive is definitely a top contender for tone perfecting parameters. I haven't played with adjusting the negative feedback though. That's supposed to adjust the ratio of low end to high end feedback into the power amp, right? Do you tweak this parameter on amps without negative feedback?

@Tonedeaf - I played around with this parameter earlier today and I can confirm it does reduce some of the boom in the bass heavy amp models. The Engls respond really well to it. Saves me the trouble of trying to EQ it out in Cubase.
 
Iatros said:
@AlGrenadine - Transformer drive is definitely a top contender for tone perfecting parameters. I haven't played with adjusting the negative feedback though. That's supposed to adjust the ratio of low end to high end feedback into the power amp, right? Do you tweak this parameter on amps without negative feedback?

@Tonedeaf - I played around with this parameter earlier today and I can confirm it does reduce some of the boom in the bass heavy amp models. The Engls respond really well to it. Saves me the trouble of trying to EQ it out in Cubase.
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Yes i tweak negative feedback on every amp, i don't care how it's supposed to be in real world, just if i like how it sounds...
 
AlGrenadine said:
Yes i tweak negative feedback on every amp, i don't care how it's supposed to be in real world, just if i like how it sounds...
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I tend to like the sound of increased negative feedback too- turning that up cleans up the sound a bit and improves cut in a band mix, and somehow creates more space to turn up gain a little (for low gain classic rock stuff) without it getting too fuzzy/mushy lost in the mix. Similar thing with xformer match... decreasing it takes away some of the woolyness that helps me cut through better without trying on overpowering volume.


My other go-to tweaks are:
Sag (to get more bounciness) for classic rock stuff.

Input noise gate tweaking the threshold for each patch to maximize sustain while cutting out hiss when not playing (I’m a strat player mostly)

Wah pedal I like to increase the mid % setting of the curve to about 68-72% so I have to move my foot less to get the sweep of the filter. Sometimes I also link the same expression pedal to lower the volume a bit on the wah pedal to take the edge off.

Chorus pedal with like 6-8% mix after the amp to give a subtle “wetter” sound. Some tones are suited to this, other raw rock tones or “bar band” songs (e.g. Rolling Stones) I tend to not use this. Makes it feel more slick/polished rather than raw in the room.

Reverb, use the eq curve to cut out the low end to make it less mushy in band mix

I favor increased input gain on amp blocks for a fuller sound from single coils, even for clean amps. Except some amps like Plexis sound interesting as cutting cleans with very low input gain (like .1 to .3)

I also use input gain of amp block to fine tune the volume knob response on guitar, where it shifts from clean to breakup.
 
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For my high gain sounds I like to bump up the XFORMER MATCH up a bit, hard to describe what it does but it seems to just give me more. I also play around with the variac too, typically lowering it 10%-15%. Cliffs character suggestions work well for me too

I also run a gate after the amp, but I set the side-chain to Input 1 to get it really tight.
 
Thank you all for the tips. I tried all of them today and have to say that the variac is a true discovery for me. All the other mentioned parameters have a subtle impact and depending on the amp model some of them are a good fix for a certain situation.

Reducing the variac (for 2-10% depending on the amp) lets the tone breathe better and there is some more string separation. I like.

Output compression is good but not for high gain, rather for saturated rock tones. The Xformer parameters have more a volume impact to my ears as well as the bias. Lowering power tube bias from 0.50 to 0.45 works well with Friedman for example for reducing bass as mentioned above but not with some other amps.

The cab proximity parameter is something I started using recently. I get the best out of it if I take 2 IRs stereo mode and play with proximity on only one of them. I try both cabs with proximity around 2-3, one at the time and decide quickly which combination sounds better.
 
I am been learning to pick very very softly I was wondering What settings or parameters that You guys have found to have full control over the dynamics for supper light picking
Without volume jumps as I go from picking very lightly to gradually go picking harder

Dynamics" I mean (touch sensitivity / responsiveness)

For a great clean tone to start with before I start to add dirt
 
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