Axe-Fx III Firmware 25.04 Release

[State of Epicicity]

Another note about presets in general: the output of my guitar is so bright that it seems not really to drive amps at all, relative to something like a PRS. I've followed along with Leon Todd and Cooper Carter preset creation videos, playing the same things, and found that my guitar, even though it has high output pickups, has to be boosted insanely to reach the same level as one of their guitars, even if their guitars are using lower output pickups. Even then, my guitar ends up so harsh it's just unusable with their presets.

I actually had a long and interesting PM with Leon about that some months ago where he sent me a dry track to compare. The difference was stunning. My guitar with powerful pickups sounded like a mosquito, like low output harsh garbage, when his sounded like the hammer of the gods. I even thought for a time there might be a problem with my front input, but I tested, and all of the inputs on the Axe-FX III sounded the same.

So I concluded it's likely just the phenomenon of pushing an amp with mids and bass frequencies that inherently acts like you're using powerful pickups, even if you're just using lower output PAF style; it's about the frequencies hit the front of an amp moreso than the actual millivolts. This could be bullshit; it's just my guess.

 

[State of Epicicity]

Here's that preset, again with the caveat that your meaty sounding guitar might sound like mud through it! If you do play through a tinny mess, this might actually work for you! Enjoy your smallbox vaccination...

 

[NeoSound]

Hardly ever miss updating but just updated from 25.02 to 25.04... Is it just me or has some of the chime disappeared? Also seems there's more rumbly bass that's kinda muffled? I bounced between both FWs a few times and it happened each time. Didn't update or change the presets.

 

[Shahar]

Here's that preset, again with the caveat that your meaty sounding guitar might sound like mud through it! If you do play through a tinny mess, this might actually work for you! Enjoy your smallbox vaccination...

Holy presence Batman!

 

[JoKeR III]

Another note about presets in general: the output of my guitar is so bright that it seems not really to drive amps at all, relative to something like a PRS. I've followed along with Leon Todd and Cooper Carter preset creation videos, playing the same things, and found that my guitar, even though it has high output pickups, has to be boosted insanely to reach the same level as one of their guitars, even if their guitars are using lower output pickups. Even then, my guitar ends up so harsh it's just unusable with their presets.

I actually had a long and interesting PM with Leon about that some months ago where he sent me a dry track to compare. The difference was stunning. My guitar with powerful pickups sounded like a mosquito, like low output harsh garbage, when his sounded like the hammer of the gods. I even thought for a time there might be a problem with my front input, but I tested, and all of the inputs on the Axe-FX III sounded the same.

So I concluded it's likely just the phenomenon of pushing an amp with mids and bass frequencies that inherently acts like you're using powerful pickups, even if you're just using lower output PAF style; it's about the frequencies hit the front of an amp moreso than the actual millivolts. This could be bullshit; it's just my guess.

Sounds somewhat familiar, like a ground issue I ran into. Had a PRS CE24 that I couldn't get to sound beefy, it turned out to be an incomplete ground via their shielding paint. I added a piece of copper tape to the bottom of the cavity to ground all of the controls. This resulted in a complete/solid ground and the guitar sounded completely different, got the fullness I expected.

 

[Rex]

Sounds somewhat familiar, like a ground issue I ran into. Had a PRS CE24 that I couldn't get to sound beefy, it turned out to be an incomplete ground via their shielding paint. I added a piece of copper tape to the bottom of the cavity to ground all of the controls. This resulted in a complete/solid ground and the guitar sounded completely different, got the fullness I expected.

Yow. They relied on shielding paint to ground the controls? That’s miles away from a best practice.

 

[JoKeR III]

Yow. They relied on shielding paint to ground the controls? That’s miles away from a best practice.

I was a bit surprised myself. Just refinished a friend's older CE22 and it was the same.

 

[State of Epicicity]

Sounds somewhat familiar, like a ground issue I ran into. Had a PRS CE24 that I couldn't get to sound beefy, it turned out to be an incomplete ground via their shielding paint. I added a piece of copper tape to the bottom of the cavity to ground all of the controls. This resulted in a complete/solid ground and the guitar sounded completely different, got the fullness I expected.

Did you have a bunch of noise with it? I'd imagine the noise would be out of control in that instance. My guitar doesn't really have a noise problem, but now I may have to take a picture of my guts and start a dedicated thread to avoid derailing this one. I mean, I tested my grounding points for connectivity, but hell, I could have missed something.

 

[JoKeR III]

Did you have a bunch of noise with it? I'd imagine the noise would be out of control in that instance. My guitar doesn't really have a noise problem, but now I may have to take a picture of my guts and start a dedicated thread to avoid derailing this one. I mean, I tested my grounding points for connectivity, but hell, I could have missed something.

No noise to speak of that I remember. I believe it measured @15 ohms resistance. I measure the back of the pots and the pots to the bridge when checking the ground.

 

[State of Epicicity]

No noise to speak of that I remember. I believe it measured @15 ohms resistance. I measure the back of the pots and the pots to the bridge when checking the ground.

This is really interesting. Thanks for the information.

 

[tysonlt]

Ooh yes. Recto is sounding lovely!

 

[Chewie5150]

Hardly ever miss updating but just updated from 25.02 to 25.04... Is it just me or has some of the chime disappeared? Also seems there's more rumbly bass that's kinda muffled? I bounced between both FWs a few times and it happened each time. Didn't update or change the presets.

I was kinda wondering this myself. I updated from 25.02 to 25.04 as well. I was playing my EVH Blue Stealth preset awhile yesterday then did the FW update and the preset immediately sounded bassier/darker. Just made some basic TMP type adjustments but something did change. Still sounded great

 

[Easye921]

This is probably a dumb question, but I don't recall ever doing a soft reset, so can anyone give me a quick rundown on how to do it. Thx

 

[notalemming]

This is probably a dumb question, but I don't recall ever doing a soft reset, so can anyone give me a quick rundown on how to do it. Thx

This is in the wiki but maybe should be stickied here in the forums as this subject comes up over & over again.

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/thre...wanted-to-know-about-resetting-an-amp.173317/

 

[FractalAudio]

I was kinda wondering this myself. I updated from 25.02 to 25.04 as well. I was playing my EVH Blue Stealth preset awhile yesterday then did the FW update and the preset immediately sounded bassier/darker. Just made some basic TMP type adjustments but something did change. Still sounded great

That model doesn't use a cathode follower and there were no changes to the model itself. Ergo, the model is unchanged and should not sound any different.

 

[Chewie5150]

That model doesn't use a cathode follower and there were no changes to the model itself. Ergo, the model is unchanged and should not sound any different.

I must have inadvertently changed something. a slip of the mouse wheel somewhere perhaps

 

[Randalljax]

That model doesn't use a cathode follower and there were no changes to the model itself. Ergo, the model is unchanged and should not sound any different.

That’s interesting I thought all the 5153 variants were CF

 

[James Freeman]

As far as I see in the schematics, all EVH amps (50w, 100w, Stealth) have cathode followers.
Peavey 5150 do not, they have what's called a "anode follower" (valve wizard, at the bottom).

 

[FractalAudio]

As far as I see in the schematics, all EVH amps (50w, 100w, Stealth) have cathode followers.

They do but they don't exhibit any nonlinear behavior. Therefore the model doesn't use a cathode follower. Models only use a cathode follower when they exhibit nonlinearity.

The 5153 is specifically designed so that the cathode follower doesn't do what a cathode follower usually does.

 

[James Freeman]

Ah I see, the EVH also has an anode follower followed by an attenuated cathode follower.
Was probably done to retain the original 'anode follower' stage and used the spare triode as a clean cf.