Axe-Fx III Firmware Release Version 15.01

I agree with AB’s comment about the improved string separation. Is it correct to say that any increase in string separation would come from reduced inter modulation distortion? And if so, is there a way to further reduce inter modulation distortion in the Axe?
Intermodulation is inevitable. To reduce it, reduce the gain, set bias points to 0 and reduce bias excursion.
 
Intermodulation is inevitable. To reduce it, reduce the gain, set bias points to 0 and reduce bias excursion.

Thanks for the info, I’m guessing that setting won’t sound great, but I’ll try it.

I guess the only way to truly get rid of intermodulation between note intervals with a high gain sound is a hex pickup and 3 Axe 3s?
 
intermodulation creates guitar sounds that i'm familiar with. i wouldn't want to get rid of it.

I understand and feel similarly about certain types of guitar playing. But when playing chords with dissonant notes or more than 3, it would be nice to hear all the notes more clearly, and to hear all the nice overtones/sonorities of each string which are emphasized by an overdriven tube...
 
I understand and feel similarly about certain types of guitar playing. But when playing chords with dissonant notes or more than 3, it would be nice to hear all the notes more clearly, and to hear all the nice overtones/sonorities of each string which are emphasized by an overdriven tube...
I've often wondered about splitting a pickup in two. Not upper and lower but every other string. Given the typical fingerings it might be good enough.
 
I understand and feel similarly about certain types of guitar playing. But when playing chords with dissonant notes or more than 3, it would be nice to hear all the notes more clearly, and to hear all the nice overtones/sonorities of each string which are emphasized by an overdriven tube...

This firmware version does that the best it's ever done to date, IMHO.
 
I've often wondered about splitting a pickup in two. Not upper and lower but every other string. Given the typical fingerings it might be good enough.

Very interesting idea. Certainly easier and cheaper to rig up than the full hex. Does intermodulation decrease when the intervals are larger? It seems like it to me. It’s the close harmonies which seem most mushy to me with high gain settings.
 
Thanks for the info, I’m guessing that setting won’t sound great, but I’ll try it.

I guess the only way to truly get rid of intermodulation between note intervals with a high gain sound is a hex pickup and 3 Axe 3s?

I can’t recall his username but there’s a guy over at TGP who has rigged up a hex pickup and built a whole rig around it.He gets some really cool and unique tones.

If you search around the effects forum you’ll probably find his posts.
 
When I was first doing the Naked Amps for Axe-Fx III (which took several months, and I was unemployed at the time so it was constant/daily), started get dizzy after lying down and then getting out of bed, and get these bouts of unexplained vertigo. Turns out as you are there are little tiny crystals that can form in your ear , but they break up over time and it all went away thankfully. Not tintinitus, but it was very disconcerting.

Take care of your ears! Wear good ear plugs if you are playing live and loud over substantial periods of time.
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/treatment-tests-and-therapies/home-epley-maneuver?amp=true
 
Agreed about the vg-8 synthy sounds on the hexaphonic settings. Two or three note clusters moving in parallel sounded like a good harmonizer, so the sound wasn’t wildly unfamiliar within musical contexts. Faux Brian May leads were kind of fun that way. Perhaps distortions along the lines of extreme fuzzes or bitcrushers would be interesting via hex, but the vg-8 didn’t do that.
 
This firmware version does that the best it's ever done to date, IMHO.
Yes indeed, but I wonder why exactly this firmware has improved the definition between strings?

Back in the 80s my amp tech Harry Kolbe suggested I replace the rectifier tube in my Seymour Duncan convertible with a transistor circuit. Then he replaced the EL34s with 6550s. I think getting rid of the rectifier tube made the biggest improvement, but the 6550s also helped. It did give me a little more definition when playing dissonant intervals with all that preamp gain. I wonder why a transistor rectifier would reduce intermodulation distortion and could this be an option in future firmwares with amp models with tube rectifiers?
 
Last edited:
Yes indeed, but I wonder why exactly this firmware has improved the definition between strings?

Back in the 80s my amp tech Harry Kolbe suggested I replace the rectifier tube in my Seymour Duncan convertible with a transistor circuit. Then he replaced the EL34s with 6550s. I think getting rid of the rectifier tube made the biggest improvement, but the 6550s also helped. It did give me a little more definition when playing dissonant intervals with all that preamp gain. I wonder why a transistor rectifier would reduce intermodulation distortion and could this be an option in future firmwares with amp models with tube rectifiers?
I know just enough to be dangerous, so hear goes... How much of that intermodulation distortion is due to the source instead of the amp. I mean, guitars are never going to play perfectly intonated across the entire neck and between certain intervals. Those dissonant intervals will always have dissonance, even with those funky frets Steve Vai uses, correct? How much does that inherent dissonance contribute to the lack of string to string clarity.
 
I know just enough to be dangerous, so hear goes... How much of that intermodulation distortion is due to the source instead of the amp. I mean, guitars are never going to play perfectly intonated across the entire neck and between certain intervals. Those dissonant intervals will always have dissonance, even with those funky frets Steve Vai uses, correct? How much does that inherent dissonance contribute to the lack of string to string clarity.
Or perhaps there is less variation in sag induced on the rail with the silicon diodes vs the rectifier tube. And I'm in that same boat as you @boyce89976 ! ;)
 
I know just enough to be dangerous, so hear goes... How much of that intermodulation distortion is due to the source instead of the amp. I mean, guitars are never going to play perfectly intonated across the entire neck and between certain intervals. Those dissonant intervals will always have dissonance, even with those funky frets Steve Vai uses, correct? How much does that inherent dissonance contribute to the lack of string to string clarity.
Good question, but I think one can always compare the clarity of dissonant chords or less than perfect intonation first with a clean tone, then switch to a high gain sound to see whether it’s a physical instrument thing or the overdrive circuit. Right?
 
Back
Top Bottom