Axe Newbie: What Have I Done!?

Parsley

Parsley

Member
Ok, so I just received my Axe FX II a couple of weeks ago... Everything was going so well, was loving everything that came out of the box. This past week it seems like all the magic has run out. Suddenly I have a sound that is... not as appealing as it was. Hard to describe. It seems to be "abrasive" on the ears now... where there was awesome tone has turned to just "loudness"... I know I'm not explaining myself very well, but I just don't know how to put it in words... It feels like I have lost something... I have done very little editing... I found a nice tone for rhythm, clean, and a smooth lead. I tried to adjust the volume so that my lead channel would be louder then my rhythm, but otherwise haven't done too much. I played my first show on the weekend and spent the whole show checking to see if I had a bad cable somewhere, because it just felt like I had no tone. I'm very frustrated because the way it sounds today does not inspire me to turn it on because it is not pleasing to the ear... I even tried doing a Reset System Parameters. What am I doing wrong???
 
Under the GLOBAL menu check to make sure you didn't turn off cabinet modeling globally. Or power amp modeling.
 
xrist04 said:
Clipping OUT1 or OUT2?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions... Will check Global settings when I get home tonight... Thought I already did, but will check again. No batteries, etc... using PRS McCarty model guitar and Peavey 50/50 Stereo Amp... Will also check Out1 for clipping... thanks! Will let you know how things pan out!
 
Be sure your output levels are right for your amp. If you're down too low you'd hear noise, but I know with the CLR you need to be sure you set the proper range for the gain to work in or it can sound bad, kind of brittle, and you can't really tell it's not getting enough signal

Also, did you check your sound with headphones?

Assuming non of the above works...

You'll need to adjust your EQ when you play louder.

Try a lo cut around 125 and hicut around 5k or 6k to get rid of those frequencies. Or use a 5 band passive GEQ to cut all lows and highs and boost the mids.

Try a different guitar. Used to be the AXE liked some of my guitars but not others. This doesn't happen so much anymore, but I need to use bright roundwound strings. Flatwounds don't sound too good without a bit of work.

Hope this helps.
 
randolfo said:
Be sure your output levels are right for your amp. If you're down too low you'd hear noise, but I know with the CLR you need to be sure you set the proper range for the gain to work in or it can sound bad, kind of brittle, and you can't really tell it's not getting enough signal

Also, did you check your sound with headphones?

Assuming non of the above works...

You'll need to adjust your EQ when you play louder.

Try a lo cut around 125 and hicut around 5k or 6k to get rid of those frequencies. Or use a 5 band passive GEQ to cut all lows and highs and boost the mids.

Try a different guitar. Used to be the AXE liked some of my guitars but not others. This doesn't happen so much anymore, but I need to use bright roundwound strings. Flatwounds don't sound too good without a bit of work.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

I was using my PRS since I took it out of the box, but only this past week it started crapping out on me... I tried my Ibanez JS1 thinking maybe bad connection on the PRS, and it is the same. Tried different cables, went wireless... I will also try running it mono through my Dual Rectifier tonight... maybe it's my amp? Will have to pick up some headphones to try that out as well... Thanks!
 
PRS is good. Nice guitar.

Let us know when you get it figured. Once you get through the learning curve it's a breeze to get a really good sound.
 
randolfo said:
Be sure your output levels are right for your amp. If you're down too low you'd hear noise, but I know with the CLR you need to be sure you set the proper range for the gain to work in or it can sound bad, kind of brittle, and you can't really tell it's not getting enough signal

Also, did you check your sound with headphones?

Assuming non of the above works...

You'll need to adjust your EQ when you play louder.

Try a lo cut around 125 and hicut around 5k or 6k to get rid of those frequencies. Or use a 5 band passive GEQ to cut all lows and highs and boost the mids.

Try a different guitar. Used to be the AXE liked some of my guitars but not others. This doesn't happen so much anymore, but I need to use bright roundwound strings. Flatwounds don't sound too good without a bit of work.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Adjusted the output levels as mentioned above... that seems to have done the trick. THANKS! Who would have thought something so simple was the issue... Feeling much happier now! Thanks to all who posted suggestions... Yes, the learning curve is a bit intimidating, but I do see how easy it is to use. Next: How to use looper function on clean tones while soloing over it with some drive, without changing the looper clean tone... but that's another day! ;)
 
Setup a preset with scenes and looper at the end. Get your clean tone on scene 1, record your clean loop. Set your lead tone on scene 2, change scenes and you can solo on your clean loop. You can either do two amp blocks, or XY switching with just one amp block. If done right, dropouts can be unperceivable.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Great! Will try that out tonight!! I was using the looper in Scenes, but had it on Scene 3... so when I switched to Scene 2 the looper changed sounds as well... I get it now! Thanks!! Still learning! :)
 
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