Best way to deal with an overly bright guitar?

I noticed your comment that high gain rhythms you don't care for, so yeah I'm thinking you just don't like the pickup for a rhythm tone. It is what it is. I had an Ibanez with evolutions (Steve Vai's) pickups and for a low melodic line the bridge pickup was fine but if you tried to chug it was very annoying and bright.
 
And I just have to ask, you don't, by accident, have the power tap switch in the "up" position? Because that will shrill up your distorted sound considerably.
 
niquek said:
That works very well for live playing, and it is easy, but unfortunately when recording multiple takes over multiple days, you tend to forget where exactly you left the knob at during the previous day, especially when I've got tons of other things going on.

It would almost certainly be easier to just record DIs with the knobs at full and then mess with it afterwords to ensure it's all the same and I don't screw it up :)
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Once you find the right spot, just right down the number on the knob. Fortunately you only have to do this once.
 
Rolling the tone pot up and down whenever you switch from clean to mean isn't a good way. You want to change sounds instantly on stage, and you don't want to take a break to get your poties right.
I vote for taming the highs in the distorted presets, that's what I would do.
 
I suggest this sort of setup:

1. Start with your tone knob rolled down some. How much depends on your preferences.
2. Set up your sound so that this setting is not too bright or dark for your overdriven tones.
3. Now for your clean tones you can bring in more brightness by turning up the tone knob. Or you can roll it further back to darken the tone. It's not basically a two direction adjustable brightness control.

I started using my tone knobs a lot more after getting a very bright Kiesel Aries AM7. Now I use the above setup on all my guitars and feel it all works nicer like that.
 
niquek said:
IDK if anyone else has an Ibanez AZ 2402, but these guitars are just way too bright on the high end.
I find myself using the tone pot a lot.

Other than this problem I really do like the guitar, it's just using it with a lot of gain tends to be a nightmare without the tone pot rolled off at least a little.

This isn't really an AxeFX specific problem as the brightness is there no matter what I'm using, but...

What's the best workaround for this other than changing out the pickups for something else?

Is there like a "virtual tone pot" block that could be used and could I just stick it at the beginning of my presets?

Another thing I've been trying is EQing the input and output of the drive block, and taking off some of the high end there...but it's kind of a pain as the amounts and specific bands tend to differ a little based on which drive I'm using.
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That's one solution.
 
666was999 said:
Rolling the tone pot up and down whenever you switch from clean to mean isn't a good way. You want to change sounds instantly on stage, and you don't want to take a break to get your poties right.
I vote for taming the highs in the distorted presets, that's what I would do.
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I must be doing a lot of things wrong then. :)

I find the transition in changing channels/presets/ amp models live to be a rather harsh
and unacceptable transition. For me. There is not the kind of musical continuity I crave
in that setting.

Besides, with practice the subtle adjustments of volume and tone become seamless and
easy. It's really not that hard. I am constantly course-correcting for Intro, Verse, Chorus,
Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Solo, Chorus, Chorus, Out. :)

That said, if you are chugga-chugga'ing at 208bpm then those kinds of adjustments
can be a little more challenging.
 
la szum said:
I must be doing a lot of things wrong then. :)

I find the transition in changing channels/presets/ amp models live to be a rather harsh
and unacceptable transition. For me. There is not the kind of musical continuity I crave
in that setting.

Besides, with practice the subtle adjustments of volume and tone become seamless and
easy. It's really not that hard. I am constantly course-correcting for Intro, Verse, Chorus,
Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Solo, Chorus, Chorus, Out. :)

That said, if you are chugga-chugga'ing at 208bpm then those kinds of adjustments
can be a little more challenging.
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When I cover top 40 songs I just need to switch instantly from a totally clean verse to a heavy chorus and back, jump to a loud lead solo sound for some chords and get back to crystal clean and so on.
Often there is no time to fiddle around with the poties, not even a second. The sound may not stop. I hit the footswitch and maybe move the switch on the guitar in the same moment and that short moment is all I get to change my sound there. The sounds have to fit instantly.
To get that done I avoid too many different sounds and the few that I use needed lots of tweaking until they got they way they they are.
Right, that often is a hard transition, but it's not that different from a 3 channel tube amp, I would do it the same way there as well.
 
David Tesch said:
I noticed your comment that high gain rhythms you don't care for, so yeah I'm thinking you just don't like the pickup for a rhythm tone. It is what it is. I had an Ibanez with evolutions (Steve Vai's) pickups and for a low melodic line the bridge pickup was fine but if you tried to chug it was very annoying and bright.
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I feel the same way about those pickups too...but these are the Hyperion from SD. But yeah, same problem basically.
Leads are amazing though!
 
666was999 said:
When I cover top 40 songs I just need to switch instantly from a totally clean verse to a heavy chorus and back, jump to a loud lead solo sound for some chords and get back to crystal clean and so on.
Often there is no time to fiddle around with the poties, not even a second. The sound may not stop. I hit the footswitch and maybe move the switch on the guitar in the same moment and that short moment is all I get to change my sound there. The sounds have to fit instantly.
To get that done I avoid too many different sounds and the few that I use needed lots of tweaking until they got they way they they are.
Right, that often is a hard transition, but it's not that different from a 3 channel tube amp, I would do it the same way there as well.
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Other may have said it before, but putting a PEQ near the end of your chain can certainly help in scene changes that require significantly different sounds/tones.
 
Ventanaman said:
Other may have said it before, but putting a PEQ near the end of your chain can certainly help in scene changes that require significantly different sounds/tones.
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Sure. But it's so easy to use the eq the wrong way around.

If it sounds thin the trick is often not to follow the initial idea of boosting lows and mids there, but reducing the highs instead and increasing the volume in return to get the same highs as before, now with a guitar that's gotten fuller and fatter overall.

For some that might be obvious, but many see the eq only as a tool for boosting something that they want to emphasize. But it's a balancing tool. You can turn something lower to boost everything else.
 
666was999 said:
Sure. But it's so easy to use the eq the wrong way around.

If it sounds thin the trick is often not to follow the initial idea of boosting lows and mids there, but reducing the highs instead and increasing the volume in return to get the same highs as before, now with a guitar that's gotten fuller and fatter overall.

For some that might be obvious, but many see the eq only as a tool for boosting something that they want to emphasize. But it's a balancing tool. You can turn something lower to boost everything else.
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I don't know how many see EQ only as a tool for boosting, but in general, I tend to boost what I want more of and cut what I want less of.
 
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