Cant get my "Clean" tones Clean

N

NineWorlds

Member
I'm trying to get a really pristine Clean tone but no matter what I do I get distortion when playing to hard.

Clip light never turns Red, and the input light never trickles the red.
I'm using a custom guitar with Emg 57/66-7H.

I usually play very lightly, however when I want to build a tension, and release it with a heavy chord or pluck, you can hear it distort. I'm at a loss of what I can do to fix this.
 
if you may post your preset and give some more gear background I am sure the people here are able to help you :)

for example what amp / guitar / pickups

have a good one
 
I stated the pickups i'm using in the first post, and the guitar is a custom.

Monitors == KRK Rokits 8 G3
I don't think it's my monitors that are causing it, as it happens when using headphones as well.
If i record something and listen to it, the distortion is still there.
Which leaves me to believe, after listening to it over various devices it can't possibly be monitors.


AMP == ShivaClean for the main patch i'm using however -
ALSO Tried USA CLEAN and many other "Clean Amps" still get that distortion.
Turning off my amp/cab also doesn't help the distortion, it happens regardless of what i'm running. Playing lightly i get a clean pristine tone, if I pluck hard, or strum hard the tone distorts.

i tried adjusting Input trim - Doesn't help at all.
Adjusting any of the parameters such as Treble/Bass/Mids does not help. Even with Treble down to 0 I can still get distortion.

Using a Comp helps slightly but not much - Putting it before or after amp.

I have a lot of effects going on in my chain, turning them off doesn't help.

As i stated earlier the input light never trickles red, and the clip light never comes on.
 
NineWorlds said:
Here
Click to expand...
i don't have an axe right now, so running this preset into FracTool to my AX8, i am also missin one of the multi-delay blocks. but that's not important.

Original preset:
Screen Shot 2017-07-08 at 8.22.18 PM.png

first off, i rearranged things into one simple row for now just to troubleshoot:

Screen Shot 2017-07-08 at 8.22.49 PM.png

i can't get ANY sound from the preset with the way the amp is set. even turning the Level all the way up to 12.

if it isn't a bad battery on your EMG pickups, then this leads me to believe it's all the extra Shunts and row connections boosting your level too much and clipping the Axe. i know you said the clip light isn't coming on. have you looked at the VU meters in the Utility menu?

let me know if these settings are different from yours, other than the Level:
Screen Shot 2017-07-08 at 8.25.15 PM.png

also with the Mids fully down, and the Bass and Treble fully up, you can more easily clip the outputs but not realize it. sure, the clip lights should come on, but i've had them not turn on sometimes. again, check the meters in the Utility menu.

any time you split off a row and return to itself, you increase the volume - i can't remember by how much, but it's something like 2x or 3x. you have 2 of these.

also you have the Send block connected to the Output block on the far right. according to FracTool, you have this set to 100% output - this means it's passing your first top row straight to the outputs. then it sends the signal to the Return block, but this is only set to 56%. still, you're getting multiple copies of the tone from different points sent to the output.

i do think you're sending too much signal to the Output block, thus clipping the digital output. i'd be interested to know what your Meters are showing, either the Vertical or Horizontal.

i'd turn the Output of the Send block all the way down, then increase the Send Level all the way up. also get rid of that unused "3rd" row in the bottom set of blocks.

when i adjust the Amp block on my AX8 with all of your settings except for Drive and Master Volume, i can turn the Master all the way up to 10 - this has better tone to me, and then i get the Drive between 2 and 3 and it's still clean. Trim is still at 1.00. using a Majesty with its hot humbucker pickups.
 
Test VU, they come no where near 0db.
The battery shouldn't be dead as it's fairly new.
I will go out tomorrow and buy a couple brand new ones though as this was my last in the set, since my acoustics also take batteries.
 
NineWorlds said:
Test VU, they come no where near 0db.
Click to expand...
This is a problem regardless of clipping. Try resetting the Amp block (block menu, reset, in Axe-Edit) and starting over. There is barely any level in the preset. Bypass all blocks except Amp and Cab. Get the tone first, then add effects.
 
I just loaded up your patch here, seeing as how we both are using EMG's I'd try & help a brother out. I had no clipping & no distortion whatsoever. I'm using a HSS Strat with EMG's with the SAx in the neck & middle and a 89x in the Bridge, (which is essentially an 85 with the coil split but it's the newer X series.) FWIW, I also soldered me up an 18v wiring harness last battery change just for the hell of it to see if there was any noticeable change with the X series, and for those who might be interested, I did not notice any. It'd be negligible at best, the only advantage I could possibly see is that it will just take that much longer till the voltage drops down to the point where you'd need a bettery change, so I suppose you could just wire it up in parallel.

Anyway... back to the issue at hand! THE PATCH! :)
There was hardly any volume coming from the USA Clean Amp to begin with & I was able to raise the Input Drive from 1.16, (where you have it set) to somewhere around 6 before I could hear anything that could possibly be considered a tiny bit distorted, (I had to lower the Level from -12.0dB to -17dB as the clip light came on, & btw, I didn't check any meters, I was just using my ears & good headphones.)
The SHIVER CLEAN was much better, had a lot more volume & no clipping or distortion either & a much fuller sound Fwiw. It still had headroom too, not nearly as much but I was able to raise the Input Drive to 6-6.5ish, (again lowering the Output Level) before I could hear it starting to breakup. That Shiver Clean sounds nice, I just raised the Trebel up to about 6.75 & sounded great on my guitar.

I would definitely check your battery, maybe pick up a voltmeter & you can test them & see exactly what they're putting out. What you've described kinda sounds like a battery going dead, when you hit the strings hard the Preamp puts out more voltage, and if the battery is weak it doesn't have the voltage to give, which results in distortion.
 
$4 on eBay and no more guessing if your batteries are good.
81ah2y0%2B89L._SL1500_.jpg
 
That patch looks too complicated to answer the questions people are asking. I'd create a brand new patch, with nothing but amp and cab, and then see what happens.
 
chris said:
i don't have an axe right now, so running this preset into FracTool to my AX8, i am also missin one of the multi-delay blocks. but that's not important.

Original preset:
View attachment 40775
Click to expand...

Not sure if the preset is exactly like the image presented by FracTool, but that Send block is passing signal directly to the output as well as to the Return. Notice the shunt from Send to Output? That would account for passing a "dry" signal on top of the effected one... And I think would give a 6dB boost...

OP - slide that Send block over to the left one column and remove the shunt(s) between Send and Output.
 
Some active EMG pickups clip internally on 9V, and this is why some people do the 18V thing. I'm still too new on the forums to post links, but there's a thread titled "EMG 81 internal preamp clipping" on this forum, where someone dug into this, and came to this conclusion. More similar stuff can be found with google.
 
unix-guy said:
Not sure if the preset is exactly like the image presented by FracTool, but that Send block is passing signal directly to the output as well as to the Return. Notice the shunt from Send to Output? That would account for passing a "dry" signal on top of the effected one... And I think would give a 6dB boost...

OP - slide that Send block over to the left one column and remove the shunt(s) between Send and Output.
Click to expand...
Setting the output of the Send block to 0 allows it to be in the last column. The Send parameter needs to be up though.
 
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