Compensating for lower output pickups when switching guitars

[Davus PG]

For very different guitars (SC vs HB) they would be very difficult to sound the same indeed - personally I would want them to sound very different to bring forward the significant difference between HB and SC for example (if it's a Les Paul and SG then yes, why bother).

Don't know about Joe Walsh, but afaik, lots of artists use amp switchers for drastically different sounds which also include different guitars (ie, strat into fender..., LP into marshall), or, choose multi-channel amps that can accommodate
both flavours on separate channels (would not be surprised Joe uses one
of these methods since he and Don Felder tended to play together using "opposing guitar tones". But to be clear, I'm only refering to very different categories of guitar (ie strat, tele, LP) - for my SG and Carvin HB guitars, I just boost the Carvin at inpit by a couple
of DB as you do and all is good.

Fair enough....the beauty of the Axe is that I can achieve the same db boost for the Tele with a GEQ or PEQ block and sculpt the sound a little at the same time. I'll give it a go at this week's rehearsal and may well be pleasantly surprised to discover things could be even better

For reference @York Audio's Jimmy Page Celebration Day preset which I paired with @2112's TVMix7 IR was the starting point for one of my most used tones and it sounds superb whatever guitar I'm using. Yes the sound is slightly different depending on the guitar - but to my ears it's in a good way and I actually like it most with the Tele:

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/thre...one-celebration-tour-2008.162950/post-1953013

 

[mr_fender]

You can add the I/O menu Input Gain knob to your Global Performance page in AxeEdit and always have it right there just one page over from the home screen to adjust as you switch guitars.

 

[Fotukito]

A variant of the OP's approach of a boosting block is to have the two guitars always plugged into physical input 1 and 2 respectively, with one path relatively boosted, and switch the input source (instead of the boosting block). This works well for me, though I use MIDI for the switching (not sure if they same can be done with the FC). I also like that there's less stuff to do when swapping guitars.
https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/easy-guitar-swapping-during-a-gig.163994/post-1966033
(But, not a good solution if using more than two guitars during a gig!)

 

[Joe Bfstplk]

I have been working the opposite direction - finding ways to cool off my humbucker guitars so they can operate in presets set up for my Strat and Tele.

A number of my guitars got series/parallel switches added via pull pots or toggles, which very effectively drops them in place and makes them a bit cooler and brighter, with the option of pushing a dirty amp harder by switching to series. None of them have particularly hot humbuckers, though (hottest is a DiMarzio Super Distortion p90, which is a little hotter than vintage), so the difference in level is only about 6dB or so.

A number of others (including my Strat, oddly enough) have gotten passive bass cut tone controls to drop lows (and level) a bit. The Strat has Lawrence/Wilde L45S pickups in the neck and middle, and an L90-4H in the bridge spot, with s/p on the L90 so it plays nice in the bridge/middle spot. These pickups are fairly efficient and have really punchy lows, and the bass cut trims them a little bit to alter their character and feel a tad. The Noventa Jazzmaster that recently arrived got one, too, and it really makes its character overall a lot more Strat-y. Originally I stuck a stacked pot in, but testing showed a fixed cut on a switch works better.

None of the louder guitars are so loud that I can't play lightly and get close to the target, too, so that helps. No Plutonium 9000 mega-super-hot pickups to deal with....