Decent Humbucker guitar factory presets?

N

Nsurround

Inspired
I have owned previously an FM3 for about 1 1/2 years and now have replaced with the new FM9 (Turbo). With more processing power and block flexibility have not regretted the change for the most part. It comes with a lot of presets that represent multiple types of amps/cabs and sounds. Have found that the presets usually are also built around some type of guitar and pickups that very rarely are mentioned. In other words, there is no data on this type of info in the actual preset. This is not really a criticism or an update request but just an observation that I have experienced. As others have noted, presets usually are there as a starting point to be adjusted to your environment and guitar(s) etc. But it does seem relevant to know what the starting input point of the preset was to get a better idea of what it was created around. Guitar/pickups > Amp > Speaker Cab (+effects). Having 300-500 presets is a lot to untangle trying different guitars and such. Almost better to start from scratch and build around your own setup and guitar(s) than trying to audition so many presets that might fit. I see on the internet a lot of demos using mostly strat style guitars with possibly SC pickups while not as many humbuckers. Again just an observation, but it would be helpful when offering presets of some type, whether for purchase or for free to know the type of guitar and picks ups were used to create the preset. In some cases, this is noted but for the most part is left unmentioned. To me this should be standard practice on the Axe Exchange and even the presets that come loaded on new units etc. If I knew what presets were built around Humbuckers I would probably audition them first and the same for single coils. Maybe I am being nit picky here but knowing your signal starting point when choosing a preset maybe just as important as what mic was used on what cab in the IR etc. Obviously you need to use your ears and tweak to your setup as needed but knowing what was used in the first place I think would be very helpful and less time consuming. Maybe there is a site that has noted this similar to Yeks amp list or the Wiki list?
 
Try this: Find a good clean amp, include that in scene 1 and/or 2. Then, find a good crunch or lead amp tone that you like (yours will depend on what style music you prefer). The most important part will be matching an appropriate cab with your amp selections.

The factory presets can be copied and pasted to your user preset section. Factory presets are useful in that they recreate famous amp rigs and matching effects/cabs. FAS has done the leg work for you.

If you know what type of amp and cab you prefer, create a preset from that. That's the reason why FAS includes plentiful user preset regions. If you don't know what amp and cab you prefer, then it's your turn to do the research that FAS has already built into their FM9s.

Most all presets, amp and cab models are interchangeable for single-coil or humbucker guitars; you may only need to adjust the EQ to taste. It's really not that difficult. Just use common sense and expect that you'd likely not play metal tones with a single-coil, nor would you play funk with active pickups.

Yek's amp list may help you regards what amps work best with single-coil or humbuckers. And yes, you are correct that your ears are your guide. Do not depend on sight regards what tones will sound pleasing to you.

One good tip is to include a looper block, record a track of guitar, then use the looper block to audition various amps and/or cabs as you build your presets. That will save you many hours of needless auditioning and A/Bing amps and cabs without the looper block.
 
We test the factory presets with a range of guitars. I use a kinman Strat, a stock SG, an Anderson HSS, and a Kiesel Vader longscale with Bare Knuckle. Any adjustments needed to compensate for different guitars should be pretty basic. Input Gain. Treble. Bass. Master. Low Cut. Maybe a touch of output EQ.
 
Thanks for your reply's. Yes I do just as you both have pointed out. However for the record there are a lot of presets that initially do not sound that great with humbucker type pickups that do not need tweaking. In some cases a fair amount. Again I think it is almost better to start from scratch and build to the guitar/pickups being used. Of course this requires a bit of knowledge in all of the block options. In any case, my point being is that presets have to have a starting point and that is the guitar itself. Having some knowledge of what it was started from could be helpful. The factory presets are one thing but there are a mirid of presets out there that you really have no idea until you use and tweak. Again this is not so much of a criticism as a point of observation and actual usage. I usually tweak or create presets for individual guitars in my collection and put some identifier in the name or categorize in a certain section of a bank etc. Again your suggestions are useful and I was just pointing to the fact that most presets do not seem to be targeted towards the guitar type but instead to the amp and cab for the most part.
 
I'll see if I can help you...

May I ask, do you think it's reasonable for a business that builds and sells amp modeling units should try to suggest what guitar works best with their presets? Or, do you think that by providing a wealth of variety or presets and amp/effects/cab models, this allows the individual greater freedom to explore their amp modeler? Lastly, if an amp modeling company should provide suggestions as to which amp/effect/cab model or preset worked best for a certain type guitar, would that not be endorsing one guitar type over another?

The reason I'm asking these questions is to help you see why Fractal provides an abundance of amp/effects/cab models and factory presets. It's so you'll discover what interests you the most and prompts you to share what you find with others within this forum. Egads, my friend, Fractal can't reveal what works for certain guitars. You need to find out what you like yourself.

This world is abundantly filled with many topics and a wealth of variety. You will find that you don't like a lot for things, but, equally, will find what interests you. Once you find something good that works for your needs, if you're inclined to, feel free to share what good things you've found.
 
bleujazz3 said:
I'll see if I can help you...

May I ask, do you think it's reasonable for a business that builds and sells amp modeling units should try to suggest what guitar works best with their presets? Or, do you think that by providing a wealth of variety or presets and amp/effects/cab models, this allows the individual greater freedom to explore their amp modeler? Lastly, if an amp modeling company should provide suggestions as to which amp/effect/cab model or preset worked best for a certain type guitar, would that not be endorsing one guitar type over another?

The reason I'm asking these questions is to help you see why Fractal provides an abundance of amp/effects/cab models and factory presets. It's so you'll discover what interests you the most and prompts you to share what you find with others within this forum. Egads, my friend, Fractal can't reveal what works for certain guitars. You need to find out what you like yourself.

This world is abundantly filled with many topics and a wealth of variety. You will find that you don't like a lot for things, but, equally, will find what interests you. Once you find something good that works for your needs, if you're inclined to, feel free to share what good things you've found.
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OMG, I knew this was going to happen. What was I thinking in my original posts! Dare I even say such things to be discussed. Guitars and their pickups are important in creating a preset cause that is what you start with. I will say it again IN CAPS, GUITARS ARE WHAT YOU START WITH.
 
Admin M@ said:
We test the factory presets with a range of guitars. I use a kinman Strat, a stock SG, an Anderson HSS, and a Kiesel Vader longscale with Bare Knuckle. Any adjustments needed to compensate for different guitars should be pretty basic. Input Gain. Treble. Bass. Master. Low Cut. Maybe a touch of output EQ.
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This pretty much sums it up. I test with a variety of guitars and pickups. So do people who put loads of time into factory preset updates. And I’ve had good results using single-coil pickups on presets that others have tested on humbuckers, and vice-versa.

Also note that two different single-coil pickups can give very different results with the same preset.
 
Nsurround said:
OMG, I knew this was going to happen. What was I thinking in my original posts! Dare I even say such things to be discussed. Guitars and their pickups are important in creating a preset cause that is what you start with. I will say it again IN CAPS, GUITARS ARE WHAT YOU START WITH.
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Of course, but Fractal does not sell guitars. They sell amp modelers. Fractal provides you with ample selections from which you can create your own presets, or sample their factory presets.

Fractal allows you to choose what you like and doesn't recommend which guitar works with what preset or amp model. They let you use your ears to determine what you like or dislike. Any other discussion would not be subjective.

I think you may be worrying that guitars define how you will sound. To some degree, that is true. You've likely heard that even SRV could make a Fender Squire sound awesome through one of his amps. That's the catch: What Fractal delivers is the quality of the amp, effects and cabs. They know we're not SRV, but could sound the same if we utilized the amps and effects SRV did. Just check some of the FM9 recordings and see for yourself.

Trust me, I don't wish to sound condescending or snarky. I was hoping you'd be able to reason that Fractal doesn't sell guitars or tell you what guitar works best with their units. They HAVE provided plenty of variety for you to discover. The truth is, no one should expect to build one preset and say you're done with that. We all have many more years of learning what new things Fractal reveals to us with each firmware upgrade.

I hope you don't feel badly; it was not my intent to sound the way I may have to you.

Yek's Amp Guide may be of value to you, though I can't say I've read the guide in its entirety. What I can say is there is a lot to learn within the Fractal ecosystem, and it doesn't hurt to share good things when you find them.

Best wishes with your Fractal journey. We were all curious once we received our FM9s, and there's heckuva lot more to learn before I can say I'm happy with what I've thus far created preset-wise. I usually find myself tweaking this or that to find that certain sweet spot, or to make the amp sound better. (Remember that better is subjective. What your ears prefer may not be what my ears prefer.)
 
Nsurround said:
Thanks for your reply's. Yes I do just as you both have pointed out. However for the record there are a lot of presets that initially do not sound that great with humbucker type pickups that do not need tweaking. In some cases a fair amount. Again I think it is almost better to start from scratch and build to the guitar/pickups being used. Of course this requires a bit of knowledge in all of the block options. In any case, my point being is that presets have to have a starting point and that is the guitar itself. Having some knowledge of what it was started from could be helpful. The factory presets are one thing but there are a mirid of presets out there that you really have no idea until you use and tweak. Again this is not so much of a criticism as a point of observation and actual usage. I usually tweak or create presets for individual guitars in my collection and put some identifier in the name or categorize in a certain section of a bank etc. Again your suggestions are useful and I was just pointing to the fact that most presets do not seem to be targeted towards the guitar type but instead to the amp and cab for the most part.
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You can easily EDIT the preset that doesn't sound "great" with humbuckers. I mean that is the whole idea. But, I do understand you asking your original question. When I first got my "fractal unit" years ago I asked what presets I might try for single coil pups.
 
Admin M@ said:
We test the factory presets with a range of guitars. I use a kinman Strat, a stock SG, an Anderson HSS, and a Kiesel Vader longscale with Bare Knuckle. Any adjustments needed to compensate for different guitars should be pretty basic. Input Gain. Treble. Bass. Master. Low Cut. Maybe a touch of output EQ.
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Matt
May I ask which Kinmans. I remember the thread way back about this but couldn't find it.
Thanks
 
bleujazz3 said:
Of course, but Fractal does not sell guitars. They sell amp modelers. Fractal provides you with ample selections from which you can create your own presets, or sample their factory presets.

Fractal allows you to choose what you like and doesn't recommend which guitar works with what preset or amp model. They let you use your ears to determine what you like or dislike. Any other discussion would not be subjective.

I think you may be worrying that guitars define how you will sound. To some degree, that is true. You've likely heard that even SRV could make a Fender Squire sound awesome through one of his amps. That's the catch: What Fractal delivers is the quality of the amp, effects and cabs. They know we're not SRV, but could sound the same if we utilized the amps and effects SRV did. Just check some of the FM9 recordings and see for yourself.

Trust me, I don't wish to sound condescending or snarky. I was hoping you'd be able to reason that Fractal doesn't sell guitars or tell you what guitar works best with their units. They HAVE provided plenty of variety for you to discover. The truth is, no one should expect to build one preset and say you're done with that. We all have many more years of learning what new things Fractal reveals to us with each firmware upgrade.

I hope you don't feel badly; it was not my intent to sound the way I may have to you.

Yek's Amp Guide may be of value to you, though I can't say I've read the guide in its entirety. What I can say is there is a lot to learn within the Fractal ecosystem, and it doesn't hurt to share good things when you find them.

Best wishes with your Fractal journey. We were all curious once we received our FM9s, and there's heckuva lot more to learn before I can say I'm happy with what I've thus far created preset-wise. I usually find myself tweaking this or that to find that certain sweet spot, or to make the amp sound better. (Remember that better is subjective. What your ears prefer may not be what my ears prefer.)
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I completely understand that Fractal does not sell guitars. That was not my original point. Just an observation that presets are just an amp/cab model/ir which is set to some some sort of input, the guitar in this case. Since guitars especially the pickups have their own peculiarities the source input and levels can be different. Thus the preset has some sort of settings that was based to some extent on the guitar input which was used. My suggestion was only that it 'may help' the end user know what kind input source was used for the base or initial settings. With as many factory presets that are provided it could be helpful. Some persons who sell or create presets for public distribution may detail this, like for SC strat or this is an HSS style preset etc etc. I have found this to be somewhat helpful as a starting point. But I do get what you are saying about Fractal.
 
Nsurround said:
I completely understand that Fractal does not sell guitars. That was not my original point. Just an observation that presets are just an amp/cab model/ir which is set to some some sort of input, the guitar in this case. Since guitars especially the pickups have their own peculiarities the source input and levels can be different. Thus the preset has some sort of settings that was based to some extent on the guitar input which was used. My suggestion was only that it 'may help' the end user know what kind input source was used for the base or initial settings. With as many factory presets that are provided it could be helpful. Some persons who sell or create presets for public distribution may detail this, like for SC strat or this is an HSS style preset etc etc. I have found this to be somewhat helpful as a starting point. But I do get what you are saying about Fractal.
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I think when you read both @Admin M@ and @Rex's responses, they describe what guitars were used to create the factory presets. While that may not help you with individual guitars, it does provide a baseline guide from which you can select your presets, amps, effects and cabs.

And now that I know that you were referring to a single-coil or HSS style guitar, it gives me greater insight as to what you were trying to say originally.

It's vitally important to realize that not all single-coils or HSS guitars are created equal, knowing that their pickup impedances can and will be different from one to the next. With that in mind, I don't know if there were a way of suggesting what preset/amp/effect/cab would work with a certain guitar pickup or not, because of the variety involved.

As @Admin M@ and @Rex mentioned, the parameters that were tweaked were basic ones: "Input Gain. Treble. Bass. Master. Low Cut. Maybe a touch of output EQ." That just about covers the range of what you might expect to work with regards pickup varieties.

Hope this proves of benefit to you.
 
@Nsurround.
I’m no longer a beta tester but I can tell you that the presets are rarely made with a guitar in mind.
Some are obviously intended to replicate a certain sound, so these are obvious choices. A Pink Floyd preset would be intended to be played with a strat, originally. Or an AC/DC preset would’ve been designed with HBs in mind, but most of the presets are “ambidextrous “ and play well with both kinds of guitars.
Slight adjustment of Gain and BMT knobs are all that’s needed to make use of a preset with one’s instrument.
Also, one of my guitars HBs sounds brighter than my strat. So there’s no firm rule. And as testers, there was no direction to tune a preset for a specific type of guitar.

Some vendors are more specific as to what they recommend with certain presets they sell. I find that 99% out of the presets sound great no matter what instrument I use.
 
la szum said:
How did people ever choose an amp in previous decades given these kinds of pickup constraints??
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When you have 200 amps in your backline, you want 200 pickups to choose from. You know it’s true. :)
 
I haven't heard of any guitar amplifier that is made exclusively for one kind of pickup. You can use a Fender with a humbucker and a Dual Rectifier with a single coil or vice-versa. Same with the modeled amps at the Axe-FX. What is the point for narrowing them to a specific pickup?

As Matt said, preferences can be quickly and easily adjusted with a small tweak of gain or EQ

Austin Buddy's presets have scenes for Humbuckers and Scenes for single-coils. The only difference is that the SC scenes have a filter with a lo-cut. I find that useless. I always use his HB presets for both HB and SC, and tweak something when necessary. As a matter of fact, I always tweak something to my taste, whether using SC o HB.

The extreme is Moke, selling different versions of his presets for Humbucker and for Single-coil. I see that as a marketing strategy for the lazy, to sell more presets in case they want both. It is not complicated to adapt a preset to your guitar.

You may be surprised how good a preset idealized for certain pickup can sound with a different pickup. If you do not try them because they have the "wrong pickup" label, you miss the opportunity. Experiment, and learn to tweak the presets to your taste.
 
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I never gave this any thought, but I just downloaded a preset pair that has one for HB and one for SC. I find that the settings are: a bit more gain and a bit less treble for the SC vs the HB. I prefer the HB preset for both my HB guitars and my tele. I like the brightness of the SC pickups, and I expect to hear that when I play them. And what about my HSS guitars? I guess I just don't understand.

OP, seems like you assume that most presets are made with a single use-case in mind. I disagree. I make my presets for all my guitars, I never angle at one or another. I guess if you're making a preset to mimic a particular song, it would make some sense. Fair play to have the conversation, but I think your assumptions are maybe incorrect.

EDIT: I have 3 kinds of SC and 10 kinds of HB. Vintage to Modern with stops in between. And coil-splits.
 
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