Dialing in a Les Paul

[jw3571]

I have a bunch of guitars and since getting the axe i've noticed the my Les Paul's sound worse compared to others. Strat's, Tele, Jackson Soloist, Gretsch White Falcon, and a PRS P22. I think it's the low end i'm having trouble with. The other guitars sound much tighter and not so sloppy. I've tried different things, cut in amp block, and a bunch of different low end filters. I'm mostly trying this using Marshall amps. Any suggestions, Les Paul's are my favorites to play so this is really bugging me.

 

[Jason Scott]

Is the issue that it sounds muffled or has a blanket over the tone?

Can you post a sample?

 

[jlynnb1]

my LP has none of those issues, sounds amazing. post a clip so we can hear what you are hearing.

 

[SeasonOfPain]

I definitely have to apply a bass cut for my Les Pauls, especially those with a 490/500 pair (though the CustomBuckers in my R8 also get woofy). The Marshalls amp sims seem to need this more than others (e.g. JCM800, Plexis), but perhaps it's counter-intuitively due to their tone stack placement (e.g. with a Mesa Mark model I start by immediately turning bass to near-zero, vs. starting with everything at noon for a Marshall).

I'd suggest trying to use the Cut feature, or set a high-pass above 100 Hz.

 

[mr_fender]

Yeah my LP can get a bit boomy on the low end too. You want to cut the bass pre-gain until it tightens up to your liking and then add it back post-gain if it then sounds too thin. Cut works well in most cases to tighten things up, but you can also use the Low cut in the Amp block advanced parameters too. That controls the amount of bass going into the amp.

 

[winger]

No more woofy tones since I started dialing in using the neck humbucker. If that results in a bridge humbucker which might sound a tad harsh, just lower the tone control.
You might already be doing this though. For me it was an eye opener as I was always dialing in from the bridge humbucker.

 

[edo]

Try the amp block graphic eq, set it to 8 or 7 band constant Q and cut 4 db's at 200 or 250hz

 

[6L6C]

I have two Les Pauls both sound great but both also have low output pickups. Maybe your pickups are a bit to hot, lower the input trim a bit.

John

 

[kroubik]

Have you checked the distance between the strings and the pickup. Based on your description of the problem you seem capable of dialing in an acceptable tone on all your other guitars, so my assumption is you know what you are doing with the AxeFx. You describe the problem in a way that says it's an issue with the guitar. Try lowering the pickup a little bit and see if that helps.

http://www.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Gear-Tech/en-us/How-to-Adjust-Humbucker-Height-for-Improved-Tone.aspx

 

[JIMMY G]

I love my Les Pauls' but I find Gibson pick-ups are very bassy. I use Bare Knuckle Black Dog (moderate output,Bridge) and HS supermassive P-90, Neck) or other pickups of your choice. Changing the pickups made a big difference, but that does cost money but if you cant work it out it might be a choice to consider. IMHO

 

[barhrecords]

Try a PEQ block as the first block in the chain.

freq1: 180hz
q1: 0.9
gain1: -3.00
frequency 1 type: shelving

 

[CrunchyBob]

Do you have 500K Volume/Tone Potentiometers? I believe there are many LPs in the wild with 300K Pots out there.

 

[mnemonic]

Is this just one Les Paul or multiple Les Pauls? Do they all have the same pickups?

If its just one guitar, it could just be the guitar. I have some guitars that are a pain to get a good sound from and take some meticulous tweaking and some guitars that sound great with pretty much whatever setting.

 

[Toopy14]

What year is the LP?

The reason I ask, is that I have a 1987 LPC and I had the same issue. As someone mentioned, it sounded like there was a blanket over my guitar. I checked the pots and they only measured 250 k. I did some research and found that during that time, not sure the exact years, Gibson put 250 k pots in their LP's. I swapped them out for 500 k pots and it was like night and day, it sounded like the blanket had been removed.

 

[brianv4]

Don't usually have an issue with a LP bridge pup but I love using the low-cut in the preamp section, just wish I had a modifier to turn it on/off thru the MFC. For neck pup leads I use the blues OD drive block, makes it sound like a Strat!

 

[Jarick]

I put a low wind A4 magnet PAF in the neck of my Les Paul for the clearest tone without mud possible then a hotter bridge pickup to balance it out so it's not as bright.

 

[Lkdog]

Isn't it suggested to reduce input trim if using humbuckers?
I use low cut with my Les Paul or reduce trim if looking to get traditional jazz cleans.

 

[maxdown]

Arguably the best sounding LPs were the original PAF loaded ones ..... which are not high output pups by modern standards.

As mentioned above by winger .... getting the LP to sound good on the neck pup is probably the place to start. If you set things up to make it sound good and ballsy only on the bridge pup with vol and tone full on then chances are you'll have a bass heavy neck pup sound.

If your pots and caps are shitty that would certainly affect things too ......

Back when I got a used early seventies LP I was too scared to fiddle with it for ages because it was my first decent guitar and it owned me more than I owned it .... then I dropped the pup heights a little and wound down the bass side of the neck pup a bit .... it became the guitar I wanted to be then. Took about a year to pluck up the courage to do that though ..... and I never did get round to removing the pick guard before I (stupidly) sold the guitar.

 

[brianv4]

Isn't it suggested to reduce input trim if using humbuckers?
I use low cut with my Les Paul or reduce trim if looking to get traditional jazz cleans.

This def helps, especially with Fender's and Vox's. I usually set input trim around .5

 

[Andrew Male]

Probably need to cut some woofiness out, try reducing frequencies around 150 hz in the amp EQ section, I have to do that pretty much every time with my Les Paul.