@Tahoebrian5 I think you've gotten a lot of good advice. However, (don't shoot me guys!) it's all a crap shoot unless:
1. We can hear the sound
2. Use the gear you have
You can get 500 people telling you great things to try. You mention bass but don't mention the artifacts you may be getting and haven't been able to define where the mud is coming from. Understand what I'm saying?
To further explain, certain low end frequencies will destroy your tone. You will not only get bass mud, but you'll start to get that horrible "whoomfing" artifact we can get with high gain tones. Low mids can do this too!
So many things play into what you may be hearing. I literally could write up 6 pages telling you so many things to try, I'd probably confuse you. Lol! I'd love to hear a version of the sound that you don't like that you feel has issues.
The problem there is...if this is something live where you use a sound that changes when you run it into a cab, hearing the sound direct out of the axe will not help. You'd have to mic it properly and record it to let us hear it if that is the case.
For example, if I shared my live sound without my greenback cab, the direct sound straight out of my axe fx would be loaded with bass. But through my cab, this bass is not there.
Just for your head...here are a few things that may help you with high gain sounds.
1. Gain. Too much gain to where a sound trips over itself will ruin the sound in seconds. Most of your hero's are using less gain than you think they are. The less you can play with, the cleaner and better the guitar will cut through the mix/band.
2. The difference between high end treble and gain: a lot of guys use too much gain when in reality, a light treble boost in the right area can give you the appearance of more gain than you are actually using. The problem here is some people over do it and end up with a razor sharp sound that has no definition and is all sizzle. Everything in moderation.
Frequencies like 3k to about 8k can help here. 10k and above will give you what I like to call "air sizzle". They are not as apparent as the others, but can help.
3. Bass frequency selection: like recording/mixing, the right frequencies can make a huge difference. The problem here is, being able to identify what you need or don't need. A guy sitting here telling you to cut or boost something is oblivious to what YOU may be hearing if he hasn't heard the sound.
Example, if your tone is razor sharp and is lacking good bass, and you don't know what is considered good bass, the guy telling you to low cut 150Hz on down, may be stripping out good stuff that isn't there enough to begin with. So starting points from people that have not heard the sound are moot.
Keeping in mind that most guys have too much bass in their tone, being a little more educated about what is good and bad bass can really help.
In my opinion, anything under 80Hz sounds bad to me in a guitar tone. Frequencies from 70 on down bring in sub low artifacts that walk on top of bass guitar and mud up your tone. Lightly they may help, but I've always kept away from that low stuff for guitars. Some like that stuff. I've never had any luck.
Frequencies from 80 - 160Hz can really help you but can also kill you if you go too crazy.
If you look at our 8 band amp eq....80 Hz can give you a little speaker push. Too much and you lose. 120 can help, but too much and when you chug an A it will whoomf and sound like crap. All this of course depends on lots of things like amp you choose, as well as the cab and how much or how little eq it may have.
Quick example....the 2x12 cabs usually have way less low end nasty bass than our 4x12 impulse cabs. It's a matter of just knowing what to do and when.
That said, without knowing what is or what is not in your sound, no one can tell you what to cut or boost. The most important thing you can do, is to learn to identify frequencies. This way you can hear something and in seconds, know what to touch.
4. Always try to eq your effects like chorus, reverb, flange and anything that offers a low cut or high cut. Effects tend to accentuate low end by default. I just put up a new video in my Haas effect thread near the last page that addresses a bit of this so you can hear how much it can really affect things.
So keep some of this is mind. It can really help you. Watch for frequencies from 200 to 350. Too much in that area and you can get mud too. Removing some stuff in those areas can really help if you are hearing low mid congestion or artifacts. Again though...you have to determine if the area is a problem or not before you cut or boost.
Best of luck...and if you want to post a sound for me to listen to where I can give you some insight, feel free. Quite a few on here would be able to help you and put you in the right place.
