biggness
Power User
A downloaded guitar preset does not exist in isolation. It reacts to the signal feeding into it, and that signal is shaped long before it ever reaches the amp model or effects chain.
Strings are one of the biggest variables. Brand, construction, coating, and gauge all affect brightness, sustain, harmonic content, and output. Heavier gauges generally produce higher string tension at the same tuning, which can increase signal amplitude and low frequency energy. That stronger input can hit gain stages harder, changing how distortion and compression behave. Lighter gauges tend to sound more open and immediate, but often with less push into the front end of the preset. This is why E Standard with 9–42 D’Addarios sounds noticeably different from E Standard with 11–54 D’Addarios, even before touching any settings. Switching brands adds another layer due to different alloys, core wire, and winding methods.
Scale length compounds this further. A 25.5 inch scale and a 24.75 inch scale at the same tuning and gauge do not feel or sound the same. The tension difference changes attack, sustain, and harmonic response, which again alters how the preset reacts.
Then there is the string to hand interface, the pick. Pick material, thickness, and shape directly affect transient response. A thinner pick flexes and produces a softer attack with less immediate amplitude. A thick, rigid pick delivers a sharper transient and more energy into the signal. On a 25.5 inch SSS Strat in E Standard with D’Addarios, a 0.66 Dunlop Tortex will produce a very different input signal than a Dunlop Stubby 2.0. That difference alone can change perceived gain, tightness, brightness, and compression.
When you stack all of these variables together, guitar, scale length, strings, tuning, pick, and playing dynamics, it becomes clear why loading someone else’s preset rarely sounds identical. The preset is responding accurately, but it is responding to a different input signal than the one it was created with.
Strings are one of the biggest variables. Brand, construction, coating, and gauge all affect brightness, sustain, harmonic content, and output. Heavier gauges generally produce higher string tension at the same tuning, which can increase signal amplitude and low frequency energy. That stronger input can hit gain stages harder, changing how distortion and compression behave. Lighter gauges tend to sound more open and immediate, but often with less push into the front end of the preset. This is why E Standard with 9–42 D’Addarios sounds noticeably different from E Standard with 11–54 D’Addarios, even before touching any settings. Switching brands adds another layer due to different alloys, core wire, and winding methods.
Scale length compounds this further. A 25.5 inch scale and a 24.75 inch scale at the same tuning and gauge do not feel or sound the same. The tension difference changes attack, sustain, and harmonic response, which again alters how the preset reacts.
Then there is the string to hand interface, the pick. Pick material, thickness, and shape directly affect transient response. A thinner pick flexes and produces a softer attack with less immediate amplitude. A thick, rigid pick delivers a sharper transient and more energy into the signal. On a 25.5 inch SSS Strat in E Standard with D’Addarios, a 0.66 Dunlop Tortex will produce a very different input signal than a Dunlop Stubby 2.0. That difference alone can change perceived gain, tightness, brightness, and compression.
When you stack all of these variables together, guitar, scale length, strings, tuning, pick, and playing dynamics, it becomes clear why loading someone else’s preset rarely sounds identical. The preset is responding accurately, but it is responding to a different input signal than the one it was created with.
).
... In the good ole days (70s) when I had a cheap guitar and low wattage Univox tube amp (no pedals) even with the amp volume all the way up you had to really whack the strings to get overdrive and breakup out of the sound. This makes the amp and your hands work differently. It adds a whole other dimension and liveliness to the sound. Attitude!!! The Axe-Fx is the only modeler/processor that replicates that (with proper settings) accurately, at least that I've heard.
