@State of Epicicity I have been reading through this thread as time allowed and am excited to try this tonight.
Are there any factory cab you like with C 45 with the plexi tone stack?
It would be cool if you could do a quick summery of what you are using. Amp model, cabs, tone stack, any other crucial element so when the volume knob on the guitar is rolled down, good tone remains.
Thanks!!
In general, if you're looking for tones that clean up well with a single amp channel, the key I've found is to use an amp that's a little bright at low MV, but gets thick & juicy in a good way with the MV very very high. The gold standard is a Plexi, or a Plexi with an OD, like the Tube Driver 3-Knob, OC11, OCD HP, or 1981 DRV; set the drive to a low gain setting and higher level setting; also set the tone to a darker setting for better tones when you roll back. I can get a
great range of tones this way with my guitar's control panel, without doing anything with the Axe-FX III. But with the BE-100, it's basically a better version of a Plexi with a great OD in front of it, so it idealizes that big time. I've actually found that the 5150 Crunch with very high MV is very good for this too! Not quite as versatile, but very kick ass.
With all the Friedmans (with or without the Plexi tone stack) my favorite cab for the moment is Factory Bank 2 #723, with Smoothing on 8.00. The caveat here is, to me, you really have to match an IR to your guitar, not to an amp. So many times I try other people’s presets (OPP, Yeah, You know me), compare to videos of them playing, and the exact same thing sounds like crap on my guitar, and I think it has to do with the IR, because once I swap whatever they have with one suited to my guitar, their presets sound great. All that to say, it may sound like crap for you. My guitar is really bright, and this factory IR balances well with it. If you use your LP, it may be too muffled or something.
For models, my favorite is the BE C45 right now, but they were all just shades of awesome to me. I mean, the HBE V3 is a freakin' monster. The thing about the C45 to me is that it's the best for versatility, with my guitar, anyway. I was able to roll back the volume and get all sorts of goodness. I'll run my bridge pickup with the volume on 10 and the tone rolled back (with my .015µF cap) to 6 or so, and it's great for high gain stuff, then I'll switch to my neck humbucker split to the outer coil, with the volume and tone (in '50s wiring with a .010µF cap) at something 0.5 each, and it's warm clean stuff that's beautiful. Then you increase the volume and tone together for blues and rock on the neck. I've attached my presets for the BE C45 stock and with the Plexi tonestack, although I think your guitar might have to have a tonal signature closer to mine to sound good; might take some tweaking.
I played with every Friedman model in the Axe, and the only one I couldn't gel with was the Dirty Shirley 2, but maybe that would still be cool later if I revisit it. As you can see with the included preset, I'm running the C45 with Gain at 10, Bass at 2.15, Mid at 9.00, Treble at 7.81, and MV at 8.33. Presence and Depth at 0, to maximize the body of the mids! On the Small Box I ran Gain at 10, Bass at 4.48, Mid at 6.85, Treble at 6.21, MV at 9.19, and Presence at 4.45. That tone has some ass to it; it's awesome!
But of course, your ears may tell you something better with your guitar; this just worked for me.
