Having Trouble Getting Good Cleans

Tyler Box

Member
Hello! Let me tell you a bit of a story.

4 months ago I finally got the AXE FX 2 mk2 and I was so happy. I plugged in and immediately I had have a pleathera of djent and overdriven tones that sound fantastic and perfect for my style of playing. However, my best friend is a Jazz player and his little tiny acoustic amp KILLED my fractal in cleans. It was so responsive and present and not muffled at all.

I’m still struggling to find a good clean patch. The overdriven ones were easy to use, easy for me to make and sound great. However making cleans aren’t my world to say the least. I’m looking for a sparkly, bright, alomost glassy clean tone that I simply can’t get. My guitar is an ESP LTD EC-1000, EMG loaded, so maybe that’s the issue? But I’ve gotten good cleans on the neck pickup before so I know it’s not all my “metal” guitars fault.

Anyone that could share a known amp+cap combo that works or a specific patch upload would be fantastic! Also, if certain compressors or gates or delays or choruses are good please tell me! :)
 
usa clean with factory cab 19

chuck the studio comp in front with hard knee, ratio = 4 and set the threshold for your pickups

no gate needed, just add a touch of 2290 delay and a little plate reverb. dimension chorus if you're into that
 
I'm no pro on cleans but I recently discovered the tx star clean and it kills any other cleans I've found so far.
 
tons of great clean amps...how are you monitoring? don't expect your direct tone amplified through monitors to have the same vibe as an amp in the room, any amp in the room. apples and oranges.
 
tons of great clean amps...how are you monitoring? don't expect your direct tone amplified through monitors to have the same vibe as an amp in the room, any amp in the room. apples and oranges.
I Have a Bugera 2x12 and powering the entire rig is a behringer nu1000 power amp.
 
Loads of great clean amps: Shiver, tucana, carr, Fender vibroverb etc. if you want cleaner turn down input trim to 0.5 or lower.
Use comp, reverb to taste.
 
Try plugging your friends guitar into your axe-fx dialing a rig same or similar to his. Then plug in your guitar and dial the axe-fx to sound like it did with his guitar. If you get an awesome tone with his axe through your rig and you can't get anywhere near it with your axe, then it's your guitar.
 
Your pickups should be fine for the tone you're asking for. I own several mainstream pickups (Seymour Duncan, Dimarzio and EMG) , swap them out frequently and have never struggled to get a decent "glassy clean tone".
Remember to check if your 9V battery still has enough charge, otherwise you might get some nasty distortions.
 
Many EMG's are a bit higher output, so you may need to run the Input Gain or Input Trim lower to keep some amps clean. Depends on how heavy handed you are as well. Some cats barely tickle the strings while others beat the hell out of them. Playing hard gives you a lot of dynamic peaks than can be too much to keep some amps super clean. A compressor out front can help with that. If the amp has a bright cap (bright turned on under the Treble knob), running the Input Gain knob very low may make the tone overly bright or thin. If that's the case, turn down Input Trim then you can run Input Gain a little higher and still stay clean. Setting Input Trim to 0.5 is the same as using the low sensitivity input on classic two or four input amps like Plexi's and Blackface Fenders.
 
try a clean that's not 100% pristine clean..
allow it to have a very gentle fizz in the hi's when you strike the strings strongly
in isolation you'll hear the fizz..
but in the mix it should sound completely clean but have more body and bite than a pure clean..

don't be afraid to try the 5153Green or Herbert ch2-
 
My recommendation: Add an EQ before the amp with a bit of scoop. Cleans sound great with a scooped tone going in, and actives are a mid-boosted sound with significant roll-off. Try centering the scoop around 800-1000Hz. Big broad scoop though, across the spectrum.
 
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