Having trouble getting single coil patches to cut through the mix...

guitarjim

guitarjim

Experienced
Most of my patches are set for humbuckers. I mostly play a PRS with a push/pull coil splitter. For music like Beatles, funk, etc. I prefer to split the coils to go for a thinner sound. The problem is that these tones are getting absolutely crushed in the mix, especially on single line passages. The Beatles songs are the biggest problem. It sounds fine when chording, but when I try to play some of Johns single line passages to connect chords, I can't even hear my own playing.

I'm attaching the Beatles patch that I use for your review. A couple of points on it...

1) It uses a User cab from Cab Pack 4, but just hook up a 1x12 or 2x12 and you'll get the point.
2) Extern 5 turn on clean lead mode.
3) Extern 3 turns on drive. It seems to cut fine with the drive on. I use it for songs like Lady Madonna and I have no problems.
4) Extern 2 is a pedal that controls the volume block. It's not necessary.

Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Nothing I've tried seems to help.

View attachment Beatles Clean.syx
 
I set up my patches using an input trim of .5 for humbuckers and 1.0 for single coil. Yek has a great Wicked Wiki that suggests several ways to automate this if you change guitars. Have you goofed with the input trim at all?
 
If it's a Clean Patch try the new compression output in the block amp ... at low amounts it helps with consistent volume and a nice and not exagerated "squash"

Or a compressor at the very beginning of the patch ... but with ratio very low ... +\- 1.250 , sofy knee and level at your taste

Clean sounds are really dinamics ... so it's not easy to have a perfect overall level ( if you're not using compression )
 
Noriuky73 said:
If it's a Clean Patch try the new compression output in the block amp ... at low amounts it helps with consistent volume and a nice and not exagerated "squash"

Or a compressor at the very beginning of the patch ... but with ratio very low ... +\- 1.250 , sofy knee and level at your taste

Clean sounds are really dinamics ... so it's not easy to have a perfect overall level ( if you're not using compression )
Click to expand...

+1.. CLean tones will suffer from lower output pups (going from high output on the same patch)... Some kind of compressor will help you out.
 
mogvinda said:
I'm not sure about your PRS, but split humbuckers have rarely sounded good in my (extremely limited) experience.
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Well, to be honest, I pretty much have to agree with you. The problem is that I'm in a dance/wedding band so I am unable to swap guitars as the entire goal is to keep people on the dance floor. People get aggravated if we have to stop just to allow me to tune. ;) So, it's either I play the whole gig with humbuckers, or use the split coils. I always try to get the sounds as authentic as possible (hey isn't that what the Axe is all about), and the split coils do sound more Beatlesque than the buckers do, even if they aren't great. If these generous suggestions above don't pan out, then I'll just stick with humbuckers on everything, but I would consider that a failure.
 
guitarjim said:
Well, to be honest, I pretty much have to agree with you. The problem is that I'm in a dance/wedding band so I am unable to swap guitars as the entire goal is to keep people on the dance floor. People get aggravated if we have to stop just to allow me to tune. ;) So, it's either I play the whole gig with humbuckers, or use the split coils. I always try to get the sounds as authentic as possible (hey isn't that what the Axe is all about), and the split coils do sound more Beatlesque than the buckers do, even if they aren't great. If these generous suggestions above don't pan out, then I'll just stick with humbuckers on everything, but I would consider that a failure.
Click to expand...

Maybe it's time for a new guitar then ;)
 
levipeto said:
Maybe it's time for a new guitar then ;)
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I'm never hesitant to buy a new guitar, but I haven't found one that plays as well as my PRS Singlecut Rosewoods and offers more versatility without compromising tone. I've been trying different things out for years and just haven't found anything. I'm definitely open to suggestions if you have one.
 
I'd actually go the other way, (I use a PRS here too and find the single coil sounds are OK for a more snappy lead tone with some gain on but not so usable for cleans generally). I find the neck humbucker can sound almost like a single coil if you take out some low mid and bass and back off the gain a bit, as PRS tend to be a bit brighter than say, a Les Paul, to begin with anyway. I'm not actually using an Axe yet (just got shipping notice from UPS today on my XL though, whoo!) but I use an old Boss GE7 graphic EQ pedal for stuff like this currently. I'm sure you could add a tone block to your patches to achieve similar if not better results.

I have several guitars here BTW and the PRS is the one I'll never part with, just love it.

Cheers,
Brian
 
Horganovski said:
I'd actually go the other way, (I use a PRS here too and find the single coil sounds are OK for a more snappy lead tone with some gain on but not so usable for cleans generally). I find the neck humbucker can sound almost like a single coil if you take out some low mid and bass and back off the gain a bit, as PRS tend to be a bit brighter than say, a Les Paul, to begin with anyway. I'm not actually using an Axe yet (just got shipping notice from UPS today on my XL though, whoo!) but I use an old Boss GE7 graphic EQ pedal for stuff like this currently. I'm sure you could add a tone block to your patches to achieve similar if not better results.

I have several guitars here BTW and the PRS is the one I'll never part with, just love it.

Cheers,
Brian
Click to expand...

That's an extremely interesting idea. I'll play around with that as well. Thanks.

Congrats on your Axe. One bit of advice... Get as much sleep as possible before it arrives :)
 
Welcome, and thanks, good advice! I also got another shipping notice from BareKnuckle pickups today that they are sending a set I ordered for another guitar (1991 Ibanez Universe 7 string), so I think there's definitely going to be some sleep missed over the next while with all these new sounds to play with :)
 
Horganovski said:
Welcome, and thanks, good advice! I also got another shipping notice from BareKnuckle pickups today that they are sending a set I ordered for another guitar (1991 Ibanez Universe 7 string), so I think there's definitely going to be some sleep missed over the next while with all these new sounds to play with :)
Click to expand...
2 years in and I still don't sleep enough. Just sounds so good. :)
 
A split humbucker always sounds really thin to me. Part of the problem is that if you use the bridge pickup it's not angled like a Strat or Tele pickup would be.
 
FractalAudio said:
A split humbucker always sounds really thin to me. Part of the problem is that if you use the bridge pickup it's not angled like a Strat or Tele pickup would be.
Click to expand...

That's been my experience too. I have a PRS Studio and it has the split humbucker facility. Not much chop, though. I'd reach for a Tele or Strat every time given the choice if I needed single coil action. When I do I go for the Class A or Top Boost with one of the newer Ultra-Res cabs. Perfect mids and cut that will poke you through without too much trouble.
 
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