hmm.... non-axe-related phenomenon. Any suggestions?

Muris_Varajic said:
Not sure if its relevant but how low/high is your action?
With low action you can get similar problem on distorted sounds.
Click to expand...

you mean the strings fretting out? I raised the action considerably (loosened the truss rod) a few weeks back in an early attempt to understand the situation. No difference. Plus the noises happen even when I play a note on the highest fret.

btw thanks guys for your interest and efforts so far to help!
 
Sidivan said:
Everything I'm about to say is complete speculation by me based on my elementary knowledge of physics and fairly deep knowledge of how said physics work in relation to a guitar.

The first thing I would check is plug the guitar into a tuner and pick the string. Does the tune jump? By how much? Normally, as long as you're not slamming the string, it shouldn't jump very much. If it is jumping by more than 2 cents, your neck joint is flexing. This information is taken from various sources, but the most recognizable one is Dan Erlewine's guitar player repair guide.

When you pick the string, there are many forces at work You have the string vibrating in a circular fashion and also the neck and wood are vibrating. If your neck joint is flexing, the string is literally getting longer and shorter as it vibrates, this causes it to vibrate faster and slower as the neck joint settles. This variance is going to be more detectable with distortion and in extreme circumstances sounds like a wah pedal for a split second.

It could also be that the distortion clipping is producing some weird partials that smooth out as the natural energy of the string dissipates. http://www.geofex.com/effxfaq/distn101.htm

Again, could all be complete BS in relation to your issue. Jay will most likely rip this post into tiny bits.
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I will be sure to check with the tuner tonight after work, but I have some doubt if the variation can be picked up from the dry guitar signal, so do you mean placing a tuner after the distorted/amplified signal? My only tuner is on board the axe-fx and I dont know if it has a cents readout - I can count the number of pixels the tune jumps by and scale it between the 0 and 50 cent marks, but is the tuner display actually to scale or simply diagramatic?

So, if neck flexing is the issue (mine is a fixed neck), does that mean something is wrong with my guitar that requires repair? coz the exact same behaviour happens on both my guitars...
 
SparkyG said:
Is it worse around the 13,14,15th Fret?
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Yeah, pretty much the worst of its on the 11th -15th frets, particularly the third string, sound i get is almost like extra pick attacks. but it happens to some degree the rest of the way up the fretboard
 
FWIW

The closest that the pole pieces on the bass side of your neck pickup (or middle pickup if you've got one) should ever be to the bottom of the low E string (when fretted at the highest fret) is 1/8".
Any closer than that and you're asking for intonation problems and strange sonic artifacts.
The neck pickup can be as close as 1/16" on the treble side of the neck pickup.
The bridge pickup can be 1/16" on both sides, but any closer is asking fro trouble.

Can you post a longer clip of you playing an actual musical phrase where you hear this as being problematic, please?
I can't really hear anything odd in the two clips you've posted so far.
 
Amp block?? causing delayed beats / poor note clarity

joegold said:
FWIW

The closest that the pole pieces on the bass side of your neck pickup (or middle pickup if you've got one) should ever be to the bottom of the low E string (when fretted at the highest fret) is 1/8".
Any closer than that and you're asking for intonation problems and strange sonic artifacts.
The neck pickup can be as close as 1/16" on the treble side of the neck pickup.
The bridge pickup can be 1/16" on both sides, but any closer is asking fro trouble.

Can you post a longer clip of you playing an actual musical phrase where you hear this as being problematic, please?
I can't really hear anything odd in the two clips you've posted so far.
Click to expand...


Joe thanks for the pickup info, I wasnt aware of these guidelines and its good to know but I did drop my pickups below sane levels (too far! it came off the screw!) and found that the pickup closenes-to-string does not aleviate the weird behaviour.

Unfortunately, I dont see any benefit in posting more clips. People never seem to agree on what they hear anyway. I have posted signal images to provide a basis for objective discussion. We should all see the same thing.

I want to summarise to get this post back on track:
I have 2 guitars and the weidness happens with both. I.e. I dont think its my guitars that cause it...
In the opening post, the image clearly shows a series of distinct beats occuring about half a second after the pick attack. This is the typical behaviour I when playing through any higher gain amp sim and at times the noise is comparable to an actual pick attack.
When you look at my post on the second page, my guitar's dry signal was given some attention. Applying some generic overdrive distortion post-recording revealed that whilst a single beat closely follows the pick attack, it is not the same or as distinct as the beats I hear when playing through the amp sim. i.e. I think that the amp sim is introducing the beats.

please dont crucify me yet! To some degree, I have noticed similar behaviour in my real life JCM800, but it sounds way more subtle, and I never even noticed it in the 12 years of owning the amp until I decided to double check against the AFX.

I am interested to know what causes this, more so, can it be fixed up. Has anybody else experienced something similar? I love my axe fx and Im keeping it, but I do notice that this sound behaviour could be improved. I have a lot of respect for Fractal's customer support initiatives. If they ever choose to provide a new firmware, I hope that they do make some consideration to this issue, if its relevant.

Any constructive feedback or similar experiences or remedies would be much appreciated.

Cheers
 
I think you're just hearing the natural bloom of the string's vibrational cycle through a hi-gain amp.
Most of the Axe's hi-gain amp sims have significantly more gain available than the real amps.
Try turning down the gain?
 
Amp block

joegold said:
I think you're just hearing the natural bloom of the string's vibrational cycle through a hi-gain amp.
Most of the Axe's hi-gain amp sims have significantly more gain available than the real amps.
Try turning down the gain?
Click to expand...


No question about it, tuning down the gain helps, but its also like, uh turning down the fun:cry: (I love the clean amp sounds I get in the AFX btw)

The given example in the first post is a JCM800 sim with a 8dB boost on front with amps drive at around 4, master volume cranked, the same behaviour happens for say, drive at 6 and master at 5, even when I bypass the boost. To get the notes to sound clear, I gotta turn the drive down to a point where it almost sounds like im playing on a clean channel.

At the moment I am running a drive block straight to a cab block (no amp block) and the results are alot better
 
I get it as well - G string is always worse.

All my guitars do it
2 Suhrs a PRS, a CS Strat and A brian May _ a cheap SG.

I notice it's worse in the house and suspect dirty Mains, not as bad when I'm out playing gigs, and I rarely notice it out so have given up chasing my tail..

cheers
 
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