How could I boost my upper register high notes on a clean guitar?

S

SVOhio

Member
I'm really struggling to get Clean Guitar chords and leads in the upper register, 12th fret and beyond, to really stand out during rhythm or leads. I was curious if anyone had a suggestion. When I've played in the past it has just been me and a bass player. Now I'm competing with vocals, keyboards and drums and it just seems to die on striking.

My thoughts on options, and I'm totally naive here and could be off base.

  • Use a Drive pedal?
  • Compression (Optical Sustain)?.... I'm struggling with this. I've never had a need for compression, so I'm very naive on settings.
  • Boost on the Amp (I think I'm using ODS 120 Clean.... not near FM9 currently)?
  • Double up the amp?
I appreciate your thoughts and patience on probably a stupid question.

Scott
 
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Add a filter block after the cab. Boost level as needed (3dB is what I usually use). I sometimes also boost around 1kHz-3kHz. And cut lows below 100hz or so.
 
here is a preset that I use in a funk / jazz / fusion set, the complete set includes 2 electric piano / electric bass / drums / a big brass section.
When I do a solo I have to make my place in !! As a general rule I use a sound that crunches or a well saturated lead sound and I boost the mids * this can be a working basis to find your solution.
I named the preset Snarky Puppy because I used it to play songs from this band at first, now I use it for the whole set.
 

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SVOhio said:
So, you think a "drive block" may work as well? I agree with Bleujazz if you don't mind providing some settings or screen shot. :)
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Note that @∞Fractals mentioned the "pitch follower" modifier. Dynamically changing the amount of drive in the signal chain sounds like this will add more drive, for whatever reason. If it will add more drive on the bass notes and clean up treble-wise, this might be a really nice option...or one could switch it up and have it work the opposite way...cleaner bass, saturated treble...
 
Does not have to be the drive block. You could control a filter/EQ as well.
It's really rather simple, conceptually. Attach the pitch follower to the parameter (drive block gain, mix, whatever) you want to increase when you're playing higher notes.
The art is in the fine-tuning, which will depend on your guitar, your patch, etc.
 
empinchen said:
Does not have to be the drive block. You could control a filter/EQ as well.
It's really rather simple, conceptually. Attach the pitch follower to the parameter (drive block gain, mix, whatever) you want to increase when you're playing higher notes.
The art is in the fine-tuning, which will depend on your guitar, your patch, etc.
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This ^^^

FWIW- the drive knob is cpu intensive iirc

Sry; no screen shots. Not something I’ve done in ages.
 
I drop an GEQ right before the amp that way I can simulate different types of pickups. I can add high end, boost or scoop the mids etc and I can boost the signal making the amp think it's looking at a hotter pickup.
 
bleujazz3 said:
Intrigued. Are there any specific settings you could share, perhaps via screenshot?
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There is a factory preset called Pitch Follower - not sure what number as I have moved patches around, but this increases amp volume (input trim) and delay (feedback and input gain) as you climb up the dusty end of the fretboard.
It's on my FM3, so should be on the FM9. Tweak to your taste.
 
pitch follower for distortion up the neck. Leon Todd video. He has great videos. You could tailor it to your needs. Maybe make it less distortion going up the neck or even louder volume as well. Solos and such.

 
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jzgtrguy said:
I drop an GEQ right before the amp that way I can simulate different types of pickups. I can add high end, boost or scoop the mids etc and I can boost the signal making the amp think it's looking at a hotter pickup.
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Good example. How might you set your GEQ for making a dual low-wind humbucker guitar sound more like a vintage single-coil guitar? I've most always been a humbucker guy myself but am wondering how one could imitate vintage single coils?
 
bleujazz3 said:
Good example. How might you set your GEQ for making a dual low-wind humbucker guitar sound more like a vintage single-coil guitar? I've most always been a humbucker guy myself but am wondering how one could imitate vintage single coils?
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Add a compressor right after input block and before the the eq (PEQ or GEQ? - read on). The Dynamicomp Compressor is a good choice. Start with 1,5 Compression, 0.200 ms Attack Time, and 20 ms release time, Adjust compression up or down for your guitar so you are getting a slight gain reduction (3-10db) on the gain meter. I don't know why this works, I just know this help makes my humbucker guitars sound more like my single coils. Maybe single coils have some natural compression? Or Humbucker have natural expansion - lol.

On the EQ: For this I would probably use a PEQ (they typically use less CPU - and in this case you get same result). Whichever EQ you use you want to scoop your mids - if you don't know how to do this in a PEQ then use a 5 Band GEQ and make a V shape (tweak depth of V for your particular humbuckers until it starts to sound "single-coil"-ish). That's a decent start - but without pickup profiling and digital magic it's hard to make a humbucker sound convincingly like a single coil.

Each humbucker variety will require different eq and compression settings for a good approximation. I used to do this back in the day with an "out of phase" switch on my ES-335, an MXR compressor and an MXR 6 band pedal EQ. That was before I owned any single coil guitars. But the approach above will get you close with some tweaking for your guitar.
 
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Rex Rox said:
Add a compressor right after input block and before the the eq (PEQ or GEQ? - read on). The Dynamicomp Compressor is a good choice. Start with 1,5 Compression, 0.200 ms Attack Time, and 20 ms release time, Adjust compression up or down for your guitar so you are getting a slight gain reduction (3-7db) on the gain meter. I don't know why this works, I just know this help makes my humbucker guitars sound more like my single coils. Maybe single coils have some natural compression?

On the EQ: For this I would probably use a PEQ (they typically use less CPU - and in this case you get same result). Whichever EQ you use you want to scoop your mids - if you don't know how to do this in a PEQ then use a 5 Band GEQ and make a V shape (tweak depth of V for your particular humbuckers until it starts to sound "single-coil"-ish). That's a decent start - but without pickup profiling and digital magic it's hard to make a humbucker sound like a single coil in my experience. Each humbucker variety will require different eq and compression settings for a good approximation.

I used to do this back in the day with an "out of phase" switch on my ES-335, an MXR compressor and an MXR 6 band pedal EQ. That was before I owned any single coil guitars. But the approach above will get you close with some tweaking for your guitar.
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Thanks for this. One of my guitars already has coil-tap humbuckers, but dialing in good single-coil pickup imitation to current day has always proved elusive. My guess is the someone like @Moke has already tried this, but I thought it would be interesting to try building a preset and not bug him about it.
 
∞Fractals said:
Some folks use the pitch follower to dynamically change the amount of drive in the signal at the drive block
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dean701 said:
pitch follower for distortion up the neck. Leon Todd video. He has great videos. You could tailor it to your needs. Maybe make it less distortion going up the neck or even louder volume as well. Solos and such.

Click to expand...


This Leon Todd video kind of changed my life. I'm sure I would have stumbled across the pitch follower at some point, but I probably would have dismissed it as "too complicated" or "unnecessary".

I spend most of my time playing cleanish parts, or lightly driven. So being able to program in a little of a gain/distortion/sustain increase as I go into a lead break has been such a relief. It's these modifiers that really set the Fractal form a lot of other options out there.
 
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jzgtrguy said:
I drop an GEQ right before the amp that way I can simulate different types of pickups. I can add high end, boost or scoop the mids etc and I can boost the signal making the amp think it's looking at a hotter pickup.
Click to expand...
Interesting idea 🤔
 
Wow! Interesting ideas everyone... overwhelmingly great information. It's hard to know where to start. Being an old dog playing through 25-35 year old setup until now, I appreciate everyone's effort. The trick has been to replicate my rig and tone so I can keep playing gigs, then take advantage of all the great FM9 tools and concepts.

Thanks so much and I will keep watching this post.
 
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