How to determine/reference a guitar's baseline tone

winger

winger

Power User
Sorry for the noob question, but I would like to hear how you guys are dong this with the Axe FX II.

Backstory is I have one guitar in my arsenal (a MiJ Charvel SoCal with Dimarzio Evolution in the neck and Tonezone in the bridge) that is giving me a bit of a workout. It's sounding a bit congested, for lack of a better description.The Axe II is, as everyone knows, very capable of showing the differences in tone of various instruments.

I know there is lots of stuff that you can do to the setup/pickups. This makes it behave better on some patches, but worse in others. My dilemma seems to be that I have the feeling my guitar needs adjustments, not the presets I'm using. Or vice versa on another day. Without a reference point I am shooting in the dark with the adjustments. At least, that's what I am thinking.

What would be a good approach to determin a guitars basic tone in the Axe? Maybe the tube pre at default settings, or the Axe II bypassed? What works for you?
 
Listen to it unplugged, does it resonate well? Does it project? Is it well maintained? A good instrument should sound good to your ears even before the gear comes into play. If it passes all those, the electronics come next. Are your pickup heights set? How's the wiring? Potentiometers? If it passes this point, then you can start looking at your patches. That's generally the order I go anyway.
 
I wish more people shared their dry tracks along with their recordings because I've always wondered what's a good dry tone that makes some people's recorded tones so good.

I try to adjust my pickup pole pieces so every string has an even Loudness. I use a completely shunted layout grid without any blocks and disable the noise gate and use the Orban Loudness Meter.

Then when I create presets I use EQ before the amp block to customize my tone.

I admit the Axe-Fx II has so many parameters that can be adjusted that it can sometimes get overwhelming or you start to lose track of what a real guitar or amp sounds like. I still have my Mesa Boogie Triaxis and use it as a reality check to make sure I'm note going overboard and over processing my tones.
 
Does your Charvel sounds acoustically congested? How it sounds acoustically? Sustain good or poor?
It´s very important that guitar sounds good acoustically (this is my opinion). Everything in guitars body, parts etc. effects
the way string vibrating and gives sound to pickups. If sound dont´s stay long and dies quickly it can effect sound and also that it is
congested.

If guitar sounds acoustically dark more than bright, then electrically maybe you should adjust more treble and middle.
One thing is to adjust your pickups way that treble side is more higher than bass side, this gives more treble and middle to sound and
maybe can help congested or muddy sound. Anyway it´s good to adjust pickups height and try different positions.
If pickups are too near to strings, sound can be muddy, to fix this is to adjust pickups lower, best way is to try and listen (even they have
factory presets measurements about these things everyone should try they own way).

Everything effects to sound -> player and the way he plays (fingers, pick etc.), guitar and how it´s been adjust, amplification and effects and cabs which used.

Axe have so much things can effect ;D
One thing can make sound muddy / congested is cabs which used, so try different cabs, make more treble and middle adjustements etc.
Try to make sound without compression if you really don´t need that, treble and bass are not so separate if compressed and can make bongested sound.

What type of string are you using? Try different strings, best way is to try and find best strings fore each guitar.

They must be more things than what I told. Hope someone more wise guy than me can tel you more tips and things ;D
 
The "mechanics" of said guitar are okay. No issues there.

I have been doing some experimenting using GotMetalBoy's advice and did get more clarity out of the pickups that way. Another thing I noticed on presets where I thought the guitar was lacking, the Null mic in the cab block was selected. Removed that and now it sounds more like I was hoping.
 
winger said:
The "mechanics" of said guitar are okay. No issues there.

I have been doing some experimenting using GotMetalBoy's advice and did get more clarity out of the pickups that way. Another thing I noticed on presets where I thought the guitar was lacking, the Null mic in the cab block was selected. Removed that and now it sounds more like I was hoping.
Click to expand...

Originally, I used to try and calibrate speakers to be flat but never liked the sound. I then started to learn about pink noise and white noise and then the Fletcher Munson and Equal Loudness Curves and how our ears work. I then started learning about different level meters like VU, RMS, Peak and LUFS Loudness meter. I found that the LUFS Loudness meters gave the best results to my ears. Then I came up with the idea to calibrate my pickups, so they are Equal Loudness flat. So now most of my guitars sound similar but still have their own character tone and I can adjust pre-EQ to kind of sound like different pickups.

Here's some articles that helped me out regarding pickups:
 
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