HSS

fastgraham

fastgraham

Inspired
Hi all,

Today is a new guitar day for me. After a million years of only owning a hollow body double hum bucker guitar, I got a cheap HSS strat today.

The quackiness of the single coils is pretty cool, I am having fun with it.

Do y'all have any suggestions for a patch that can do both the hum bucker and the single coils as their character and overall volume is quite different.

With very little tweaking I think that at least for clean tones, I can use both pickup types with the same amp

Thanks
 
If you don't have one in your presets already, add a compressor (I use the Studio model). If you do use one, mess around with the settings a bit. It can be tweaked to compensate for the difference between the pickups.
 
I set up all my patches up using a humbucker equipped guitar.
When I plug in a single coil guitar, the volume & gain drop is noticeable so I have just bought an Xotic EP boost to run in front of the AX8. It sounds great and is an easy fix to the above issue and saves having to create a load of additional presets.
 
I use all four of my guitars (HSS Charvel, HH Mayones Setius, Telecaster, Epiphone ES-339 Pro) into the same four patches (Clean, Break-up, Crunch and High gain), and I quite like how the character of each guitar with varying output, EQ curve etc. shines through across all the patches. YMMV, but I prefer not to compensate for the output of each guitar.
 
Beexter said:
I set up all my patches up using a humbucker equipped guitar.
When I plug in a single coil guitar, the volume & gain drop is noticeable so I have just bought an Xotic EP boost to run in front of the AX8. It sounds great and is an easy fix to the above issue and saves having to create a load of additional presets.
Click to expand...

Just curious, why an external boost as opposed to EQ/boost in the AX8?
 
JN99 said:
Just curious, why an external boost as opposed to EQ/boost in the AX8?
Click to expand...
I'm still fairly new to Fractal (but loving it!) so bear that in mind. I did ask a question about a global boost in the AX8 but apparently, it's not possible (at the moment - although I think it would be a useful addition to a future firmware update)

Therefore, my reasons for an external boost are:
1) It's easier. I add one small external boost pedal and I have instant, easy access to a boost at a consistent dB level across every single preset or scene.

2) it allows me to quickly and easily increase the output of single coil guitars if needed. Why I hear you say? I always take 2 guitars to gigs /rehearsals - one with single coils and one with humbuckers to give me different tone options. The other week, I broke a string on the MusicMan Axis so grabbed the Tele but all the grit dropped out of my tone along with some volume. A stomp on the external boost returned things to normal on a global bssis - no need to tweak every individual patch.

3) The EP boost also makes all my clean tones sound better and I haven't been able to replicate it in the AX8 yet. A model of this in a future firmware update would be nice.
 
Well not as new as I am since mine isn't even here yet! Supposed to have it tomorrow. I think I read something about there being no true clean boost pedal in the AX8 and so was wondering if that was why. As for it being global, makes sense but I was wondering about just having that clean boost (however it's achieved) in each preset as a simple stomp for when you need the boost for single coils. I'm in the same boat, definitely want to use more than one guitar (or possibly get an HSS) if we ever get the band out gigging and while it could be presets and songs already tailored to each, sometimes I'm thinking I'll have a more generic tone(s) that I want available regardless of which guitar is in my hands.
 
Just had a NGD recently for my semi-hollow PRS ce-24!!

New instruments are a great opportunity to try amps I didn't click with in the past.

IMO Strats love Class-A, Fender and Two Rock amps.
Personally trying to play more with the Mesa LoneStar.

Next NGD is very likely going to be a G&L Legacy HSS Strat...
 
All of my presets also have a clean boost in them which I assign to an external footswitch (I use a Boss FS7) but they are used as solo boosts and are generally placed after the amp model to give a volume boost. I assign them to an external footswitch for the simple reason that no matter what preset I'm in, I know that the FS7 is my "louder" button!
I use the EP boost in front of the AX8 input (not in the loop) which gives me the option to increase volume and gain when using single coils. I still then have the option to further increase volume for a solo boost via the Boss FS7.
 
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Singles and humbuckers...I have a SG Special from 1991 (3 knobs, ebony fretboard), I got rid of the original pickups and installed a Dimarzio Superdistortion in the bridge and an old Lace Sensor Gold (2 conductors) in neck position.
The white little thing looks weird in a humbucker hole but man this thing sounds nice and now I have a very versatile axe...a SG with tele vibe? yes sir!

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JN99 said:
Well not as new as I am since mine isn't even here yet! Supposed to have it tomorrow. I think I read something about there being no true clean boost pedal in the AX8 and so was wondering if that was why. As for it being global, makes sense but I was wondering about just having that clean boost (however it's achieved) in each preset as a simple stomp for when you need the boost for single coils. I'm in the same boat, definitely want to use more than one guitar (or possibly get an HSS) if we ever get the band out gigging and while it could be presets and songs already tailored to each, sometimes I'm thinking I'll have a more generic tone(s) that I want available regardless of which guitar is in my hands.
Click to expand...
Not sure about a clean boost pedal but there are several ways to get a clean boost using the boost function or a filter with increased level
 
As far as I know, the AX8 doesn't have the ability to quickly toggle on a global EQ/boost that stays sticky between scene and preset changes so if you use a block for this, you lose that state as soon as you switch the scene or preset. This is okay for a lead boost but not so great if you are using it to compensate for different pickups and want that compensation to stick when switching.

If you want to stay "in the box" for your global boost, you can do this by hooking up an external latching footswitch and setting PC RESET to off in the modifier settings. When you toggle the footswitch, the AX8 will see it like an expression pedal being moved from one extreme to the other. You tweak the modifier curve so that the values at the extremes match the values you want to toggle between. PC RESET off ensures that the AX8 uses the current external value when switching. You also have to make sure that any presets and scenes you are switching are set up to work appropriately with this.

I like this approach vs. an external boost because it allows me to move the controller around to different blocks/parameters depending on what works best for a given preset and because I don't have to worry about powering an external pedal (assuming you get a latching footswitch that doesn't require power). It's also nice having the external pedal to stomp on as needed. This technique will work with any parameter than can be hooked up to a modifier that you'd want to globally toggle -- for example, I also use it to control a pitch shift block to toggle on a 1/2 step detune globally.

There are also footswitches like the switchable latching TRS from Saturnworks that gives you knobs to set the two extremes to switch between at the source. Nice if you like having knobs to tweak.
http://saturnworkspedals.com/product/expression-pedal/
 
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