The point was that the Axe responded just like the real life amps did. After that, I started making low and high output versions of my presets. Lately, I have been getting lower output humbucking pickups in the guitars that had hot ones, and adding series/parallel switching for the pickups to drop their output into the single coil range. My cleans and lightly crunchy tones are much better at lower output, and I can bump the output up for a bit more dirt and a more mid-focused sound when I want that.
I've been doing the same. I think parallel wired humbuckers are great.
I'm the guy who sort of kicked over this whole anthill originally, so I will take the time to clarify my position, FWIW.
Someone posted that they would like to see the stock presets improved, and the question arose as to in what way they could be improved. I chimed in at that point with a suggestion that an alternate set of presets be created for low output pickups.
My example was the Cooper Carter videos. I pointed out that up until that point I had thought many of the high gain presets were junk, they didn't work for me at all. After comparing my sound to the video, I figured out that the issue was simply the input level. Just by boosting my input level using the amp block input trim, I was getting very close the same tone with no other adjustments.
The thread derailed at that point unfortunately, much like this one has. But to be clear, I never suggested that the Axe normalize input levels to make all guitars and amps sound the same, nor do I expect my vintage output guitars to sound like a guitar with high output humbuckers, even with a lot of input trim.
As it turns out, Fractal gave the tool I needed with the global input trim. But I still wish there was a sound clip library so that I could hear what the preset makers were going for, since many of the presets are so input sensitive.
.
.
