Low vs High Output Pickups

J

Jipps0525

Power User
How do y’all juggle your preset building/tone editing when working with guitars of different pickup outputs? I don’t think I’ve worked with low-mid output pickups in awhile but I will be soon. I know there’s more to it than just volume as output so I wanted to gather some expertise feedback from here. If it matters, this is in reference specifically to the Dimarizio Transitions HSS set (high output) in my Luke 3 vs the Fender Aerodyne HSS pickups (low-mid output) in that guitar. I also think the single coils in my Luke 3 are Dimarzio Injectors
 
If you want to level out the output a bit more using same preset what about using a Filter block. Null with a 3-4db level for use with your lower output or single coil pups and place before amp block. Dial the preset for your hotter pickups to start. And use of scenes. a few scenes for your hotter pups the way you like. a few scenes that are the same but slight changes to taste for the lower/single coils with the filter block
 
I have the amp input trim on my global performance page. All my presets are set at the default of 1.00. I have one guitar whose output is a bit weaker than the rest. Sometimes I’m ok with that. Other times I dial up the trim to 1.3 or so and how it’s right in line with the others.

That said, I tend to live on one kitchen sink type preset. It makes this solution even easier.
 
I do almost the same but use Input Trim on the Tone Tab of the Amp Block. I set it to 1 for humbucker guitars and about 1.6 for single coils.
 
For anything that's not high gain I play with a compressor always on up front, so I use the compressor output level parameter to compensate for how each guitar hits the rest of my gain staging. Set at roughly unity for humbuckers, higher for low output single coils, and a few different values in between for filtertrons, P90s, etc. People who don't use a compressor up front could of course use a volume block or any other "transparent" low-DSP block for this purpose.

To manage this I use Scene Controller 1 across 5 scenes to adjust various parameters for different guitars (compressor threshold & output level, amp bass & treble). This way when I'm working I can quickly pick a guitar, pick a scene that roughly matches that guitar's pickups, then switch to my two OFM9G-style per-preset layouts, getting the character of each type of pickup without having dramatically different gain staging or EQ out the amp.

This also means I don't need different presets for different guitars which would get unwieldy as I am constantly tweaking parameters on all the blocks in the preset which would require copying the blocks between all the separate guitar presets to keep them all in sync.

Also worth noting that for anything not high gain, I run everything straight into the front of the amps and cabs, which I set to edge of breakup. So the input gain on the amps is not an option for me for this purpose as it dramatically affects the drive of the amps which needs to be consistent in this type of setup.
 
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Sorry if this comes across as argumentative, but if you're talking about live presets don't you dial them for the guitar you would use to play the song? I have three main guitars - a custom-made 57 Strat with low-output pickups, a PRS Holowbody 2 with Piezo I use when I need super clean or acoustic sounds but also has low output humbuckers - and an ESP Les Paul with Fishman Fluence Humbuckers; the hottest guitar I own. I definitely wouldn't try and set up a preset for the Strat and then plug the ESP into it - so I'm building song presets or a few global set presets: If it's a Rock show then it's the PRS and ESP and if it's a Blues Trio the PRS and the Strat.
 
I don't. I think guitars should sound different and switching between them including pickout output will be reflected in the tone.

I may occassionally adjust the output levels, but I have a layout dedicated to amp +1/-1 db to adjust on the fly. Usually 30 seconds at soundcheck will level out anything I need.
 
RoshRoslin said:
I don't. I think guitars should sound different and switching between them including pickout output will be reflected in the tone.

I may occassionally adjust the output levels, but I have a layout dedicated to amp +1/-1 db to adjust on the fly. Usually 30 seconds at soundcheck will level out anything I need.
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I agree actually. I’m more worried about my brain/ears getting used to the higher output pickups and then if I switch guitars to play a different song, then it won’t feel like there’s enough output there. This happens to me at home as well not just live.
 
I like to play a variety of guitars and just get used to having more or less gain depending on the guitar. One preset can sound like several with varied guitars.

Alternatives I've tried that also worked well:

Roll the volume off a little on hotter pickups when you set up the preset gain. This gives you a "this guitar goes to 11" thing on hotter pickups. It's how Alex Lifeson sets his amps. Note that in general for live, the higher volume makes the reduction of gain a good thing, so this is a good habit to get into anyway. I have treble bleeds in my guitars so that I can run them pretty much anywhere on the dial.

Set up a switch for amp boost for lower-output guitars. I did this on the per-preset page and it works very well.
 
I have different presets for different guitars. I find my favourite amp model for one guitar is not necessarily one I would chose for another guitar. The beauty of amp modeling is that I can switch amps as quickly (more quickly actually) than switching guitars.

I started out using the input trim to use the same presets for my Strat and Tele (my Strat pickups are hotter). I actually used to set up a preset (based on one specific amp) for one guitar and then copy it to another preset slot and modify the input trim to suit the other guitar. However, over time I found that when I was in the mood to play my Tele I generally selected a different preset (based on a different amp model) than when I picked up my Strat. Similarly with my PRS SE Hollowbody (humbuckers). So now I just have a few presets for each guitar and don't try to keep them "sync'd up" in any way.

My favourite amp models for each guitar:
Tele - Morgan AC20
Strat - FTR37
PRS - Prince Tone
 
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