most of the preset sound like i had guitar tone down to 0-4 value

steveluvbar

New Member
Hi all fractal people. I'm messing with this problem.
I had a semi hollow ibanez as 153 ays (but also with my prevous guitar fender deluxe telecaster).
Most of the preset sound like i hade guitar tone down to 0-4 (compared to other people sound on youtube also). Let say if i had bridge pickup selected sound like bridge + neck. Or if i select bridge + neck it sounds like only neck and so on.
(i have the last firmware on)

It's not a matter of bass, medium and high on control amps. It dosnt't change the result so much.

It seems like i had to manipulate some tone control, but i'm not able to find something similar. Eq grapich seem too much invasive

thx a lot
 
Last edited:
Most of the presets are dialed for high volumes, live use, and may sound a bit dark if listened on low volumes or headphones.

Is this your case?
 
i play at home... i had iem, headphone and studio 5" speaker. I play with "home volume" but compared to other people on youtube my factory preset sound like i describe prevously
 
Ist that problem accuring all presets you use ? If yes it would be easier for the folks here to help if you share the preset or a sample of your sound, netherless i would suggest to check the basics like if amp modeling is turned on, i have to say that there is a difference when you listen to monitors or even headphone compared to a youtube sound that has been recorded using a DAW.
 
most part of the preset, not all. For example free Marco fanton preset i didn't have this problem
 
Last edited:
Most of the presets are dialed for high volumes, live use, and may sound a bit dark if listened on low volumes or headphones.

Is this your case?

If this is my case for several presets using humbuckers, but not using single coils, is there some global way to optimize for headphone sound? I am not gigging with my FM3 and use it for recording and late night headphone practice.

This is not a factor at all on single coils for me so far, but I've had to create new presets for my humbucker equipped guitars because they sound very dark, even when compared to a real amp at low volume they're darker.
 
Check the Input and Output EQs. If they're both flat, try resetting the System Parameters in the SETUP>UTILITIES menu.
 
If this is my case for several presets using humbuckers, but not using single coils, is there some global way to optimize for headphone sound? I am not gigging with my FM3 and use it for recording and late night headphone practice.

This is not a factor at all on single coils for me so far, but I've had to create new presets for my humbucker equipped guitars because they sound very dark, even when compared to a real amp at low volume they're darker.
Unfortunately I don't think there's a 'push of a button' solution. It's really a matter of adjusting the EQ (lows and highs). You may try the Global EQ but not all presets would require it, so...
 
If this is my case for several presets using humbuckers, but not using single coils, is there some global way to optimize for headphone sound? I am not gigging with my FM3 and use it for recording and late night headphone practice.

This is not a factor at all on single coils for me so far, but I've had to create new presets for my humbucker equipped guitars because they sound very dark, even when compared to a real amp at low volume they're darker.

There is no scenario with a real amp or a modeler where single coils and modern voiced humbuckers should both sound "bright" at the same settings, maybe with some really low wind unpotted vintage buckers and or parallel wiring, but typically humbuckers should sound dull and mid forward vs single coils at settings where single coils sound ideal.

Some of the presets are geared towards single coils and other humbuckers, but you'll typically need to have presets dedicated to each for the best tones.
 
Maybe you are using a bad high capacity (spiral?) guitar cable? Change it to a good high quality cable. Use Input 1, not 2 (not a dedicated guitar input).
 
There is no scenario with a real amp or a modeler where single coils and modern voiced humbuckers should both sound "bright" at the same settings, maybe with some really low wind unpotted vintage buckers and or parallel wiring, but typically humbuckers should sound dull and mid forward vs single coils at settings where single coils sound ideal.

Some of the presets are geared towards single coils and other humbuckers, but you'll typically need to have presets dedicated to each for the best tones.

This makes sense, but comparing real amps in my practice space with both singles/hums, obviously single coil will be brighter at the same settings, but the FM3 using presets is like 30x less bright with hums compared to a real amp in the same room at the same volume. I have to dial real amps differently based on the guitar and I fully expect that to be the case. That said...

I think the presets being dialed in originally for singles makes the most sense here, as they can be adjusted to make the humbuckers sound normal with tweaking. I feel like the presets were dialed in with a Stratocaster or something. Every single preset sounds pretty much 80% there with minimal tweaking with a Strat and that's been basically the opposite experience with humbucker equipped guitars for me.
 
This makes sense, but comparing real amps in my practice space with both singles/hums, obviously single coil will be brighter at the same settings, but the FM3 using presets is like 30x less bright with hums compared to a real amp in the same room at the same volume. I have to dial real amps differently based on the guitar and I fully expect that to be the case. That said...

I think the presets being dialed in originally for singles makes the most sense here, as they can be adjusted to make the humbuckers sound normal with tweaking. I feel like the presets were dialed in with a Stratocaster or something. Every single preset sounds pretty much 80% there with minimal tweaking with a Strat and that's been basically the opposite experience with humbucker equipped guitars for me.

Can you give an example here as I don't experience the same effect, granted there are a lot of presets and I tend to dial in my own stuff.
 
This makes sense, but comparing real amps in my practice space with both singles/hums, obviously single coil will be brighter at the same settings, but the FM3 using presets is like 30x less bright with hums compared to a real amp in the same room at the same volume. I have to dial real amps differently based on the guitar and I fully expect that to be the case. That said...
How are you comparing? If you're FM3 is coming thru a monitor and your amp is coming thru a guitar cab then you're comparing two different things.

Also, people often adjust real amps differently because of volume constraints. The same constraints don't exist in the Fractal because you have the Level control in the Amp block.

If there was as significant of a difference between real and modeled amps as star you say, I don't think Fractal would be in business.

I think the presets being dialed in originally for singles makes the most sense here, as they can be adjusted to make the humbuckers sound normal with tweaking. I feel like the presets were dialed in with a Stratocaster or something. Every single preset sounds pretty much 80% there with minimal tweaking with a Strat and that's been basically the opposite experience with humbucker equipped guitars for me.
From what I recall reading in the past, I think many of the factory presets have been dialed in on medium output humbuckers.
 
I'll look at my presets later and update this thread with some of the presets I ended up changing, but some of the Marshalls for sure in headphones with a set of WRHB sounded like a blanket over the speakers until I bumped up the treble and presence.

I don't think this was at all scientific, nor meant to be in terms of comparing them apples to apples, just a note that my first out of the box experience trying the FM3 with humbuckers felt like I had to make significant adjustments to the amp models whereas they "just worked" with my Strat. Now that I understand the machine a lot more than I did originally, I want to go back and try my HB equipped guitars again. I play single coils most of the time but I tried my Tele Deluxe with WRHB first, as I had just restrung it when the FM3 box arrived :)

I guess put another way, I don't think there's anything wrong with the Fractal or modeling in any way, and they can all be adjusted pretty easily to make them sound great, but more remarking that my Strat requires very little tweaking with the factory presets and my Tele Deluxe needed changes to not sound super dark comparatively, moreso than using the same two guitars with a real amp. I also really go for a bright sound by default, and use my guitar's volume and tone knobs to shape that.
 
Thanks for starting this thread. My PRS Custom 24 and my Mark Holcomb 7 string sound great through the FM3 (Humbuckers).

I had a PRS Silver Sky briefly before returning it for a PRS S2 Vela Semi-Hollow body and a Mexican Strat Player. When I had the Silver Sky, and now the Strat and the single coil Vela to some extent, the sound is muddy. I couldn't figure out. I will check these settings when I get home from work today. I didn't think it was the single coil pickups, but perhaps it is?
 
If this is my case for several presets using humbuckers, but not using single coils, is there some global way to optimize for headphone sound? I am not gigging with my FM3 and use it for recording and late night headphone practice.

This is not a factor at all on single coils for me so far, but I've had to create new presets for my humbucker equipped guitars because they sound very dark, even when compared to a real amp at low volume they're darker.
The global way is to correct the response of your headphones using the global graphic EQ setting for Output 1.

You can look up your headphone model from here: https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/tree/master/results

Then you can plug in the graphic EQ settings presented into the output EQ options on the FM3. While headphone quality still matters, this helps make the pair you have closer to flat.

If they still sound dark then you would need to edit the presets. At that point better to just make your own.
 
Back
Top Bottom