My hottest guitars don't hit the red

Stringtheorist

Fractal Fanatic
I felt something was missing from my tone lately and I checked the input signal front panel leds. Neither my LP Standard nor my ESP with EMGs is hitting the red input level. Even with the Inst In and Input 1 knobs cranked I only get into the amber range. Input trim on the amp model is the default 1.00. Surely something isn't right? I've tried using the front and rear inputs... no difference.
 
Did you check the I/O first tab? the input control is there. Also with the amp sim input trims defaulted at 1.0 things can be changed there as well. I have had a lot of success with that parameter with geting a good feel and geting rid of a lot of fizz.
 
All my guitars can hit the red though most need the input level to be cranked. The one time I did have this problem was when my wireless pack battery was dying.
 
Input trim does not affect the gain at the A/D conversion level so does not have any effect on the input lights. While I'm surprised that your LP and EMGs aren't hitting the red, it is not unusual for some guitars to be out of this range even with the input gain at 100%. Are your pickups lower than the factory setup?
 
I felt something was missing from my tone lately and I checked the input signal front panel leds. Neither my LP Standard nor my ESP with EMGs is hitting the red input level. Even with the Inst In and Input 1 knobs cranked I only get into the amber range. Input trim on the amp model is the default 1.00. Surely something isn't right? I've tried using the front and rear inputs... no difference.

The solution for me was switching input from stereo to left only. had to go near 100% to hit red when stereo was selected, when I select Left only all my guitars hit red usually under 50%. Hope this helps, it solved all my problems.
I use the front input for what its worth.

I also found that 2 guitar players can use the axe FX II like 2 amps. One guitar in left and the other in right (on the back), hook left and right to power amp and out power amp to cabs. Setup perimeters in the effects so that left or right signal goes through and output is completely separate. One amp and fx goes through one cab and the other goes through the other cab.
 
Check your input 1 setting and make sure it's set to 'Left only'. If it's set to 'Sum L+R' you'll have a harder time hitting the red.
 
I have an ESP with EMG'S also, don't worry man, I have the same thing going on. Fresh battery, good cable, pickups really close etc.. On the I/O menu anything from 70 percent up to 100 percent doesn't tickle the red hardly ever while I am playing (constantly playing). Now try this, if you haven't already, start with your instrument level in your I/O on 50 percent, now just chunk the strings once pretty hard, (no constant playing). Seeing no reds yet, up the percentage a little then chunk it again. This is pretty much the only way I see the reds myself, I keep my instrument level at around 72 percent, and I won't see reds unless I stop completely and chunk the strings. It might be a good idea to try this without the any noise gates now that I think about it, the results I gave above were with my gates going strong. Hope this helps man. Oh yeah, this is with Sum L+R in the amp block, but do what the others said and go left only, actually, when everyone is saying left only, do you guys mean in the I/O menu or amp block?
 
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I have an ESP with EMG'S also, don't worry man, I have the same thing going on. Fresh battery, good cable, pickups really close etc.. On the I/O menu anything from 70 percent up to 100 percent doesn't tickle the red hardly ever while I am playing (constantly playing). Now try this, if you haven't already, start with your instrument level in your I/O on 50 percent, now just chunk the strings once pretty hard, (no constant playing). Seeing no reds yet, up the percentage a little then chunk it again. This is pretty much the only way I see the reds myself, I keep my instrument level at around 72 percent, and I won't see reds unless I stop completely and chunk the strings. It might be a good idea to try this without the any noise gates now that I think about it, the results I gave above were with my gates going strong. Hope this helps man. Oh yeah, this is with Sum L+R, but do what the others said and go Left only.

Pretty sure all my presets are Left Only but I can check later. I do use Noise Gates on most presets, so I'll try disabling those and see if there's any difference.
 
Les Paul's have considerably low output pickups. My LPs with BurstBucker Pros just tickle the red at 100%. My EBMM guitars (JPXI and Albert Lee HH) both have hotter pups, and I have to back down the input level to 60% or below.
 
Hi Craig, the setting he is talking about is in the Audio tab of the I/O section. If you don't have it set to Left only, you are effectively halving your input signal. My Strat hits the red at 32.5%.
 
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