Need some help... quick EQ switching for single-coil -vs- Humbucker guitars

A

AnthonySims

Member
I would prefer to NOT have to setup a whole different set of presets for my humbucker guitars.

I switch between tele's & les pauls

Is there an easy way to choose between two different EQ's depending on the guitar type?

today, my left output has the EQ setup for my Tele's.. and the right output is EQ'd for humbucker guitars.

Obviously I dont want to manually unplug from one output to the other during the night.

Any ideas OTHER than building seperate preset banks?

I even thought about running a parametric EQ pedal AFTER the Axe-FX where I could jack up the highs & reduce lows whenever I play the Les pauls..

Ideas?
 
better pickups is not the answer... i use Lindy Fralin's...

When I switch to the Les Paul... it is TOO bassy for my liking. I tweaked the 2nd output EQ to work perfectly with the Les Paul.. but I dont want to have to manually switch outputs during sets
 
If you aren't using all 8 Externals you could dedicate one to engage an EQ in each preset. Then either have a switch for it (whether this works perfectly depends on your footcontroller, or you can use an Axe-FX pedal port) or change its Init. Value in the I/O menu when you switch guitars.
 
Thats a good suggestion. I dont have a Axe controller. I just use a ADA MC-1.. But.. I could use a on/off switch to just turn the EQ block on-off.. i will give that a try.

Any other suggestions.... just send them on!
 
My semi-homemade Lester was too bassy as well until I lowered the pickups.
Especially the neck one. It needed the bass side cranked way down before it was right and balanced.
( Motor City Pickup special wind Black Belts - amazing pickups )

Since I got it dialed in properly it doesn't seem to have an issue sharing patches with the Fedners...

You might try a global EQ to use with one or the other, but I'm not sure
how fast you can switch it on/off or if you even can do so with a pedal...
 
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AnthonySims said:
better pickups is not the answer... i use Lindy Fralin's...
Click to expand...
good/exceptional pickups can sound 'bad' in the wrong guitar. just saying- It took me about 15 years to find the correct pickups for my Yamaha SG-2000.
Surprisingly they're cheap GFS Nashville Retrotrons.


this is what Bill Lawrence says about pickup height:

"The distance between pickup and string is a very important factor for output and sound.
As a general rule for the bridge pickup - put a nickel on top of the pickup under the high E string and play the highest note on that string. Adjust the height on that side of the pickup till the string touches the nickel. Repeat the same with the low E string, but use two nickels on top of each other. If this gives you too much output, you can reduce the height slightly. Don't forget that twice the distance will reduce the output by about 60%, and the sound will lose some lows. NOW, you can adjust the neck pickup to match the output of the bridge pickup. For the sound test, use stage volume."

Wiring & Tech Info
Bill Lawrence Website
 
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AnthonySims said:
?

I even thought about running a parametric EQ pedal AFTER the Axe-FX where I could jack up the highs & reduce lows whenever I play the Les pauls..

Ideas?
Click to expand...

If you do I advice you to get the ART dual tube EQ. It sits in my rack between the Axie and my Matrix. You can easely bypassed it also of powered.

I use it for EQ-ing on the fly.

Regards
 
I don't think post-EQ is the best approach. You really need to EQ before any non-linear processing, in particular the amp block. This way you'll be getting a similar type of overdrive response. Otherwise, the Les Paul will give you way more fuzzy low-end overdrive than the Tele. So maybe try no pre-EQ for your Tele, and switch in an EQ block with low middle cut, some high end boost and some overall level cut for the Les Paul.

Having said that, I've found that completely different patches work best for my single coil and humbucker guiatrs - that way I can get the best out of each. I just use a different patch bank on my pedal board so that similar sounds are on the same footswitches for the 2 guitars.
 
+1 to what GM said. Any adjustments to compensate between different pups (should) go first in the chain. Three main ways I account for variances are:

1) PEQ block first in your chain (most CPU intensive)
2) Filter block to remove some of the lows from the darkest pup (not as CPU intensive)
3) Roll off the tone pot on your brightest pup (No CPU usage!)

Combine these approaches and see what works for you!

Cheers,
-AL
 
An easy way is a good stomp eq before the axe-fx, you can make changes very fast and change to whatever guitar you like fast and easy.
I love the mxr 10 bds eqs, like the KFK-10.
 
I had this exact same problem on a gig last weekend. In my room (when I create presets) they sound great. Single coil vs. Humbucker doesn't sound drastically different. Then when I played out the presets sounded very muddy with the humbucker guitar (has Seymour Duncans P-rails in it. Excellent pickups!). Like a blanket over the cabinet...

My sound guy asked me if the fractal has a global eq. Told him it does and showed him I had a flat eq across (globally). He said to dial back the 250 hz frequency when I use the guitar with buckers. SOUNDED AWESOME...

I'm not a sound guy. I go for what sounds good to my ears. this very subtle change made such an incredible difference!!!!!!!

So now I just need to dial that frequency back (below 0) with that guitar and all is right with the world.

Only really an issue if I plan to switch guitars for certain songs...I guess I would just need to make sure that on those songs where I know I'll be using the guitar with buckers I preset that presets eq....
 
TimMcG1011 said:
I had this exact same problem on a gig last weekend. In my room (when I create presets) they sound great. Single coil vs. Humbucker doesn't sound drastically different. Then when I played out the presets sounded very muddy with the humbucker guitar (has Seymour Duncans P-rails in it. Excellent pickups!). Like a blanket over the cabinet...

My sound guy asked me if the fractal has a global eq. Told him it does and showed him I had a flat eq across (globally). He said to dial back the 250 hz frequency when I use the guitar with buckers. SOUNDED AWESOME...

I'm not a sound guy. I go for what sounds good to my ears. this very subtle change made such an incredible difference!!!!!!!

So now I just need to dial that frequency back (below 0) with that guitar and all is right with the world.

Only really an issue if I plan to switch guitars for certain songs...I guess I would just need to make sure that on those songs where I know I'll be using the guitar with buckers I preset that presets eq....
Click to expand...
Best way to deal with this really is seperate presets for single and buckers, and cant be said enough , CREATE AND TWEAK AT GIG VOLUME FOR GIG PRESETS!...BTW nice necrobump
 
bradlake said:
Best way to deal with this really is seperate presets for single and buckers, and cant be said enough , CREATE AND TWEAK AT GIG VOLUME FOR GIG PRESETS!...BTW nice necrobump
Click to expand...


Heh!!! Yeah, was curious what others were doing about this and found this old thread...

Not really arguing with your suggestion other than that it would require more CPU to create separate presets for the same tune (one for single coil vs. humbucker). Using the global eq allows me to dial in the room and the pickups I'm using right there. Found another thread that Yek posted about using a global PEQ and using it on every preset. Little easier than pulling up the global eq settings...

I always create presets at gig volume...But room to room they sound different no matter what guitar I use so the global eq comes in very handy that way. Or Yek's PEQ approach.
 
TimMcG1011 said:
Heh!!! Yeah, was curious what others were doing about this and found this old thread...

Not really arguing with your suggestion other than that it would require more CPU to create separate presets for the same tune (one for single coil vs. humbucker). Using the global eq allows me to dial in the room and the pickups I'm using right there. Found another thread that Yek posted about using a global PEQ and using it on every preset. Little easier than pulling up the global eq settings...

I always create presets at gig volume...But room to room they sound different no matter what guitar I use so the global eq comes in very handy that way. Or Yek's PEQ approach.
Click to expand...
Global EQ is an output EQ... Compensating for pickups is probably best done with an EQ block very early in the input stage.

Also, how does creating more presets use more CPU... Or do you mean adding an EQ to each preset uses more?
 
unix-guy said:
Global EQ is an output EQ... Compensating for pickups is probably best done with an EQ block very early in the input stage.

Also, how does creating more presets use more CPU... Or do you mean adding an EQ to each preset uses more?
Click to expand...

Yes, I meant adding an EQ to each preset actually!
 
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