new jp6 guitar, old axe....not getting them tones i know i can get

julindres

julindres

Member
hey guys so i been using the axe for like 3 years now and its amazing, i have a lot of presets for my fender strat and gibson traditional plus and they sound amazing just like i alway wanted to. But i just bought a musicman jp6, and i understand that the pickups are way different, and i notice i have to reaise the highs more than with the others, but im still not being able to dial sweet patches....the sound its nice but compared to my strat and gibson it sounds very thing, so nice sounding but thin, almost like if the sound was underwater sometimes, and adding more mids its not it at all. So you guys with jp6 and other guitars can you give me some tips? by the way, it has the crunch lab and liquid fire, and i dont only plan to do high gain patches, also medium gain and vintage sounding too...

thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
[I have a JP6 as well, but mine is an older version that came with the DiMarzio Air Norton/D-Sonic pickups]

I was about to blame the pickups but then I read that you have the newest version of the JP6 with the newest pickup combo. What I was going to say is that the JP6, while being the single greatest guitar of all time (wink), comes with a real stinker of a bridge pickup. The first version of the JP6 came with a modified Air Norton neck pup and a modified Steve's Special pup - both were good. The next version changed out the modified Steve's Special for a super crap-tastic D-Sonic. Everyone complained about it. It's not a very good pickup on it's own but in the JP6 it's a real crap-shoot. Everyone changed it out.

I've never heard the Crunch Lab myself so I can't say if it is the source of your plight, but if you're saying that the sound is thin and blanketed (aka "underwater") you may have a wiring issue. Are you the original owner of the guitar? Did someone maybe change the pickups and potentially do a bad soldering job? There are two primary ways to wire a pickup: Parallel coils or Series coils. Series is the normal wiring type and allows for the pickup's maximum [intended] output. Parallel wiring gives a lower output, thinner sound. Someone who wanted a more Strat-like sound out of their existing humbucker may use parallel wiring, for example. Some people install push-pull pots with wiring to allow the player to switch from parallel to series on the fly in the same way that you can wire push-pull pots to change from full humbucker to coil-split humbucking (which is a built in option on the BFR model of the JP6).

Does the guitar sound bad on all selections? eg. neck only, piezo only, middle switch selection? If you dislike the sound from every selection possible either ALL of the wiring is wrong, or you simply don't like the sound that that guitar is capable of producing - which means you either have to get new pickups or live with what you have. Don't forget to try turning the Crunch Lab around so that the bar pole piece is closest to the bridge. It's a simple trick that will give a crunchier tone.

Pro-tip: The Seymour Duncan Distortion bridge pickup is the best sounding pickup for the JP6 if you're looking for high gain. The neck version of the DiMarzio The Breed pickup in the bridge position is the best for smooth jazz.
 
thanks johnny, yea its mostly the bridge pick up, the necks its not amazing but its nice, ill have to check the wiring, i am the first owner but bought it straight from guitar center (mistake) since i know how crappy they keep their guitars, but ita was a limited color so thats the only one i found. I might change the pickup since i really love the guitar, so easy to play, and light.

thanks!
 
Hi julindres, Are you tweaking patches that work well with your other guitars? Or are you starting from scratch with new patches? If you are tweaking existing patches, try a whole new one, try different models, combinations, etc. What sounds best with your JP6 may be something unexpected, you can tweak the Axe so much that you are bound to find a tone that works for it. Of course there could be wiring issues which is hopefully an easy fix.
 
thanks devasationdynasty! you are right, so im still getting used to these new pickups, which are completley different from what im used to, i notice now that they are very compressed, so even thought im not creating new patches from zero but just tweaking the current good ones i have, so far, to get that meaty more natural feel and sound i had to change the eq settings like crazy. im not too into the scooped sound sound so i always have my mids pretty high, woth this guitar i find myself lowering the mids, a looot and also lowering the lows and raising the highs a lot more than usual. Which is backwards from what i do. Also another note is that high gain amps like the mesas tend to sound really good and are easy to tweak, while with the british amps im having more trouble making them sound sweet. (which makes sense i guess since the guitar was designed in mind of petrucci's sound and he uses mesas) any more tips let me know thanks!
 
I have JP6s with the D-Sonic and with the Crunch Lab and Liquifire and have been able to dial in tones fairly well. I noticed that my guitars with my Duncan pickups (custom custom custom, JB, and distortion) sound darker, maybe a little muddier with the same patches. The Pete Thorn patches sound great on both versions as well.

I know this probably doesn't help much, just know the tones are in there.
 
I have a JPX.. haven't tried the JP6 before. I can tweak presets to sound pretty good with the JPX, but then I plug my epiphone LP standard into the same patch and it just sounds better :/

But I have seen heaps of examples of guys getting GREAT tones from the JP6, so I just figured that it may be the chambering in the JPX body that was voicing the sound in a bad way. I mean, when you look at the overview video where petrucci descibes the JPX's details, a lot of the guitars features appear to be put in "on a whim".

Nonetheless, I still have had great success in EQ-matching tones using this guitar with Ozone.
 
yea i been working hard at it and getting some nice tones, but still cant get that deep tone, not sure how to explain it, im able to get this nice tones, fat sounding but they just dont feel deep, ofcourse its a totally different guitar and the way smaller size and amount of wood might have something to do with it, im thinking of mybe changing the pickups to some bare knuckles, so i can still get that hot heavyness but add a little more vintage to the sound....havent tried the jpx thought....
 
The funny thing is the best sounding guitars I've ever heard were 1)A $350 Epiphone LP Studio with a SD Distortion bridge pup 2)Some random parted Warmoth guitar that was super thick and weighed a ton, with Lace Drop N Gain pups. I've never been able to get my JP6 to sound particularly chunky, and I've never been able to get my USA Jackson SLS to sound anything but muddy.

Also, the guitar that had the most sustain of any guitar I've ever played was a plywood B.C. Rich guitar (yes, there was a period where B.C. Rich was producing guitars with some kind of pressed/ply wood), while the guitar with the worst sustain was an Ibanez RGA121.

The point is price has ZERO to do with a guitar's sound properties. You can't manufacture "good" sound. It either sounds good (to you) or it doesn't.
 
I have the jp6 xI, its amazing, same pups as you. However, I have to dial in its own presets, it is just unique unto itself. NOTHING like my other 19 guitars with other pups.
 
seems to me that any guitar that is a shredder type guitar needs it's own thing, whether its a ibby, jackson, musicman, whatever. i think they are all pretty "neutral" guitars who don't necessarily have that much vibe or character of their own.

any patch i've ever made for strat, tele, lp, etc (even knock offs of those types of guitars) don't sound good with those kinds of guitars. I don't know if it's the pups, the construction or what....but it's almost always the case.
 
thanks for all replies guys, so to the ones that have many guitars and had the jp for a while and others, can you give me some points on certain things taht you tweak to make them sound as good as they can? like for example, use more highs? less mids? presence control? frequencies? damp? any of that stuff....thanks! and yea i know everybody has a different style and different sound that they go after...but its allright i just want some tips so i can see what works withouth taking forever...what are certain things you tend to do with this guitar when tweaking?

thanks for all the responses!
 
An important thing to do if you don't already, is tweak at a good volume, the sound will change when you go from a quiet bedroom volume to higher gig levels. Btw, what are you playing through? Monitors, power amp and cab?
 
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