Presets and Pickups

maorgr

Inspired
Hi,

As I'm beginning to explore my new XL, I couldn't help of wondering how do I know what pickup is best for a preset - is it a trial and error process or should it be specific somewhere ?

Thanks in advance for your help.
 
there typically aren't pickups for presets. bridge is usually more treble and neck is usually rounder, with more bass. from there, it's what YOU want from the sound. i use either pickup on many presets depending what i want it to sound like.
 
Depending on how much output your pickups have you may experience clipping with one guitar and have no problems at all with another. In general humbuckers have higher output then single coils. So in that sense you may want to tailor your presets to the guitar you're planning to use.
 
It's a definitely one of those "use your ears" situation. You can use a variety of tools to help yourself here i.e. using scenes and/or controllers (Continuous/pedal, scene, etc.) to modify the tone to suit your wishes.

I also tend to have specific presets for various guitars; YMMV.


One more thing; I have a PRS with a LR Baggs Piezo (in the saddle) which I use frequently to get an "acoustic" tone from a plank. I will often use a scene just to handle this, and to complicate it more I have the ability to blend in that pick-up so I can start "acoustic" and move to "electric" as the tune progresses, e.g. Stairway to Heaven. Fortunately we have such great control over things like compression, great boosts and drives, FX, etc. that this works really well.
 
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If you're referring to factory presets, they're just starting points. You can quickly tweak gain levels and tone as needed.

If you're referring to user presets, build them however you like. Make them guitar specific or not.
 
There are many factors to consider into the equation besides pickups. I have two guitars made of mahogany, one is a LP style (Fernandes Monterey) and the other is an Ibanez RG, both have the DiMarzio Crunch Lab in the bridge and yes, they sound pretty different thru the same exact presets.

I have this 5153 Red preset I made for modern Megadeth tones and the Ibby sounds stellar, cutting and chunky, while the Fernandes has more bottom end and crunch with a little mud added. Maybe is the scale, or the added mass in the LP style body, who knows...

So, yeah, it's better to tailor your presets for the guitar you're planning to use.
 
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I have found that my 1 guitar with an EMG 81 in the bridge doesn't play well with my AF2 at all.
 
I feel like my Gibson 57 bridge sounds good with all my presets. But I like that pickup or a low output type
Same here except I sip from the Dimarzio PAF cup. The Axe FX has more than enough gain and pre distortions EQ options to make a PAF scream and chunk if you want it too.
 
I tried the simple approach. Was not heard.

The *general* rule is that humbuckers play well with dirt, and SC with clean to pushed amps. I think it's a ridiculous rule, but some people still swear by it.

Listen. There are NO RULES on pretty much everything here. I personally do not feel like the JCM800 plays well with Strats and single coils, but have read VERY MANY people who have great success. I'm iffy on humbuckers and certain clean amps, but with tweaks, found that I can make it work very well.

You have an enormous amount of power here, you can take any amp, and guitar, and find something incredible.

I've only said it a million or so times, but no one here can decide what sounds good to you. That is all in your hands.
 
I love the tone my LP gets with some of the Fender models, a unique drive tone totally different than a Marshall style amp with a 4x12 IR

I also really enjoy things like a strat in a plexi, great edge of breakup tones

No rules at all
 
I think it depends on what tone you are trying to achieve. To my ears, some presets work better with hum buckers, while others work better with single coils. I tend to prefer cleaner tones that retain note definition. The less distorted tones also bring out the great differences between single coil pups and humbucker pups.
 
I have my neck pickup wired with a series/parallel switch to encourage me to explore this same issue. I have found that clarity can be enhanced by getting closer to a single coil sound, and that other sounds are very, very definitely a result of the specific sonic thickness of humbuckers.

Of course, I don't know pickups from hot rails to hell.
 
While single coils and humbuckers are inherently different, pre-EQ can make a huge difference in what an amp or drive block "sees".

Take a para EQ, put it at the front of your change and experiment. Boost the mids a little (3-6 dB) and sweep through the frequencies. Notice how the amp responds. Do the same with bass and treble. Little things like this can make a huge difference and the Axe FX makes it so easy.
 
There are many factors to consider into the equation besides pickups. I have two guitars made of mahogany, one is a LP style (Fernandes Monterey) and the other is an Ibanez RG, both have the DiMarzio Crunch Lab in the bridge and yes, they sound pretty different thru the same exact presets.

I have this 5153 Red preset I made for modern Megadeth tones and the Ibby sounds stellar, cutting and chunky, while the Fernandes has more bottom end and crunch with a little mud added. Maybe is the scale, or the added mass in the LP style body, who knows...

So, yeah, it's better to tailor your presets for the guitar you're planning to use.
Believe me, it's the scale length. Tight Mega-rhythm in Gibson scale (you probably detune too) is going to be much muddier than 25 1/2". You'd need a significantly heavier gauge and then it's a different tone again altogether.
 
One thing I do is set up the alternating command on the buttons I use to select scenes on my FCB1010-UNO to toggle bright on and off (for those presets where it makes sense). This way, I can set up the tone controls for the bridge pickup and then tap the scene selection a second time to make it more appropriate for the neck pickup. I use the brightness capacitor value to tune the amount of brightness that gets added.

This seems like one of the best uses of the repeat tap function on the scene selection buttons on the FCB1010 with the UNO chip.
 
Hi,

As I'm beginning to explore my new XL, I couldn't help of wondering how do I know what pickup is best for a preset - is it a trial and error process or should it be specific somewhere ?

Thanks in advance for your help.

If it's any help to you at all as a sort of guideline [there are no rules] here's what I gravitate towards as regards Amp blocks. I am in the process of making a sound for each amp, not necessarily each channel, haven't done all of them yet.

Ibanez Jems and Universe equipped with [h-s-h config: Evos, Gravity Storms, Blazes, Breed neck in bridge].
Legato 100, Cali Leggy, AC-20 [with p.u. selector switch at positions 3 and 4] , DoubleVerb, Euro Red/Blue, 5153.
Not a large selection as I have far too much fun with the Carvin and Bogner Ecstasy models. THE sound. Will likely add at a future date, the PVH models, Euro Uber, Corncob, etc. Basically a hi-gainer is no-brainer with a Jem!

Fender Nocaster [single coil stock p.u.s]
6G4 Super, 59 Bassguy, Deluxe Tweed. Double Verb, MrZHwy66, NuclearTone, SuperVerb, Supertweed, 5F1 Tweed, Wrecker Rocket/Liverpool/Express, Div13CJ, CarRoamer, Div13FT37, 5F8 Tweed, 65 Bassguy, Dweezil's B-Man, 6G12 Concert, Gibtone Scout, JrBlues Fat, the 3 Princetones, Matchbox D-30 [chords that chime any time!].

Gibson Les Paul Custom [humbucker stock p.u.s]
Cameron CCV, Angle Severe, Blanknship, USA Clean, DoubleVerb, FASCrunch, Friedman BE, JTM45, AC30 TB, Plexi1970 [my fav with the Gibson], SpawnQRod, USA Clean, Vibra-King, VibroVerb, Corncob, Comet Concourse, SupremoTrem, Hipower Jumped, ODS-100 HRM.

If an amp isn't what you want precisely try modding it, I do this all the time with input trim, sometimes different tonestack and I love switching out preamp and poweramp tubes, nothing too deep.
Also changing cabinets is great: if the amp's traditional cab doesn't sound good to you, just use your ears and audition some until you're happy. Sometimes unusual choices sound good.

Hope this is of some assistance to you and enjoy the Axe.
 
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