Searching for a pristine Fender clean

B

Bman

Power User
Maybe my impatience has gotten the better of me but I'm not really finding the chime, bell tone like clean with the Fender models. They all break up and have some dirt, or at least when I give it a quick run through. I've been able to get a cool clean from the Matchless model and of course the Shiver Clean and USA cleans come through for a 'bell tone'.

I'm reducing the input trim, playing with the master and drive levels, but I usually get a clean but sterile sound and move on to one of the above mentioned. I'm using single coils on a neck pickup that's pretty low output FWIW.

What the secret? There's so many driven tones to choose from but the cleans are kind of elusive.
 
Ive been using the fender twin silverface through a basketweave cab ( I think it’s factory cab 103 or 104) . Sounds great to me.
I find that it’s critical to EQ (parametric) according to my bridge pickup (it’s around 3-4K where it gets ice picky) and I also use some slight compression with a volume boost.
 
My go-to for "big" Fender cleans is a Band-Commander -> 4x12 TV Mix #2. Sounds big and clean.

My AX8 is at my rehersal space so I'm reading this off my III for you.

On the AMP block...

Model: Band-Commander
Input Drive: ~2.94 (adjust to your guitar but this works well with my JEM's hotter pickups)
Bass: 6.61
Mid: 6.00
Treble: 8.66
Presence: 5.20
Depth: 2.36
Master Volume: 10
Level: -15.8 (adjust to suit your overall level needs though)
Bright Switch: ON
Bright Cap: 120.0 pF

Everything else at default should suffice.

On the CAB block...

Mode: Mono Hi-Res
IR: 4x12 TV MIX #1

Everything else at default.

That's my typical starting point for big Fender cleans and it's what you hear as the basis for clips like these:



 
Rex said:
Whenever I have too much gain on a real, flesh-and-blood Fender...I turn down The gain knob. ;)
Click to expand...
That's really the truth of it all. And on the Axe-Fx II I pair that with turning up the output level on the block usually.
 
This may be a stupid question, but does setting Bass, Mid, Trebble to 6, 6, 8 sounds the same as setting them 5, 5, 7 only louder? Is there a point in boosting all frequencies?
 
I do not know if the pending update to Q10 for AX8 will have any similar effect, but the fender cleans attainable now on the III are spectacularly mind blowing....I spent too much time yesterday on a patch I made with the. Tremolo Lux Amp and a 50th anniversary Jaguar with custom single coils ,Input trim at .5, input gain maxed(which really surprised me that worked so well in this amp’s case),
BMT at noon, and some plex delay,
Ambient clean heavenly.
Also big +1 on Ian’s advice about Bandcommander and Rex’s about drastic input gain reduction on
Many amps, not just Fenders, to get some pristine cleans. ....did @Geezerjohn mention the Tx Star clean amp in this thread yet..?
 
pauliusmm said:
This may be a stupid question, but does setting Bass, Mid, Trebble to 6, 6, 8 sounds the same as setting them 5, 5, 7 only louder? Is there a point in boosting all frequencies?
Click to expand...
On most amps, the tone controls are passive. This means that they don't affect the tone, when they are at ten. I am pretty sure 6,6,6 sounds slightly different than 5,5,5+boost.
 
pauliusmm said:
This may be a stupid question, but does setting Bass, Mid, Trebble to 6, 6, 8 sounds the same as setting them 5, 5, 7 only louder? Is there a point in boosting all frequencies?
Click to expand...
The tone stacks of most amps are simple, primitive circuits. The setting of one knob can have a big effect on how another knob sounds (we say that they’re “interactive”). So 5/5/7 can sound very different from 6/6/8.
 
For a "bell tone" from a Fender amp: Maybe what you are looking for can be acheived with the mids (and treble and presence) up on the amp and the guitar's tone knob rolled off somewhat, so that the treble and presence are controlled and the mid has that bell quality. Or a mid boost from a PEQ in front of a flatter set amp.

One more fan on the Bandmaster bandwagon. 0.5 to 0.7 on the input trim. If the default cabs aren't doing it for you, the 4x12 TV Mix #2 (as iaresee mentions) is a great choice - and you can adjust the cab block's high end filtering or resonance to dial it in a bit more if taste requires: Try F022 for more vintage style Fender cleans. Keep the preamp gain fairly low and the output/preset level up. As on real Fender amps, I adjust the guitar to the amp: often that is the volume at 9 instead of 10, and roll off the guitars' treble somewhat (5-8) so the amp's treble can be turned up a bit to shimmer but not bite too much in a way that doesn't happen with pickups full on. Depends on the pickups. With single coils there's a benefit of less hum and finger noise.

The FAS Black and Silver Twins have the great cleans of their hardware incarnations: A pickup dependent clean sweet spot in the 2-4 range of preamp gain, tone knobs to taste, default MV, volume from the output level.
 
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