Single Preset, Various Guitars

[GuyJames]

Fractal models the real amps.

What @mr_fender wrote applies the same to the models you are using.

Additionally, many tone stacks are interactive - changing the value of one knob has an effect on the other.

Keeping all the knobs at noon is not likely to get you good results and EQing before the amp will not produce the same results as EQing with the amp tone controls.

How would you approach this then? Tweak with the humbuckers on the amp first and then use the eq for strat/tele? It’s better to subtract high frequencies than add them and vice versa for bass right?

 

[GuyJames]

An out of the box thought…. I went through something like this. I had 7 guitars that all sounded different on the same preset. Some of them sounded great, some of them were really bad. I didn’t want them all to sound the same - I wanted single coils to sound like single coils, and humbuckers to sound like humbuckers. First I made some changes to pot values and tone circuits. That helped to round out some of the more spiky guitars. Then I looked closely at pick up height. Setting all the pups to “factory spec height” (give or take) cleaned up all my problems. Now they all sound different, but great on my kitchen sink preset. Pickup height has a big effect on tone and clarity. People set them all over the place. Worth a look.

Great input! I do already keep pickups at factory specs on my suhrs and PRS. Good point to make though.

 

[unix-guy]

How would you approach this then? Tweak with the humbuckers on the amp first and then use the eq for strat/tele? It’s better to subtract high frequencies than add them and vice versa for bass right?

Are you trying to make the guitars sound the same?

Or just make the same preset work more generically for different guitars?

I've tried what you're suggesting in the past and I personally just gave up on that approach. I was never happy with the results...

But if you want to try it, yes, probably better to EQ the singles. You'll probably need to boost the level on them, too.

 

[GuyJames]

Are you trying to make the guitars sound the same?

Or just make the same preset work more generically for different guitars?

I've tried what you're suggesting in the past and I personally just gave up on that approach. I was never happy with the results...

But if you want to try it, yes, probably better to EQ the singles. You'll probably need to boost the level on them, too.

Definitely not trying to make all guitars sound the same. I think that’s a dead end approach.

Simply put, I want each guitar to sound its best. I’ve dialed in my rig with my strat primarily, which has transitioned well to the tele but humbuckers are mushy (to compressed, to much gain, etc.)

I suppose… I could revert back to a single amp approach and just eq each channel of the amp block for 4 different pickup sets.

The last piece to this puzzle is getting things to translate to IEM’s… but holy crap that’s a whole nother topic… I’ve noticed how drastically different sets of IEMs will sound so I don’t even know what to believe with those…

In the case of my original topic, I’m going to work on a single amp approach again and just get 4 different amp channels saved for a strat, tele, p90, humbucker

 

[Dave Merrill]

It's probably because I'm an ignorant fool, but just adding a simple input eq doesn't really work for me going humbuckers to strat to humbucking strat. I usually feel like i need different amp settings in general.

I use a one letter prefix to flag each preset with the guitar it's intended for. It's not ideal. Oddly enough, a few presets seen to work for multiple guitars, don't know why.

This is somewhat similar to the bridge pickup / neck pickup problem, which I'm also not good at.

 

[skolacki]

It's probably because I'm an ignorant fool, but just adding a simple input eq doesn't really work for me going humbuckers to strat to humbucking strat. I usually feel like i need different amp settings in general.

I use a one letter prefix to flag each preset with the guitar it's intended for. It's not ideal. Oddly enough, a few presets seen to work for multiple guitars, don't know why.

This is somewhat similar to the bridge pickup / neck pickup problem, which I'm also not good at.

The cut control in the amp block ideal controls works good with neck pickups. It’s a low cut and kills off some of the flub. I might put it on a control switch so I can kick it in when switching to the neck.

 

[scarbodave]

Where to place the EQ depends on what you feel your single Preset is lacking for a given guitar. I would place the EQ just before the problematic block.

For example if you think the compressor and drives are fine but the Amp block is not breaking up the way you like then place the EQ block after the Comp and Drive blocks and before the amp. Of course the EQ settings required may change depending on whether you enable/bypass the Comp and Drive blocks (or select different channels within them) as they will change the character of the signal arriving at the EQ block.

I personally think the goal of having one EQ setting per guitar is only going to make a single Preset work for all guitars if the Preset has very few (one?) block which performs non-linear processing or you make all the guitar signals very similar before the first non-linear block in the Preset.

 

[scarbodave]

Definitely not trying to make all guitars sound the same. I think that’s a dead end approach.

Simply put, I want each guitar to sound its best. ....

In the case of my original topic, I’m going to work on a single amp approach again and just get 4 different amp channels saved for a strat, tele, p90, humbucker

You may find that the Amp block is not the only one which needs to be tweaked in order to have each guitar sound its best.

Drive blocks are probably top of the list but even selecting the density/character of a delay block may be different for different guitars/pickups.

You can take the same multi-channel approach with any of these blocks but at that point my preference would be to just use a separate Preset.

I tend to update/tweak my Presets over time (sometimes just based on my mood) and I wouldn't want to have to pull out each guitar to check that my changes still work for them all.

 

[skolacki]

Definitely not trying to make all guitars sound the same. I think that’s a dead end approach.

Simply put, I want each guitar to sound its best. I’ve dialed in my rig with my strat primarily, which has transitioned well to the tele but humbuckers are mushy (to compressed, to much gain, etc.)

I suppose… I could revert back to a single amp approach and just eq each channel of the amp block for 4 different pickup sets.


In the case of my original topic, I’m going to work on a single amp approach again and just get 4 different amp channels saved for a strat, tele, p90, humbucker

Not a bad approach since the drives and effects can be tailored to the guitar along with the amp. Same for cabs, I use the same cab and mics (dynacabs) on all 4 channels but I might pick different positions depending on drive levels etc. I have single amp presets for individual guitars 4 scenes 4 channels low to high. Usually I’m on the middle 2 and can use boost or drives to get whatever overdrive level I need. I could live with just 1 channel but I wouldn’t have anything squeaky clean. Which I never do anyhow. If you ride your volume you’ll have no issues.

 

[golfnut]

Simply put, I want each guitar to sound its best. I’ve dialed in my rig with my strat primarily, which has transitioned well to the tele but humbuckers are mushy (to compressed, to much gain, etc.)

I setup my presets primarily for my strat and thought it would translate well to my tele's but no such luck. I didn't even try to use Fender presets for my les paul In the end separate presets for strat, tele and les paul. I have 3 teles but I'll share the tele presets for all of them. And even that is a bit of a compromise.