So much talk about amps/cabs, but not much about guitar models/mics

bxlgotham

bxlgotham

Inspired
This is my ignorance seeking clarity. If I plug in a 56 LP Jr. into my AFX3, it sounds hella different than a 2022 Les Paul Custom, or a Tele. Keeping the pre-set the same. Hella different. When talking about tones, I am just curious why very little is said or accounted for in the source guitar? Also why mics are not discussed in any way, but the device is clearly geared towards capturing a mic'd sound. I am sure there are good reasons, just curious what they are.
 
Not to mention “hands”. Everything you site — and then some — is part of the “soup of sound”. From my perspective, Fractal devices are without a doubt the finest pot to cook it all in — and that’s the focus here. That said, my guess would be that many forum members accept that each of us is aware of what feeds their AxeFX and tend to discuss what we all have in common, i.e. our AxeFX’s.
 
touch33 said:
Not to mention “hands”. Everything you site — and then some — is part of the “soup of sound”. From my perspective, Fractal devices are without a doubt the finest pot to cook it all in — and that’s the focus here. That said, my guess would be that many forum members accept that each of us is aware of what feeds their AxeFX and tend to discuss what we all have in common, i.e. our AxeFX’s.
Click to expand...
Makes total sense, I guess I just meant a lot of focus on many subtle knobs and such, but never often mentioning the guitar used in the signature sound one might be pursuing. I just wondered if maybe that was something people had another way of accounting for. Do people setup presets based on their guitar/pickups? I do, and wondered about others.
 
If I write and share a preset, I try to remember to either film a demo of it with the guitar I voiced it with or make a note in the Axe-Change description box so people have a reference point for where I'm coming from with the tone. The beauty of the Axe is that the models react the way the physical versions do: differently (as expected) with each guitar or pickup change. If I bang a 50's Tele through a 1959SLP it sure as hell will sound different to the same amp with a Charvel San Dimas in front of it. But the amp model doesn't change. Just the guitar. I love that. Am I getting off track here?
 
Another point worth considering: guitar pickups are incredibly sensitive to impedance and the load that an amp places on the them has a TON to do with their sonic characteristics.

Outside of any differences in the quality, set-up, or electronics between your instruments, what you're experiencing might just be a testament to FAS's attention to design.

Do you get the same results when playing through a traditional amp?
 
kywabunga said:
Another point worth considering: guitar pickups are incredibly sensitive to impedance and the load that an amp places on the them has a TON to do with their sonic characteristics.

Outside of any differences in the quality, set-up, or electronics between your instruments, what you're experiencing might just be a testament to FAS's attention to design.

Do you get the same results when playing through a traditional amp?
Click to expand...
Makes sense and no complaints here, not really observing the way it works as much as the way people communicate the intentions behind presets, but often without (as far as I can see) discussing the source instrument. Does the AFX3 have some way to emulate the impedance from the amp?
 
bxlgotham said:
Makes total sense, I guess I just meant a lot of focus on many subtle knobs and such, but never often mentioning the guitar used in the signature sound one might be pursuing. I just wondered if maybe that was something people had another way of accounting for. Do people setup presets based on their guitar/pickups? I do, and wondered about others.
Click to expand...
Just saw this, which seems like exactly what you’re posting about:

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/john-mayer-tele-tones.190594/
 
bxlgotham said:
Makes sense and no complaints here, not really observing the way it works as much as the way people communicate the intentions behind presets, but often without (as far as I can see) discussing the source instrument. Does the AFX3 have some way to emulate the impedance from the amp?
Click to expand...
Yeah, good point. Tones are dialed for the guitar in question and they're never mine. Hahaha
 
bxlgotham said:
This is my ignorance seeking clarity. If I plug in a 56 LP Jr. into my AFX3, it sounds hella different than a 2022 Les Paul Custom, or a Tele. Keeping the pre-set the same. Hella different. When talking about tones, I am just curious why very little is said or accounted for in the source guitar? Also why mics are not discussed in any way, but the device is clearly geared towards capturing a mic'd sound. I am sure there are good reasons, just curious what they are.
Click to expand...
Good morning. Frank Steffen has a developed a number of YouTube videos that demonstrate the use of every factory preset:

In these videos you can see which guitar type (and offer the guitar settings) he uses with each preset to get stunning tones! There are many others who have produced similar videos as well. These videos provide a wealth of information of the type you are seeking and I highly recommend them.

Leon Todd and Cooper Carter have also produced numerous videos that provide fantastic info of the type you are looking for as well. Cooper has an entire course that is discussed in this forum which new users (like me) rave about. Once my Axe Fx III arrives this week I plan to sign-up for his course myself.

Hope this helps. Have a great day!
 
Last edited:
bxlgotham said:
This is my ignorance seeking clarity. If I plug in a 56 LP Jr. into my AFX3, it sounds hella different than a 2022 Les Paul Custom, or a Tele. Keeping the pre-set the same. Hella different. When talking about tones, I am just curious why very little is said or accounted for in the source guitar? Also why mics are not discussed in any way, but the device is clearly geared towards capturing a mic'd sound. I am sure there are good reasons, just curious what they are.
Click to expand...
They are discussed too, but as fractal don’t build pickups or guitar, the discussion won’t end in a change in the axe 😅. Also the difference between pickups is less important than changing the amp or the mic in the cab. When you record 10 pickups in the same guitar, you’ll see that the sound difference is small
 
My initial take on your (OP) question, was mainly relating to the AF3’s impedance handling or even the connections used (short guitar cable, long cable, wireless,..), but are you wondering why people aren’t discussing more about the interactions between what is plugged into the AF3, and the impacts it makes to the overall sound?

Just trying to help get to your actual interest. I’ve obviously seen it as a couple possibilities, and others have too. Cheers,

Lee
 
"Guitar and Hands" is often suggested as an answer to tone seekers looking to replicate guitar sounds from YT etc, but I believe often not the answer they really want to hear. Also, imo tone demonstrators could make their tones much more accessible by providing a DI track along with their demo / presets (and of course a detailed description of guitar / pickups as mentioned above) so that tone seekers could replicate (via reamp) the exact tone they heard locally on their own Axfx units as a reference, in order to triangulate toward that tone with their own guitars / hands more methodically. Despite this being what I would think is a sound methodology for seriously getting as close as possible, its rare to see an accompanying DI provided with demos, and we often see tone seekers here with hi expectations that most of the tone will be in the preset alone (though I can't blame them for hoping, as it may be expensive to change guitars, and difficult to develop additionally needed technique).
 
Last edited:
sprint said:
"Guitar and Hands" is often suggested as an answer to tone seekers looking to replicate guitar sounds from YT etc, but I believe often not the answer they really want to hear. Also, imo tone demonstrators could make their tones much more accessible by providing a DI track along with their demo / presets (and of course a detailed description of guitar / pickups as mentioned above) so that tone seekers could replicate (via reamp) the exact tone they heard locally on their own Axfx units as a reference, in order to triangulate toward that tone with their own guitars / hands more methodically. Despite this being what I would think is a sound methodology for seriously getting as close as possible, its rare to see an accompanying DI provided with demos, and we often see tone seekers here with hi expectations that most of the tone will be in the preset alone (though I can't blame them for hoping, as it may be expensive to change guitars, and difficult to develop additionally needed technique).
Click to expand...
+1 on including a DI. Without the DI, the final sound is like having the answer to a question, but not knowing what the question is.
 
Even if you don't have a DI or know which guitars/pickups were used, you can accurately replicate a result with Tone Matching more often than not.
 
I have a preset for each guitar i own, and 1 for the bass. And each preset has 8 scenes programmed for these amps: Matchless DC30, Dumble, JTM45, Plexi 100w and Hiwatt Dr103(being my main amp choice, IMHO dr103 can do most better than most). Some amps have only 1 corresponding scene, in my world they are 1 trick pony, but a great one...and some have multiple scenes, for clean, dirty etc(like the DR103)
 
Last edited:
Jason Scott said:
Even if you don't have a DI or know which guitars/pickups were used, you can accurately replicate a result with Tone Matching more often than not.
Click to expand...

takes care of the guitar portion perhaps (though somewhat a crutch since it provides little added understanding of the tonal ingredients sought after and how to get them), but not the hands part.
 
Daveporter33765 said:
Good morning. Frank Steffen has a developed a number of YouTube videos that demonstrate the use of every factory preset:

In these videos you can see which guitar type (and offer the guitar settings) he uses with each preset to get stunning tones! There are many others who have produced similar videos as well. These videos provide a wealth of information of the type you are see,info and I highly recommend them.

Leon Todd and Cooper Carter have also produced numerous videos that provide fantastic info of the type you are looking for. Cooper has an entire course that is discussed in this forum which new users (like me) rave about. Once my Axe Fx III arrives this week I plan to sign-up for his course myself.

Hope this helps. Have a great day!
Click to expand...

The issue is that presets are designed to sound great with most any guitar. The fractal team has gone to great lengths to do so.

What I think the OP is talking about is that using a preset he creates with a fender strat sounding completely different with a Les Paul.

This is just the way of things and the fact that single coils are usually much lower output than humbuckers. Same goes for the difference between a PRS and a Les Paul.

I have to create different presets for my different styles of guitars since I choose pickups based on the guitar they are going into. A darker guitar with Mahogony gets a brighter pickup, a brighter guitar gets a darker sounding pickup.
This helps with presets, but you will still need to have different presets or scenes for your most different sounding guitars.

Real amps are the exact same way. When have you ever plugged a strat and a les paul into the same amp with the exact same settings and had them both sound how you want?

This isn't picking on you, just that I saw your post and wanted to clarify what I think the OP is talking about and hit both together.

If you look in the guitar sub forum people discuss these things all the time, just not how they apply to the AXFX3 per se.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom