[SOLVED] My Guitar sounds incredibly fuzzy, flabby, and frankly awful with modern high gain tones - what can I do to fix the sounds?

Presets sounding excellent through my rig as well.
Guitars are Music Man LIII here, so it seems that there is nothing wrong with the presets.
Your recordings doesn’t sound that there is something wrong with the Axe FX, more some kind of a level and/or pickup reason like others already mentioned.
Cheers
Sash
 
Your second clip sounds much better than the first, and I agree with people saying double check your pickup height and lower your gain to be sure. That being said, an SD 59 through a semi-hollow is the last thing I'd recommend for getting the most out of high gain metal. I'm not sure what pickups Cooper is using in that Music Man of his, but you'll be much happier with the FF Moderns either way. Passives wise, based on the tone you liked, I'd recommend something ceramic and tight over a JB anyways, like the Nazgul.

Also, since I also went through the "something is wrong with my axe it doesn't sound like anyone else" phase, the most crucial aspect to me for enjoying high gain tones is finding the right IR. So don't assume that every recommended IR will work for you, make sure to branch out and find one that you enjoy playing, not just hearing.
 
Your second clip sounds much better than the first, and I agree with people saying double check your pickup height and lower your gain to be sure. That being said, an SD 59 through a semi-hollow is the last thing I'd recommend for getting the most out of high gain metal. I'm not sure what pickups Cooper is using in that Music Man of his, but you'll be much happier with the FF Moderns either way. Passives wise, based on the tone you liked, I'd recommend something ceramic and tight over a JB anyways, like the Nazgul.

Also, since I also went through the "something is wrong with my axe it doesn't sound like anyone else" phase, the most crucial aspect to me for enjoying high gain tones is finding the right IR. So don't assume that every recommended IR will work for you, make sure to branch out and find one that you enjoy playing, not just hearing.
It’s good to know that other people went through this - the 59 sounds better and it’s absolutely not my intention to use it. I bought that guitar to play blues/indie/folk while I’m singing. The metal thing is a whole different story. I copied a 5 minute tone from Leon Todd and it sounded WAY better. This is just making me think the way my guitar is setup is trashing the presets, which is exactly what other people are saying. It is a direct to body mounted guitar so it’s likely the height isn’t fully adjustable.
 
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It’s good to know that other people went through this - the 59 sounds better and it’s absolutely not my attention to use it. I bought that guitar to play blues/indie/folk while I’m singing. The metal thing is a whole different story. I copied a 5 minute tone from Leon Todd and it sounded WAY better. This is just making me think the way my guitar is setup is trashing the presets, which is exactly what other people are saying. It is a direct to body mounted guitar so it’s likely the height isn’t fully adjustable.
I have direct mount pickups, I just use a spring between the screw and the guitar. Some people stuff foam under to adjust. Unless you mean even at its lowest level it's too high.
 
I have direct mount pickups, I just use a spring between the screw and the guitar. Some people stuff foam under to adjust. Unless you mean even at its lowest level it's too high.

Yup. I have a Charvel and it is not like my Jazzmaster where you can use foam
to bump it up--if you want .At the lowest setting the bridge pickup is still a tad
too high for my liking. My only beef with an otherwise great guitar.
 
Yup. I have a Charvel and it is not like my Jazzmaster where you can use foam
to bump it up--if you want .At the lowest setting the bridge pickup is still a tad
too high for my liking. My only beef with an otherwise great guitar.
Man that really sucks. Im sorry to hear that. Looks like it's a good excuse to get another guitar lol. There's ALWAYS a good reason to get another.
 
Haha! Not me! :)

I can see the point of direct mount pickups in theory, but the lack of ANY
ability to adjust pickup height is a big miss!
It IS! I have no idea why people still do them like that when you can just stuff some foam or a couple springs there and make life easy.....

That and the fact that people ARE STILL MAKING teles with non-adjustable neck pickups when it's such an easy fix blows my mind!
 
It IS! I have no idea why people still do them like that when you can just stuff some foam or a couple springs there and make life easy.....

That and the fact that people ARE STILL MAKING teles with non-adjustable neck pickups when it's such an easy fix blows my mind!

Yup... when you are talking $1k guitars I can only scratch my head about why.
 
Sounds like a dead preamp battery, with a guitar on the neck pickup that is basically buzzing on the strings. Somethings wrong with that guitar.
 
Sounds like a dead preamp battery, with a guitar on the neck pickup that is basically buzzing on the strings. Somethings wrong with that guitar.
It's not active but yeah, after switching to a different guitar, there's something up with the one I recorded with.

Speaking of, I had no idea the impact strings had on tone. This guitar is strung with 12-60 and I think that's contributing majorly to the horrendous bottom-end. That combined with the JB's inability to handle downtuning is probably what's causing this.
 
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