Spiky highs

torkolort

Inspired
I've had this spiky high freq issue for a long time now. Especially the high E and B string sound so thin and spiky nomatter what I do with the patch. It's a general problem that occurs on all patches. It may be more prominent with certain cabs and EQing but it's always there no matter what I do. Here is a short recording:

Should it really sound this shrill? The pick hitting the strings is so piercing it hurts. It's one of my rhythm patches which is even pretty dark. It's USA Lead 2 with Bass at 2, mid 4.8, treble at 7.20 and presence at -4.5, drive at 7 and master 3.5. Before the amp I have a TS808 with drive 0, level 7. The cab is cali and I have some filters and PEQ cutting out a lot of the high frequencies.
 
It might just be that I am listening to it on my laptop (which is normally highs-heavy) but I'm not hearing anything there. I do notice that, when using my Atomic FRFR, I get a shrill sound when I am standing "on beam" to the horn but moving off direct axis to it blends nicely. Does it sound bad to you when you're not right in front of the speakers?
 
This is not new but I'll say it anyway because I did it last night. If you are going through your computer and you don't sync to the axefx as the master clock at 48 your highs will sound spikey and extra crunchy in a horrible way. Just worth double checking, because I almost went insane tying to figure out what was wrong lol
 
What type of guitar are you using and what pup's are in it? + 2 on the Treble, seems a bit high. Another trick you could try is to loose the PEQ and go into the advanced parameters and reduce the High-Cut freq and reduce the bright cap to it's lowest value.
 
I really don't think the treble is too high. If i go any lower, if i go any lower on the treble it would sound way too dark overall. And still the high strings sound too thin anyway. I've found that the trick for leads is to boost around 1k and cut around 2k. It gives a more round and fluid feel to the tone, but i cant get rid of that shrill picking sound on the higher strings.
 
Right now on my computer speakers I can hear that there are a lot of highs, so at higher volume that might get too much I guess.

But then again if you have the treble above 5 then that is not so strange I think. I'd suggest lowering that?

How's the high cut and the Xformer high cut set? you could start with that if you feel that the tone is otherwise going to get too dark, though
it probably is not going to be enough and you'll end up lowering the treble any way.

Jens
 
This is not new but I'll say it anyway because I did it last night. If you are going through your computer and you don't sync to the axefx as the master clock at 48 your highs will sound spikey and extra crunchy in a horrible way. Just worth double checking, because I almost went insane tying to figure out what was wrong lol
This only applies when recording through spdif right? I use line outputs.
 
Another aspect that often gets passed over is your pickup setup. The axefx is super sensitive to what you feed it. If you have adjustable pole pieces start tweaking. Lowering the poles closest to the bridge will decrease the presence of you signal or raising the poles furthest from the bridge will add more low-end. Then raise the whole pup to get more meat and compression, or lower it to get more definition and clarity. There's a lot then can be fixed with a few screw turns
 
For a Mesa Mark amp a treble of 7.20 is not high, but pretty much normal. Bass nearly at 0 is also a must. In these amps, the eq knobs don't actually eq the tone, but control gain and flub. It's the graphic eq that is really equing.

My guess is that you're playing with a too hard pick.
 
If bright is on at low drive settings, it can give you this. Try turning it off or lowering the Bright Cap value. Compensate with more treble or presence if necessary.
 
I use a Music Man JP6 with crunch lab and liquifire pickups (I changed from D-sonic / Air Norton a couple of months ago). You might be right about adjusting the poles or pickup height etc, I'll have to consider that.
I use Jazz III picks. I think the strings are earnie ball regular slinky (10-46) or hybrid slinky (9-46).

Reducing the treble helps, but I have to take it down to about 3-4 before that piercing sound started to fade. It does make the higher strings sound better, but even with plenty of gain it also makes it harder to play.

In these amps, the eq knobs don't actually eq the tone, but control gain and flub. It's the graphic eq that is really equing.
I've never thought about that before, but it makes sense.
 
I have a guitar I have that I put those same PUPS in and I was explorering in my AXE to make it smoother and one thing I noticed tends to help is use cabs that are have alot less highs like emulation of greenbacks rather than something like V30's and if you use like redwirez use ones that are off axis miced. Anyhow a cab emulation with less top and add the top from the amp sim and seems to be less spikey for me.
 
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