Tips on working with different SC and HB guitars?

BadMelonFarmer

Power User
Just going to redo my patches from scratch, I take the new firmware as an opportunity to do this every so often.

I recently got an ES-335 and am enjoying noodling about with it, but my main guitars are Fender Tele's ... So obviously they are opposite ends of the bright / dark scale.

Anyone got any tips on how to manage the difference?

I initially thought about creating the presets with the Tele's in say banks 0 to 9... The. Tweak the same presets for 335 / les Paul in in 10 to 20.

BUT then thought I might try scenes for the differences?

An EQ block to brighten the HB's... Or a global EQ flat for Tele's and brighten for humbuckers.

I will have a play to see what actually works in practice... But thought I would just ask what others do of this?

Cheers
 
Thanks for the suggestions... I am ok with making the patches sound good with either or ... But just trying to figure how to live with optimised presets for both in a workflow way.

I can create separate tweaked versions of for each guitar and store them in separate places.... Just trying to get ideas for doing it smarter.
 
I'd do separate presets. Also, I only recently tried the tone match for this, and it can work too. Try it out too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LVC
I'd do separate presets. Also, I only recently tried the tone match for this, and it can work too. Try it out too.

^ this

I have my banks organized this way using 5 basic presets that I have dialed in for SC and HB


FRFR
banks
1-5 Humbucker
6-10 Single coil

For use with power amp and "real cab"
Banks
11-15 Humbucker
16-20 Single Coil


So take the basic set of presets you currently use for SC and duplicate them and and something like "HB" at the end (what I do to differentiate Humbucker from single coil) and just dial them in for the guitar configuration.

Makes like easier.
 
Just going to redo my patches from scratch, I take the new firmware as an opportunity to do this every so often.

I recently got an ES-335 and am enjoying noodling about with it, but my main guitars are Fender Tele's ... So obviously they are opposite ends of the bright / dark scale.

Anyone got any tips on how to manage the difference?

I initially thought about creating the presets with the Tele's in say banks 0 to 9... The. Tweak the same presets for 335 / les Paul in in 10 to 20.

BUT then thought I might try scenes for the differences?

An EQ block to brighten the HB's... Or a global EQ flat for Tele's and brighten for humbuckers.

I will have a play to see what actually works in practice... But thought I would just ask what others do of this?

Cheers

Being a Tele player as my B&B I can say there is little to change between a Tele and a semi-hollow or a hollow or humbuckers personally. 'Little' meaning in the fundamental. Cutting bass or adding presence or lowering input gain, sure. Otherwise your tone your yours.

This is self evident I would think for most players. I sound like me using a Gretsch, a PRS or any of my 4 current Teles (Different pickup makers) not just stylistically but tonally as well. They are interwoven. Only the subtleties change (which is what individuals guitars/pickps etc bring) The fundamental is the same. Its a game of inches here when switching guitars, not feet. For instant examples, check out Robben Ford, Alex Lifeson, Danny Gatton, Jimmy Page etc. switching between different guitars. I still surprises me how few know that the majority of Zep 1 was recorded on a Tele (or Stairway to Heaven Solo) or how many Rush songs were recorded on a Tele etc.

I see so many faithful recreations using a Les Paul. They just aren't that far to bridge depending on the approach.

That said, I find it easiest to use my main Tele to setup a sound: Copy that to another preset: Grab my main Hum-Hum guitar and make the small adjustments.

As for NAMING convention, we all have our own methods: When I play live I have 1-2 amps and my pedal boards and I do great covering my needs. I don't venture too far off form that mindset with the AXE.
I name each patch for EASY EASY switching based on the guitar: I literally put the name of the Guitar in preset.

Good luck!
 
  • Like
Reactions: LVC
Thanks guys.

Yeah I do realise i will sound like me / bad on whatever guitar I play :mrgreen.... Just looking for a easy way to cope with the changes needed it tone, volume, gain etc.

Think I will just go with my first though that you guys have backed up.... Separate presets.

Thanks
 
Just going to redo my patches from scratch, I take the new firmware as an opportunity to do this every so often.

I recently got an ES-335 and am enjoying noodling about with it, but my main guitars are Fender Tele's ... So obviously they are opposite ends of the bright / dark scale.

Anyone got any tips on how to manage the difference?

I initially thought about creating the presets with the Tele's in say banks 0 to 9... The. Tweak the same presets for 335 / les Paul in in 10 to 20.

BUT then thought I might try scenes for the differences?

An EQ block to brighten the HB's... Or a global EQ flat for Tele's and brighten for humbuckers.

I will have a play to see what actually works in practice... But thought I would just ask what others do of this?

Cheers

I have been trying make common ground tweaks that work for single coil and humbucker, but I am a newbie so please feel free to tell me I'm full of it ... :

I have an ES-335 too, but for tweaking presets I decided to use my two HSH split coil configured U.S. Masters' model LG507 guitars (The LG507 & LG507D from Masters Design). I retrofitted my LG507s to have push-pull pots to split the humbuckers into single coil mode. This allows me to quickly tweak a preset to best handle both single coil and humbucker pickups in the neck and bridge positions without having to swap out guitars.

But, maybe I should tweak with ES-335 as well? Any practical suggestions from the Senior Members?

I really love those U.S. Masters' LG507 guitars BTW, which are basically Ibanez clones that I picked up on sale for $270each ($270 with hard shell cases included ... they list for $479) and gutted to install premium pickups for another $350. One of my LG507's is loaded with the same Suhr pickups that Guthrie Govan uses in his signature model and the other LG507 is loaded with EMG Active-X 89R SL 89. The LG507's give me the same touch and feel with a nice lightening fast smooth ebony fret board, but the stock Floyd Rose has too much play in the arm socket (should be a tighter fit - any suggestions on how to fix this?).
 
I find the Axe to be a little more revealing in the differences in sound between my various guitars (compared to some amp/pedal rigs I own). I make presets specific to each guitar for this reason, although I have a few where I can switch it up without much trouble.

I agree that Teles can sound close to Les Pauls with respects to the bridge pickup. Less so with the other pickup settings though, in my experience. But all that depends on the guitar.. Strats are another beast though, quite often.

I might suggest working the RC Booster pedal into your patches where you want to try and make SC and HB's work together. I liked using the RC Booster for this on my pedals boards to trim some bass for buckers, add a little clean boost for SC's, etc. Might work similarly with the Axe presets. Haven't tried going there yet myself.
 
i find the balance for eacf (all) the guitars I will use. I never switched amps for each guitar, I refuse to switch presets/settings etc in axe for different guitars.

i know it's silly, i can't justify it, it's just the way my brain works.
 
I find that different guitars and different pickups sound wildly different to my ears even with the same style of guitar. My main guitar is a Tom Anderson Hollow T with vintage single coils that I would not want to live without. I have had 3 other Tom Anderson T style that were solid body with no chambering with all the different flavors of hum-cancelling pickups and with the vintage single coils and none sounded like my #1. I made new presets for each one with minor tweaks and ordered the banks accordingly. I have 5 presets per guitar for live performance with scenes inside each preset.
 
Interesting

Must admit with my Tele's a CS Nocaster with stock pickups (modern wiring) and my Vintage Re-issue with Joe Bardens which I use to set up patches ... I can live withe the same presets and maybe tweak withe the guitars tone knob... Same with my strats.... They sound fine.

Just Humbuckers sound too muddy on the prests.

Will set up my Tele patches and then tweak the basic amp settings in separate patches for HB's

Thanks guys
 
One of my main guitars for a number of years now is a Custom Shop Nocaster- stock with modern wiring as well. It's the one tele that I've had that can kill quite a few Les Pauls (in the bridge pickup setting anyway). I find most humbucker guitars muddy by comparison to SC's and I've always had a harder time finding good HB guitars that are keepers for this reason. I like a vintage type tone with HB's and I think a really killer vintage Les Paul sounds a lot like a great tele.. I think I lean more towards the clarity that good SC's give you overall.
 
I switch guitars live (humbuckers and strat) and use scenes to select a suitable input EQ and level.

Of course, the point of using different guitars is for their different timbres, so this is not trying to make them sound the same, it's just to give them a similar tone balance (the mix of lows, mids & highs) and input level.

So scene 1 has all GEQ blocks bypassed, scene 2 turns on GEQ1 as the first block, scene 3 turns on GEQ2 (for another guitar), etc. Use MIDI patch and scene mapping if necessary to make it easy to select any patch and scene from and MFC patch selection.

As for tone adjustments, for the humbucker guitar I leave the high end as is, and cut low mids 4dB at 250Hz area, and cut 3dB either side of this at 125Hz and 500Hz. Then adjust the gain so that similar amounts of overdrive are produced by each guitar.
 
...

I might suggest working the RC Booster pedal into your patches where you want to try and make SC and HB's work together. I liked using the RC Booster for this on my pedals boards to trim some bass for buckers, add a little clean boost for SC's, etc. Might work similarly with the Axe presets. Haven't tried going there yet myself.

The RC Booster is a great way to go, as is the BB Pre ... add in a 5% mix of Chorus, a touch of stereo delay and reverb (with guitar volume dialed back to a baseline setting of 3) and voila!

I just modified the 1st ten FW11 presets in Bank A this way and now I am finding that I can very effectively toggle my split coil Suhr humbuckers between SC and DC mode to nicely tweak the thickness of the tone.

In either mode, the resulting response to varying pick attack and guitar volume pot techniques yields extremely response and diverse results in tonal expression - lots of explosive harmonics, bite and grit.

I want to drop in different stock and OH Cabs and hear what happens next - any suggestions?

FAS - I am a really happy Axe FX II camper - keep innovating Cliff & Co.! :encouragement:
 
Back
Top Bottom