Tone shaping

[torkolort]

I often come to a point with a patch where I'm very happy with the tone of either the lower strings or the higher strings. But never all of them together. I like to have my rhtyhm tone sharp and bright but at the same plenty of low end. When I achieve this, the higher notes sound waaaay to thin and ice picky. So I do some cutting on the higher frequencies (e.g blocking at 8k or less), but this alters the rest of the tone as well. And still, even though it may be slightly better, the higher notes tend to never get rid of that really piercing sound. I figured it could be my strings, but after changing there wasn't any difference. I don't understand why the higher strings sound so thin and piercing even though I use both filters, PEQs and high cut to tame it.

Has anyone else experienced this?

 

[stratos]

I did too. I ended up with the "Brown Amps" as my go to model because of this. Also, before the Axe, I never used the volume pot on the guitar, just left it maxed out. I do use the pot now to "tame" some of the harshness and distortion. I do have a "bypass" (10 pf cap.) across the wiper on the pot so the higher frequencies will not attenuate when I reduce the volume on the guitar. pups are Kinman's on the neck/center..Seymor Duncan HB on the bridge.
I think Cliff really did his homework on how amplifiers interact with impeadences on the front end. The Axe's front end design really is sensitive, and very adjustable with just the pot on the guitar.
Keep at it, you'll tame the beast...happy tweaking!

 

[JJunkie]

if i remember torkolorts musical tastes, the guitar volume pot won't be a viable option. I don't have much experience with it, but i do tend to use the multiband compressor to tame low end. Filtering before the amp, to a certain extent, is the first thing I do (though I never filter highs, i dont need to because i just don't play that load to make the ice picks apparent).

The MBC is good for the low frequencies (i set frequency 1 at 160 to 200hz). Set the threshold value to taste in order to retain a certain level of beef before the compressor clamps down. I usually leave the attack and release values at default. Set the threshold for Band 2 to zero so that mids are unaffected. You should find a similar use for the MBC to treat the high frequencies also. I think you just want to cut the errant spikes out of the frequency spectrum that are causing the ice pick effect, but I can't offer any suggestions for settings, but using an MBC plugin in your DAW could be a good way to audition settings for that.

Edit: you have an Ultra, right?