Trying to tame harshness when using s-coils

D

Dday

Member
Hey everyone! I just tried out one of Pete Thorn's Plexi2 settings posted on HRI, while it sounds great, when I switch to single coils (neck in particular), it get's harsh in the high end. I've dialed down the HF to around 4-5K, but it's still there. FYI...bright's off, pres on 2.00, treb on 3 o'clock (forgot the #). The HB sounds really good with those settings, just wondering if there's a way to tame it without making the HB too dark/muddy.
I'm using the Ultra with the powered Atomic.
 
Try a PEQ block before of ater the Amp block.
Set the highest band to "Blocking" and set the freq. at 5.5kHz.
 
Can you post a link to that Preset?

Can you post a link to that preset - I'd like to check it out ... thanks ...
 
Have you tried using the tone knob on your guitar? Seriously. I find the Axe is more responsive to volume and tone changes than my tube amps. I've had a few patches with a bit of harsh high end become really sweet and fat just by bringing done the tone and/or volume a bit on my guitar.
 
kush said:
Have you tried using the tone knob on your guitar? Seriously. I find the Axe is more responsive to volume and tone changes than my tube amps. I've had a few patches with a bit of harsh high end become really sweet and fat just by bringing done the tone and/or volume a bit on my guitar.
Click to expand...

right.
single coils with harsh hi end will sound harsh.
 
With low output vintage single coil designs, I almost always have the tone knobs rolled off somewhat. I generally run somewhere between 5-8 on the tone knobs depdending on what I want things to sound like at a given moment.

D
 
You can also just use a GEQ at the end of your chain and roll off some highs. Even before the amp works well.

Try it the way it is now, roll off the tone control on your guitar, then, change the EQ to match what you liked. I am finding that the GEQ is becoming my new BFF:lol
 
Try the 8Khz range. It has to either be 4k, 8k, or something in between. Use the peq block before everything and make the q as small as possible. Then put the gain all the way up and sweep through 4k to 8k. Find the area that is the most icepickiest (turn down speakers a bit for sanity and hearing purposes) and then make the gain go negative but make sure you take away enough to tame it and not take away the good high end.
 
Thanks for the input! One problem...no tone control on a couple of my guitars, and the single coils aren't harsh on my other amps (Suhr FL, Grosh P90, and Lollar blackface through an XTC, Badger, or SD60). The PEQ did help out quite a bit, but I hadn't tried lowering the Q. I'll try that this week. Also going to try the GEQ advice too. This patch discovery and the help you guys have given me is getting me excited again about the Axe. I just have to try to not get lost down the "rabbit hole" of tweeking again.
 
I sometimes use the multiband compressor and just compress everything over 2.3khz. It has taken me a long time to dial in single coils in general. Seems so much easier to me with buckers.
 
Spinning the tone knob always gets the tone I need.
Could you please post a link to that PT Plexi thread.
Tried to find the PT Plexi settings,but no luck.
Thanks
gM
 
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