When You Turn ON Your AXE FX III

Bulldog50

Inspired
What is your default preset to just practice? I like EJ Clean, for playing scales, practicing chords or learning new licks and songs. Do most people use clean presets for doing this, or do you like the crunchy tones for doing this? It would be interesting to know what everyone thinks about this. FYI, I started playing as a teenager back in the mid 60's, quit for about 44 years and took up guitar playing again last July (and I have improved quite a bit). I play alternatively, a Les Paul Tribute, a Strat, and two Core PRS's all played for the most part through my AXE FX III, but sometimes through my Fender Twin Reverb.
 
A lot of my rudimentary scale practice or brushing up on specific parts of songs on our set list is with the guitar not plugged into anything or just plugged directly into the little 4-channel Mackie mixer I have connected to a pair of cheap 5" M-Audio powered desktop speakers. If I'm practicing through the Axe-Fx, I just pick one of my existing presets, typically something relatively clean with little or no effects. If I'm learning a song, it's usually with whatever preset I've made for that song. The majority of my home practice is though the desktop mixer and my desktop speakers. If I'm dialing in new tones for the band, I'll spend some time at close to gig volume through a QSC K10, which is also my stage monitor. Our FOH speakers are a pair of K12s, so what I dial in on the K10 usually translates pretty well to the K12.
 
I usually stick with a Jazz 120 preset I have with a little bit of reverb. Played with a single coil it demands a lot of accuracy.
 
Yeah, I play with tones I want to play with, "practising" or not :)
To elaborate a bit, a big part of playing electric guitar is developing your touch to get what you want out of your "amp", so you've gotta play through the real thing, whatever that is.

"Practising" for me is as much about that as what's more commonly thought of as dexterity. I also really enjoy playing, and cool tones are part of that. Wouldn't own an Axe otherwise ;)
 
I usually start off on a crunch sound playing the same few 80s riffs I’ve been playing since I started. I usually end on a clean tone working on exercises then off to whatever.
 
I've only used some of the weirder, atmospheric stock presets. Pretty much the day I got it I started making my own. Unless I have a specific purpose or reason to be in my studio, when I turn it on I just jam with whatever loads up first. I don't practice because I'm lazy, I just noodle until something falls out and I write a song around it. The only 'practice' I have is when I go to track a lead and can't play what's in my head, so I'll loop the section and keep playing it over and over until it gets there. Then I promptly forget it all the second I'm done tracking.
 
I play acoustic almost exclusively at home. If I'm going to practice technique on an electric, I would do it with a slightly distorted tone, bone dry. The reason being that practicing technique with a clean tone can develop bad muting. I'm not talking a lot of gain, just enough so that muting of unpicked strings is required.
 
Deluxe Reverb.
50w Plexi.
Twin Reverb.
Sometimes, AC30.

You know, it's great that there are many, many amps in the Axe, but so many of these were to try to address the problem of having both Fender cleans and Marshall crunch in the same amp, or to have insane amounts of gain. I don't need them, but it's wonderful to have them if I want to experiment.
 
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