Why dont my patches clean up with the volume knob?

boltrecords

boltrecords

Fractal Fanatic
ive always noticed that my axe II gain patches dont really clean up by backing off the guitar volume as much as it would with my tube amp. am i doing something wrong? or is this a drawback of not having a tube amp? when i turn the volume down on the guitar, the saturation and feeling changes but i really dont even get a decrease in volume until the last 10-15% of the guitars volume. And at that point the volume taper pretty much drops off completely.

it just seems very dificult to back off the volume on the fly.

any thoughts?
 
How much gain is on the patches you are using? When I am playing through a patch where full guitar volume produces a nice grind, I can back off the volume to clean up just like a tube amp. Not sure what's going on with your setup.
 
My active pickups in my mm luke do not clean up very well, however my ej strat does. Acts just like my amps.
 
In my experience as an AxeII and tube amp owner, this is related to the patch.

Try creating a patch from scratch with just amp -> cab. Then try the volume knob rolloff.

Also, I had a David Bray modded Plexi reissue head that also didn't cleanup as fast as my stock JCM800 head. So you can think of some AxeII patches more like playing a modded head vs. stock.

Richard
 
i think its more the guitars the more i play around with it. pretty much anything with the a humbucker seems to act the same. when i tried my ej strat it cleaned up great.
my suhr modern, the volume knob is pretty useless. same with the les paul
 
With my standard and a bareknuckle VHII loaded superstrat, I could easily go from screaming leads to almost completely clean by rolling the guitar volume. I had patches with JCM800, Plexi, 5150, Marsha...
Check the noise gate and your input levels.
 
Don't forget that the Axe-II is unity gain. So you may need to adjust the input trim of the particular amp model you're working with to suit your pickups.
 
boltrecords said:
ive always noticed that my axe II gain patches dont really clean up by backing off the guitar volume as much as it would with my tube amp. am i doing something wrong? or is this a drawback of not having a tube amp? when i turn the volume down on the guitar, the saturation and feeling changes but i really dont even get a decrease in volume until the last 10-15% of the guitars volume. And at that point the volume taper pretty much drops off completely.

it just seems very dificult to back off the volume on the fly.

any thoughts?
Click to expand...

I've had the same exact experience as you. I am using an Ibanez 7-string with EMG-707 active pickups with the input set to "just tickle the reds" and the volume knob is useless until the last 10-15% as you described. Turn it down a hair more and the volume shuts off. I am not using the noise gate at all, so I'm not sure what the problem is.

I can take my same guitar with my Mesa Tremoverb or my Mesa Triaxis setup and the volume knob cleans up the guitar beautifully even at the heaviest settings. I can take the real tube amps from heavy metal sound to overdriven blues to slight break-up with only my volume knob and pickup selector switch. For some reason, in my own experience, my Axe II does not respond anything like the tube amps in this regard. After hearing all the raving about how the Axe II resopnds just like a tube amp when fiddling with the volume knob, I'm disappointed with my own experience with this so far.

I am not about to say that I'm not the problem, just I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong either. Still, I'm really liking most everything else about the Axe II.
 
I suspect those who are experiencing this have the Master Volume set far too high. In blind tests the AxeFx II responds EXACTLY like the modeled amp.
 
FractalAudio said:
I suspect those who are experiencing this have the Master Volume set far too high. In blind tests the AxeFx II responds EXACTLY like the modeled amp.
Click to expand...

Great to hear that. So I am the problem as I suspected. Glad to know it's definitely achievable. Now I just have to figure out how to get get it to do what I want.

Let me be clear, this is my first experience with any Fractal product, so I'm definitely a newbie. So far, I have found the axe II to be very easy to figure out the basic operations (even before I read any of the manual). The real test will be to learn all the little details you've implanted into this thing--truly overwhelming. But it's important for other newbies like me to know that you can achive great sounds without diving too deep into the advanced parameters. Once you learn the advanced stuff the sky will be the limit.

Anyway, I am currently using a FAS Modern amp and running the input trim at about .75, master volume at about 40-50%, and using a TS808 drive block for a general high gain patch. Is that still considered too high for the master volume considering I'm using a drive block as well?

Thanks for any help!
 
40-50% on the Master is somewhat high for that. The whole key to using the Master is to set it very low and then bring it up slowly until you get the desired tone and power amp compression.
 
after testing all my guitars on my tube amp and axe fx. im really only noticing the issue on my suhr the most. even on the tube amp, the volume knob doesnt do very much. not sure why

lowering the master volume did help for the rest of my guitars but the suhr is still reacting the same.
very strange. maybe the aldrich pups are just too hot.

fyi, i have my input trim of the axe set at 100%. even at this level its never hits the red
 
FractalAudio said:
40-50% on the Master is somewhat high for that. The whole key to using the Master is to set it very low and then bring it up slowly until you get the desired tone and power amp compression.
Click to expand...

Awesome. Thanks so much for the info. I'll try that tonight when I get home from work.
 
Cliff, you were exactly right, I had to turn down the master volume to get the Axe II to clean up with my guitar volume knob.

I had the master vol at approximately 50% in my original patch and the guitar volume knob didn't clean up the amp sims...I reduced the master vol to approximately 25% and got the exact same sound and feel that I get with my tube amps when reducing the guitar's volume knob. What a huge difference that one simple tip made in my happiness with your product. Thanks so much for taking the time to help me and everyone else out.
 
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