Guitar input "impedance" - what's the deal?

[willsmythe37]

Hello all.

 

Just a quick message to see what people are doing with their impedance control, under global settings.

 

Currently I still have my helix set to the default 'auto' and will likely keep it that way until after an upcoming gig.

I saw somewhere online that a lower resistance or ohms, will reduce a 2-3kHz spike initial input?

 

How effective is the auto setting?

 

Do I need to look up a spec sheet of my guitars pickups?

 

I'm also wondering if this could be a reason I've heard an emphasis on the upper tier frequencies in the HX cabs in the helix themselves? Despite high/low cuts.

[amsdenj]

Auto sets the input impedance to whatever it is for the effect in the first block right after the input. This is to model the impact that effect has on the tone of the guitar and its cable. Setting a lower input impedance could reduce the high end of your guitar, but so can turning down the tone control just a little. This is actually convenient and quite common practice.

 

Try setting up your clean tone with the neck pickup and the guitar volume and tone all the way up. Then when you switch to the bridge pickup you can roll back the tone just a little to warm up that pickup. If you setup your clean tone for the bridge pickup, then you don't have any way to get the sparkle back on the neck pickup. 

[HonestOpinion]

Auto sets the input impedance to whatever it is for the effect in the first block right after the input. This is to model the impact that effect has on the tone of the guitar and its cable. Setting a lower input impedance could reduce the high end of your guitar, but so can turning down the tone control just a little. This is actually convenient and quite common practice.

 

Try setting up your clean tone with the neck pickup and the guitar volume and tone all the way up. Then when you switch to the bridge pickup you can roll back the tone just a little to warm up that pickup. If you setup your clean tone for the bridge pickup, then you don't have any way to get the sparkle back on the neck pickup. 

 

I use this method but I also design my presets around my most common tone and volume setting (both of them rolled off a bit) as this is where those controls will be parked much of the time for my guitar style. I tend to use a footswitch boost or the expression pedal to boost the volume for solos. I use the volume knob on my guitar primarily to determine how much grit/distortion is in my tone as the heavier amps and distortions usually sound thicker with increased signal coming from the guitar. So if you tend to work your volume and tone frequently the method asmenj describes is probably the way to go.  If you have a certain "sweet spot" you tend to park volume and tone at, you may want to also design some presets towards that.