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volume consistency between guitars


kinglerch
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I have several different guitars I use with the HD500X, which have different types of pickups (piezo, active, passive, hot, etc) and they all have different volumes on the same patch, and also different volumes depending upon if the patch is clean or not. For example, an active pickup sounds louder on a clean patch whereas the distorted patch sounds closer in volume.

 

Is this just how it is (as I suspect) or is there some way to normalize the volumes when changing guitars? There are some settings for pickup impedance, but I don't know how much effect they will have on this issue.

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That's pretty much how it is. Some guitars are simply louder than others. You will need to adjust the preset if you change guitars, or switch to a different preset that is already set up (normalized) for that specific guitar. The best way to adjust the preset would be to use the amp's Channel Volume setting which does not affect tone.

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It's just how it is.

I use my stock banks for home recording.

I use stock banks for live play with my band.

I use other banks that I use on the church worship team.

 

I have banks that are specific to a particular guitar, ie; Baritone Tele bank, Ibanez RG7620 7 string bank, etc...

 

I have passive under-wounds on the Tele, Dimarzio Hi-Outputs on the 7, and active EMG's on my main sixer.  I also have banks consisting of misc. "one-off" presets, ie; special effects.

 

These can all be arranged in a set list using the editor.

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Yeah its what happens when hotter pickups are throwing an increased signal at the HD and the HD is doing what it should do reacting like an amp would.

 

I've tested:  rolling back the guitar's vol knob a bit, lowering the hotter PUs, raising the weaker ones. Mainly the clean patches were the ones that bothered me and the vol knob helped the most.

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Yeah its what happens when hotter pickups are throwing an increased signal at the HD and the HD is doing what it should do reacting like an amp would.

 

I've tested:  rolling back the guitar's vol knob a bit, lowering the hotter PUs, raising the weaker ones. Mainly the clean patches were the ones that bothered me and the vol knob helped the most.

 

+1 exactly. I use two guitars on stage for most shows and entire banks that are almost exactly duplicates, except for volume etc.. for each one. Actually a huge advantage of the digital world. If you were using pedals and traditional amp, you would have to make the adjustments on the amp itself quickly when you switched guitars. No problem if you have a guitar tech like the big acts for but the rest of us that meant spinning knobs on stage real quick like.

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The reason I use different guitars is because they are all different. 

 

Some people want to make patches sound the same when they use different guitars, which means using a variation of each patch for each guitar.

Not me. One patch. if I need to "rock hard" I use the "rock hard" guitar to make that one patch sound "rock hard". If I need to sound "country twang" I use the "country twang" guitar. 

 

 

Of course, if you have a flaming pink Jackson Rhoads, you aren't playing country. So, in that instance, it would be ok to have a patch designed for that guitar. 
But, for the most part, use guitars that sound different and let them sound different. People Things are different. Quit trying to make everyone everything the same. We They aren't the same. 

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I found it is not only your guitars but also how many rig or set ups you use.

The Global EQ helps alot but I still have bundles saved per the set up I'm using with

banks for different guitars.

Just load the setlists you need.

 

Of course, you have to make the patch with the setup you have and the guitar you use.

Another hint is to use a code for what guitar it is in the patch,  and even code for the setup you use in it as well. Comes in handy! 

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I agree on not making things the same...but volume is not tone; although drive is..tone.

 

I have (on my fav) super hot humbuckers on bridge and super clean 11k single coils on neck and middle (handwound 59er replicas by Sliders Pickups in Sydney...amazing actually) . A huge diff in levels (too much) but I still want a little diff re: above; fixed by just 'hardwiring' the levels: Measuring the lowest output and padding the higher outputs to match, with appropriate resistor on the output leg of your 5 way (or whatever you are using). Open a can of worms though...if you have more than 1 guitar...I have quite a couple but only use 2 live because it would get way too hard :-)

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