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String volumes to 50%, preset volume +6db ?


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 I'm going to test this but wanted to see if others had a similar experience another JTV user on the Facebook group.
"...turn down the string volumes ( red highlight in the photo ) in Workbench until you can hear that compression type effect turn off...but I just literally turned all my strings down to 50 percent and then increased each preset volume ( green in the photo ) on my guitar model 6dbs to be even with magnetic pickup volume and I noticed pick attack seems much more realistic and overall it feels more “real”

I take this as NOT adding magnetic pickup to the guitar model, just an attempt to improve tone and have the models more in line with mag output.

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I love statements like "it sounds more 'real' after I did X, Y, or Z". What does that mean? 

 

Here's what you'll find: Lowering volume in one place while raising it somewhere else is like jogging in place for an hour. You get tired and sweaty, but you've gone nowhere. 

 

The ability to balance relative string volumes exists to account for the fact that piezo outputs vary. Arbitrarily setting them all to 50% (or 37%, 12%, or 93%, etc etc) doesn't balance anything, and will just amplify the problem. Particularly on models like the Strat, where the bass strings often overpower the B and high E. 

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I'll just have to test as we don't know exactly what the programming in the Helix is doing.    This is beginning to remind me of another issue where as compression ( and drive? ) go up, the tonal differences between models/amps etc seem to go down (using JTV59 with Helix ). It's possible that with 100% string volume, and lately +3 db on each model's preset volume, followed by a leading compressor in each Helix patch, that I'm over compressing before the signal even reaches the amp.

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19 minutes ago, Indianrock2020 said:

I'll just have to test as we don't know exactly what the programming in the Helix is doing.    This is beginning to remind me of another issue where as compression ( and drive? ) go up, the tonal differences between models/amps etc seem to go down (using JTV59 with Helix ). It's possible that with 100% string volume, and lately +3 db on each model's preset volume, followed by a leading compressor in each Helix patch, that I'm over compressing before the signal even reaches the amp.

 

Do what you like, but what you've got here is a solution desperately in search of a problem. Guessing at what might or might not be happening in the bowels of the unit is pointless. Did everything sound glorious yesterday, but now it sounds like a tin can on a string? If not, then you're searching for gremlins that you don't have. It's pointless, and likely to actually create problems rather than solve them. 

 

"Over" this, or "under" that only matters if you don't like the way things sound...

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  • 2 months later...

dude, something about your response makes you sound like a pompous lollipop.. I understand completely what he means by making the sound more natural.. I'm here searching for answers for my jtv 89 that totally may benefit from his posted idea. the models sound like poo , at least mine always has, when picking the lower strings fast. sounds very compressed and un natural. so, with that I say thanks to the original poster for actually having a contribution. as for the commenter... you've been very un helpful.. so thanks for nothing.

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I attacked the compression issue by lowering the global string volume adjustment to -5.5dB for all strings, then balancing string volumes per preset to even out the string levels, and raised the preset levels up, again per model. I also lowered the mag heights to reduce the mag volumes so the volume differences between mags and models were more in line. I did this last year on both my JTV 59 and 69s. It gives me plenty of dynamic range with very little compression on the models. 

 

Just my 2 cents. I've been much happier with the models since then. 

 

Dave 

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