Signal Levels - Different Guitars

  • Hi all,


    Be interested in how you are managing this?


    I'm running a Strat and also a pretty hot LP style guitar into the KPA and am just wanting to understand approaches to this.


    My initial thought was to have a clean boost stomp set to attenuate slightly but given that tonal changes may require adjustment to the stack settings I'm moving more towards saving rigs specifically optimised for each guitar type?


    Appreciate any insights..


    Regards,


    Si

  • Thanks again Michael.


    I'm trying to keep my clean sounds clean without having to resort to the trusty vol knob :)


    If I plug my LP into a clean(ish) sound then obviously it's way more gainy than it is with my Strat plugged in. There's no global way attenuate at the input on the KPA so I can either adjust the gain on the rig (as I would in an old school way but not possible with KPA as I'm changing patches), adjust my guitar vol to drive less or stick a stomp in front to attenuate the signal a little.


    Given the fact that I also need to adjust the amp itself I think I'll be configuring LP specific patches! I only need a few so no major shakes.


    Thanks,


    Si

  • OK.


    So what I get is that you are seeking a way to use both the strat and the LP with certain profiles without the level of drive/distortion changing too much between them, correct?


    You can do this in several ways:
    1) Distortion sens will affect how much your guitar pushes the profile into overdrive. It doesn't affect "clean" profiles, but I don't know what that corresponds to in regards to value of gain setting. You'd then make a separate setting for your strat and one for your LP, switching between them as you switch guitars. May not be the most practical solution, especially for live. In any case, you can make input presets and save them. Remember to "lock" the input setting, or it will be lost when you change profiles
    2) Use the clean boost as an attenuator for the LP, as you allude to. This should ONLY affect the gain, not the tonality. Of course, the guitar itself will affect tonality.
    3) Use separate rigs for each guitar, as you say. That may make the most sense to you :)

  • I setup up my clean sense and distortion sense for the kind of guitars I have ( Les Paul's, Strat's, 335's). I set the clean sense for each type so the clean and distorted levels are equal sounding, so there are no large jumps in volume when going between clean and dirt. For my usage I also like to turn up the distortion sense a bit on the strat, because in real usage I would be turning up the gain/volume to compensate for the lower output of those pickups. This way I don't need to make different rigs.


    I save the settings and recall them when I change guitars.