Gain staging - Suhr vs PRS?

  • Hi there Kemper forum. I have a simple problem that I don't seem to be able to fix so I was wondering if you guys could help me.

    My main guitar is a Suhr Classic Pro with three V60LP pickups. I'm using Matt Britt profiles but I've never been quite happy with my sound or the feel when playing with the Suhr.. I don't feel like my playing ''flows'' as well as when playing through a real tube amplifier. I feel like there is no sustain and it's difficult playing lead as the tone doesn't response or flow as well like with my tube amps. I have the clean sense at 0.0 an dist sense on 3.5.

    Then I played this gig last weekend with my PRS Custom 22 which got two 85/15 humbuckers and wow.. The tone was just amazing. 10/10. The guitar almost played itself and the lead playing was so big and stadium like. And I was playing through the exact same profiles as with the Suhr but the sustain was much more and the response was way better with my PRS. I didn't change the clean/dist sense from before.

    So I began to wonder what could be the different.. I thought maybe it had something to do with the output of the pickups (gainstaging) so I measured the output with my UAD Apollo (D.I) and the output is 9db HIGHER with my PRS vs the Suhr :rolleyes: So do the profiles sound better because the PRS is pushing extra 9db into them? How can I make the profiles sound as good when playing the Suhr? Do I need a 9db boost on my Suhr? Can I work the clean sense and the dist sense to do that for me? What does 9db difference amount to in clean/dist sense values? Do I increase the clean sense to 9.0 and the dist sense to 12.5 when using the Suhr to get it to sound as good as the PRS?

    Hope you guys understand what I'm talking about.. How do I compensate for the 9db missing in pickup output in the Suhr vs the PRS when using the exact same profiles?

    - Fannar

  • I think the 3 choices are:

    - tweak a set of profiles that sound perfect with the Suhr with the Clean Sense and Dist Sense at zero

    - bump up the Dist Sense even more for the Suhr

    - use a clean boost as mentioned


    Pros and cons to each, but the first is the best IMO

  • EQ pedal is a good idea.


    I still strongly suggest creating specific rigs for each guitar. I've got profiles that sound great with my Tele, but not with any of my other guitars even though they're mostly the same output.


    Most of my performances are for my main guitar, but I have 2 banks dedicated to the Tele.

  • Fannar, apart from crankin' the Suhr at the Kemper's input, I have a suggestion:


    You said you played the PRS at the gig, but didn't mention the Suhr in this context. Could it be that you're comparing the PRS' performance at gig volume with the Suhr's at home-level?


    If so, that'd explain the sustain issue, at least in-part, IMHO.

  • I have several different guitars that I use with the Kemper as well. With different output levels from the pickups from PAFs to High Gain. I never ever messed around with the Clean and Distortion Sense - simply because I never found the need to do this.


    As Finally said separate rigs per guitar are a must for me. Even if they are based on the same profiles. So typically I have my handful of go to profiles and put them into performances. Those are definitely arranged per guitar then. And for more push on one or the other rig I really like using the Shaper or the Pure Boost in one of the first stomps, sometimes a Green Scream here and there for leads. All that works pretty well and the character of the different guitars is maintained extremely well with that config 8)

  • Pushing 9db extra into any profile will make them sound different. Try to just raise the gain some notes and see what happens.

    This is IMO what the dist sens is for and you can save different input presets for each guitar if you'd like.

    Personally I would use individual rigs tailored for each guitar though.


    And comparing single coils to humbuckers is also hard. One is not 'better' than the other but they sound different.