Single coil, excessive twang at high gain

  • I just got the Rock Pack from theampfactory and I love it,
    it has changed the way the KPA works for me…just going through the general
    settings being used is a real eye opener. There is nothing quite like practical
    working examples to explain how it all hangs together…and soooo much
    variation!!!! Great job…better that ten manuals...


    I have a small problem though – it’s my guitars not the KPA or rock pack profiles!

    I have an Ibanez Jem 77 with gravity storm pickups and the
    lead sounds are just awesome!!! It just sings with some of the rock pack
    profiles without adjustment, straight out of the box…


    I also have a PRS custom 10 top, it too, is as rich as a
    bowl of melting ice cream without effort. And let’s face it, one really only
    needs one awesome profile to be a happy bunny; and I now have several, built
    based on knowledge gained from the rock pack…so, thanks to the factory chaps!!!


    But… I also have a Fender custom shop 61 relic with Abigail
    Ybarra pickups and a USA standard with Seymour Duncan hot rails. Both have a
    really annoying high pitch twangy warble when overdriven - clean is fine, but I don't like clean much. I have tried
    adjusting the input parameters, but no change. It does it with all amp models
    and every profile, I know it’s a setting, and I’ll probably find it eventually,
    but any help or ideas would be welcomed with warm smiles and a hot cup of tea…and the relic is by far, for me, the most beautil guitar I have ever had...I prefer the rich lead type sounds, Gary More (RIP man), Satch, even Blackmore to an extent...


    Thanks chaps

    J

  • What about turning down treble and presence?

    I have tried quite a few EQ settings as well as those on the amp model, all to no avail...it improves it a bit, but it's still quite bad...also, might help in diagnosis too, turning down the volume on the guitar improves the problem quite a bit, but then all sustain and the body of sound goes as a consequence...
    Thanks anyway...J

  • I think I know what you mean.
    and I think your pickups might be set to high, creating "wolf" tones. its an unpleasent warble sort of sound, and it gets annoying.
    to cure this, simply screw your pups down a bit. especially on a strat, they should be burried into he body, and also offers better tone this way too, at cost of volume.


    Or, your pickups are treble heavy, therefore just lower the "definition" parameter within the Amp block.


    Glad you like them, enjoy! :)

  • Makes logical sense...I'm at work at the moment, but as soon as I get home, I'll give it a try. The pickups are raised very high on both guitars, and I'll certainly check out the parameter you mentioned.
    As for the pack; best £40 I have ever spent. There's a lot more to it than meets the eye...like the subtle depth and stereo image with some really clever use of chorus and delay...and (as it says in the blurb somewhere) it's not about the amps, the concepts can be applied globally, something not really exploited with the supplied profiles. The KPA supplied set has lots of profiles, but with very little variation, but the pack is just a few profiles with a lot of variation...I have now totally altered all the rigs I had set up before by applying certain ideas I got from playing with the pack...double thanks, great job....
    J

  • That makes sense too; my PRS has cloth material wrapped around the springs in the back of the trem, I'll take that on board as well...come to think about it, the noise could be a bit springy in origin, as it has a horrible metalic, springy, reverby tone...
    Thanks
    J

  • maybe worth a try: roll back definition in the amp-section. maybe not like night and day, but especially if you make use of you volume knob it can make a BIG difference...

  • I have a similar bunch of guitars , equipped with heavy HB or with tiny single coils ..

    I realized a long time a go to do not try to play heavy Mesa Boogie profiles with my YJM Fender (extremely low output) and that I cannot yield 100% of extremely vintage cleans/crunch sounds with my "modern" HB's guitars ...
    To each pick up its own profile .....and better to leave it like that , if you have a few different guitars.

    Different KPA amp profiles respond to different guitars as real amps do , that's all secret ...

    1988 Branko Radulovic Hand Made Strat in Macedonia (SFRJ)

    2006 Steve Vai vwh moded with SS frets and Sustainac 2006 (Japan)

    2008 Fender YJM , moded (USA)

    2010 Tom Andersons Drop Top 2010 (made in California)

    2017 Charvel GG sig Caramelised Ash (USA)

    2022 Gibson ES 335 2011 Custom Shop Cherry of course ( Memphis)

    Edited 4 times, last by Rescator ().

  • Guys, thanks for all your comments, and thanks to you all - I've cracked it; changed the setting as suggested by and44 and this took out 98%, played with a few other settings without much happening, then decided to try different cabs and hey presto - no twang, and a blitzingly heavy, smooth tone...awesome...thanks everybody...once I cracked it, I found easy to kill the twang everywhere...


    J

  • will have to try this. I have a US lone star strat with pearly gates that sound awesome. I added a HR in the neck an it sounds abit muddy, in hindsight i probably shouldnt have put a high output pickup in it but iwas much younger. But the guitar is beautiful. Hopefully a small adjustment will do the trick :)


    Also, id like to second TAF profiles. Just bought the Evil robot. Amazing. I think the Ziggy lead patch is my favourite profile. Got 4 or 5 individuals now, really should think about picking up a pack!

  • will have to try this. I have a US lone star strat with pearly gates that sound awesome. I added a HR in the neck an it sounds abit muddy, in hindsight i probably shouldnt have put a high output pickup in it but iwas much younger. But the guitar is beautiful. Hopefully a small adjustment will do the trick :)


    Also, id like to second TAF profiles. Just bought the Evil robot. Amazing. I think the Ziggy lead patch is my favourite profile. Got 4 or 5 individuals now, really should think about picking up a pack!

    Why not lower the humbucker to reduce its output?

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer

  • Ahhhh....the HB vs SC delema. There is no perfect solution when trying to get SC and HB pup guitars to interchange. The outputs are vastly different.I have had some success with rolling back the tone knob on my Strats but I have all 3 pups on a single tone knob. Also, lowering my HB pupa then raising the adjustable poles helps alot. This gives more bite to an otherwise muddy tone compared to a SC.


    After a lot of fiddling, I decided I'm an SC guy and quit bringing my HB guitars to gigs. :D


    bd

  • Ahhhh....the HB vs SC delema. There is no perfect solution when trying to get SC and HB pup guitars to interchange. The outputs are vastly different.I have had some success with rolling back the tone knob on my Strats but I have all 3 pups on a single tone knob. Also, lowering my HB pupa then raising the adjustable poles helps alot. This gives more bite to an otherwise muddy tone compared to a SC.


    After a lot of fiddling, I decided I'm an SC guy and quit bringing my HB guitars to gigs. :D


    bd


    HB?
    What's an HB?
    Are you talking about this?
    [Blocked Image: http://s10.postimage.org/pa3i1d6i1/HB_Krug_2.jpg]


    :thumbup:

  • If your Hot Rails is currently wired in series, try it in parallel - that muddiness will go away.


    ok, well im not very good at electronics, i wouldnt know how to do this and i hate paying techs just to try something out. Funnily enough i saw a pete thorn vid earlier where he briefly mentioned that his bridge hb was wired parallel and it sounded great. It seemed to have the twangy but abit more power and hum cancelling. Mines in the neck but i think a similar vibe would sound great


    thanks for heads up