Different Guitars Don't Sound As Good As Others

[20YearsTooLate]

I currently use three different guitars for different songs our band does - Fender Stratocaster, Fender Telecaster and a Gibson Robot. The Strats not too bad, the Telecaster is awesome and by far the best but the Gibson sounds the worst through the Jamhub.

In fact I really don't use it throught the Jamhub much anymore as I can't seem to get a good sound. Could it be the humbucker pickups as opposed to the fenders single coils?

Both Fenders sound clear and individual even with effects but the Gibson sounds mushy and not as concise and clear regardless of the effects I am using.

The Gibson is a powerful guitar in comparison to the others so the input level is adjusted accordingly but the sound is still wishy washy at best.

Is this a common occurance with humbucker fitted guitars or is there something I can try to alleviate the poor sound?

The other band members agree that the sound is very different between guitars which you would expect but the Gibson's sound is poor in comparison to the others.

Any ideas??

[Chuck-at-JamHub]

Hi 20YearsTooLate,

Are you still using the same effects unit? If so, I recommend creating patches from scratch for each guitar. When I play through any guitar amp, I've found that switching guitars always means changing some setting, sometimes drastically, to get the tone that I'm after. The same definitely hold true when playing through amp modelers, in my experience...

'Hope this helps,

[20YearsTooLate]

Hi Chuck, thanks for the reply and advice. I am using the same effects unit and yes I have found that certain settings on it sound different for each guitar when played through my amp so I will experiment with the settings and create new patches and see if I can get a better result.

Will let you know the outcome as it may help other guitarists.

Also I would like to add that even though I have experienced this difference in guitar sound through the Jamhub, our band has been loving every minute of using this device to the point where other muso's we have had jam with us have been blown away by the great sound achieved and as one experienced muso put it, "Its like being in a recording studio the sound is that good!"

That really sums up our opinion of such a fantastic device.

Now, off to get my Gibson out and............................

[Chuck-at-JamHub]

"Its like being in a recording studio the sound is that good!"

LOVE THAT!

Thanks, 20YearsTooLate. Please do keep us posted...

[Steve-at-JamHub]

+1

I love reading stuff like that!

I'll add this, that the JamHub is acoustically transparent so what you give it is what you'll get.

Also, I've found that the patches you make alone, versus with the band, can be very different sounding. Like in the studio. When it's just a guitar, we tend to want it to cover a LOT of sonic ground ... from deep lows to high highs. When it's in the full band, and you have a bass and drums in the lows, you'll tend to want it to be a bit more mid-range sounding. My guess is that the LP is too bassy and is "stepping on" the other instruments, while the Strat and Tele are sitting nicely in their part of the mix. Just a guess.

And, don't forget, at different listening volumes our ears hear things differently. Learn more about his human hearing system phenomenon here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour

Have a ball!

[20YearsTooLate]

Yeah thanks guys the advice is awesome and I think you're right Steve about the LP being a bit bassy in the mix which is probably why its not sitting well at the moment.
Will keep you posted for sure!
Cheers

[Steve-at-JamHub]

I've done it before. My bass player covers a LOT of ground so whenever I play a LP with the band it sounds "not right". Now I have a LP with mini-humbuckers which cuts more like a Strat/Tele and sound GREAT in the mix.

You can also cheat a bit and turn up the mids to get that "Celestion bite" sound from a Les Paul. The key is to make the tone with the band playing (or a recording of a band) and mix it as part of the full sound. Alone it'll sound different, but once the band kicks in it will sound awesome.

Have fun!