Is this kind of setup "normal"?

[Jackie]

I've been tweaking and noodling the rack rig I got (2:90+TriAxis v2.0 no Phat) and I noticed that the "Deep" switch makes those glorious "IIC+" mids disappear and makes the tone a little muddy. Adding Modern makes it a tad too harsh and also kind of "dips" it even more.

Therefore I turned them both off, and naturally my low end wasn't all that huge, so I raised the bass to 4.5... It doesn't flub, BUT! I must mention that I have an EMG 81 equipped explorer that is made of hard maple. Very tight sounding guitar. Oh, just for info's sake, I have a Marshall 1960A that I loaded with 4xV30, rig is running with the cab in stereo, each side of the poweramp to one side of a cab.

The manual and various settings I see from folks (including some Metallica settings from Flemming Rasmussen's page) don't usually use Bass higher than 2 or 3, the manual even recommends using about 3 on the high gain sounds.
I actually noticed that if you turn the 2:90 down with the D&M engaged, or you turn it up without the D&M engaged, it's kind of close...

I usually follow the rule of "if it sounds good then it is good" but there's just something that bothers me about the settings I have.

Lead 2 Orange mode (IIC+)
Gain: 8
Treble: 6.5
Mid: 5.0
Bass: 4.5
Lead 2 Drive: 8
Master: 4.0
Presence: 5.5
Dynamic Voice: 7.5
2:90 Presence A/B: both at almost 11 o'clock.

Tone is used for a urgent, offensive thrashy rhythm tone.

 

[crane]

I use bass on this mode from 2 to 6, even 7 sometimes (max 5 in LD2 modes). It's coupled with a 20/20 with or without deep mod (deep mod support more bass) and I use it with a PRS Santana SE with EMG60, or LTD 7 string Carpenter (EMG81-7).
BUT I dial mids at 7 or 8, that adds some grind and attack.
Ever tried LD1 yellow ? I found it really powerfull, full of attack and bite. With an appropriate guitar and playing style it can really do some metal.

 

[Jackie]

Well, nice to see that I'm not overdoing it.

Lead 1 Yellow seems kind of flubby to me. I dialed in a nice fat lead tone but it has a very flatulent low end, useless for rhythm stuff.

I'll check out LD1 Yellow and try and tweak it a little just for fun, but I gotta stop enjoying the Mark IIC+ mode and Mark IV mode first :lol:

 

[dbone]

I've found that with my Carvin DC400 the deep function was not really needed on LD2 yellow. It really depends on your pick ups and your settings, For me I run the bass pretty low on my LD2 yellow to keep it focused. I would consider most setting recommendations including famous artists as only a good place to start, in the end trust your own ears. Reading the manual can really help you in understanding the modes and how your settings interact to effect the sound. Your settings look very similar to some of mine for that same channel. You know what's great about the Triaxis is that you can take that one mode Ld2 yellow and make several duplicates of that mode with slightly different settings and thoroughly AB them or just use one and keep tweaking it as you go.
Sounds like your having fun : )

 

[Jackie]

Well, I've finally settled on the Bass at 3. Just enough "wool" and just enough "chunk" :mrgreen:

 

[MrMarkIII]

Tune with your ears, not your eyes. Too much bass in a Mesa makes for flub, that's the design, as the tone stack is pre-distortion. There are good settings with the Bass on zero.

 

[Jackie]

Tune with your ears, not your eyes.

I do that and generally I don't even think too much when I tweak, but this time I kind of had this "I must be doing something wrong" feeling.

I couldn't dial out the flub from LD1 Yellow, even with the Bass at 0. Might try a different approach tomorrow.

The tone I have with LD2 Yellow and another one on LD2 Green is... :twisted:
I'm so glad I was finally able to dial it in, I learned a lot about how Mesas work, and they do need quite the amount of time to get it right - I bet it would have been at least 2 weeks less if I disengaged the Deep :lol:

I'm so glad that I found the Deep mode was actually taking away the very thing I was looking for. I also compared the low end of my Boogie tones (now w/o the Deep) to my JVM+EQ rig and it's very close, the Marshall's lows are different, but they both chunk just as hard. Deep was just too over the top and it made my tone disappear.

 

[tedsticle]

I have a Boss EQ in front that's slightly dipping out 200 hz ,and boosting 800 hz......This has allowed me to turn the Bass up to 6 or 7 while having the deep engaged. I also use a hi pass filter EQ after the preamp taking out 60 Hz and below.

I know you should always use your ears, but sometimes it's nice to actually see what's going on. I mic'ed my cab with a 57, and brought up the eq's on Logic to see what was really going on. Helped me out.

 

[robguitargod1]

Watch that dynamic voice. I don't think I've ever had it above 3.