Fatten Your Strat & Compensate Between Different Guitars | Tuesday Tone Tip

Leon Todd returns with another Tuesday Tone Tip, focusing on taming overly bright guitars and making them work with your existing Fractal tones.
Download the blocks - / fractal-blocks-91004326
Leon's IR - / my-main-ir-lt-tv-91056054
Leon's Channel - / leontodd
Get your Fractal Audio unit at www.g66.eu and visit www.g66.eu/leo... for more Fractal Audio Tuesday Tone Tips with Leon Todd.

[@G66eu]

Breakdown: Using a Strat with the Fractal Audio FM3: Tips and Tricks
In this tutorial, Leon Todd demonstrates how to optimize your presets on the Fractal Audio FM3 when using a brighter-sounding Stratocaster guitar. Below are detailed steps and practical tips from the video.
Adjustments and Techniques
1. Tone Control on the Guitar:
• Use Case: Reduce brightness on the neck pickup.
• Description: Turn down the tone control on your guitar’s neck pickup to mellow out the sharp, bright sound. This simple adjustment can quickly balance the tonal differences without modifying your preset.
2. Amp Controls:
• Use Case: Adjust amp settings for a brighter guitar.
• Bright Switch: Turning off the bright switch on your amp model can help reduce excessive brightness that a Stratocaster often brings, especially on clean and low-gain settings.
• Impact: Disabling the bright switch affects the amp’s gain structure, making the tone smoother and less biting. However, it can also remove some desirable bite and crunch from the bridge pickup.
3. Parametric EQ Block:
Use Case: Simulate a humbucker-like tone from a single-coil pickup.
Implementation:
Load a parametric EQ preset designed to convert single-coil characteristics to humbucker-like tones.
Example PEQ Settings from the Video:
• Band 1 (Shelving):
o Frequency: 2044 Hz
o Gain: +2.35 dB
• Band 3 (Peaking):
o Frequency: 6580 Hz
o Gain: +6.00 dB
• Band 4 (Peaking):
o Frequency: 7719 Hz
o Gain: -9.00 dB
• Band 5 (Peaking):
o Frequency: 8870.2 Hz
o Gain: -6.90 dB
4. Simplified Custom Parametric EQ Settings:
Use Case: Tailor the EQ to reduce brightness with a simpler approach.
Simplified Settings:
• Band 1 (Low Shelf):
o Frequency: 2000 Hz
o Gain: +3.00 dB
• Band 5 (Low Pass Filter):
o Frequency: 3000 Hz
o Slope: 6 dB/Oct
Practical Applications
1. Backup Guitar Compensation:
• Place the parametric EQ first in the signal chain to adapt for different guitar tones.
• Use the scene ignore function to maintain consistency across all scenes in your preset.
• Adjust the EQ settings to match the tonal characteristics of your backup guitar with your main guitar.
2. Gain Adjustment:
• Adjust the level in the parametric EQ to match output levels between different guitars.
• This ensures a consistent volume and gain structure regardless of the guitar being used.
By following these steps, you can effectively adapt your FM3 presets for a Stratocaster or any brighter-sounding guitar. For more detailed settings and to download Leon’s preset, visit his blocks library in the description. Happy tone shaping!

[@shaharbar]

This summary is fantastic, excellent work!

[@elianejoly5352]

Thank you Léon .👏🧑‍🎤

[@jimamsden]

I've explored adding an EQ block to normalize patches between single and double coil guitars. But I think the issue is broader than just the tone. It's how the guitars feel and how they make me play. Then I end up wanting to celebrate their different tones, and not EQ away the things that make the guitars unique.

[@G66eu]

Absolutely, you need to celebrate the character of each guitar!

[@ksharpe10]

Thanks LEON, this is pretty Cool. I have been using some of the Amp. parameters to tone shape, and make other versions of Amps out of for instance the preamp EQ's. Bumping or taking out a piece of the EQ to alter the Amps Tone. I have a Preset almost Built of an Early 60's Magnatone in the Sound of Lonnie Mack's Wham Album. It started out from another UA-camr's and With those other EQ's, I further tone shaped it. And used a tip from Austin Buddy to Tweak the Vibrato, to more replicate the Pitch Shifting Vib of the Magnatone, still working on that part.

[@G66eu]

Fun fact, I was nearly named Lonnie after Lonnie Mack!

[@poeke1234]

Can you upload this preset in Axe Change? Is it also usable and/or available for FM9?

[@ali-om4uv]

Wow that actually works😮....
Can you also create a eq curve that simmulates a pieco sound and and ir that simmulates qn acoustic for strat middle or fromt position? I tried the pack from mr. Fantom here on g66 but tjat did not work well for me.