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Topic: My Zoom G3X is very shrill... |
Karl Paulsen
From:
Chicago
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Posted 4 Feb 2017 4:38 pm |
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So I'm experimenting with a G3X multi-effect box that my brother gave me. I am not looking to use this on stage or even at home, but rather for practicing in headphones when I'm on vacation. I'm in a hotel now and I've got a 2-week trip coming up in March and I'd at least like to have a good working practice patch by then.
Unfortuantely It is making my top 4 strings (especally 3 and 4) sound very shrill. Any suggestions for how to warm up the tone a bit? Maybe some EQ suggestions? I'm running it with just the expression pedal regulating the input and a Spring Reverb effect.
I know that I'm pretty pampered at home putting my Encore through a Hilton and a Milkman Half and Half, but I should at least be able to get a useable warmer tone out of a G3X right?
If it helps, it's this one:
https://www.zoom-na.com/products/guitar-bass-effects/guitar/zoom-g3x-guitar-effects-amp-simulator-expression-pedal |
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Darvin Willhoite
From:
Roxton, Tx. USA
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Posted 4 Feb 2017 7:25 pm
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I use a Zoom G3 with my steels all of the time. I have a graphic eq in the signal chain to use if I need it, but I haven't needed it yet. I think the effects in these boxes sound much better than my old Line 6, and Boss effects. I use a G5X for guitar. You should be able to tweak the EQ to tailor the sound to your liking.
_________________
Darvin Willhoite
MSA Millennium, Legend, and Studio Pro, Reese's restored Universal Direction guitar, as well as some older MSAs, several amps, new and old, and a Kemper Powerhead that I am really liking. Recently added a Zum D10, a Mullen RP, and a restored blue Rose, named the "Blue Bird" to the herd. Also, I have acquired and restored the plexiglass D10 MSA Classic again that was built as a demo in the early '70s. I also added a '74 lacquer P/P, with wood necks. |
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Karl Paulsen
From:
Chicago
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Posted 4 Feb 2017 7:41 pm
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| Darvin Willhoite wrote: |
| I use a Zoom G3 with my steels all of the time. I have a graphic eq in the signal chain to use if I need it, but I haven't needed it yet. I think the effects in these boxes sound much better than my old Line 6, and Boss effects. I use a G5X for guitar. You should be able to tweak the EQ to tailor the sound to your liking. |
Thanks Darvin,
Good to know. I'm a newbie to pedals, so it could just be the settings. What effects and settings are you using in your G3 patches? |
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James Phillips
From:
Michigan, USA
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Posted 5 Feb 2017 12:09 am
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| Darvin Willhoite wrote: |
| I use a Zoom G3 with my steels all of the time. I have a graphic eq in the signal chain to use if I need it, but I haven't needed it yet. I think the effects in these boxes sound much better than my old Line 6, and Boss effects. I use a G5X for guitar. You should be able to tweak the EQ to tailor the sound to your liking. |
I 100% agree.. I have the Zoom G1X which uses the same processing..I use it live & it sounds great.I do blues stuff but also clean stuff with no problems. One down side to it is ,it comes loaded with a lotta crap over the top type patches that you have to wade through. You are better off making your own from scratch. I would make sure its not the headphones you are using by pluging it into an amp. I have had a problem with some of the smart phone compatible head phones. There the ones with four bands on the jack, not three. They can sound thin or really verby . I think it's a phase thing with the head phone jack only having three contacts,not four,like a smart phone.
I know the pedal has a 1/4 Head Phone input,But you will still be in the same boat with an adapter.Lemme know if that makes sense to you.
_________________
Visit my Studio: LimeStoneLabs at.. http://Facebook.com/LSlabs
"Let the Bridges We Burn Light the Way" |
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Karl Paulsen
From:
Chicago
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Posted 5 Feb 2017 6:46 pm
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Good idea to check the headphones. I've been using a pair of Sony MDR-V600 phones that I've been using for over a decade. I noticed to day that they were a bit fluttery when putting a bass through a Zoom B1ON. I'm going to check them out and see if it's the headphones. Somwhere I've got anoher pair of MDR-600's that I bought at the same time that I can compare with.
I'll doublecheck the patches also to make sure I've not got anything else in the signal chain.
One other issue regarding the G3X.
Unlike my B1on and the G1on the G3x doesn't have an 1/8 inch stereo input for playing along with a music source. This is frustrating because plugging it into my computer to play along with recordings and videos when traveling is precisely what I want to do with it. Here's what the back panel looks like.
It does have a USB attachment. Could I use that to run an audio source into the machine? Maybe I should run the G3x into the computer via the USB and plug my phones into the computer? |
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Darvin Willhoite
From:
Roxton, Tx. USA
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Posted 5 Feb 2017 6:56 pm
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Karl,
I use delay, graphic EQ, chorus, reverb, and ZNR noise reduction. Here's pictures of the settings I use.
_________________
Darvin Willhoite
MSA Millennium, Legend, and Studio Pro, Reese's restored Universal Direction guitar, as well as some older MSAs, several amps, new and old, and a Kemper Powerhead that I am really liking. Recently added a Zum D10, a Mullen RP, and a restored blue Rose, named the "Blue Bird" to the herd. Also, I have acquired and restored the plexiglass D10 MSA Classic again that was built as a demo in the early '70s. I also added a '74 lacquer P/P, with wood necks. |
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Karl Paulsen
From:
Chicago
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Posted 6 Feb 2017 1:13 pm
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Thanks Darvin,
That is above and beyond the call! I'm going to program those in tonight. Much appreciated. |
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Darvin Willhoite
From:
Roxton, Tx. USA
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Posted 6 Feb 2017 1:39 pm
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Glad to help where I can.
_________________
Darvin Willhoite
MSA Millennium, Legend, and Studio Pro, Reese's restored Universal Direction guitar, as well as some older MSAs, several amps, new and old, and a Kemper Powerhead that I am really liking. Recently added a Zum D10, a Mullen RP, and a restored blue Rose, named the "Blue Bird" to the herd. Also, I have acquired and restored the plexiglass D10 MSA Classic again that was built as a demo in the early '70s. I also added a '74 lacquer P/P, with wood necks. |
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Karl Paulsen
From:
Chicago
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Posted 17 Feb 2017 5:02 pm
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Just to follow up, I finally got to hang out with my buddy who showed me the how to clear patches, copy, etc. We copied your settings exactly and the results were darn impressive. I'm definitely set for traveling and practicing with just my steel, the G3X, a patch cable and some headphones. As well as the good sounding patch, I also now have a really solid baseline to work from in experimenting with my own patches.
Still going to try and work out some way of hooking it too my laptop for playing along with tunes, but worst case scneario I can leave one headphone off and listen to the computer speakers. Or I could take this as an opportunte time to buy s a small mixer...
Thanks again! |
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Darvin Willhoite
From:
Roxton, Tx. USA
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Posted 17 Feb 2017 7:55 pm
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Besides the great sound, it's extremely easy to make adjustments on the fly, just like separate stomp box.
I just got a G5N a few days ago, but it's way different than my G5X, so I have another learning curve ahead of me.
_________________
Darvin Willhoite
MSA Millennium, Legend, and Studio Pro, Reese's restored Universal Direction guitar, as well as some older MSAs, several amps, new and old, and a Kemper Powerhead that I am really liking. Recently added a Zum D10, a Mullen RP, and a restored blue Rose, named the "Blue Bird" to the herd. Also, I have acquired and restored the plexiglass D10 MSA Classic again that was built as a demo in the early '70s. I also added a '74 lacquer P/P, with wood necks. |
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Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 18 Feb 2017 7:01 am
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One thought about the shrillness. I think you described plugging the steel guitar straight into the Zoom unit. If so, that would present a 1Meg load to the pickup and that can make for a very shrill, overly-bright pickup response. If you have a pot pedal, maybe try this: guitar - volume pedal - Zoom. Just by running thru a lower impedance load first like a volume pedal compared to the input of the Zoom can really change the pickup's tonal response and make it warmer, mellower, more "normal".
Brad |
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Darvin Willhoite
From:
Roxton, Tx. USA
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Posted 18 Feb 2017 7:18 am
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That's the setup I use Brad, sometimes I want the effects to die out on their own instead of being cut off by the volume pedal.
On one setup I used two MB100's, one before the volume pedal for distortion/overdrive, and one after the pedal for reverb, chorus, and delay. It worked pretty good, but the Proco Rat distortion model didn't quite sound like the real thing, so I bought another Rat pedal, then went to the G3 effects so I could have three effects showing at the same time. The picture is a little dark, but you can see them next to my volume pedal.
_________________
Darvin Willhoite
MSA Millennium, Legend, and Studio Pro, Reese's restored Universal Direction guitar, as well as some older MSAs, several amps, new and old, and a Kemper Powerhead that I am really liking. Recently added a Zum D10, a Mullen RP, and a restored blue Rose, named the "Blue Bird" to the herd. Also, I have acquired and restored the plexiglass D10 MSA Classic again that was built as a demo in the early '70s. I also added a '74 lacquer P/P, with wood necks. |
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Karl Paulsen
From:
Chicago
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Posted 18 Feb 2017 9:18 am
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| Brad Sarno wrote: |
One thought about the shrillness. I think you described plugging the steel guitar straight into the Zoom unit. If so, that would present a 1Meg load to the pickup and that can make for a very shrill, overly-bright pickup response. If you have a pot pedal, maybe try this: guitar - volume pedal - Zoom. Just by running thru a lower impedance load first like a volume pedal compared to the input of the Zoom can really change the pickup's tonal response and make it warmer, mellower, more "normal".
Brad |
Good to know. I can give this a try, but my pedal is a pot-less Hilton so I'm not sure it would work as well.
I'm not really sure what the deal with the shrillness exactly is. At my buddy's place we ran:
Encore > G3X > some sort of preamp > studio monitors.
Maybe the preamp warmed the signal up after the GSX because the tone (Darvin's settings) was really smooth and sweet. When I got home and ran it just into headphones last night it was definitely a big improvement but it was still a touch shrill. Maybe it's my headphones?
| Darvin Willhoite wrote: |
That's the setup I use Brad, sometimes I want the effects to die out on their own instead of being cut off by the volume pedal.
On one setup I used two MB100's, one before the volume pedal for distortion/overdrive, and one after the pedal for reverb, chorus, and delay. It worked pretty good, but the Proco Rat distortion model didn't quite sound like the real thing, so I bought another Rat pedal, then went to the G3 effects so I could have three effects showing at the same time. The picture is a little dark, but you can see them next to my volume pedal. |
Would a B1on with a clear patch possibly serve the same purpose as a volume pedal in warming the sigmal ? I ask because on this trip I don't want to bring any more stuff than I have too, but I might bring along my B1on for use with my bass. |
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