Amps or Ampsims presence knob...

[LeSedna]

...do you also crank them high most of the time ?

I feel like my ear has no taste in this since it always prefers the brightest one (excepted when it gets aggressive). I always wanna make the sound brighter, and I feel stupid doing so.

 

[Trevoire520]

Depends on the amp. Also I find that it depends on where the treble knob is sitting aswell. Have them both too high and things can get pretty harsh. On my 6505 I normally have it around 8 or 9 (though I've not had it long so am still trying to learn how to dial it in properly)
On my Marshall DSL I normally had it around 6 or 7.

Try turning it up until it gets harsh and then pull it back a little.

 

[P-E]

I try to get a good tone, EQ it so it sounds good, then come back to the ampsim and then make adjustments so it sounds more like the EQ'd tone sounded like but more natural (usually to cut somewhere near 2k), often messing with treble and presence.

A bit OT but I find that low-passing pretty low makes it cooler to play with the highs as you keep sizzle but not the fizz, so you can get nice presence/treble textures this way.

 

[MindMunch]

Nope, on Lecto for example I set it around 20%

 

[Ionei]

On my amp I set it around 4ish.

 

[Morgan C]

I generally find amp sims have some nasty business in the highs, so I raise the mids and presence knobs and keep the high knobs lower, I don't mind a bit of fizz.

 

[botus99]

I don't think I've ever went past a 1'oclock setting for presence. It essentially adding a HI-Q boost in a higher frequency than the HIGH knob... if my ears aren't deceiving me. Bright metal guitars sound thin and wimpy to my ears, not to mention shred your eardrums after a few minutes of listening

 

[reg3n]

I generally find amp sims have some nasty business in the highs, so I raise the mids and presence knobs and keep the high knobs lower, I don't mind a bit of fizz.

i do this, keep the high's reasonably low (the highs are less distorted) and a lot of presence, but not on max.

 

[Ola Englund]

I generally find amp sims have some nasty business in the highs, so I raise the mids and presence knobs and keep the high knobs lower, I don't mind a bit of fizz.

this, I feel the exact same way, with amp sims you have to dull out the sound more to make it sound better.

 

[JoergieN]

Man I'm in the exact same shoes. I love the presence. I feel like it brings clarity to the tone, I can't get enough of it. But my friends say it hurts their ears. I feel like the highs and the presence somewhat goes hand and hand. I try to acomidate this by turning the highs to 4 and the presence to 8 or 9. It sounds great to me. The more presence, the more clarity. But most people think it sucks. Like I said, I'm in the same shoes, I need to control my hunger for presence.

 

[sjokarn]

On ampsims like Lecto and tsex30 i think they sound the best with almost no presence from the sim. From what i have understood, impulses are made with a certain amount of presence? As for real amps, that's another issue.

 

[Sethis]

I had the same problem for quite a while (sound not being bright enough etc) but then I discovered that the problem was mostly in my low mids. Especially in a mix you don't want too many of these. In fact, a lot of the best tones out there are incredibly "thin" on their own. Just my 2 cents...

 

[RedDog]

I favor dark tones, presence OFF.

 

[greyskull]

Prescence OFF on my amp.... but then it's an old Marshall; and I play a telecaster!

 

[Terminus]

My 3120 doesn't have a presence knob. As for treble though, I tend to go for slightly dark tones on the amp, and that amp has very sensitive controls so it stays pretty much at noon or close to noon.

 

[Star Ark]

Every amp seems different to me so I couldn't say. Except tse x50, I'm not a fan of that presence so It's normally at about 2, same with the mids actually, it's a cool sim but some of the eq controls are out of whack I think

 

[sjokarn]

And ofc it was tsex50 and not x30 i was talking about.

 

[Trevoire520]

My 3120 doesn't have a presence knob. As for treble though, I tend to go for slightly dark tones on the amp, and that amp has very sensitive controls so it stays pretty much at noon or close to noon.

Assuming it's the same as the XXX you'll have a tight/medium/loose dampening switch on the back, this is a combined resonance/presence control

 

[HCL]

+1 for darker tones. On a boosted 6505 I prefer the presence at like 7 at the most.

 

[Max Morton]

It also depends on the cab.
With 5150-ies, it may be 6-8 of presence, and 5-6 treble, but it also may be like 0 presence and 4-5 treble. Compensate it with mic positioning and you can get the tone that barely needs any EQ except for hipassing.
With Marshall JCM800's, I like keeping treble at around 9-10 o'clock and presence at around 13 o'clock. It sounds more open to me this way.
With Rectifiers, I don't like what treble knob does after 12 o'clock, but I like the presence knob pretty much.

But there are plenty of amp heads, which have a very specific way their presence knobs affect the tone. It's a great field for experimenting, especially when it comes to switching cabs and mic positions.