Mesa Dual Rectifier with different pick-ups

[H-evolve]

Hey guys,

A friend of mine has a Jackson with EMGs (707-neck, 81-7 bridge) and a Mesa Dual Rectifier.

I just purchased recently a ESP/LTD ZH-7, that comes with DiMarzio D-Activators.

Since his amp is much better than mine, I wanted to test my new guitar in it. I was surprised by how much we needed to crank-up the gain in order to have a good level of gain/distorsion in my tone.

Note : We had to play on a relatively low volume... so that could explain why...

I was expecting a difference, but it was more important than I thought. I might be exagerating things... but I still wanted to ask you if what I experienced is normal, or maybe if you did a similar test with similar pick-ups.

Thanks.

 

[Mago]

2 different with different pickups sounding different?

Perfectly normal.


Depends on how low the output of your guitar is though. Can still be that theres something faulty...but different pickups have different outputs.

 

[H-evolve]

2 different with different pickups sounding different?

Perfectly normal.


Depends on how low the output of your guitar is though. Can still be that theres something faulty...but different pickups have different outputs.

Wellll.... That's a lot of "different"

What I meant was, we had the exact same setting on the amp (he just unplugged his guitar and gave the cable to me), so only the guitar was different.

I was expecting to have a different sound, by I thought I was gonna have a decent amount of gain, even though I know EMGs are high output pick-ups compared to passives.

But anyhow, you're probably right. This was probably completely normal. I was just assuming things when I made that test and clearly my expectations were off.

If not, what would be a good way to just compare the output of two guitars? Can I record clean tracks and just compare the signals dBs? (I'm really just guessing!).

Because I also have another guitar with Seymor Duncas passives, I could compare the 3 guitars.

 

[H-evolve]

Another point, perhaps confirming that there is no problem with the guitar itself, is that I plugged it in a modelling amp (Line 6 Spider IV HD150), and the sound was fine. Gain was good compared to my other guitar. But it's obviously not a high end tube amp, so... I don't know how the electronics work in there? I doubt the Line6 compensates for a lack of output coming from the guitar right?

 

[Mago]

woops, I forgot a word there, but I guess you got it right anyway. Ment to write

"2 different guitars with different pickups sounding different?"

So from what I got you also didn't play both guitars?
So it was his guitar with him playing through his amp, and then your guitar with your playing through his amp...and you expected what exactly?
If he's a harder hitter than you, then he'll have the gain set completly different than you would. Same for if his guitar has more output.

To check the output if your guitars:
same player, playing the same stuff with same strength, just straight into the instrument input of an interface (assuming you have one).
Don't adjust the input gain in between changing the guitars, and you should see how different the outputs are in the DAW (assuming you have one and can record)

And about the line 6: well that's where you had set the gain...you cant just plug into a different amp and expect all the controls to work the same...iirc the spiders have a lot of gain.
I'm not too farmilar with the dual recto without a tube screamer in front, I always used one before, so I can't say how the gain behaves without a booster in front.


Another thing: maybe the battery for your EMGs runs empty and that caused the lack of level?

 

[H-evolve]

Well you are correct, he did play his guitar and I played mine. I can say that we have a very similar "attack", but then again, as you say, different players can't sound the same.

Also, thx for the tips on checking the output. I do have an interface for recording and I am also using Reaper.

Finally, I think I wasn't super clear, sorry about that. When I realized that my gain was quite low compared to his guitar (both on the Dual Rectifier, with the same settings, but different person playing), I thought I would try comparing my other guitar (that I know works perfectly well) with my new guitar with the D-Activators. I did the test on another amp (Line6), but I used the exact same settings, and this time I was playing on both guitars. The test was really just to check if something was wrong with the D-Activators.

Moreover, the guitar with the EMGs is the one with the highest gain, so the battery is not a problem (it's a new battery anyway).

I know! It's a lot of different amps and guitars! Starts to be difficult to follow.

I'll try what you suggested using my Interface and Reaper. Thanks for your input. From what you point out, I am pretty sure there was nothing wrong with the D-Activators and it was really just the fact that EMGs have higher output by default, which caused the difference.

 

[Mago]

ah now it makes sense!

I'd start with the highest output guitar (seems to be the EMGs as you said) for setting the gain on the interface, then record the same riff with all 3 guitars.
It will be pretty clear in reaper if any of the guitars has significantly less gain than the others!