Recording HIGH output pickups with toneport, avoiding clipping?

[Lowberg]

Hey guys, I'm going to be recording my friend in a few weeks and I'm recording guitars direct into my Line6 Toneport UX2 and using Revalver.

My friend recently got a pair of seymore duncan Blackouts installed and I'm afraid they are going to clip the instrument input on my Toneport, ruining my DI tracks for revalver or re-amping.

There is also a "Pad" instrument input, and Ive tried using it but the signal is a lot lot cooler than the normal input. So It definitely wont clip with that but I'm afraid I wont have a hot enough signal to sound good.

Does any one have any experience for this kind of thing?

Would a Direct Box to the mic input be a better solution?

 

[Machinated]

a DI box should give you more control over the signal. if you are just taking DI's the pad should be fine as long as the signal isn't REALLY weak, and you can always boost the signal back up afterwards.

the pickup height has a pretty big difference on the sound of the guitar and the output level as well, so maybe play around with that to get the best sound and then see if the signal is still as hot.

 

[Rex Rocker]

Just adjust your input levels in your DAW, man. I do that with my POD all the time.

Are these the EMG-ish blackouts or the Metal blackouts

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

funny how this happens with blackouts, not 81s. i noticed the same thing.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Run it into the pad. If you don't get a signal hot enough then put the +18 switch on and adjust to tast.

 

[slashvanyoung]

funny how this happens with blackouts, not 81s. i noticed the same thing.

It's probably due to the output of the 81 being relatively reasonable compared to many other "distortion"/high-output pups...

 

[crosstalk]

I have a question that kinda goes with this subject.

Say I plug into my DI and leave the preamp volume set to whatever level. When I plug a passive guitar in, I get big spikes everywhere. Good signal. When I plug in my guitar with actives, (81's) I get a pretty week signal. It's obviously compressed a lot, but it's pretty tiny. I figured I'd be cranking the preamp for a passive guitar, not for an active guitar. It also seems like if I raise the preamp volume on the active, it can sound clipped, even though the preamp doesn't register there being clipping.

Is this normal? Just seems opposite of what I would expect. I've tried fresh batteries as well and the guitar sounds great through an amp.