Tone it down

[László]

Hmm. That is interesting. I wonder if that may be what is going on here. The amp is a great amp for noodling around the house and built well. But it sounds....sterile....in comparison side by side to my old amps. Like there is no character of its own, no soul if that makes sense.
It sounds great for modern day rock and metal stuff in my opinion as it is so...dry and takes extreme levels of dirt and pedals well. But for my main stuff i like to play, its just...dead sounding. Maybe over processed and everything (especially the highs) are just too crystal clear to the point of being obnoxious.

Maybe all the adjusting and tone chasing ive been doing is just the amp and not the guitars fault at this point.

I'm no fan of modeling amps for a variety of reasons, and don't use them, but there are some that sound better than others.

The unpleasant brightness might just be due to the design of that modeler. If your tube amps sound better (of COURSE they do! ) there are reasons:

A lot has to do with the qualities of the A/D and D/A converters used in that amp, the design and quality of the parts, and a million other variables one can only guess at.

 

[Rod/]

JB's are trebley. Seymour Duncan uses a JB in a Tele, But he uses it with a 250K volume pot not 500K. This results in some loss of treble.

When i use a JB for oloing I always turn the tone on my guitar down about 1/2 way.

There are other tricks. A roughcast A5 magnet in the JB will soften the treble a bit too. Some people use A2 or A4 to round or often that sharp edge.

Those are good solutions! With an A4, that would tame the high end for sure

 

[GADonis]

Hmm. That is interesting. I wonder if that may be what is going on here. The amp is a great amp for noodling around the house and built well. But it sounds....sterile....in comparison side by side to my old amps. Like there is no character of its own, no soul if that makes sense.
It sounds great for modern day rock and metal stuff in my opinion as it is so...dry and takes extreme levels of dirt and pedals well. But for my main stuff i like to play, its just...dead sounding. Maybe over processed and everything (especially the highs) are just too crystal clear to the point of being obnoxious.

Maybe all the adjusting and tone chasing ive been doing is just the amp and not the guitars fault at this point.

I ended up adding a Tone Bone Radial Dragster when I was using the Vetta. It didn't solve the problem of different pickups not working for a patch, but it did help out with using the volume knob and I think if added a bit of "life." Without the Dragster the tone would go to crap if I turned down the volume. Adding the Dragster kept that from happening. Something about modelling amps not presenting a "proper load" to the pickups. Used the Dragster just barely on. I mean, like not even 5%. Anything more and things quickly went to crap again.

 

[DirtyLuck]

Lots of great suggestions, thanks yall. I ended up ditching the line 6 amp and kept my tube. It just...works well for me. Traded the amp and a couple hundred for a silver sky to add to my stable.

 

[JasonE]

Lots of great suggestions, thanks yall. I ended up ditching the line 6 amp and kept my tube. It just...works well for me. Traded the amp and a couple hundred for a silver sky to add to my stable.

I have honestly not liked the sound of line 6 amps for live use for anything other than metal tones. I have seen many guys try to use them and they always sound harsh with too many effects on them.