Higj gain sound problem with rg652 guitar

Hi there, I own a ibanez prestige rg652 mpb-gfb with dimarzio tonezone and air norton pick ups. Amp used is an Hughe and Kettner black spirit 200.
I recognized that if I want to dial in a chugging distorted metal sound I have to use All extra gain of the amp to get something useful. I am still not satisfied.
I tryed some settings from youtube but if I use them it sounds more like crunched sound instead if high gain sounds like its shown. So it seems that the gain from the guitar is propabky to low?
I saw Kiko using a 7 string Version of my guitar in a song I.e. Liquid Times. Kiko any similar expiriences or suggestions for getting a nice high gain sound?
Thanksin advance
Greetings
Ben

Hey Ben,

  1. Has the guitar’s electronics been recently modded in any way? Like changing pots or jacks etc.
  2. Have you tried it with a different amp?
  3. Did it always behave like this or is this new issue?

Also, if you have and know how to use a multimeter, try getting a DCR reading of your pickups: all pots on 10, selector in either bridge only or neck only. You should get something in the ballpark of 17 kOhms for the ToneZone and 13k for the Norton. If its radically different, than something is off, but it’s hard to tell without seeing it.

Again, if it produced enough gain for you before, than try to spot what changes have you made recently to your signal chain.

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Hi Nexion,
The guitar is still in original State without modification. I did not try with Differential amps and it behaved still in this way.
I will try to meseaure the resistance and Report it here.

Thanks

Also, if you have another guitar, you could try that the through the amp. A H&K amp with an channel labbelled as ULTRA should have enough gain… :confused:

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Yes i will try another guitar too and report

Hi Ben,
I use a Hughes & Kettner Grandmeister 40 tube amp. It has the ultra channel that Nexion mentioned. More than enough gain for sure but I found using my EQ pedal, (Boss EQ200) in front of the amp I can dial out all the “muddy” low frequencies which really tightens up the palm muting and chugging rhythms. I am also just starting to use it in the amps effects loop as well. The Boss EQ200 can be split to go in front of the preamp as well as in front of the power amp through the effects loop. Gives me a lot of different tones I didn’t think my amp had.

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Hi, today i tried different guitar and pickups. It sounds still not that nice. So its more a thing of the amp itself.
@RonRobertson: interesting to here your expiriences. Tomorrow i will try a ts9 in front of the amp. At the moment I do not own a EQ. At the moment I just can get a nice sound with almost no mids and using the Boost.

RG652 should do high gain with no problems. I can do metal with way lower output pickups than the ones in the RG652.

You will need to troubleshoot everything in your chain, including the guitars electronics.

Have you tried with a different guitar? If yes, which one? What results do you get with that one?

An OD pedal like a Tube Screamer in front of the amp should give you extra hair, more mids and tighter bass. But the H&K should be able to do metal on its own.

Also, can you show us any clips? We could help you way better if you show us in a video with audio exactly what is going on.

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With this amp, you shouldn’t have any problem with gain. I tried one once and using less than the middle of the gain you have good tones using the “ultra” channel. With that said, this amp is a little crunchy on this channel, the treble knob removes some mids frequencies also.

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Hi, here a short jam with my current settings. Any suggestions?

It does sound more like hard rock/hair metal. That should get quite more metal with a TS style pedal in front.

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Back again with a TS9 in front of the amp and umchanged amp settings. What do you Think about this sound?

Anybody an opinon of the new sound using the Ts9 in front?

Sounds good to me!:wink: