Gibson J45 baggs element, zoom A3 setup

[Scatcat]

Hallo, can someone who have this combination or similar, tell me the setup of the zoom A3 with the Gibson j45 with element pickup? I can’t find a good sound.
Thanks

Ps.
Sorry for my bad English

[Monsum]

It's hard to share specific settings because it the final tone will depend on what amp/PA you're playing through and on your personal preferences. But this is how I tweak the A3:

- start with an empty patch (no effects engaged), EQ at 12 o'clock, adjust the pickup gain knob accordingly so it doesn't clip
- set the pickup selector to piezo
- the body type selector is pretty useless so you can leave it on Dreadnought setting
- turn down the EQ middle knob to, say, 10 o'clock
- select effect 2 and pick mic simulation on Cond 414
- effect 1 is fixed on guitar model types so engage it and here you have to play around with all the models until you find something that sounds nice to you. For me it's usually a Martin or a Gibson model.
The selected model does not need to match your real guitar.
- on the last effect slot choose a graphic (or parametric) EQ and again play around with the virtual EQ faders, you might not need to make any drastic changes.
- when doing all the adjustment, it might be necessary to turn the EQ bass know down

Hopefully you will get a good sound out of it.

Here is an audio clip that I recorded with a Gibson J15 (with the Element pickup) through Zoom MS50G.
The MS50G has similar effects simulations (most of them are identical) so with the Zoom A3 you can achieve as good or a better tone than this here:

[Scatcat]

Thank you very very much

[guitaniac]

With respect to the A3's modeling, I've found that the 000-28 and 000-18 models can somewhat improve the sound of some USTs. Its at least worth a try with your particular rig. If you think it improves your amplified sound, make your EQ adjustments with the modeling engaged. If you don't think the modeling helps, remove the modeling from the program which you are creating.

I personally prefer to start with the A3's "flat" setting and use the digital EQs to do all the EQing for a particular program. Keep in mind that you can use the digital graphic EQ and the digital parametric EQ in series (if needed) when creating a particular program. The downside of using both digital EQ's in a particular program is that it removes the option to put some other effect in the program. In any event, you'll want to experiment with one or both of the digital EQs to find the most pleasing sound while monitoring the sound with headphones or your PA system or amp (if you have one). Then you can save the program for future use with that particular guitar/pickup rig.

You can save up to twenty programs, so you might find it advantageous to make multiple programs to accommodate different playing styles. For instance, you might want a stronger bass end for strumming with a pick than is ideal for picking with bare fingerpads.

I suggest leaving the A3's three band manual EQ set flat so that it can be used for any "quick and dirty" EQ adjustments needed at the gig.


I currently have a Baggs Element "barn door" system in one of my guitars, and I find it a little muddy sounding when the EQ is set flat. If my A3 was still working, I'd probably try cutting 2db at 80Hz and 4db at 160Hz. Those are the cuts which were helpful when I had a different UST plugged into the same barn door preamp.

My A3 died last month, after several years of intense use. I sorely miss it as I had programs on it to accommodate five different guitars, including a Baggs Anthem-equipped guitar which doesn't play well with my ToneDexter. The A3 was also quite useful for blending the two signals from dual-source rigs.

[Scatcat]

Thanks. The sound is improved adding a parametric eq. Good sound also with 00018 simulation model.