I have a very annoying issues with my QC currently. I currently have 2 guitars equipped with Bareknuckles (Juggernaut and Impulse) and every amp I try with these pickups I almost have to push the gain between 7 and 10 both on the amp and overdrive.
The only amp that doesn’t struggle with gain are the EVH and Peavey 5150 model, which I don’t particularly like. I used to own a Mesa Boogie Mark V and Orange Rockerverb back in the day and I never had to push the gain that far to get a high gain tone, usually 5 on the OD and the amp was enought.
What am I doing wrong, is there a hidden setting that unlock more gain ?
Your impedance is on the lowest setting. Turn it all the way to the right, or the second to last option on the right. The impedance will darken your tone a lot the way you have it set, and it’ll be hard to get distortion to sound right.
Also what is the input meter reading when you’re playing your guitar? The 6 db boost doesn’t really mean anything unless we know how hard the pickups are actually hitting the front of the QC. Most pickups and guitarists will sound/play differently.
The input level should be set to 0 if you want your guitar to act like it would naturally plugged into an amp. Otherwise you are boosting/cutting the signal. And yeah, bump the impedance to the far right setting or one click before.
+1 for what the others indicated. Default impedance is 1M, you are at 10k so adjust accordingly. Keep the main volume at 100% as it’s actually an attenuator so 100% main volume = unity gain.
Another +1 for what others have indicated. Generally, 1M should be your go-to impedance. As you turn it down it acts much like a tone knob on your guitar bleeding off high end. It also reduces sustain and signal strength.
A couple of the most common uses for lower impedance are when using exceptionally bright pickups, or, when using a fuzz distortion at the beginning of your signal chain. Vintage Fuzz blocks can require a lower impedance to achieve the “correct” tone. Experiment with different lower values and select what sounds good to you. You may then have to adjust the tone and level downstream.
There may be a few other blocks on the QC that respond better to lower impedance if it is anything like the Helix. Don’t know which ones though. Use your ears. Some vintage Wahs are also said to sound “better” with lower impedances.
Anyone aware if there is a listing of per-block impedance recommendations out there for the QC?
Ultimately you want everything gain-staged correctly, the ‘Output’ parameter on the amp blocks is particularly useful for this. You can also look at increasing your output level, rather than your input level. Raise it to +4db for example via the I/O swipedown page or by long-pressing the individual output blocks. Whatever you are monitoring through may require more output level.
