u/NoWillingness5083

I just bought a Quad Cortex a week ago. I’ve been testing it with my Strandberg Classic, which I swapped to a vintage single coil pickup (that the output level is lower than the original).

When soloing, I’ve noticed that the tail of the notes gets cut off very unnaturally. The volume drops suddenly instead of fading out gradually. I’ve already turned off the noise gate at the input block, removed all noise gates from the signal path, and increased the input level (both in global settings or at the input block). I also added a compressor in the chain, which helps with sustain, but the sudden cutoff still happened.

However, two days ago I used another Strandberg with humbucker pickups to test it and the cutoff problem is kind of resolved (not perfect, but acceptable). Obviously, I can’t just rely on the built in presets to fix this. I fine tuned it what I mentioned above.

Has anyone solve this issue when using low output single coil pickups with the Quad Cortex? Any advice or solutions would be greatly appreciated!

I’ll give it one more week. If the problem cannot be solved, I’ll sell it.

Please help!

I just got back from seeing the new Michael biopic, and it sent me down a massive rabbit hole of his 80s performances. While digging through the Victory Tour (1984) footage, I noticed a huge sonic difference compared to his later solo tours (Bad, Dangerous, etc.).

On the Victory Tour, the rhythm guitar is absolutely front-and-center. You can really hear the "scratch" and the "pocket" of the guitar (shoutout to the legendary David Williams). It feels like a raw funk-rock unit. However, as Michael moved into the later 80s and 90s, that organic guitar groove seemed to get replaced by the Synclavier and heavy digital sequencing.

The Transcription Struggle:

Since seeing the movie, I’ve been obsessed with trying to figure out the guitar parts from that 1984 era. It’s a real challenge because the recording quality on YouTube is mostly grainy VHS rips, and there’s no official soundboard or live album on Spotify to reference. Even with the rough audio, the arrangements are so sophisticated that I’m determined to transcribe them, but it's tough when the guitar is fighting through 40-year-old tape hiss!

I’d love to hear from the guitarists here:

1. Do you think the shift to a more "clinical," synth-heavy live sound in the late 80s helped or hurt the energy of the songs?

2. For those who play funk/pop rhythm: how much of the "MJ sound" do you credit to David Williams versus the production?

3. Does anyone have advice on EQing or "cleaning up" old YouTube bootlegs so I can hear the guitar transients better for transcribing?