Shaping Your Tone: Can We Discuss EQ And The Various Ways You Use It?

[Sascha Franck]

I’m not sure what you are referring to. Perhaps this? I’m not.

Just the pedal on your picture.

 

[KingsXJJ]

Just the pedal on your picture.

Ok, I’ll bite. Source?

 

[Sascha Franck]

Ok, I’ll bite. Source?

Source for what exactly? That it's not doing cleans?

 

[KingsXJJ]

Source for what exactly? That it's not doing cleans?

Ok, thanks for everything!

 

[Sascha Franck]

Huh? I really don't know what kinda misunderstanding is going on right here...

 

[Sascha Franck]

Ohhh, now I see - got the unit wrong. I googled Ibanez Pentatone and the first hits all referred to the preamp, not just the EQ. Sorry!

 

[KingsXJJ]

Ohhh, now I see - got the unit wrong. I googled Ibanez Pentatone and the first hits all referred to the preamp, not just the EQ. Sorry!

All good man! I kinda thought that might be the case.

 

[KingsXJJ]

Ohhh, now I see - got the unit wrong. I googled Ibanez Pentatone and the first hits all referred to the preamp, not just the EQ. Sorry!

Well now I have gone ahead and ordered the Pentatone Preamp and EQ @Sascha Franck !

We’ll see how that goes Amigo.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Well now I have gone ahead and ordered the Pentatone Preamp and EQ @Sascha Franck !

We’ll see how that goes Amigo.

Let us know!

 

[Progressive_disclosure]

These are inexpensive and work well. Putting one of these pre-gain and one post will add massive tone sculpting and teach a whole lot about things being discussed here. You could easily just use a graphic EQ post gain and still have a lot to play with. Forgive the pic, it’s mine and not a stock photo!

View attachment 36165

Finally this pedal gets a mention! I got one last year, I think they were pretty new at the time. Was eyeing a BOSS GE-7 and this was in the same precise range where I live. Stuck it in the loop of my Engl Fireball 25 and it’s been great. The layout of the EQ pedal was easy for me as an amateur, making it clear when fiddling around what a narrower Q does for example. A parametric would have been both too expensive and too complicated.

I’ve settled on reducing a tiny bit of some nasty sounding frequencies and boosting or cutting highs and lows depending on my mood. I can also easily reduce the overall level with it if I want to crank the gain on the clean channel which is lacking a volume control.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Btw, as it apparently hasn't been mentioned yet, there's some sort of "common wisdom" when it comes to parametric EQs, namely: "Narrow band surgical cuts and broad band tone enhancing boosts."
Now, that doesn't necessarily apply to any pre-dirt EQing, but for anything used to finally shape the tone, that rule of thumb is usually making a lot of sense.
In case there's something annoying, it's usually a certain pretty exact frequency rather than a broad range around that frequency. A good example might be that certain "piezo click" which you may here rather often on cheaper piezo systems. A narrow band cut can tame a lot of that. But when you want to boost, say, some mids, a narrow band boost will likely sound pretty bad and stick out way too much, so you rather use a low Q value to achieve a more "natural" boost.