EQ curves of common bass preamps (Music Man, Seymour Duncan, Warwick)

[uOpt]

Since I went through the trouble of measuring I can as well post it here.

This is all done with pink noise. I had separate runs with sweeping sine and sweeping square but as expected, these linear distortion units (aka equalizers) don't behave differently for that than for pink noise.

Note that the red line is always the reference pink noise, the original signal.

Preamps in use:

• Seymour Duncan's 3-band bass preamp
• Music Man's bongo 4-band
• Music Man's 3-band as found in a 2000 non-classic stingray
• Music Man's 2-band as found in 2011 Stingray Classic 5
• Warwick's active MEC 3-band as found in a PH German-made thumb

std_pink_treble:

std_pink_mids:

std_pink_bass:

std_bass_singray2band_max:

std_bass_singray2band_min:

std_bass_bongo_max:

std_bass_bongo_min:

std_bass_seymourduncan_max:

std_bass_seymourduncan_min:

std_bass_stingraythreeband_max:

std_bass_stingraythreeband_min:

std_bass_warwickthreeband_max:

std_bass_warwickthreeband_min:

 

[uOpt]

Re: EQ curves of common bass preamps (Music Man, Seymour Duncan, Warwick)

BTW, taking suggestions on how to represent the data in a more digestable manner

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: EQ curves of common bass preamps (Music Man, Seymour Duncan, Warwick)

The data is perfectly digestible as presented. What cannot come across is the significance of the data in real world playing situations. e.g. The performance of different EQ systems at the high and low extremes of the frequency spectrum is irrelevant if your amplification is incapable of reproducing those frequencies.

 

[uOpt]

Re: EQ curves of common bass preamps (Music Man, Seymour Duncan, Warwick)

I didn't make these to judge them.

I was just curious what the manufacturers "picked".

I put picked in quotes because what the 2-band Music Man preamp in the Stingray classic is doing is nothing short of crazy

I also find it interesting that the 3-band (non-classic) Stingray pickup cuts off the low pass as if it has a LPF below the bass EQ.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: EQ curves of common bass preamps (Music Man, Seymour Duncan, Warwick)

I love the old MM 2-band (no centre detents) EQ - especially on fretless.

The crazy treble boost gets pretty hissy. I find that this deters overuse. A setting of about 7 is usually as far as I push it.

 

[uOpt]

Re: EQ curves of common bass preamps (Music Man, Seymour Duncan, Warwick)

Well the fact that it has no center bump AND also no markings drives me a bit bananas. I'll probably turn the knobs so that I can use the screws as a marker.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: EQ curves of common bass preamps (Music Man, Seymour Duncan, Warwick)

Great minds think alike.

I reset the control knobs so that the grub screws act as pointers. Unfortunately, the screws are only visible at the extremes of the pot travel. For the majority of settings, I find the grub screw by touch alone.

 

[ofajen]

Re: EQ curves of common bass preamps (Music Man, Seymour Duncan, Warwick)

Does the 3-band SR really shelf highs down when the bass is up and vice versa? I would have expected little change in the opposite region based on standard Baxandall curves.

Otto

 

[uOpt]

Re: EQ curves of common bass preamps (Music Man, Seymour Duncan, Warwick)

Does the 3-band SR really shelf highs down when the bass is up and vice versa? I would have expected little change in the opposite region based on standard Baxandall curves.

Otto

The way I read the graphs the SR 3-band attempts to do no such thing.

I got a more fancy sabre 3-band, let's see how that goes.

 

[ofajen]

Re: EQ curves of common bass preamps (Music Man, Seymour Duncan, Warwick)

The way I read the graphs the SR 3-band attempts to do no such thing.

I got a more fancy sabre 3-band, let's see how that goes.

Ok. To be clear that I'm reading it right on the bass min graph, for example, the green line is several dB higher than the pink line for all frequencies above about 300 Hz. So, turning down the bass shelves the highs up while cutting bass? I assumed it would coincide with the pink curve in the higher frequencies.

Otto

 

[uOpt]

Re: EQ curves of common bass preamps (Music Man, Seymour Duncan, Warwick)

Ok. To be clear that I'm reading it right on the bass min graph, for example, the green line is several dB higher than the pink line for all frequencies above about 300 Hz. So, turning down the bass shelves the highs up while cutting bass? I assumed it would coincide with the pink curve in the higher frequencies.

Otto

No, to me that looks like an effect of the re-centering of the curve (based on total volume).

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: EQ curves of common bass preamps (Music Man, Seymour Duncan, Warwick)

For on-board circuitry like preamps or EQ, I prefer the knobs that look like rack processor knobs, with the line or even a raised pointer. Looks a bit more "professional" than a simple numbered Strat knob or a chicken head IMO.

 

[ofajen]

Re: EQ curves of common bass preamps (Music Man, Seymour Duncan, Warwick)

No, to me that looks like an effect of the re-centering of the curve (based on total volume).

Ok, thanks!

Otto

 

[uOpt]

Re: EQ curves of common bass preamps (Music Man, Seymour Duncan, Warwick)

Ok, thanks!

Otto

If it is important to you I could regenerate the graphs without re-centering. However I did not keep a record whether I adjusted gain between the runs.

I want to revisit that whole cluster this weekend, let's see what other constraints I have...

 

[jeremy]

Re: EQ curves of common bass preamps (Music Man, Seymour Duncan, Warwick)

cool, thanks for posting that!