EQ Question

[Bfeeney]

I had a question about the multiple EQ's I have in my circuit and how to set them. I have the 3-band on my amp, DS-1 tone control, Behringer Ultra Metal with a 4-band and a Zoom G3n. After using an EQ pedal on the G3n I decided I should get an actual EQ pedal and put it in the effects loop. That's a lot of EQ's to deal with! How do I get these to all work together to get a good end result? Thanks everyone

 

[Seashore]

It's really going to come down to the sound you're looking for out of your guitar and pedals and amp. Impossible to tell you exactly what to do. I'm guessing that you're running guitar into DS1, into Behringer distortion as a main distorted tone, into clean-ish amp, with the Zoom in the loop? And the DS1 is for a solo boost?

If that's the case I would check out the clean sound with the pedals off and the amp EQ knobs at noon; dial those in to taste; then turn on the Behringer and set your gain and EQ so it sounds right into the clean settings on your amp; set the DS1 with volume up, distortion down, and tone around noon, see what that sounds like into the Behringer, adjust to taste. If you need to use the amp EQ to dial in the distorted sound after you've done all that, use it sparingly. I wouldn't use an EQ in the loop for tone shaping - I would use it for room adjustments, like if you're playing somewhere and your amp is boomy, you can cut some lows, that kind of thing. Again something to use sparingly. Whatever comes last is going to set the overall flavor of your tone.

Also make sure that whenever you're tweaking your sound, you take some breaks and dial things in with fresh ears, in the context of whatever band mix you're working with. It's really easy to just play for a few minutes and tweak some stuff and play for a bit more and tweak a bit more and wind up completely off the reservation without even realizing it.

 

[Mincer]

I usually would set everything flat and see how each individual EQ affects the signal. Also, think about what you use EQ for....solo boost? different rhythm sounds? honky solos? Doing this will let you know if you should leave something on all the time (like if there is an EQ issue with the whole rig), or if you use EQ for a special effect.

 

[beaubrummels]

Set them flat and only turn down what's bad, but don't overdo it, just slightly roll off any frequencies that aren't sounding good. If you need to turn up a frequency, set it where you think it sounds good, then back it off to half that and it will sound good. Part of the reason is things that sound bad are partly because of the room you are in, so severe settings won't work in other places.

 

[Bfeeney]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'll try setting everything at noon and then do little adjustments from there. I have a Blackstar HT5 going into a cabinet with four Warehouse Guitar speakers. I get a decent amount of low end from the setup that I was trying to take out. The EQ pedal in the G3n took the low-end boominess out but I wasn't thrilled with the tone at that point, but with multiple EQ's I didn't know which one to mess with. I'll try it tonight and let everyone know. Thanks again