How do you EQ your amp?

[ratherdashing]

Re: How do you EQ your amp?

I turn the knobs until it sounds good.

90% of my playing is on the bridge pickup, so it makes sense to me to adjust based on that. There's no right or wrong way to do this stuff though.

 

[blindedbysilence]

Re: How do you EQ your amp?

There's no right or wrong way to do this stuff though.

True. I had never thought of trying to EQ my amp to my neck pickup. It sounds like an interesting idea.

 

[Aceman]

Re: How do you EQ your amp?

This may sound crazy...but maybe I have been doing it wrong all of these years:

I turn the knobs to wherever they sound good for whatever I am playing.


Your question was a bit unclear. Do you mean how do you set your amp so you can play with both pickups and a good tone. It varies. Just a few of the options

I never play on the neck.
I play on the neck or the bridge, but never both - I set it for the pup.
I have two channels, I set one for the neck, and one for the bridge.
I have an eq pedal. I set for one and adjust using the pedal for the other.
I change the knobs between songs.
I have a multi-fx and it is programmed to eq as appropriate at each patch change.
I only play solos on the neck - it sounds fine with the bridge eq settings.
I have two amps with an A/B switch

How long do you want me to go on? If you can figure out a bar chord you can figure this out. There are an infinite number of options. You are limited by your imagination only. And perhaps your gear and a patch chord or two...

This is a situation, IMO, where pup selection REALLY becomes critical. If you know the amp, and your playing needs, it may or may not be possible. You do what you need to - including changing the pickups - to get the sound you want. See my original statement.

 

[Simon_F]

Re: How do you EQ your amp?

That post #3 (I won't quote it all) is pretty much how I've been working Les Pauls through Marshalls for years. It's about using all the knobs to get maximum versatility from the guitar. You need a good set of pickups and 500K audio taper pots, then follow those instructions.

The key point is that if you get the amp EQ'd so the neck pickup sounds clear you will usually find that the bridge pickup sounds too bright. So you roll off the bridge tone and/or volume. Having some bridge bite in reserve is a good thing. There's always the option of an OD pedal with a tone control if you need even more.

If you EQ the amp for your bridge pickup on 10 you will most likely find the neck pickup sounds woolly. Or muddy. Worst case scenario muddy wool.

 

[James Rock]

Re: How do you EQ your amp?

I set up my bridge for the kinda jangly bright chimey tone I use most of the time at least thats how I EQ when playing single coils I then eq my pedals to get more of a marshall crunch and lead tone and adjust if it is too bright. My neck pickup in my tele is a lot brighter then normal tele necks (I think it has something to do with the cover) so if anything I turn down the tone when I want more warm/dark neck tones. I also spent a lot of time adjust my pickup height to achieve the right sounds across all pickups.

 

[eschoendorff]

Re: How do you EQ your amp?

Marshall amps: I start off with the Bass, Mids and Treble set thusly: 6/6/6. It honestly works quite well in most cases.

Mesa amps: I usually start with everything on "5." Then I adjust from there. In my experience, it can take me a day to EQ a Mesa amp because I keep stumbling on cool tones that I then jam with for a while. Then there's the Mesa's with the on board graphic EQ. I'll see you in about a week.

 

[Jackson Distortion]

Re: How do you EQ your amp?

I start with all knobs at 12 o'clock and go from there. I start with the treble knob which opens the amp up and then I follow up with distortion (as that's going to be most important factor of my tone). I'll readjust the treble if I have to. Then I'll muss with the bass control.

Currently I'm at:

Gain - 10
Bass - 8
Contour - 5
Treble - 8.5

Sounds dark, heavy, bright and mean.

It depends on the type of sound and music you're going to play as well. Like, I'm going to require a somewhat dark and heavy sound with hella gain, which usually prompts a healthy dose of highs to cut through.

 

[JOLLY]

Re: How do you EQ your amp?

It depends on which amp I'm playing through. They all sound different so I EQ them all different.

 

[Jackson Distortion]

Re: How do you EQ your amp?

I decided to play after posting in this thread and coming off a two-day layoff from playing the guitar and changed my eq. I still went treble first, but then I decided to tweak the bass second, and gain third. Now it looks like this (iirc):

Gain - 7.5
Bass - 9.?
Contour - 5
Treble - 9.?

So, the treble and bass freqencies increased and the gain dropped. My sound is more of a fat crunch now with clear highs.

Glad I popped in here.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: How do you EQ your amp?

i find most amps have their own sweet spot in the eq regardless of the axe you use.
Anyway...i start with everything on zero, then wind up the bass until it reaches a point where increasing it gives no appreciable difference....on some amps thats at 3, some would be 5 or 6 etc....
then i wind up the treble and stop can hear a piercing brightness that is unmusical to my ears.
Then wind up the mids until i like it.
I set the amp volume so when i max the guitar it will give a lead maximum volume level to fit the band and the room.
if its a marshall amp i use the presence knob at the method of eqing to the room.
If its a fender i will consider using the bright switch but usually dont engage it.
I use the neck pickup for this stuff.
If im using a drive pedal i set up the gain so its just singing where i like it for leads before it starts to sound too fake and compressed. Tone to taste -high as i can without unmusical harshness.
if its a dirty channel on an amp i do all of the above thru that.
Then i roll back volume and tones on both pickups and mix myself to the band from there. i will use anything from 0 to 10 on any guitar knob depending on whats happening around me so i can sit back in the mix or push forward for leads.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: How do you EQ your amp?

I eq you my amps with my guitars' switches in the middle position. Same thing for tuning.

Wait you tune for specific pickups? What difference does it make? Does your guitar go out of tune when you swap the switch? Seems like a guitar problem to me.


As for EQ for me its more determined by the room im in. If i need to turn something up or down I just reach over and yank on the knob. I dont seem to have the issue between neck and bridge pickups others have. Though I will admit as far as im concerned if the bridge sounds good the neck can just get what ever it gets.

The EQ'ing scheme that was posted is great if you have a Les Paul and can swap between 2 sets of volumes and tones but not everyone has a LP so its not much of an option.

Doesnt make sense to me to EQ for the neck when i play 90% of the time on the bridge. Sounds like the guitars dont have pickups that compliment each other well.

 

[richard parker]

Re: How do you EQ your amp?

If your pickups compliment each other tonewise this shouldn't even be an issue. What's good for one should be good for the other. The Gibson 490/498 set didn't work at all well together so they got replaced with Bare Knuckles which complement one another perfectly.

 

[Bludave]

Re: How do you EQ your amp?

What happens when you switch from a Humbucker equipped guitar to something with singles?

I use a lot of guitars & honestly I don't ever see a need to change any EQ setting. I d use two amps, and switch between them but the only adjustment I may need to make is volume. Usually when I dial it in they are good with either.

 

[blueman335]

Re: How do you EQ your amp?

EQ Your Amp for the Neck
Most of the time you’ve probably set up your amp for a good tone from the bridge. Try this instead and see what happens.

1. Turn all your volumes and tones up to 10.
2. Select the neck pick up.
3. Adjust your amp so you get a good soloing tone for that pickup.
4. Switch to bridge. This will be too bright. Ice-pick through ear territory.
5. Tame bridge with tone control, until you’ve got a good soloing tone.

In my experience, dialing down the tone control doesn't sound as good as taking off the excess bridge treble up front, with warm magnets and/or 250K pots. I much prefer to move the PU's EQ's closer to each other (warm bridge/bright neck) and that way one amp setting works very well for both PU's (with both tone pots on '10'). Much better method for me: adjust my amp's EQ to the bridge, and the PU's are all set. In my mind, if one PU sounds great and the other is ever shrill (bridge) or murky (neck) then I haven't set up my guitar right and shouldn't be taking it in public. I just don't see the point in leaving this to be adjusted every time you get on stage. There's enough to do plus general commotion as it is.

Now, if your PU's EQ's are polar opposites, as many are, yes, it makes sense to dial in the neck first, and then adjust the bridge tone control.

 

[guitfiddle]

Re: How do you EQ your amp?

In my experience, dialing down the tone control doesn't sound as good as taking off the excess bridge treble up front, with warm magnets and/or 250K pots. I much prefer to move the PU's EQ's closer to each other (warm bridge/bright neck) and that way one amp setting works very well for both PU's (with both tone pots on '10'). Much better method for me: adjust my amp's EQ to the bridge, and the PU's are all set. In my mind, if one PU sounds great and the other is ever shrill (bridge) or murky (neck) then I haven't set up my guitar right and shouldn't be taking it in public. I just don't see the point in leaving this to be adjusted every time you get on stage. There's enough to do plus general commotion as it is.

Now, if your PU's EQ's are polar opposites, as many are, yes, it makes sense to dial in the neck first, and then adjust the bridge tone control.

I can see the benefit of that method. I just like to have the pickups far enough away from each other's tone to be able to (for me) easily control how bright or dark I am. I like to be able to run the gamut from too dark all the way through to too bright, with two knobs and one switch.

 

[blueman335]

Re: How do you EQ your amp?

If your pickups compliment each other tonewise this shouldn't even be an issue. What's good for one should be good for the other. The Gibson 490/498 set didn't work at all well together so they got replaced with Bare Knuckles which complement one another perfectly.

The old 498T/490R set! OMG. Who on earth paired those two up? You'll never get both sounding great, at least not in the same guitar. Either the bridge is so piercing it'll break a wine glass, or the neck sounds like it's underwater. You have to pick one of them, and play that all night.