EQ settings and Amp adjustments

Josh Welch · From: Veyo, Utah, USA

How do you guy's go about setting and Eq your amp to get your desired tone out of it?

Not looking for amp settings, but a description of the process you go thru and why.

Thanks,

Dave Grafe · From: Hudson River Valley NY

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=253046&highlight=tone+settings

Ken Metcalf · From: San Antonio Texas USA

2 schools of thought.
Lets say your sound is on the bass-mid side of muddy.
You can add highs or take away lows and mids.
I would suggest taking away rather that adding to.
If your amp has a parametric eq... learn how that works.
The next step would be practice, Practice, Practice.
Good luck and hang out with some other steel players when possible.
_________________
MSA 12 String E9th/B6th Universal.
Little Walter PF-89.
Bunch of stomp boxes

Daniel Policarpo · Posted 17 Dec 2013 7:03 am

I usually start with a real scooped sound from the amp, nice bright highs and round, deep lows. The Stage One I have supplies a good amount of mid-range, which I really like. I use a Fender pot pedal, and have a Boss Super Shifter that I leave off, but use strictly for the buffer.

From there I use a combination of EQ pedals, a Dano Fish n Chips and/or Electro Harmonix Attack EQ. Some amp/room combinations don't give me clear enough highs and lows, and the Knockout attack EQ takes care of that in a pinch, and is also very good at providing single coil attributes to my humbucker pickup. Sometimes its off, sometimes its on. Whether I feel single coil or humbucker is the real key to me using that EQ. My Danelectro Fish n Chips I use for the great mid range it provides, and I can also adjust the level slider to get just the right amount of gain to tap into at the end of the volume pedal's throw. A nice little pool of gain to tap into that sustain. Plus, I don't like squeaky clean sounds. I like that mid to late 60's honky tonk bite that guys like Sonny Curtis and Tom Brumley were getting.

These EQs are not noisy at all and used with just about any amplifier, in any room, I can pretty much get a sound that I like. Whether other people like it, that is another story.

Dennis Detweiler · From: Solon, Iowa, US

Most amp tone knobs have a sweet spot in them, whereby it will drastically drop to mud (bass control) or bright (treble and/or presence control). Same with mid, a sweet spot that drastically changes to a muddy mid tone. Hit those spots and back the knob slightly counterclockwise to relieve it. That's usually where I start.
Depending on the amp, you can sometimes put your ear in front of the speaker without playing the guitar and hear the difference in "hiss" or "mud" as you slowly sweep the control left and right. Again, find the sweet spot and turn the knob slightly left.
_________________
1976 Birdseye U-12 MSA with Telonics 427 pickup, 1975 Birdseye U-12 MSA with Telonics X-12 pickup, Revelation preamp, Carbon Copy Delay and Hall Of Fame Reverb, Crown XLS 1002, 2- 15" Eminence Wheelhouse speakers, ShoBud Pedal, Effects Pedals. 1949 Epiphone D-8.

chris ivey · From: california (deceased)

i thought the sweet spot was where it sounded best.

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

Here's one thing that I've found in recent years that to me is really central to finding a tone with your amp or preamp controls.

Most players' hands don't pick a real good sound out of the strings until they're warmed up. Sometimes it takes 20 minutes, sometimes longer. Tone is really in the hands, or at least the tone of the instrument starts right there. Cold hands vs warmed up hands are VERY different sounding. So I say play for a while, really get warmed up and in the picking zone with real good dynamic control, then focus in on getting a tone with the gear.

Sometimes the frustration with not being able to find the right EQ setting has nothing to do with the gear and everything to do with the right hand not being ready to make THE sound.

B

Pete Burak · From: Portland, OR USA

Here's a good Jeff Newman article.
I like the "Tone is in the hands" section.
http://www.jeffran.com/articles.php?content=tone

chris ivey · From: california (deceased)

what brad says is right on. not to mention that
you can play a whole set of mediocre music, and then the singer hits that one slow song that grabs you and all of a sudden you are emotionally involved and tone gets 10 times better because now you are feeling it and your brain, nerves, fingers, everything start to work on a cosmic effortless level.
it may seem like you're barely touching the strings, but tone sings from them.

Dennis Detweiler · From: Solon, Iowa, US

I added my point of reference with amp tone settings from a short conversation with B.E. at the convention about 35 years ago. Except, he referred to it as backing the tone control out of the "woofy" area. I refer to it as a sweet spot to get the amp in the ball park. I agree, the rest is up to the hand. A simple example: the middle finger is a closer match to the tone of the thumb compared to the index finger when picking single strings or pairs of strings. And, further dissected.
_________________
1976 Birdseye U-12 MSA with Telonics 427 pickup, 1975 Birdseye U-12 MSA with Telonics X-12 pickup, Revelation preamp, Carbon Copy Delay and Hall Of Fame Reverb, Crown XLS 1002, 2- 15" Eminence Wheelhouse speakers, ShoBud Pedal, Effects Pedals. 1949 Epiphone D-8.

Dave Grafe · From: Hudson River Valley NY

what chris said

Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

Lane Gray · From: Topeka, KS

Yes, Georg, but your preference is nearly singular, most of us want a fair bit of bass boost and some cut of the upper mids.
_________________
2 pedal steels, a lapStrat, and an 8-string Dobro (and 3 ukes)
More amps than guitars, and not many effects

Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

Lane, when bypassing the pre/eq stages I also bypass the built-in high-pass filters that roll off low frequencies, which means I automatically get stronger and extended lows without boosting bass.

Controlling upper mids, and the rest of the tone range for that matter, is (to me) just a question of modifying picking style. Of course, modifying picking style to get a specific tone works best when the tone is not affected by eq settings, so here too my "bypass everything that affects tone" set-up helps on getting the tone I want at any given time.

Lane Gray · From: Topeka, KS

Interesting. What do you use to get the gain needed for driving power amp?
Or do you just go from instrument to power amp?
_________________
2 pedal steels, a lapStrat, and an 8-string Dobro (and 3 ukes)
More amps than guitars, and not many effects

Dennis Detweiler · From: Solon, Iowa, US

In the end it's just a matter of personal taste and procedure. No right or wrong. What one perceives as the best tone may sound like junk to the next. You may have more hearing loss in one ear and turn your head left and right and get a different reception of tone. Some like it thin and some like it fat. Buddy Emmons also used a Furman PQ-3 along with his Session 400 for a while to dial in what he wanted to a finer degree. The Live At The Convention double LP was recorded with this setup. Then he used a Chorus for a while and played with a slightly different tone. Chalker's tone was softer. No right or wrong. Find what you like any way you can get it, from the picks to the speaker.
_________________
1976 Birdseye U-12 MSA with Telonics 427 pickup, 1975 Birdseye U-12 MSA with Telonics X-12 pickup, Revelation preamp, Carbon Copy Delay and Hall Of Fame Reverb, Crown XLS 1002, 2- 15" Eminence Wheelhouse speakers, ShoBud Pedal, Effects Pedals. 1949 Epiphone D-8.

Bob Hoffnar · From: Austin, Tx

I find as flat a tone as possible. Every amp is a little different. The scooped mids thing does not work for me. In a cluttered mix those big warm lows steel players seem to like only create mud. And the cringey shrill twangy sound serves to annoy singers. I watch out for that 2k tinnitus frequency mainly. I have found it is best for me to be able control that gig killing frequency with my hands. Set amp pretty much flat and let my hands shape the tone. This is easy for violin players to understand but seems to be absolutely incomprehensible to some guitar players. Oddly enough guys like Ricky Davis get an amazing classic tone by doing just about the opposite thing I do. Go figure ?

To practice getting the tone with my hands I spend a week practicing with a crappy amp. I roll off all the lows and mids , turn the brite switch on with the treble on 10. Then I play like that till I can get a warm full sound. After that i switch over to nothing but bass and play like that till I can get a twangy sound. The secret is in how the picks hit the strings. I was lucky enough to have Buddy Charleton get on me about my picking problems.
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Bob

Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

Lane,
I use a Goodrich 7A (or equivalent) set pretty close to unity gain as "match box", followed by the LMB-3 also set close to 1:1 gain, followed by the VP which normally is a 50K (low ohm) pot pedal. From the VP I go directly into the NV112's power amp input.

The NV112's power amp input offer a load of 1M ohm, so it doesn't interfere with the low-ohm VP's tapering. This input is also only slightly less sensitive than the regular inputs on the NV112, so no, or very little, extra gain is needed to drive it ... all the way to distortion if I turn up the NV112's Volume.

The 7A / LMB-3 combo is what I more or less accidentally found got the most out of both these units, as the 7A's low impedance output and adjustable gain lets me drive the LMB-3 near ideally.
The LMB-3 does work as a good "match box" on its own, only with a touch more noise and lower dynamic range when fed directly by the PU, compared to having the 7A feeding it. The A7's 500K ohm input impedance also seem to match most PUs better than the LMB-3's 1M ohm input impedance.

robert kramer · From: Nashville TN

I've started using this method which I learned from an Evans Amp promo video. I adapted this to a Peavey amp. I start with the last setting I had on the amp and then adjust to the room with these settings. You could also start flat with all the controls at noon.

Bass adjust to Low A (C-6th)
Treble = 10th string F# (E-9th)
Mid = 8th string E (E-9th)
Shift = 10th string B (E-9th) (Usually on the 8 in +800)
Presence = 3rd String G# (E-9th)

This works because it's fast and every room is different and every room can change from day to day.

Here's the Evan promo video w. Alan Love on steel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfNopup4L1w

My effects are on when I do these adjustments. I also wear my picks in the car on the way to the gig.

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