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Topic: a quick and easy tone fix |
Kevin Ruddell
From:
Toledo Ohio USA
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Posted 15 Jun 2004 12:17 pm |
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I hooked up my vintage eq unit to the effects loop of my new tube Peavey Classic 30 and set it flat , no boost or cut. I found the hot spots on my guitars cut the offending frequency a little ,and it made a tremendous difference in evening the sound of the instruments out.
1. Goldtone lap steel cut 7 dbs at 2K and 2.5K
2. Fender Dual Pro 6-7 db cut at 500k and 800 k and a couple of minor adjustments at a few other sliders , 3.George boards single 8 lap 7 db cut at around 800 k. I'm going to go over this procedure this weekend more carefully and write the settings down.
A lot of people running sound over (or under), eq but a little goes a long way. The local sound co. store manager says " let the speaker do it's job , just some minor reduction in the midrange usually around 500 k or so, other changes should be minor ".
I think the radical eq'ing might have been due to people working with less than stellar equipment back in the day |
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Bill Leff
From:
Santa Cruz, CA, USA
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Posted 15 Jun 2004 2:01 pm
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| Why exactly did you need to do this for all of your guitars? None of them sound "right" to you? |
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Jeff Au Hoy
From:
Honolulu, Hawai'i
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Posted 15 Jun 2004 2:25 pm
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...
Last edited by Jeff Au Hoy on 19 Jan 2018 2:37 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Jay Fagerlie
From:
Lotus, California, USA
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Posted 15 Jun 2004 2:37 pm
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I'm with you, Jeff.
My BEST equipment is the stuff that's 50 years old or more!
(I'm just shy of 42)
Jay |
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Kevin Ruddell
From:
Toledo Ohio USA
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Posted 15 Jun 2004 5:16 pm
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Bill , I love the " sound " of all my guitars . Another Goldtone owner previously posted on the forum that he sent his guitar pickup out to be rewound because of some harshness in the upper register . I thought I'd post my eq note as an idea for an easier fix.The PSG teacher I started taking lessons from in town told me Monday night at my lesson he just loves the sound of the Goldtone. Maybe it's sacrilege to add a vintage eq unit between guitar and amp for some posting members.Last weekend I mentioned this to George Pilburn and he didn't seem to be offended and mentioned he uses several of the same units I have himself.
My tube amp's single "middle" tone knob didn't seem able to do the same thing. Anyone is welcome to stop by and I'll flip the eq's bypass switch and see which you prefer, before , or after. I think I'm pretty sure which one.If I had a computer instead of this web tv thing I could post audio A/B examples for you to judge.
I love my vintage Fender Bass but they do have some notes that stand out a little more than others and some that are a little weak ( G string 7th fret and E string 10th fret ) This is pretty common knowledge although the American Standard P and J basses addressed and rectified this issue pretty well IMHO.
When I played standard guitar I used a cord with a Byrdland and two tweed Fender Champs, so I'm well aware of the KISS theory.Sometimes adding things can help though. |
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Jay Fagerlie
From:
Lotus, California, USA
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Posted 15 Jun 2004 5:45 pm
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Kevin,
I was responding to this:
"I think the radical eq'ing might have been due to people working with less than stellar equipment back in the day"
Just being a smart a$$......
I should have dropped in a smiley face  so you'd know....
Jay |
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Paul Arntson
From:
Washington, USA
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Posted 15 Jun 2004 7:56 pm
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Hi Kevin.
I'm new here so please forgive me if you've discussed this before. What exactly is your EQ unit? I am curious because I have noticed that different ones seem to have a different character about the tone. THanks.
-Paul Arntson |
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Kevin Ruddell
From:
Toledo Ohio USA
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Posted 16 Jun 2004 1:34 am
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Paul , it's a UREI graphic EQ.
Jay , I was referring to the decade of the seventies actually. |
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Kevin Ruddell
From:
Toledo Ohio USA
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Posted 19 Jun 2004 3:08 am
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Paul , I just A-B'd my vintage UREI eq with one of my ART modern units used in our band's monitor system and there's no comparison . The UREI is much better tonally for sure.
In my first post I was referencing some the less than stellar pa equipment of the early seventies when people were trying to coax decent sounds out of their simple Lafayette, Traynor, Bogen and Tapco systems in use at the time. This led to some over eq-ing habits for some. My point was to not over boost or ct when using eq. |
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Bill Leff
From:
Santa Cruz, CA, USA
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Posted 19 Jun 2004 8:48 am
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Kevin:
I'm in no way a purist (except I like tube amps most of the time) when it comes to this stuff. I was just wondering about your comments about "hot spots" on your guitars. I haven't really noticed anything like that (at least enough to be a problem for me) on guitars I've had owned over the years.
Bill |
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Kevin Ruddell
From:
Toledo Ohio USA
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Posted 20 Jun 2004 2:47 am
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| Bill , by hot spots I mean a certain frequency that stands out, or doesn't stand out, from others. Most living room stereos and guitar a mps have a bass and treble pot control that boosts or can sometimes cut one frequency , for example your bass knob might be at 100 hz and treble knob at 3K. When you go to a concert the sound man will have an eq unit on the front speakers to boost or cut the " hot spots " of the room and system. The performers stage monitor system will also have this. If you play a guitar and amp that is well balanced string to string you won't need eq for yourself although the sound man at a concert would eq your signal at the channel you are playing through if running direct or miked.I have a vintage SoundCraftsman eq on my home stereo and use it to cut a little of the midrange out of the sound and it sounds so much better.Comparing the sound equalised and bypassed makes you want to glue the bypass switch off forever. My three steels sound smoother with a little cut at a frequency that seems to stand out a little on each of them.Of course it depends on the amp your using too. For some reason my modern graphic eq just doesn't do much for this procedure as the vintage UREI eq unit does. |
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Chuck Fisher
From:
Santa Cruz, California, USA * R.I.P.
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Posted 20 Jun 2004 9:38 am
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EQ is very subjective, it doesnt just change frequency respose, it changes phase relationships, modern eqs (usually) have an amp for each slider, their outputs are all summed together. Some units make things sound kind of "lifeless". Some older EQs omly cut and their circuits are passive,(coils and capacitors) not active amplifiers (ic chips). They tend to be less radical in effect and smoother. Whites are like this, I think Urei too although I'm not positive.
In the studio these days a lot of attention is put into finding a mic that doesn't need EQing so midrange accuracy is preserved and the "lifeless" thing is hopefully dodged. |
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Kevin Ruddell
From:
Toledo Ohio USA
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Posted 26 Jun 2004 6:06 pm
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| Chuck , you are stating the exact same things my good friend and sound maven Mike told me, when I originally bought this unit from him ten years ago. The modern EQ I tried doesn't come close to the vintage UREI EQ for all the reasons you posted , and is frankly unusable for the application. Mike also mentioned the same thing regarding using a good microphone and going direct to tape. |
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