A handy de-flubbing trick without needing an EQ pedal

p90fool

noisepolluter said:

p90fool said:

noisepolluter said:

p90fool said:

sixwheeltyrrel said:

I'm not grasping what "de-flubbing" actually means. Could someone please explain?

Don't worry, I don't have a clue either. 

Oh, it’s most definitely a thing and I haven’t imagined it. Possibly onomatopoeic.

I don't doubt it, I just have no idea what you're talking about.

That’s never stopped me.

Er, ok, well I'm glad you've cured it, whatever it is. 

noisepolluter

JezWynd said:

sixwheeltyrrel said:

I'm not grasping what "de-flubbing" actually means. Could someone please explain?

Me too. It might help if I understood what 'flubbing' is.

I’ve taken it to mean what happens when a guitar sound has too much bass and/or not enough treble, often when using distortion of some kind.

bbill335

stickyfiddle said:

I've always just set everything to give me the maximum amount of treble I want when my vol and tone are on full, then spent more time with the tone knob on 8 when less than 100% treble is needed. 

I can't be the only one?

Yep. Turn the bass down, probably need to turn gain down a bit too. No flub. All spank and pop.

noisepolluter

bbill335 said:

stickyfiddle said:

I've always just set everything to give me the maximum amount of treble I want when my vol and tone are on full, then spent more time with the tone knob on 8 when less than 100% treble is needed. 

I can't be the only one?

Yep. Turn the bass down, probably need to turn gain down a bit too. No flub. All spank and pop.

Leave off, I’ve only just learnt how to work the volume knob.

timmysoft

Flub off 

ICBM

Turn down the bass on a Mesa? I always ran mine with it up full...



OK that was a Trem-o-verb, and it's true that the Mark series don't usually sound good like that, but I've never found one where you need it below about 3 or 4. If I remember I ran my DC-5 with it at 6.

It's only an issue on amps which don't have a big enough power stage or good enough speakers to handle it properly anyway.

noisepolluter

timmysoft said:

Flub off 

It’s actually flub bypass

Voxman

By flubby I interpreted that to mean a muddied less distinct tone that struggles to punch through the mix. 

chrisj1602

A balanced pickup set could help, assuming you've already adjusted the heights.

thegummy

Voxman said:

If you want to deflub, get yourself a BBE Sonic Stomp Maximiser. You won't believe the change and how it adds clarity to cut through the mix.  In simple terms, your guitar amp speakers are inefficient and trying to process all the frequencies thrown at them all at the same time. The BBESSM splits the higher and lower frequencies such that these are hitting your speaker at fractionally different times allowing your speakers to catch their breath so to speak and process the higher and lower frequencies more efficiently. The result is greater clarity and punch.  There are some excellent vids and explanations on YouTube.

It's not an EQ pedal. Once you switch it on you will completely forget it's there and even wonder if it's doing anything...until you switch it off and realise how flubby your sound is without it.  Can be used in the fx loop or direct ... best position will depend on your amp and fx loop.

One of the cleverest and most underrated and essential pedals out there. 

Wouldn't that only make sense if it was a single short sound? If there's continuous signal then doesn't it take away that idea that the speaker has time to breath?

Voxman

thegummy said:i

Voxman said:

If you want to deflub, get yourself a BBE Sonic Stomp Maximiser. You won't believe the change and how it adds clarity to cut through the mix.  In simple terms, your guitar amp speakers are inefficient and trying to process all the frequencies thrown at them all at the same time. The BBESSM splits the higher and lower frequencies such that these are hitting your speaker at fractionally different times allowing your speakers to catch their breath so to speak and process the higher and lower frequencies more efficiently. The result is greater clarity and punch.  There are some excellent vids and explanations on YouTube.

It's not an EQ pedal. Once you switch it on you will completely forget it's there and even wonder if it's doing anything...until you switch it off and realise how flubby your sound is without it.  Can be used in the fx loop or direct ... best position will depend on your amp and fx loop.

One of the cleverest and most underrated and essential pedals out there. 

Wouldn't that only make sense if it was a single short sound? If there's continuous signal then doesn't it take away that idea that the speaker has time to breath?

Nope ... Check it out and listen to the demos. Here's one

Voxman

chrisj1602 said:

A balanced pickup set could help, assuming you've already adjusted the heights.

That won't help the underlying amp tone.

thegummy

Voxman said:

thegummy said:i

Voxman said:

If you want to deflub, get yourself a BBE Sonic Stomp Maximiser. You won't believe the change and how it adds clarity to cut through the mix.  In simple terms, your guitar amp speakers are inefficient and trying to process all the frequencies thrown at them all at the same time. The BBESSM splits the higher and lower frequencies such that these are hitting your speaker at fractionally different times allowing your speakers to catch their breath so to speak and process the higher and lower frequencies more efficiently. The result is greater clarity and punch.  There are some excellent vids and explanations on YouTube.

It's not an EQ pedal. Once you switch it on you will completely forget it's there and even wonder if it's doing anything...until you switch it off and realise how flubby your sound is without it.  Can be used in the fx loop or direct ... best position will depend on your amp and fx loop.

One of the cleverest and most underrated and essential pedals out there. 

Wouldn't that only make sense if it was a single short sound? If there's continuous signal then doesn't it take away that idea that the speaker has time to breath?

Nope ... Check it out and listen to the demos. Here's one

I don't doubt the pedal makes a difference but I can't see how that theory could be the reason

chrisj1602

Voxman said:

chrisj1602 said:

A balanced pickup set could help, assuming you've already adjusted the heights.

That won't help the underlying amp tone.

The OP said "The flub in question was when switching between between strat bridge/neck and the in-between positions"

noisepolluter

chrisj1602 said:

Voxman said:

chrisj1602 said:

A balanced pickup set could help, assuming you've already adjusted the heights.

That won't help the underlying amp tone.

The OP said "The flub in question was when switching between between strat bridge/neck and the in-between positions"

To be honest I think that’s a feature of strat pickups generally - positions 2 and 4 with the hollow jangly sound don’t quite cut through a warm overdrive as much as the bridge/neck unless you thin out the bass somehow

sixwheeltyrrel

noisepolluter said:

...  and I didn’t want to be chasing the pedal and amp treble/bass controls around, but I can just about roll the guitar volume back and lash out in the general direction of the boost footswitch without losing my place in the song.

A bit of a detour but I can really relate to this part. I find precision knob twiddling and convoluted pedal switching permutations a huge distraction when I'm in mid-flight. Unless there's a natural break in whatever I'm playing I'll avoid it. It's just something I've never really taken to. It wrong foots me more than it should.

I think this is why I find a mid boost on a Strat useful. In a general sense rather than for the problem described here.

noisepolluter

sixwheeltyrrel said:

noisepolluter said:

...  and I didn’t want to be chasing the pedal and amp treble/bass controls around, but I can just about roll the guitar volume back and lash out in the general direction of the boost footswitch without losing my place in the song.

A bit of a detour but I can really relate to this part. I find precision knob twiddling and convoluted pedal switching permutations a huge distraction when I'm in mid-flight. Unless there's a natural break in whatever I'm playing I'll avoid it. It's just something I've never really taken to. It wrong foots me more than it should.

I think this is why I find a mid boost on a Strat useful. In a general sense rather than for the problem described here.

Do you mean active mid boost? I’ve never tried one of those, though both my strat and tele have coil taps on the bridge pickups- they don’t really boost the volume but do certainly fatten up the proceedings, especially at higher volumes. Between the treble bypass cap, coil tap and boost pedal I’ve found I can now cover a surprising amount of ground both tonally and in terms of drive.

DesVegas

The sonic stomp is a great piece if kit. Really does lift your guitar sound. Although, I do consider it a glorified eq pedal.

sixwheeltyrrel

noisepolluter said:

Do you mean active mid boost? I’ve never tried one of those, though both my strat and tele have coil taps on the bridge pickups...


Yes but it would probably duplicate or at least overlap the coil taps. Admittedly I've only limited experience of coil taps on an Ibanez guitar from some time ago. 

A mid boost has the advantage of being separate and usable in any pickup combination along with level control.

It sounds as if you already have plenty of options within easy reach though. 

Voxman

DesVegas said:

The sonic stomp is a great piece if kit. Really does lift your guitar sound. Although, I do consider it a glorified eq pedal.

It does work very differently to an EQ but also works very well with an EQ pedal although the BBESSM should be placed at the end of the signal chain. Whereas an EQ allows control of frequency bands, the BBESSM adds something else - in addition to providing clearer tone it adds what I can only describe as a more '3D' tone that also makes your tone 'wider/bigger'. It's hard to describe but you can hear it when used with an EQ and you compare each separately & then together. I use the BBESSM after an EQ, both in the FX loop of my Blue Valvetronix and the two together change the amp beyond belief.  The effect is similar with my valve amps too.