The Importance Of An EQ Pedal - A New Journey...

JezWynd

Flanging_Fred said:

The Danelectro fish n chips s a great little eq. It’s really quiet and does a great job. I moved on to the SA eq as I wanted the presets, but I still keep the little Dano around as it’s so nice. A great way to see if eq is useful for you as can be picked up for about £15 on ebay.

The Fish n Chips is an astonishingly good EQ for the money; quieter than the stock GE-7. The most disappointing eq pedal I've come across was the Boss PQ-4. Very hard to come by, I imported one from Japan and I really wish I'd not bothered. Very hissy. Best was the Empress Para EQ, fabulous tone shaping ability and possible to notch out selective freqs that are problematic. A great tool for any gigging pro I would think.

Grocer_Jack

My initial reaction is that I can’t see why you can’t dial out the annoying treble with a combination of the amp’s eq and the volume and tone on the guitars. Especially on a £3 grand amp. I’d be pissed off at having to add a pedal to do that.
I get that amps, or combinations of a particular guitar/amp may have an eq profile that isn’t to your taste, particularly in the mids, but I think treble is pretty easy to control. 

I have  a GE-7 and occasionally use it to fiddle with mids or use as a volume boost, but I could live without it. I don’t find it noisy btw, unless you boost the high end, and you’d expect that, wouldn’t you?  

pumkin

Interesting thread .... our bass player has been telling me to get one for ages since being impressed when he heard one in use .... where are people using EQ in their chain??

ten77guitar

Grocer_Jack said:

My initial reaction is that I can’t see why you can’t dial out the annoying treble with a combination of the amp’s eq and the volume and tone on the guitars. Especially on a £3 grand amp. I’d be pissed off at having to add a pedal to do that.
I get that amps, or combinations of a particular guitar/amp may have an eq profile that isn’t to your taste, particularly in the mids, but I think treble is pretty easy to control. 

I have  a GE-7 and occasionally use it to fiddle with mids or use as a volume boost, but I could live without it. I don’t find it noisy btw, unless you boost the high end, and you’d expect that, wouldn’t you?  

That’s my view as well. While I can see why they might be useful, there are an awful lot of damn good players who seemed to get on fine without them. I suppose it depends on your particular set up and what you’re trying  to achieve.

Wazmeister

Grocer_Jack said:

My initial reaction is that I can’t see why you can’t dial out the annoying treble with a combination of the amp’s eq and the volume and tone on the guitars. Especially on a £3 grand amp. I’d be pissed off at having to add a pedal to do that.
I get that amps, or combinations of a particular guitar/amp may have an eq profile that isn’t to your taste, particularly in the mids, but I think treble is pretty easy to control. 

I have  a GE-7 and occasionally use it to fiddle with mids or use as a volume boost, but I could live without it. I don’t find it noisy btw, unless you boost the high end, and you’d expect that, wouldn’t you?  

It's only a thread - chill your boots !

The Nighthawk is a glorious amp; truly. But it has a clickable tone switch, that is limited to be fair, hence the EQ.

I notice form one of your old threads, your amp was lacking headroom, so were going for a speaker change. Personally, I wouldn't use an amp that was that deficient...

Horses for courses.

roberty

Used my modded GE-7 as a lead boost for a couple of gigs, it was almost too powerful, quite fiddly on stage.  The adjustment sliders are very fine.  That band is pretty hectic, high tempo, 12+ people on stage, stage invasions etc, so maybe not the best use case

Grocer_Jack

Wazmeister said:

Grocer_Jack said:

My initial reaction is that I can’t see why you can’t dial out the annoying treble with a combination of the amp’s eq and the volume and tone on the guitars. Especially on a £3 grand amp. I’d be pissed off at having to add a pedal to do that.
I get that amps, or combinations of a particular guitar/amp may have an eq profile that isn’t to your taste, particularly in the mids, but I think treble is pretty easy to control. 

I have  a GE-7 and occasionally use it to fiddle with mids or use as a volume boost, but I could live without it. I don’t find it noisy btw, unless you boost the high end, and you’d expect that, wouldn’t you?  

It's only a thread - chill your boots !

The Nighthawk is a glorious amp; truly. But it has a clickable tone switch, that is limited to be fair, hence the EQ.

I notice form one of your old threads, your amp was lacking headroom, so were going for a speaker change. Personally, I wouldn't use an amp that was that deficient...

Horses for courses.

My boots are always cool (actually literally cool today, as the left one leaks and my sock is wet) but wait....did I touch a nerve here? 

Whatever works for you is fine, and indeed you make some great points about the usefulness of eq pedals, but I’m surprised you need one with your rig is all I’m saying. You asked for opinions but no criticism of you or your gear intended. 

Re: my old thread. Everything is a compromise innit? I decided that a speaker switch might lose more than I would gain. I also decided that I was deficient, not the amp, and that I should work with it. I’m glad I did. 

Keep rockin’

Wazmeister

Grocer_Jack said:

 Everything is a compromise innit? 

It is sadly mate, which makes this pedal/amp game a delight and a frustration at times !

I searched for years for an amp that could do it at home AND live. Ive now come to the conclusion  that they have to be two separate amps...

Grocer_Jack

Wazmeister said:

Grocer_Jack said:

 Everything is a compromise innit? 

It is sadly mate, which makes this pedal/amp game a delight and a frustration at times !

I searched for years for an amp that could do it at home AND live. Ive now come to the conclusion  that they have to be two separate amps.

Don't really need one for home, but yep it’s a delight most of the time! 

impmann

I tried using a graphic as a boost, but tbh, its overkill. If I want boost, I just want a switch and a knob that adjusts the amount. But then, when I want boost I just want a clean boost of all frequencies - some boosts aren't quite like that...

I also tried it as a tone-shaping device. There wasn't anything wrong with the inherent sound of the amp/guitar, but I fancied trying to use it creatively for recording to give different textures. All it gave me was ball-ache and hiss (Boss).

I sold mine because I realised I was tail chasing. Honestly, if all you've got is a bit too much treble turn the guitar's tone control down - its a shit load cheaper!

Voxman

I've been extolling the virtues of an EQ for the last 15 years. Used in front of the amp and you can add gain/distortion as well as eq control. In the fx loop of an amp you'll get clean boost and eq control with no added gain distortion. I have a Boss GE7 on my pedal board at the end of the chain, and a Behringer EQ 700 in the fx loop of my Vox Valvetronix AD120VTX that completely transforms it.  

mark_jwedge

I never had a need for an eq pedal until I began using a single channel amp with no FX loop. I had previously always used a clean boost in the loop for a solo boost.

now I have a single channel amp which I set to light break up and no FX loop I find adding a clean boost gives me more gain but not really a lift for solos as there isn’t enough headroom left in the amp due to how I have it set. I managed to get a GE7 from Thorpy which he had modded and I cut the lower two frequencies a bit and then raise the 3 mid range sliders and the level slider to just enough without them causing that frequency to overdrive more and produce fizz.

Its actually quite a small physical adjustment on the slider but makes a marked effect on the sound and seems to project me through the band mix for a solo very well, without actually being much ‘louder’.

roberty

mark_jwedge said:

I never had a need for an eq pedal until I began using a single channel amp with no FX loop. I had previously always used a clean boost in the loop for a solo boost.

now I have a single channel amp which I set to light break up and no FX loop I find adding a clean boost gives me more gain but not really a lift for solos as there isn’t enough headroom left in the amp due to how I have it set. I managed to get a GE7 from Thorpy which he had modded and I cut the lower two frequencies a bit and then raise the 3 mid range sliders and the level slider to just enough without them causing that frequency to overdrive more and produce fizz.

Its actually quite a small physical adjustment on the slider but makes a marked effect on the sound and seems to project me through the band mix for a solo very well, without actually being much ‘louder’.

Yep those little sliders are insanely powerful

DrJazzTap

I had a GE7 and used it in a futile attempt to try and breathe some kind of air or sparkle into the clean channel of a Marshall TSL. 

LastMantra

Something fun is putting an eq in front of a fuzz to get some different sounds out of it. 

Voxman

DrJazzTap said:

I had a GE7 and used it in a futile attempt to try and breathe some kind of air or sparkle into the clean channel of a Marshall TSL. 

Not so good if you used the EQ in front of the amp, but much more effective in the fx loop. However, imho the best pedal that really puts air into an amp and takes off the blanket you never knew was there is a BBE Sonic Stomp Maximiser. Not exactly the same as an EQ but it really helps to give your amp greater clarity, punch and a bigger more 3D feel that really helps it to cut through the mix. Used with an EQ these work really well together but place the BBESSM after the EQ at the end of the fx chain and use in the fx loop for best results.

Grangousier

Out of curiosity, does anyone do a pedal that has a High Pass and Low Pass (with Q) and at least one parametric - like the built-in EQ in DAWs?

Beexter

Grangousier said:

Out of curiosity, does anyone do a pedal that has a High Pass and Low Pass (with Q) and at least one parametric - like the built-in EQ in DAWs?

You could probably achieve this with the Empress ParaEq. 
Also, the Zoom Multi stomp series often get overlooked yet they offer loads of presets with a choice of graphic and parametric eq or even a mix.

lukedlb

You may remember I had proposed a ‘juice’ pedal: an fx that provides eq, compression and boost. It looks like you may be on the same journey. My thread went further with elements of clipping, thickening with double tracking and pre amp suggestions. 
https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/163324/a-juice-pedal-instead-of-a-gain-or-drive-pedal/p1

Matt_McG

@lukedlb I was reading that recently and wondering about replacing my main low gain drive pedal(s) with something of that ilk: Team Medic, Lehle Julian, Heavy Water, Unit67, etc

As I realised I use them more for compression and EQ than grit.