EQ and its relevance

[jem_js]

ive always misunderstood how eq is relevant especially in the guitar sense, i know that if all i have on are the highs then its trebley and tinny and vice versa, but i dont get how to configure the eq toget that perfect sound thats in my head...

[IbanezFreak777]

Its called experimenting... the more you tweak the better you will get at knowing how and what to tweak to get the sound you like... I can walk up to any amp and dial in the sound I like the most... depending on the style of music im about to play.. and thats just because I v done it so many times and experiemnted so much

Sometimes you have the right amount of gain, but need a little more in the high end, so the eq allows you to just add specific frequencies....

its really not that hard of an idea to understand... just keep playing around with it

[rty13ibz98]

is this a question that is relating to "the mix" or just tone in general?


rich

[Guitarist-Jonny]

Woofy = too bassy.
Hollow = not enough mids
'Fluffy' distortion = too much mids
Tinny = Too much treble
Too much pick attack = cut really high frequencies abit (might need an eq in the loop for this or something)

As IbanezFreak777 said, experimentation is the key !
Thanks
Regards
Jon

[jem_js]

ok thx guys

[jay ratkowski]

I got this from: http://reeltoreal.blogspot.com/2007/04/eq-guitar.html

It's kind of generalized, but I mostly agree with what they're saying.

Electric Guitar
100Hz - boost for bottm
200Hz - cut to remove muddiness
250Hz - boost for warmth
500Hz - boost for body
1-2K - boost for pick or percussion
1-3K - cut to remove harshness
3-4K - boost for "cut" (solos, lines, etc.)
5K - boost for "presence"
7K - boost for "buzz" (distortion)
10K and up - boost for clarity and string decay
Acoustic Guitar

100Hz and down - cut to remove rumble
250Hz - boost for warmth
500-700Hz - boost for body
1K - boost for pick
3K - boost for lines
5K - boost for brilliance
7K - cut to remove finger noise
10K and up - boost for sparkle

[eviltwin]

You also need to take into account how EQ interacts with distortion:

1) Distortion comes from overloading the input, cascaded gain, poweramp saturation and speaker clipping, to name but a few. Every single one of those parts will exhibit some EQ bias. Speaker emulation is often nothing more than a fancy fixed EQ.
2) EQ can be put at any point in a signal chain and will interact with the distortion after that point. EQ pre-distortion can generate very focussed, fluty, violin tones, like rolling off the tone on your guitar or a wah in front of tube distortion.
3) Distortion by its very nature adds highs, except for powerchords where the combination of root and fifth will create an artificial frequency BELOW the root. Either one needs to be taken into account.

Lastly, delays and reverbs often have their own internal EQ, to colour the sound of the reverberations or repeats. For example to emulate tape delay.