Ears not Eyes

I am absolutely devoted to having a 31 band graphic EQ in my rig...I view the 1/3 octave EQ as the most overlooked and yet most powerful tone shaping tool you COULD have in your rack. It's the FIRST thing I'll put in my effects loop if I had to start over.
First and foremost, I'm a big proponent of using what works for you, and to hell with what works for anyone else. :)

To me, a 1/3-octave graphic EQ is a fantastic learning tool to teach your ears what different frequency bands can do to sound. And it's darned handy to move a slider up and down and ask yourself, "Is this closer to or farther from the tone in my head?" But for my purposes, I can get what I want quicker and more precisely with three (sometimes four) bands of parametric EQ.
 
I have no doubt that a 4 band parametric is a great tool to have but I'm just so used to the 1/3 octave unit, why change? It also allows me to program 30 presets so the right curve is just a button touch away. I wish I'd sprung for the MIDI controllable D830 but those are substantially more expensive. I'm always on a limited budget. Story of my life!
 
How many bands? I'll need 1/3 octave resolution because I use it now. I estimate that my "kill everything" heavy crunch curve would need at least six bands of parametric equalization to match it.

I guess I'll know soon enough. Ideally I'll be able to ditch every outboard processor I currently use. But that remains to be proven.

This is a huge step up for me from my current rig. I would say that the Behringer Bass V-Amp Pro I'm using is not terrible (for a person who doesn't gig) but I expect infinitely more tone from the Axe-FX II.

It'll be like jumping from a go-kart into a 911 Turbo.
 
Most of us mortals would never set a real Bassman or Twin volume on 10 like this as it would make you deaf, melt your face, peel the paint off the walls and attract cops. But if you used these EQ settings at small club volume (between 3 and 4) you'll just get a terrible ice pick high end and not much breakup or distortion. Closer to noon settings will get you a nice rounded clean at lower volumes.

Turn it to 10 and it's a completely different beast. This actually works!

The beauty of the Axe is being able to do this at any volume you want (turn down via level control in the amp block, and physical output knob).
very true....and agreed
but a twin at volume 10 ... if you wanna have persmission of the big boss at home to buy new gear ..that is not the way :)
 
I am absolutely devoted to having a 31 band graphic EQ in my rig. (I use an Alesis DEQ230.). I use my ears, not my eyes, to set my tone with it and I've tested myself by blanking out two presets and then setting both of them, band by band, until they sounded right to me, then checked the resulting curves when I was done with both of them. The curve is the same, to within 1 dB in every ban.

I say this on the evening before my FX II is due to be delivered to me. I can not yet say if I will transfer the DEQ230 into the Fractal's effects loop or if the FX II's equalization has the resolution to render it obsolete.

I will say that, while this may not apply if you're using an Axe-FX, with any other rig, if you are not using a 1/3 octave EQ in your rig and tweaking the sliders to see what they can do for you, you should try it. It can put a fine polish on your tones that can't be achieved with a lower resolution EQ.

I note that a prominent characteristic of just about every Bob Bradshaw rack used by any big name 80s guitarist is that they all have two or three 1/3 octave EQs in them. Ever wondered why? They're final tone shaping and play a big part in the really great tones many of those players were getting out of those rigs.

I view the 1/3 octave EQ as the most overlooked and yet most powerful tone shaping tool you COULD have in your rack. It's the FIRST thing I'll put in my effects loop if I had to start over.

I am a proud owner of an Alesis DEQ230, as well. I have always used it to fine tune the tone of tube amps... haven't used it once since I switched to the AFXII in 2013. I will never sell it, but...
 
I am hunting for a DEQ830D which is midi controllable. I have tried the 8 band EQ in the Axe-FX II and it is good but I will still use my Alesis for precision tone shaping, at least some of the time. I view even an 8 band EQ as a relatively crude tone shaping device, having become so used to the finesse that is offered by a 1/3 octave EQ.

If I can figure out HOW, that is. I need to do some reading in the manual and learn how to assign input 2 (Effects return) to input 1 so I can actually hear the loop.

The intended setup is 4 cables, send stereo from the amp's loop send to the EQ, return stereo from the EQ to the amp's loop return. Yes, I have an effects loop block in the signal chain. But no output yet.
 
I am hunting for a DEQ830D which is midi controllable. I have tried the 8 band EQ in the Axe-FX II and it is good but I will still use my Alesis for precision tone shaping, at least some of the time. I view even an 8 band EQ as a relatively crude tone shaping device, having become so used to the finesse that is offered by a 1/3 octave EQ.

If I can figure out HOW, that is. I need to do some reading in the manual and learn how to assign input 2 (Effects return) to input 1 so I can actually hear the loop.

The intended setup is 4 cables, send stereo from the amp's loop send to the EQ, return stereo from the EQ to the amp's loop return. Yes, I have an effects loop block in the signal chain. But no output yet.

Don't know if your still looking but I have one for sale if you're interested.
 
From time to time I hear customers complaining they can't get the sound they want and they look at their preset and all the tone knobs are at noon or only slightly deviated from noon. I ask why and they say something like "well, I don't want to stray too far from the defaults".

Amps have controls for a reason. Don't be afraid to get radical with them, especially older amps. Those old amps were crude and not intended to deliver the more modern type tones players today want. For example, if I were to use a Fender model for a lead tone I would turn the bass way down and midrange way up as they get too flubby otherwise.

As an excellent illustration consider Joe Bonamassa's settings:

JoeBonamassa2015AmpSettings-e1428100742672.jpg


Bass is all the way down, midrange is almost all the way up. Pretty much how I would dial in that amp (59 Twin or 58 Bassman which are very similar topologies).

As you turn the volume up on these old amps the distortion is coming from the power amp and you need to boost the mids and cut the bass to flatten the response since the power amp's response follows the speaker impedance which is scooped in the mids. Otherwise the bass clips before the mids which causes flubbiness.

That's also similar to how I dial in a Plexi. I crank the mids and lower the bass.
fullsizeoutput_2a0.jpeg fullsizeoutput_2a1.jpeg AMEN! Check out the EQ on these amps from the other JB!
 
Every Marshall I ever used had everything turned up to 10. Sometimes the volume might get turned down a little, but only a little. I used a 50W plexi for small clubs and a 100W stack for arenas. I played a Les Paul exclusively in those days and loved that combination. Now I've got a Legacy 2-12 combo that doesn't sound right maxed out, so I've had to experiment more. It has a much smoother sound than the Marshall and actually feeds back at lower volumes. I agree it's all in the ears. It is also in how much SPL gets back into the guitar. And if you're trying to get a note to really sustain, try moving to or back from the amp. Every note has a wavelength and that is a specific distance, or multiple thereof. Try it and hear.
 
".....but it doesn't look right!" Never in all my years have I understood this remark, I've had a guy settle on a sound he was 100% happy with from the control room, only to go in the live room with the amp then come back and play again only to say "It doesn't sound right now". Ask him what he did and said he turned up the bass because it didn't look high enough! WTF?!!

I also knew a guy that said "Oh every one of those guitars (different productions of the exact same guitar) sounds completely different, I played one here and it sounded really fizzy then played another one here and that one was totally bass heavy! Completely missing the fact that he played them on different amps and cabs. 🤦‍♂️
 
I agree. I think people just got used to the amps that sound good by default. FX emulates real amps really well and that's it. Most guitarist tinker a lot of time with the single or maybe two amps. Here we have tons of them and each can sound brilliant if used well. A couple of good rules: Read the documentation first (I was shocked initially, as FX did not have cabinet modelling and everything sounded well bad), use your ears (good unopinionated headphones help a lot with tone that's perfect for recording) and do not be afraid to experiment with extreme settings (treble to 0 etc) - this will make You notice the change :)
 
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