Notching out squealing freq's

Tahoebrian5

Tahoebrian5

Fractal Fanatic
My new amp, BE100 is here. It sounds really great but man does this thing like to squeal. Even at moderate volume and gain settings, as soon as I stop playing it squeals. I'm wondering what the best approach would be to tame this. I really hate noise gates and try to only use them when absolutely nessecary. I'm considering maybe an eq or filter block with a narrow q. What do you guys think? Maybe a combination?
 
What settings are you using? What guitar? I haven't tried the FX8 with my BE100 yet (I've been setting it with my Redplate), but my BE only squeals if I get right up next to the head while playing at rock gig volumes. As long as I am 2 feet away I don't get any squeal.
 
Using a filter or EQ to notch it out can hurt your tone, unless your pickups are highly microphonic to that specific frequency. Another thing to try is the gate/expander block as the first POST block (after the preamp), and set it to subtle expander settings. Threshold set to just below your quietest playing, and ratio of 5-6. The higher the ratio, the more reduction when you aren't playing. You don't want it to silence your output, but simply automatically reduce the volume just enough to avoid feedback whenever you aren't playing.
 
Great tip, thanks Phillip.

I'm using an ibanez Jem with bkp holy diver pups, and an ibanez j custom with a bkp cold sweat. It will squeal even at bedroom volumes, at practice volume it's unmanageable. I checked with Friedman tech support and they basically told me it's a high gain amp and is normal.
 
Tahoebrian5 said:
Hey Audio, do you happen to know what type of tubes are in your BE?
Click to expand...

Just the stock El-34's that came with the amp when I bought it a month ago.

I have a Jem with evolution pickups that does fine with it. I don't have it completely gained out however, it's in classic rock mode on the BE channel and the HBE kicks it up to Randy Rhoads territory. I do get a squeal if I forget to turn my volume down when I walk up to mess with the settings on the head. Maybe I'd get more if I threw in the SAT switch and raised the gain.
 
You may also want to check your cables. Faulty cables can contribute hugely to noise and feedback.
 
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