PEQ help

R

Rockin Axe

Member
Hi Axers,

I'm looking for some PEQ help as it's not a strength of mine.
One of my guitars has a heavy sounding active humbucker in it. When I pull up a dirty preset (say 5153 Red etc) and palm mute
the strings and chug away, I get a low end frequency ring on the A string for a little while - as an example, the ring goes Bommmmm.........bommmmmm as I chug.
I know I can probably put a PEQ in front of the amp (I think!) and target that frequency and pull it out, but I'm not quite sure which band to use and how to approach this.
Can someone just give me some guidance in the best way to approach this PEQ set up please?
Of course, I'm assuming it's a PEQ I need - if not, what else?

Thx in advance.
 
One easy way- use Peaking filter in the PEQ
turn gain up in the PEQ
sweep the frequencies until you hear the offending frequency
narrow the Q as much as possible to isolate the problem
cut the gain

Im not a high gain player, others may have a better approach.
 
Mike Snider said:
One easy way- use Peaking filter in the PEQ
turn gain up in the PEQ
sweep the frequencies until you hear the offending frequency
narrow the Q as much as possible to isolate the problem
cut the gain

Im not a high gain player, others may have a better approach.
Click to expand...


Awesome thanks Mike. It's a start.
 
I would put a high pass filter after the amp block around 80hz. This is usually where I start when mixing heavy guitars.
 
That frequency ring you're hearing is probably around the 100Hz area. I'd much rather use a multi-band compressor block towards the end of the signal chain. Set it up to only affect roughly the 60Hz to the 250Hz range.
 
You can put it before the amp block. However, the amp and is going to sonically, add a lot of those frequencies back.
 
Thx for all the replies!
I'll try those combinations mentioned above and see which one works best for my situation.
 
Rockin Axe said:
When I pull up a dirty preset (say 5153 Red etc) and palm mute the strings and chug away, I get a low end frequency ring on the A string for a little while - as an example, the ring goes Bommmmm.........bommmmmm as I chug.
Click to expand...
To really fix this problem, you need to find out what's causing the ring in the first place. If you try to kill the ring with EQ, you'll also be killing a legitimate part of your tone.

If a note is ringing out, that means a string is ringing out. Mute that string. Problem solved—without taking a knife to your tone.
 
it could also be a room mode if your room isn't properly treated. Monitor with just headphones before you EQ
 
There are surely several approaches to solve this problem once for all, right in the root (EQ-ing ist just masking, not solving). I would do following:
1. Let someone else try playing your guitar with your settings, if the ringing is still there, it's probably the setup and not your technique.
2. Check your guitar once again, are the pickups to close to the strings or are the bass strings closer than the high strings? Experiment with the pickup settings, there are some tutorials on youtube if you're not sure. The strings should sound even loud. If nothing else, set the pup on the bass side a bit lower and try that out.
3. You have an active pickup, so you'll maybe need less drive. If you're using a drive pedal in front of an amp, try raising the low cut in the drive block (try moving both low and high cut around). In the amp, less drive, enough master volume, lower the bass and get it back then in the GEQ section of the amp. There's also a low cut in amp advanced settings, as well as speaker page where you can tweak the low resonance and transformer settings.
4. In the cab block, try a low cut from 100 Hz above (and a high cut to your taste, my range goes accordingly from 6,5 - 12 kHz)
5. If you didn't get the results you wanted, throw the guitar out of the window, but take the battery out before, it's the most worth piece in it. :)
 
try changing the low frequency parameter in the speaker page of the amp block. lower it from default (which may be around 114hz), to 90hz or lower. The frequency of A is 110hz, so you will get some resonance around that frequency, i.e. when you play your open A string
 
selta said:
Almost sounds like bad muting technique to me ;)
Click to expand...

Ha ha not quite selta! It only happens on that guitar coz the humbucker is insane! The Humbucker is the active Seymour Duncan
Heavy Metal Livewire and 2 active clean single coils in the neck and middle. The system runs off 2 x 9v batteries - 1 x 9v for the single coils
and 1 x 9v for the humbucker. The output is insane and the tone chart is off the charts. I have other guitars but it only happens on that one and
happens to my friends when they play my guitar too.
 
Thx again for all the replies guys. I know it's hard for you guys to give an answer without hearing the issue or seeing the guitar or me play.
It's def only this guitar tho as I have other guitars and they don't have the same issue using the same presets.
The guitar has done over 3000 gigs so retiring the guitar isn't an option - it's too much a part of me. The humbucker is so powerful and explosive that
there's no way you can play clean with it, meaning pulling up a clean amp in the Axe and flicking to the humbucker.
In regards to the issue I'm having, it's def the pickup and the tone/frequencies of that pickup.
It's a Seymour Duncan Heavy Metal Livewire which I purchased way back in 1989 alongside cleaner single coil middle and neck pickups.
The Active System runs on 2 x 9v batteries - 1 x 9v for the two single coils and 1 x 9v for the humbucker.
I've changed pickups in this guitar and used passive Dimarzios and Duncans but the character of the guitar is lost, so I've always gone back to this
Active set up.
Everyone in the cover band scene in my area knows of this guitar (the Green machine) and it's sound - it's just a rumble on the A string that becomes annoying when I palm mute.
I will give all your answers a go and see which works best for me.
Here are some (not so great) pics of the Green Machine.

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I stand by my statement. Magnetic pickups, regardless of output, work on the same theory - the string vibrating alters the magnetic field, causing output. No string vibration, no output (at least, on good electronics without actual fault). If you're getting sustaining notes, your strings are vibrating and you're not muting well enough. Simple as that, really. Not putting you down or anything, just that this very much sounds like a technique (or possibly setup) issue. Sure, it can be solved with technology, but you're probably better solving the actual problem.

I play some extremely hot basses and guitar, too, and don't have this problem at all.

It's akin to guitarists who "hide" their sloppy playing behind tons of distortion. Sure, it sounds pretty OK live and even recoded... until you pull up the dry track to re-amp ;). Not saying you do that, just drawing a parallel to a similar "technique issue covered up" situation.

Try playing ghost notes and watch the problem disappear. Post a video while you're at it :).
 
selta said:
I stand by my statement. Magnetic pickups, regardless of output, work on the same theory - the string vibrating alters the magnetic field, causing output. No string vibration, no output (at least, on good electronics without actual fault). If you're getting sustaining notes, your strings are vibrating and you're not muting well enough. Simple as that, really. Not putting you down or anything, just that this very much sounds like a technique (or possibly setup) issue. Sure, it can be solved with technology, but you're probably better solving the actual problem.

I play some extremely hot basses and guitar, too, and don't have this problem at all.

It's akin to guitarists who "hide" their sloppy playing behind tons of distortion. Sure, it sounds pretty OK live and even recoded... until you pull up the dry track to re-amp ;). Not saying you do that, just drawing a parallel to a similar "technique issue covered up" situation.

Try playing ghost notes and watch the problem disappear. Post a video while you're at it :).
Click to expand...

No offence taken selta. All good. We're all here to push ideas.
I've been playing live for over 30 years. That doesn't mean that I can't have bad technique, But logic tells me that it only happens on this guitar, so therefore
logic tells me it's something in the pickup. My guitars are set up by a guy who does work for top Australian touring musos, so it's not in the set up.
My mate plays my guitar and he gets the same results. The Tone chart for the humbucker is: Bass 7. Mids 9. Treble 5. So the pickup carries hot frequencies in the bottom end.
It's prob a combination of the humbucker, the humbucker in that guitar and maybe some muting, but again - only on this guitar. I'll try some of the answers above and see.
This humbucker has always had the problem - I've just never really addressed it till now. Maybe I'll do what you said and do a video with my green guitar and strat to show
that it only happens on this guitar, using the same muting technique on both guitars.
 
Yeah - if the pickup is hot, it can exacerbate things a lot as well. I'm always looking at technique in these situations though, as well, so my bias lies there. If I were facing this same issue as you, I'd even raise the bridge saddle a tad for the offending string and see what I get from that. Pretty quick and easy to do just to prove/disprove that theory... if it works out, then tweak the intonation and so on. If it doesn't help at all, lower it back down and look elsewhere.
Good luck in any case. I'm mostly going to lurk to see what the resolution on this is :)
 
selta said:
Yeah - if the pickup is hot, it can exacerbate things a lot as well. I'm always looking at technique in these situations though, as well, so my bias lies there. If I were facing this same issue as you, I'd even raise the bridge saddle a tad for the offending string and see what I get from that. Pretty quick and easy to do just to prove/disprove that theory... if it works out, then tweak the intonation and so on. If it doesn't help at all, lower it back down and look elsewhere.
Good luck in any case. I'm mostly going to lurk to see what the resolution on this is :)
Click to expand...

Again, thx for the feedback.
I have to go on logic as it doesn't happen when I play my other guitars or friends guitars.
I will however call my guitar tech (after your comments re setup) to see if he has any ideas.
Again no offence taken with anything you have said or say. i appreciate all the feedback, regardless. I'm just soaking up all the info.
 
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