Calling all ACG owners - preamp advice please!

[Kev]

So, I recently picked up a rather stunning ACG in a trade deal on here and I am struggling somewhat to get my head around the preamps, I'm embarrassed to admit.

The preamp model is EQ03 5K model, so the one with the two low pass filters with boost/cut, the high pass filter type control with boost cut and the tone knob. I already have a Wal so am familiar with filter preamps and how it all works, however I am struggling to dial in the tones I am looking for with this bass.

Any pointers to start me off? Example settings to get various bass styles would be fantastic starting point for me to work from. I believe each of the 9 (yes, 9) knobs on the bass as 41 or so indents, which is a helluva lot of settings available!

Edited October 28, 2014 by Kev

[ead]

Hi Kev

Well, where to start! I have this pre on my custom fretless and one on order for my new ACG fretted beastie. It requires a slightly different approach to 'normal' EQ systems. The volume blend stack needs no expanantion, and presumably you've got the hang of the tone knob (active & passive). It's the middle three stacks where the interesting stuff happens.

I can't say which setting 'represents which typical bass tone, but the way I approach the set up is to wind the blend fully over to, say, the neck pickup. Set the top knob on the neck filter stack to the centre and then play an open string and then turn the bottom ring control and listen to the effect it has on the output. You are basically adjusting a low pass filter to set the frequency at which the filter operates. If you turn it back and forwards you get a wah effect (if that helps). The top control works on the boost at the knee point of the filter plus it has a pull function for low mid boost. Play a few well know riffs and adjust to see the effect and to find the tone you like.

Once your happy with the this, crank the blend to the neck pickup and repeat. You can then use the blend knob to change the way the bass sounds. If you have two different settings on these two stacks and you can go from a deep double bass type thump to a very bright tone with one turn of the blend control.

The treble stack is a different beast, and takes a bit more work to get the best out of it. It is basically a high pass filter that once again you can adjust the knee point and the top knob in this case is pure gain from zero to ??? can't remember +dBs.

Take you time to work your way through it and my advice would be to not change everything at the same time as you can get 'lost' quite quickly. There are links at the bottom of this page which take to an explanation of the EQ03 too: [url="http://www.acguitars.co.uk/acg_admin/wordpress/basses/electronics/"]http://www.acguitars...es/electronics/[/url]

...and here: [url="http://www.acguitars.co.uk/acg_admin/wordpress/pdf/ACG_EQ03.pdf"]http://www.acguitars...df/ACG_EQ03.pdf[/url]

If you'd like to chat about it please send me a PM and we can organise - more than happy to help as it can be a bit weird if you're used to 2-band and 3-band EQs.

Edited October 28, 2014 by ead

[The Badderer]

I second the advice to work on it 1 pickup at a time. you'll get a sound you like on both and then play with the blend. you might need to go back and tweak them after you use the blend just to fine tune the sound.