Let's Talk About EQ Pedals

[mark76]

So... Having bought a compressor I figured an equaliser would be the obvious follow up.

With that in mind, I have some questions[list=1]
[*]Does it have to be specifically made for bass, or can I get away with using a gutar pedal?
[*]I'd prefer to spend <£50. What can be had in that range (a) new or ( used, with a fairly high degree of certainty that any auction won't go above £50.
[*]Graphic or parametric? Which is better for (a) general tone shaping and ( feeding problematic frequencies into a compressor.
[/list]
Thanks.

[Callumjord]

For your budget I would recommend the caline cp24, I think they are roughly £30 on Amazon. I couldn't recommend it any more, full metal housing, true bypass, 10 band eq. I have had mine for over a year now and it hasn't failed me. I am currently using mine as a slap boost.

[ProfFrink]

1. For bass you want to control frequencies that guitars usually don't get to (down to 30-40Hz). Many graphic EQs will have 2 versions - guitar and bass, and the difference is the frequencies controlled by the "low" knobs.
2. Boss GEB-7? Source-Audio Programmable EQ?
3. Matter of taste. I like parametric, because I don't really need 7 different things to set, but OTOH like to be able to "sweep" the frequencies to see what sounds better.

[mark76]

Any opinions on this? http://www.artecsound.com/effect/se-peq.htm

[ProfFrink]

[quote name='mark76' timestamp='1453896437' post='2963903']
Any opinions on this? [url="http://www.artecsound.com/effect/se-peq.htm"]http://www.artecsoun...fect/se-peq.htm[/url]
[/quote]
I've also been looking at this one. Looks good on paper but I don't think this company has a good reputation (or much of any reputation for that matter).

Buy it and let us know?

[ProfFrink]

BTW, this:
[b]Width : 1/2 oct ~ 1/4 oct[/b]

...looks suspicious. This isn't wide enough. My guess is that the spec is wrong here, but if it's correct - probably has limited use.

[Byo]

With your budget, a 2nd hand Boss GEB-7 could be found.

Nothing fancy but it certainly does the job very well.

Edited January 28, 2016 by Byo

[Ghost_Bass]

Why do you think you need a EQ pedal? What gear are you using and what's lacking from it tonewise?

There's nothing wrong about having a EQ pedal, i can find a handfull of uses for one, but i think that more than often people tend to have them in the pedalboard without having any real need for it. Basses and amps already have tone control, is the investment in a EQ pedal really necessary?

[Byo]

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' timestamp='1453990993' post='2965051']
Why do you think you need a EQ pedal? What gear are you using and what's lacking from it tonewise?

There's nothing wrong about having a EQ pedal, i can find a handfull of uses for one, but i think that more than often people tend to have them in the pedalboard without having any real need for it. Basses and amps already have tone control, is the investment in a EQ pedal really necessary?
[/quote]

+1 on that.

I haven't seen EQ pedals on a board for a long time. Maybe just used as a boost or for slap tone.

[IBWT]

I have a BOSS GEB-7 on my board for two reasons:

- Dealing with crappy amps in practice rooms
- Fine-tuning my sound for the room

When practising most of the time I have to deal with cheap cabinets that over accentuate some mid frequencies (e.g. 400Hz) and I don't want to use the only mids control on my preamp (also a pedal) just to cut a very specific frequency.

When playing live with no PA, I setup my main sound in my head's EQ and then fine-tune with the pedal mainly to cut frequencies that might get amplified by the room (e.g. low mids around 100Hz), or sometimes to boost brightness.

If everything goes well sound-wise I might not need to turn it on at all, but when I do it's really helpful.

Edited January 28, 2016 by IBWT

[mark76]

Well, there you go. Three perfectly valid reasons why I should get a GEB-7

A fourth might be to tame particularly loud notes in conjunction with a compressor (though I suspect I'd need a sidechain for that).

[uk_lefty]

A bit off piste here, but have you considered a DI with eq? I picked up a second hand Hartke VXL for around fifty quid. It does more than just a standard eq job and acts as a DI should it be needed to. There's budget brands like behringer and red sub and Harley Benton making DIs with eq in your price range.

[IBWT]

The thing about those DIs is that they don't provide that much fine tuning as a graphic EQ. It's not just the greater number of bands, but also the narrower Q. You can easily and cleanly cut any unwanted frequencies without affecting your sound too dramatically.

[mark76]

I'm seriously thinking of getting the RedSub BEQ-2 7 band graphic bass equaliser.

http://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/RedSub-BEQ-2-7-Band-Bass-Equalizer-Pedal/H4W

[IBWT]

Two good things about the GEB-7 are that it goes down to 40Hz and the 10KHz band is actually a shelving filter so it will boost/cut all the frequencies above it.

Edited January 29, 2016 by IBWT

[colgraff]

I use an EQ pedal on board for evening out tone when OD or fuzz. I use a Behringer pedal. Excellent sound and dirt cheap.