EQ Pedal for Bass & Guitar

[gypsyjazzer]

What EQ Pedal would be suited for Bass & regular 6 string Guitar? Advice welcome.

[CameronJ]

I’ll place my vote with the Source Audio Programmable EQ. Incredibly versatile and as the title suggests, it’s programmable, so you can easily save tweaked EQ curves for multiple basses and guitars. They can be had reasonably cheaply on the used market too.

[Dood]

3 hours ago, CameronJ said:

I’ll place my vote with the Source Audio Programmable EQ. Incredibly versatile and as the title suggests, it’s programmable, so you can easily save tweaked EQ curves for multiple basses and guitars. They can be had reasonably cheaply on the used market too.

I really wish they'd do a version with the possibility of changing/extending the bands.. maybe making them semi-parametric. That would be a killer pedal.

[Al Krow]

If you want cheap and cheerful but pretty decent then the Zoom MS-60B has both a 7 band EQ and a 2 band parametric EQ and you would easily be able to set up a separate patch, with both a GEQ and PEQ, for both your bass and regular 6 string guitar. 

Oh, and you get a ton of other effects (another 140 besides these two, to be precise) and with the ToneLib editor (free to download) it's a doddle to create some really useful / fun patches ranging from bit crushers to noise gates and a whole lot in between.

Edited May 29, 2018 by Al Krow

[Dood]

2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

If you want cheap and cheerful but pretty decent then the Zoom MS-60B has both a 7 band EQ and a 2 band parametric EQ and you would easily be able to set up a separate patch, with both a GEQ and PEQ, for both your bass and regular 6 string guitar. 

Oh, and you get a ton of other effects (another 140 besides these two, to be precise) and with the ToneLib editor (free to download) it's a doddle to create some really useful / fun patches ranging from bit crushers to noise gates and a whole lot in between.

The MS is great! My one little bug was that it hated my basses with active EMGs in. There’s no input gain control so by the time my signal path hit the MS it stood no chance clipping all over the place. That aside though, the MS is money well spent, that’s for sure.

[Al Krow]

1 minute ago, dood said:

The MS is great! My one little bug was that it hated my basses with active EMGs in. There’s no input gain control so by the time my signal path hit the MS it stood no chance clipping all over the place. That aside though, the MS is money well spent, that’s for sure.

Yup but you have 4 slots in a patch, so how about GEQ, PEQ, HPF (AcBsPre) for the first three slots - and you can adjust volume pretty easily on the HPF or alternatively for the final slot add a cab sim, limiter, or compressor and on any of which you can adjust the input volume to take account of your high output EMGs?

[Dood]

2 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Yup but you have 4 slots in a patch, so how about GEQ, PEQ, HPF (AcBsPre) for the first three slots - and you can adjust volume pretty easily on the HPF or alternatively for the final slot add a cab sim, limiter, or compressor and on any of which you can adjust the input volume to take account of your high output EMGs?

Sadly not as it’s the input to the A/D converters that clips rather than the DSP algorithms. It’s a hardware issue that Zoom know about.

[Dood]

1 minute ago, dood said:

Sadly not as it’s the input to the A/D converters that clips rather than the DSP algorithms. It’s a hardware issue that Zoom know about.

Or to put it another way, a limitation of the hardware that a Zoom tech said they couldn’t change.

[Al Krow]

Just now, dood said:

Sadly not as it’s the input to the A/D converters that clips rather than the DSP algorithms. It’s a hardware issue that Zoom know about.

Aha! Well I'm not about to engage you in technical debate dear Dood; a lot quicker and vastly more sensible for me to just agree that you're bound to be correct on this stuff...

The other solution is, of course, to sell your basses with active EMGs...

Out of interest why isn't this an issue with other active pups with the Zoom e.g. my big single Nords? Or is it a more general issue and I just haven't noticed?

[Daz39]

3 hours ago, dood said:

I really wish they'd do a version with the possibility of changing/extending the bands.. maybe making them semi-parametric. That would be a killer pedal.

Suggest it on Talkbass! The SA people are always on.

[Dood]

1 minute ago, Al Krow said:

Aha! Well I'm not about to engage you in technical debate dear Dood; a lot quicker and vastly more sensible for me to just agree that you're bound to be correct on this stuff...

The other solution is, of course, to sell your basses with active EMGs...

Out of interest why isn't this an issue with other active pups with the Zoom e.g. my big single Nords? Or is it a more general issue and I just haven't noticed?

He he! No, it’s all good! There’s nothing like a good geek out

Unfortunately yes it has been tried and tested. The possible solutions just had me moving away from my desired ‘base tone’ so the MS came off my board.

Yes I could replace my EMGs.. but I’ve been using them in my basses solidly for about 20 odd years because of their (imho) tonal benefits.. one being a huge output level. Oh and yeah, a small thing with being an EMG Artist now  *chuffed!*

ok, so why isn’t it an issue? Well, your Nords aren’t active pickups and are likely to have a lower output level in comparison. So you could say that I am in the minority simply because I have that high(er) output than the average bassist.

I use that level to drive my... err.. drive pedals! Although you could now argue that it’s less of a requirement if I am plugged directly in to Helix, but EMGs are just superb sounding pickups when set up properly and I don’t wanna change them out.

[Dood]

5 minutes ago, Daz39 said:

Suggest it on Talkbass! The SA people are always on.

Oh that’s cool. I didn’t know that!

[Dood]

1 minute ago, dood said:

He he! No, it’s all good! There’s nothing like a good geek out

Unfortunately yes it has been tried and tested. The possible solutions just had me moving away from my desired ‘base tone’ so the MS came off my board.

Yes I could replace my EMGs.. but I’ve been using them in my basses solidly for about 20 odd years because of their (imho) tonal benefits.. one being a huge output level. Oh and yeah, a small thing with being an EMG Artist now  *chuffed!*

ok, so why isn’t it an issue? Well, your Nords aren’t active pickups and are likely to have a lower output level in comparison. So you could say that I am in the minority simply because I have that high(er) output than the average bassist.

I use that level to drive my... err.. drive pedals! Although you could now argue that it’s less of a requirement if I am plugged directly in to Helix, but EMGs are just superb sounding pickups when set up properly and I don’t wanna change them out.

I guess I should add that active pickups aren’t ‘high output’ automatically. Passive pickups aren’t low output just because they don’t have batteries. It just happens that EMG pickups are boosted with an internal circuit inside the soap bar. Seymour Duncan’s ASB pickups are actually quite tame an output .. and Dimarzio’s Will Power passive P has a big ‘overwound’ tone and output level.

[Al Krow]

21 minutes ago, dood said:

...Oh and yeah, a small thing with being an EMG Artist now  *chuffed!*

Hey that's brilliant news! Well done, buddy.

25 minutes ago, dood said:

... but EMGs are just superb sounding pickups when set up properly and I don’t wanna change them out.

I'm 110% on board the importance of great pups - arguably the single most important part of the signal chain, for me anyway.

16 minutes ago, dood said:

I guess I should add that active pickups aren’t ‘high output’ automatically. Passive pickups aren’t low output just because they don’t have batteries. It just happens that EMG pickups are boosted with an internal circuit inside the soap bar. Seymour Duncan’s ASB pickups are actually quite tame an output .. and Dimarzio’s Will Power passive P has a big ‘overwound’ tone and output level.

+1^^  I found the passive pups on my Yammy BB425 gave most of the other pups I've come across a serious run for their money in terms of output.

[Daz39]

38 minutes ago, dood said:

Oh that’s cool. I didn’t know that!

There’s a thread called SASS i think; Source Audio Sound Sorcerors or similar. Roger and Nathan are always responding to queries, pleas, technical things (hub and app stuff that melts my brain). They’re up there with Berg and Dingwall for user interaction.

They even used the forum to beta test the One Series pedals and Midi gadgets.

[Guest Briton]

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Edited June 23, 2018 by Briton

[Dood]

Just now, Briton said:

What about the Tech21 Q\Strip, works on both Bass and Guitar.

 

Absolutely brilliant. Definitely my 'pick of the EQ's'. Loved reviewing this one.

[Dood]

51 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Hey that's brilliant news! Well done, buddy.

I'm 110% on board the importance of great pups - arguably the single most important part of the signal chain, for me anyway.

+1^^  I found the passive pups on my Yammy BB425 gave most of the other pups I've come across a serious run for their money in terms of output.

Thank you so much indeed  

I also agree that pickups make a huge impact on the tone of an instrument, way more than say, the difference between Ash and Alder as a body wood. So that's a yes from me!

Those Yammy's are the rail type ones? I really liked those! Big articulate tone! The Nordstrand rail pickups sound really good too.

[hatori]

How about the Empress parametric eq with boost ? I wouldnt mind giving that a try.☺

[gypsyjazzer]

Thanks guys for your replies.

[jposega]

The newest version of the MXR 10 Band EQ looks solid

[Al Krow]

6 hours ago, jposega said:

The newest version of the MXR 10 Band EQ looks solid

Yup the old version had a reputation for being noisy and not a true by-pass, which the new one seems to have addressed: (from the MXR website): 

"The MXR Ten Band EQ has been upgraded with noise-reduction circuitry, true bypass switching" 

But bear in mind they aren't particularly compact pedals, and will take up quite a chunk of your pedal board.