Struggling with ACG pre

[NickA]

If you have the acg-eq-01 it's worth making a note or taking a photo of a setting you like.  I sometimes meddle with mine to get a "new" sound, then spend hours trying to get back to where I started.  When you get the hang of it, much better than bass mid .treble EQ ... You can do that on your amp

 

[jazzyvee]

I am sold on the versatility of active low pass filter based bass tone controls. It took me a while to be able to make repeatable tone choices especially since mine have independent filters for each pickup. 👍🏾

[Sibob]

I really didn’t get on with the Filter pre when I tried it, so when I ordered my ACG, I had it built with the more standard treb/mid/bass JE preamp (I forget the name). The bass sounded awesome, and I found that preamp very intuitive (as that setup has been my experience of active basses for however long).

So yeah, if you like the bass, perhaps swap out the preamp for the more conventional one.

Si

[ikay]

My ACG came with a dual EQ01 filter which I persevered with for several years but eventually swapped out for an East modular 3-band preamp.

I spent plenty of time getting to know and understand the filters in a variety of musical situations, but in the end the tonal range was just too extreme for my needs and I found it difficult to make fine adjustments in the small range that I found useful. I particularly missed being able to make small tweaks to cut or boost the mids which the EQ01 didn't allow for.

I'm still intriqued by filters though and now have a Lemme 'state-variable filter' in an outboard pedal, so I can mess around with it on different basses. Mostly for experimental purposes.

[NickA]

7 hours ago, ikay said:

Lemme 'state-variable filter'

Stereo wire your bass and get two of these .... Acg-eq, sorted.

Must admit, as do John East and Alan C,  the eq-01 is adjustable beyond the realms of usefullness ( extreme reggae dub bass is fun tho ...max roll off & max Q ).  The Wal version is more useful.

[skelf]

13 minutes ago, NickA said:

Stereo wire your bass and get two of these .... Acg-eq, sorted.

Must admit, as do John East and Alan C,  the eq-01 is adjustable beyond the realms of usefullness ( extreme reggae dub bass is fun tho ...max roll off & max Q ).  The Wal version is more useful.

As I mentioned earlier in the thread the lowpass filter range was reduced so it is now pretty much the same as the Wal. Most of the comments here relate to a version of the preamp that ceased to exist 5 years ago. 

[NickA]

..but the eq-01 is what I could buy from John 😁.  And I really like that hp pass through feature; like the Wal's " pick attack" but adjustable. 

[bubinga5]

sometimes I think you think you have to have lots of EQ when you don't actually need it.?. 

Edited April 2, 2021 by bubinga5

[binky_bass]

10 minutes ago, bubinga5 said:

sometimes I think you think you have to have lots of EQ when you don't actually need it.?. 

It all depends if you want a bass that can do the classics, P-Bass, J-Bass etc. which to be fair is about 80% of all bass sounds most people would want, or if you want something that can do both P and J, everything in between and more. There's absolutely nothing wrong with a bass that does P and/or J only, but personally for me I like a bass that can go to extremes, and the ACG pre-amps do that for me. They absolutely do take some getting used to, especially if you're coming from a 'standard' non-filter based pre-amp, but if you learn how to use it, then it really does provide everything you will ever want. 

I honestly think that if you spend one or two hours understanding the pre-amp, you will be able to use it to it's full potential. My two cents is that it is worth properly learning the pre-amp, once you've done this you'll get a lot more usage and enjoyment out of it. With a P/J bass you can almost 'jump straight in' and get a decent sound in a few seconds even if you've never played one before, but a filter based pre takes a few hours to 'learn', but once you've done that you'll get much more out of it and you only need to invest that time once! It's absolutely worth it in my opinion.

[skelf]

39 minutes ago, NickA said:

..but the eq-01 is what I could buy from John 😁.  And I really like that hp pass through feature; like the Wal's " pick attack" but adjustable. 

The 01 still exists but it is not the same as the early ones which was all I was saying. Yes that was the plan for the top end of the highpass. The upper ring on the lowpass filters does the same as the push/pull on the Wal but again it is variable. 
 

I know the Wal preamp very well I played one for years. The 01 was my attempt to address what I thought could be improved from my perspective. There was also a bit of more is better and both myself and John are a bit prone to that so that lesson had to be learned. 

What I am also trying to get across is that filter preamps are not for everyone. You don’t need to have a filter preamp in one of my basses if you don’t want it so don’t let the filter preamp put you off my basses if you like the designs etc. 
 

Edited April 2, 2021 by skelf

[NickA]

Just to be clear .. the acg-eq-01 I have is not in an ACG bass. I bought the amp direct from John East and put it in a bitsa project bass.  The electronics in new ACG basses are obviously more developed & refined.

Also have a Wal with their version of the same thing ( pull switches instead of adjustable knobs)

Personally I'm totally sold on having an " EQ" for each pickup.  Otherwise I'd have no on board EQ at all and just use the amp to adjust the sound. 

Great thing about ACG basses, you get the choice!

[SICbass]

On 28/03/2021 at 11:05, ped said:

My advice - if it doesn’t sound great with everything flat, it won’t sound greater with a pre. Sweeping statement I know but you have to start off with a great core tone. 

I saw what you did there Ped...

[jonnybass]

I’ve been using an ACG for about 3/4 years now. With the filter eq. I understood the concept, after @skelf explained it, but it took a while to get my ears and brain into dialling it in. Even now I will have active practice sessions just dialling in different tones. I love it. 

[lowlandtrees]

Spent the last few days tweaking the JE pre. Starting to come good. Struggled with the E string, A was far too prominent but getting there and loving the tone. Feels good to make progress.

[Supernaut]

So... how long before this is in the classifieds? 😄

[funkle]

I’m returning to this thread as I’ve reinstalled the ACG EQ-01 in my very first ‘Wal-ish’ tester bass, which is now a maple necked ‘Walcision’ with my original Turner MC4 SPSC pickups. These are switchable between parallel/single coil/series. 
 

What an amazing system. I could run every sound I need out of the rear pickup of the bass only; it’s nuts to be able to crank huge lows out of it and then add the treble/upper mids back in from the treble stack. Bridge pickups conventionally cannot do this. And then I can set the neck pickup to be a different sound as well and then just use the blend knob to swap sounds. 
 

The treble stack is hugely underrated in reviews I’ve read. It is very useful to me. Using it with the other stacks, can truly mimic a bunch of different basses. I had very convincing Stingray and G&L sounds tonight, and can do a Jazz as well (when I swap the pickups to ‘single coil’ mode). Precision sounds are straightforward as well, very little knob tweaking for that. 
 

I do wonder if the original instructions could have benefited from frequency response curves. Poor Alan has spent his life explaining how filter EQs work, and the instructions are very detailed, but I wonder if some pics showing EQ curves altering with knob positions and perhaps some specs showing the frequency ranges affected by each knob would have been useful. At least I think in retrospect. 

[NickA]

When I retire ....I'll map out the frequency responses.  Meanwhile, Life is too short and I'll stick to tweaking the knobs.

 

It's an amazing preamp tho.. that treble stack is great; it's supposed to be a variable "pick attack" but does so much more. You can even choose what blend of pickups to put through it (internal trim pot).

[Baloney Balderdash]

Seems highly illogical to me to get rid of an otherwise awesome bass because of unsatisfactory electronics.

 

It's like selling a car because you don't like the tires that is on it (yes, I know nothing about cars).

 

If you can't get the current preamp to work for you turn the bass passive and see how that works or get a different preamp. 

 

 

Edited April 28 by Baloney Balderdash

[funkle]

12 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Seems highly illogical to me to get rid of an otherwise awesome bass because of unsatisfactory electronics.

 

It's like selling a car because you don't like the tires that is on it (yes, I know nothing about cars).

 

If you can't get the current preamp to work for you turn the bass passive and see how that works or get a different preamp. 

 

 

I’m sure this preamp is long gone by now, it’s an old thread. But I agree. If it isn’t good stock, a preamp won’t alter it. 
 

@NickA I spent a while fiddling with where I want the treble tone to come from, it’s a cool option to have. As it turns out, though I preferred the treble signal coming from the neck before, now I seem to like it coming equally from both pickups. 
 

I must admit some frustration today with the bass, though. I am finding it hard to reproduce some of the sounds I was getting last night. It is quite finicky to adjust.
 

The thought of trying to do this on a gig is a bit of a problem. I did a jazz jam this week where I literally was told the song about 30 seconds before we played it, then the key about 15 seconds after that (!!). Knob tweaking time was really minimal. This is too finicky for that…I’ll keep practicing with it. 

Edited April 28 by funkle

[EMG456]

Are folks not just trying to do too much with these preamps? 

 

I love filter pre's and have 4 basses with them - 1 Wal, 1 Alembic, 1 ACG and 1 Status with ACG pre installed. For recording, the ACG's are unmatched - you can provide essentially a fully finished and eq'd sound to the board direct from your bass and it will be the sound *you* have sculpted.

 

But live I just run them in wide open "flat" mode as described by @skelf in an earlier post in this thread. Do I need to set a different eq for each song? No- I can change which pickup I'm using or move my hand along the string to get enough variation for a live set.

 

Once you know what's happening with each control it's easy enough to start tweaking live and use them intuitively but the bugbear comes if you're trying to insist on accurate repeatability. That's impossible with these setups. I would argue that it's not necessary for live work but others' circumstances may be different. There *is* an argument for recording when you might be required to revisit a section of a song at a later point. 

 

Would we like to see a programmable preamp in our basses?

 

I'm just making mischief now lol.

[jazzyvee]

All my basses except one has low pass filters. I much prefer them to standard eq.

I've often wondered the same thing with filter basses, the challenge of repeatability of tones so having some presets would be helpful sometimes, though would add to the complexity and cost. 

When playing live i tend to move the filters subtly rather than make dramatic tone changes. 

 

Taking your last comment, mIschief can inspire innovation.  🙂

[NickA]

I don't ever use my acg-eq-01 bass live.... I sometimes find a really good sound on it and plan to take it out with me "pre set" ; but then dither and take the Wal instead. That one is easy to tweak on stage. For some reason as the evening progresses the filtering gets reduced and the pickup balance heads towards the bridge.

 

It's a problem with owning a fretless Wal ... other basses get ignored.

Edited May 4 by NickA