"EQ Hangover"

[discordance_axis]

To quote a paragraph from the Mark V owners manual:

Because this EQ is capable of such extreme notching and boosting, when you turn it off and listen to the un-EQ’d sounds they will likely
sound flat and honky to you. This is normal and to be expected… you have a good case of “EQ hangover”. Like any over-indulgence
you need to give your body – in this case your ears – time to recover. Waiting a few minutes will help your ears return to “normal” and
the unaltered sounds will sound much more right again.

This is perhaps the best statement I have ever read in regard to amps, EQ and the weirdness of the human ear. I know it's referring to the Mark V EQ sliders and preset but I think it's relevant to everything we hear throughout the day once we come back to our amps.

I think this is the reason why many people get an amp sounding just the way they like it and have a whale of a time playing one evening, and then the next day come back to their rig with the same settings only to find themselves tweaking again. "It seems thinner now compared to when I was playing it last night".

What I've been doing when I pick up my guitar recently is always playing on the clean channel for a short while before perhaps moving onto a mid gain sound, that way when I kick into my lead and high gain sounds it's always thick, creamy and very pleasing to play, rather than diving right into the high gain sounds and not giving my ears time to adjust. I've found that since I have been doing this I've been playing a lot more and tweaking a lot less!

Perhaps i'm mentally ill but hey.. it works for me!

 

[elvis]

Your mental state does not disqualify your point. I think you are right. Crazy, but right. :mrgreen:

 

[shimmilou]

Yep, same here......ummm, mentally ill and ears adjusting. :lol:

I try to resist tweaking the knobs once I find a sound that I like, because I am aware of the ears adjusting. I am sure that the changes in barometric pressure have an affect on our hearing, as well as ear fatigue. It is funny though, as stated, sounded perfect yesterday, but today it has a little different sound.

 

[tonejam]

So true, and that's why I've always avoided amps with graphic EQs. You just tweak and tweak and tweak, and it never ends.
I buy an amp because I like its inherent sound. I don't want to change it radically. Bass, mid, treble and presence are more than enough to worry about, along with which pickup to use.

 

[discordance_axis]

Haha, Thank you for the reassurance of my mental state guys!

I've also noticed this can be the case when moving from one amp to the next or switching guitars, obviously. **** it ears! I wonder if Pianists have this problem. I was almost going to be one of those instead.

 

[mccart125]

Always been a knob tweaker as well.. Since I got my Orange I am loving the single tone knob.

Mark V would be too much for me.

Mesa recently sent out a survey asking for what we find best as far as amp configs. They did mention a single tone knob. Dont know if it will ever materialize as Randall likes his knobs. Would be interesting though.