EQ...Front End or FXLoop

I just recently decided to try EQ on my tone.

I read an interesting post on this forum and acted on it.

My GMajor has a parametric EQ.

The GMajor is in my FXLoop.

Now I am hooked on how great this feature is.

My questions are:

Which is better, placing EQ in front of the amp or in the FXLoop, indecently the little bit of EQ tweaking I did with three frequencies (100Hz, 200Hz and 3.0kHz) made a world of difference in tone tweaking and making the notes sing and come out in the mix.

Is there a stereo EQ available, as I use two amps, unless the consensus is to place in front of the amp, whereby I could place the EQ in front of the A/B/Y splitter, not that I think this is acceptable, as I do not know and this is why I love this forum.

What EQs whether pedal, stereo/mono or rack do any of you suggest.

I am looking for true bypass and quality in all my gear, but come on, I am not rich.

The amount I am looking to spend would be less than $200.00.

Then again some of you might think that the GMajor EQ is sufficient, as I am able to select any frequency between 20Hz-40kHz. I am able to increase or decrease by 12dB and finally I have the ability to select the amount of "frequency range" or "width" that I would like to be affected along with my selected frequency. So I can either narrow down my tweaking to just the frequency I select or open up the width to allow surrounding frequencies to also be tweaked. The bad thing about this EQ is that you are only allowed three frequencies to tweak.

Now, being new to this leads me to believe that more is better...hmmm, not sure though. Maybe what I have is enough, or maybe a more elaborate EQ would allow for better isolation of frequencies and therefore produce better results. Also, I bet there are programmable EQs that can be midi controlled, although I am sure they are out of my price range.

I am thinking about a DBX 231.

Well dig in guys and have fun, I am really interested in what you have to say, thanks all.

TremoJem said:

Then again some of you might think that the GMajor EQ is sufficient, as I am able to select any frequency between 20Hz-40kHz. I am able to increase or decrease by 12dB and finally I have the ability to select the amount of "frequency range" or "width" that I would like to be affected along with my selected frequency. So I can either narrow down my tweaking to just the frequency I select or open up the width to allow surrounding frequencies to also be tweaked. The bad thing about this EQ is that you are only allowed three frequencies to tweak.

Click to expand...

Take the time to learn how to properly dial them in and it's all the EQ a guitarist will ever need. Center frequency, width and level for three bands of your choice can give you more sounds than most graphic equalizers out there.
If you can be arsed and think that five sliders for level (no center or width) will give you more control, Payne Labs has a graphic equalizer that allows you to save twenty presets.

That is cool.

I too think that it should, in theory, be enough.

I do like the DBX 231 though.

There is so much more detail available, albeit along with the time necessary to tweak it, and that can change in different rooms.

But, I must say that, for what it is, buried in the Noisegate and not able to save any settings, which means you must turn on and set everything each time you power up, the GMajor sounds awesome and after just one minute of tweaking my tone improved greatly. Of course I specifically targeted three frequencies mentioned in an earlier post by Chris McKinley, thanks Chris!

Go figure.

I dug a little deeper last night...I can save the settings!

A very belated "You're welcome!"

Thanks Chris.

Really love all the great information.

Still tweaking but hey, tone is **** curse that I can't stop.

Who would want to? Stay tone-hungry, my friends! :mrgreen:

I place the EQ in the loop so it has its greatest effect on the power section. I was running a BOSS 7 band right into the Mesa's fx return with the output from my pedal board going into the EQ. Recently I have started using the Line6 M13 EQ models, still using post for the loop.

Dennis

I run a G-Major 2 in my loop.
I only wish it had a high cut, low cut, and shelving for the eq. I can pretty much get by with the 3 band though. I cut a little out of the 200hz to tighten the low end then boost a tiny bit at 1500 and 3600 to get me in front of the mix.
The G-Major 2 is awesome for this because it's very tranparent.

Dennis,

Just for clarity, putting your EQ in the loop doesn't affect the power amp any more than running the EQ up front does. Both are pre-power amp in placement. Putting it in the loop puts the EQ after the preamp, but before the power amp. The reason it has a more noticeable effect overall when put in the loop is that the preamp itself has such a dominating effect on tone.

Think of putting an EQ before the preamp as essentially EQ'ing your guitar's pickups more than anything else. That signal, however EQ'd, still gets affected predominantly by the tone stack of your amp's preamp. Putting an EQ in the loop gives you the ability to affect all the tone shaping that your amp's preamp created.

The power amp section of your amp is unaffected by EQ's in either the before-the-amp slot or the in-the-loop slot, and it will still add its influence to the tonal mix independently. The only way to alter the power amp's effect is to place an EQ after the power amp, which means micing the speaker cabinet and then running that signal through an EQ, usually done in a studio mixing board or, for live applications, in the sound board of the guy running sound for you.

Chris McKinley said:

Dennis,

Just for clarity, putting your EQ in the loop doesn't affect the power amp any more than running the EQ up front does. Both are pre-power amp in placement. Putting it in the loop puts the EQ after the preamp, but before the power amp. The reason it has a more noticeable effect overall when put in the loop is that the preamp itself has such a dominating effect on tone.

Think of putting an EQ before the preamp as essentially EQ'ing your guitar's pickups more than anything else. That signal, however EQ'd, still gets affected predominantly by the tone stack of your amp's preamp. Putting an EQ in the loop gives you the ability to affect all the tone shaping that your amp's preamp created.

The power amp section of your amp is unaffected by EQ's in either the before-the-amp slot or the in-the-loop slot, and it will still add its influence to the tonal mix independently. The only way to alter the power amp's effect is to place an EQ after the power amp, which means micing the speaker cabinet and then running that signal through an EQ, usually done in a studio mixing board or, for live applications, in the sound board of the guy running sound for you.

Click to expand...

Thanks fpr clarifying and clearly explaining how the loop works. This will help me better understand how I am really shaping my sound through the loop. +1 as I would really like to always have a great soundperson running the board.

Dennis