EQ Placement

I'd like to smooth out my Stiletto Ace tone, make it a bit fatter. Been reading alot about placing eq's before and/or after distortion. I understand where the "before" is (b/w guitar & amp), but where is "after"? Are the amp's tone controls already the "after", or is it using the effects loop?

Would love some input on where you have placed eq's and the success you may have had. Anyone ever tried using 2 add'l eq's in the before/after sequence?

jab,

RE: "I understand where the "before" is (b/w guitar & amp), but where is "after"? Are the amp's tone controls already the "after", or is it using the effects loop?". "After", in this case, refers to the effects loop.

It is sometimes useful to place an EQ both before the amp and in the effects loop. Placing an EQ in the effects loop will have a much more noticeable and dramatic effect than the same EQ placed in front of the amp. Whether or not to do this is a matter of what kind of tone you are trying to accomplish.

If you want to build tone, gain, feel, etc., put the EQ in front. That's where it very strongly affects the guitaristic aspects of the signal.

If you want surgical adjustments, as if you were mixing an already recorded track, put the EQ in the effects loop. You can make large adjustments here but probably not in ways that bring out the mojo and naturalness of the guitar.

Or best of all worlds, use a dual channel EQ with one channel in each position.

With the +/-12 db cut/boost on most EQ's you should have more than enough tone shaping power with one EQ. The only possible reason for adding a second EQ unit I can think of would be to get a different grid of filter frequencies if the unit were a different model from a different manufacturer.

I put my EQ in the loop with very good results. I t is on all the time now. However for EQ perfection you could get one pre and post gain.

in front eqs your guitar and in the loop your fine tuning the already effected signal (from the preamp)..... and eq in front can make a humbucker sound like a single coil and vice versa.... you can even make an electrice osund like and acoustic if you have enough bands on the eq.... i like the sound of my guitar so i just place the eq in the loop for some fine tuning..... although now i want one in front to emulate single coils..... either way they're a must in any setup to achieve "your" tone.... also i noticed you said you wnat to fatten up your tone..... i would say get an OD pedal and and eq (or an od pedal with eq)..... the fattening with be done by the od and the eq will help you shape that tone before it hits the preamp... good luck

jab,

I'm going to address certain comments by other posters here just for further clarification.

RE: "
If you want to build tone, gain, feel, etc., put the EQ in front. That's where it very strongly affects the guitaristic aspects of the signal.". This statement not only needs clarification, it needs correction. You can "build" tone by putting an EQ anywhere in the chain, as long as it's before your ears hear it, even after a miked speaker. An EQ can be used for added gain by placing it between the guitar and amp and boosting the overall level slider. This will boost the signal that gets to the amp's pre-amp section, the part of the amp that creates distortion.

"Feel" is an unuseably ambiguous term. As we guitarists typically use that term, it has more to do with how your guitar is set up, i.e., the action, string guage, etc. Perhaps this term is being used as a reference to the amount of sustain that the signal has. If so, then an EQ placed before the amp and used as a level boost will provide more gain, and therefore also more sustain.

RE: "If you want surgical adjustments, as if you were mixing an already recorded track, put the EQ in the effects loop. You can make large adjustments here but probably not in ways that bring out the mojo and naturalness of the guitar.". This is another unuseably vague statement that also happens to be wrong as well. "Mojo"? That's an intentionally unspecific word, and it will mean different things to different players.

"Naturalness of the guitar" is also equally vague, but if it refers to the unaffected signal/tone of the guitar...well, of course that depends on your guitar. Any EQ placed anywhere in the chain can change/affect that tone. No effect will "bring it out" in the sense that the unaffected tone of the guitar simply is what it is. If it's a tone you like, great. If there are things about it you don't like, an EQ can change the amounts of certain frequencies, but it won't change the original timbre of the tone. No box can do that. If you really can't stand that tone, for whatever reason, the only real solution is to use another guitar.

jdurso mentions using an EQ in the loop to fine tune your sound. While the effects loop is where an EQ can have the strongest ability to alter tone, using it to fine tune an already good tone is ideally what you want it for in the first place. An EQ isn't a miracle in a box. It won't make a crappy guitar and amp all of a sudden sound like boutique quality, but it will make a good tone even better.