Playing with EQ

Production
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I went over some of my posts from previous forum and this seems like quite a useful one, perhaps someone will find it handy as well.

If you are just like me starting to play around with EQ and frequencies when you are trying to dial in the right tone for your guitar here is what I found on some other website. Frankly speaking I think it’s quite handy when I play around in my Boss studio - it’s a nice little “quick help post” I am using to get the sound sorted out. Hopefully some of you will find it useful too!

EQ Frequencies that affect your guitar tone. Hope it helps you with your quest for the perfect sound! It helped me a lot!

  • 20 - 80 Hz : Deep Bass, can add muffle and muddiness, can also thicken sound to a degree. 20 Hz usually lower kick-drum frequency, low-end bass is around 60 - 100 Hz. For electric guitar you would typically cut anything below 100Hz
  • 80 - 120 Hz : typical low-end guitar frequencies - cut below 100hz to give space to low-end bass and percussion
  • 100 - 300 Hz : used to add fullness of sound / thickness & body to guitar, just a little though as too much here muffles and can create flubbiness / warble
  • 300 - 1,000 Hz : Liveliness / attack - adds some electrical sizzle
  • 1,000 - 2,000 Hz : ’Honk’ / nasally guitar sounds - boost or cut
  • 2,000 - 2,500 Hz : classic mid hump or scoop
  • 2,500 - 3,000 Hz : boosting here gives you more snap / pick attack
  • 3,000 - 7,000 Hz : Brilliance and Presence / Sparkle
  • 7,000 - 11,000 Hz : Treble boost to accentuate distortion
  • 10,000 - 20,000 Hz : sort of very high end textural fizz or ’Air’ - pretty much inaudible to most
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@adi_mrok

Adi that’s a very useful list. I can’t remember the source now but on Reaper and the built ReaEQ I have an entry default for guitar that cut the highs and lows. It avoid the conflict with the bass and the highs that can walk over the vocalist. I’ll try and drop a screenshot tomorrow but from those starting points I can find the sweet spot for what I am playing or how I want the tone to stand out.
I end up with a kind of similar but never quite the same profile each project or each guitar per project. So it will be interesting to look at the frequencies my ears centre on and where they fit on that list. I normally cut slightly between low and mid but then have a peak between mid and the top highs. Curious how my EQ graph will convert those descriptions.

Good share.

Cheers

Toby
:sunglasses:

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I usually end up with something different each time to be honest and I am never fully satisfied with the tone one way or another :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: but yes I found this guide quite useful and comprehensive whenever I play with Katana and in Reaper :slight_smile:

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I recall you sharing this now I see it again, Adrian.

Perhaps a more descriptive title would help, something along the lines of “Frequency bands used to EQ your guitar tone”

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Useful list.

FWIW, my “starting point” when EQing an acoustic guitar is something like this:

  • Apply a high pass filter to cut less than 50Hz
  • 300-500 Hz: apply a narrow cut (-3.5 to -4.5 db)
  • 2.5-4 KHz: +3 to +4 db
  • Apply a high shelf to cut 11+ KHz (-2.5 db)

That’s just a basic starting point template, though. It’s not a one-size-fits-all answer.

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Yes, one of the nice things about the Katana IMO is that it has a pretty powerful EQ.

And unlike some other amps I could mention (cough Spark 40) it’s not a compromise.

Cheers,

Keith

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I’ve been looking to get a parametric EQ so this is extremely helpful, thanks Adrian!

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Glad to help Ivan! :slight_smile:

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Cool beans! We got the maths! Plug in and play? Use your ears? No sir, stick to those KHz & Hz levels mister. I kid, do the things that work for you. :slight_smile:

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For my Swampy Impro, looks like I’m cutting the sizzle and accentuating the honking ? :rofl:

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That’s actually a really valid point. It’s why I mentioned my “go-to EQ” is merely a starting point. You should definitely be using your ears when dialing in audio. That said, it’s not a bad idea to have an understanding of what the different frequency ranges cover, in general. That is, don’t blindly follow a set of frequency numbers, but understand the numbers and draw on that knowledge as you listen and dial things in. It’s nice to be able to go “this is a little boomy/muddy and has too much low-mid” and be able to go straight to the relevant frequency settings to make the adjustment.

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As we age and lose our higher frequencies, we need to be a little careful using our ears.

If I compensate my hearing loss by adding a treble boost, it helps me but makes music intolerable for my younger family members.

Fortunately, the guitar doesn’t really go that high by itself, excepting some distant harmonics I suppose. Or is it my high frequency hearing loss isn’t that bad yet….

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@J.W.C , it’s good to have a starting point/reference point. Nice share!

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This for sure. My starter for 10 is this, then as Clint says, ears are engaged to find (try) the sweet spot. Same with vocals.

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