a new Mesa 5 band eq

[Shask]

Yep... doesn't quite make sense.

I've got the old blue MXR 10 band and 6 band, but never tried them in the loop. Probably wouldn't as they seem more useful up front. Got an Empress ParaEQ around, too, that mostly got lost during my last move.

When I run my tube amps through a loadbox, then reamp it through the DI back into a poweramp or computer, the only pedal EQ I have that can take the signal is the silver MXR. Everything else clips. I usually run this signal through a rack of old effects units.

 

[FourT6and2]

Yeah I run the Boss GE7 out front to shape the pickups sometimes. And the MXR 10-band in the loop to shape high frequencies.

 

[ChurchHill]

Yep, me, too... rack of old effects.

 

[thegame]

Why in the world did Mesa put the post coital Rock’n’ Chippy / Cameron stupid face logo on it?

 

[Cless357]

Why in the world did Mesa put the post coital Rock’n’ Chippy / Cameron stupid face logo on it?

It's not a Mesa product

 

[ZEN Amps]

What I really want is a high-quality parametric EQ that operates on line level. The Ibanez Pentatone would be perfect, except it's only instrument level.

There's a lot of options around if you look at pro audio gear. I have used all sorts of cheap to pricey studio rack PEQ's in loops and they generally work very well.

It's really just a matter of deciding on your budget and then shopping around, the range is < $100 to > $10k !

 

[ZEN Amps]

It's probably just Mesa thinking...

Now that's something they are rarely accused of.

Looks to be another company hoping to confuse people by using a similar font, and all the same (yet incorrect!) frequencies.

 

[shar-vell Dan]

Made in Jina -

 

[TheGreatGreen]

Now that's something they are rarely accused of.

Looks to be another company hoping to confuse people by using a similar font, and all the same (yet incorrect!) frequencies.

Welp that's what I get when I barely look at something when I'm tired, lol.

But yeah looks like a cool product. Does the same thing as a Mesa 5-band, uses the same frequencies for the same Mesa EQ signature thing, but doesn't use the obnoxious sliders.

I wonder if they had the forethought to not design the controls so that 95% of the EQ sweep happens in the last 5% of either direction on the control like how Mesa designs theirs.

 

[stratjacket]

I made this post a little bit ago where I lined up the Pentone EQ to the Mesa 5 band. They are virtually indistinguishable.

I have the Left output of the Redseven EVO going to the Mesa EQ and the Right output going through the Pentone EQ. Going to the left/right of the AxeFx then Studio Monitors. Muting one speaker and then the other I can’t tell a difference.

I tried to take a pic of the settings, but it’s difficult. The Q knobs at the top is what I played with the most to get a match other than Volume. Only slight turns off the Frequency knobs.

https://www.rig-talk.com/forum/threads/poor-mans-mesa-5band-eq.335838/

 

[Meeotch]

I recently picked up the Pentatone EQ and it's been working fine in the loops of my amps. Apparently it has an internal charge pump boosting to 18v, not sure if this helps it out in this regard? I think it sounds killer and the price is very reasonable if you are curious to try one.

 

[BSRIAudio]

What's the benefit of this over other graphic EQ pedals, like the MXRs? Seems like this would be even harder to use.

What I really want is a high-quality parametric EQ that operates on line level. The Ibanez Pentatone would be perfect, except it's only instrument level.

This is gyrator based so, frequencies aside, this is basically the same as an MXR EQ or a Boss GE7. The Mesa pedal used inductors for the EQ bands like the amps.

 

[JackBootedThug]

Are they making this as a way to get that vaunted nirvana guitar tone?

 

[tjnx]

There's a lot of options around if you look at pro audio gear. I have used all sorts of cheap to pricey studio rack PEQ's in loops and they generally work very well.

It's really just a matter of deciding on your budget and then shopping around, the range is < $100 to > $10k !

Did you have to do any level conversions for the rack eqs with guitar signals? I'm thinking of getting a cheap used dual channel 31 band that people could throw their instruments into at band practice but I'm not sure about the impedance mismatch. According to the interwebs just placing a buffer in front will be fine if you want to use instrument level signals without tone loss.

Any recommendations on the cheap? Looking at dbx or a behringer. Mostly going to use this to find what freqs are problems / solutions then upgrade later.

 

[ZEN Amps]

Did you have to do any level conversions for the rack eqs with guitar signals? I'm thinking of getting a cheap used dual channel 31 band that people could throw their instruments into at band practice but I'm not sure about the impedance mismatch. According to the interwebs just placing a buffer in front will be fine if you want to use instrument level signals without tone loss.

Any recommendations on the cheap? Looking at dbx or a behringer. Mostly going to use this to find what freqs are problems / solutions then upgrade later.

Yep dbx, Behringer, Alto, Rane, Aphex are worth looking into for a budget solution.

These are usually line levels devices so you may have mixed results using one in an instrument level loop. In theory they'll perform ok (the buffer may help), but might be noisy as it will be operating in the very low end of the range. Will also depend on the loop of course, many just don't play nice with anything mains powered, let alone line level.

You could incorporate some boost / attenuate hardware as well, but by that stage it's far more efficient just to get something that operates at instrument level.

What amp(s) are you running?

 

[tjnx]

Yep dbx, Behringer, Alto, Rane, Aphex are worth looking into for a budget solution.

These are usually line levels devices so you may have mixed results using one in an instrument level loop. In theory they'll perform ok (the buffer may help), but might be noisy as it will be operating in the very low end of the range. Will also depend on the loop of course, many just don't play nice with anything mains powered, let alone line level.

You could incorporate some boost / attenuate hardware as well, but by that stage it's far more efficient just to get something that operates at instrument level.

What amp(s) are you running?

Awesome thanks, yes hadn't considered the noise. Amps are Randall, Marshall, Fender - all instrument level loops or to be placed in front. I assume you are using all line level loops.

At home I put my interface + daw + reamp in the signal chain and I was able try out a bunch of eq moves using plugins. I was able to find where the problem was so it helped narrow down what gear to buy. Just spitballing to see if we could do that with more people on a budget as I only have the 1 reamp box. Kind of an experiment more than a necessity.

Looking at this on tgp looks like others have had the same idea and yeah noise / tone can be an issue. TC 1128 takes instrument level.

 

[Maarcn3]

I’ve had the same thing happen. Boss GE7 in the loop worked similar, not exact though