Is this the proper behavior of the Rockmaster's active eq?

[Shreddy Mercury]

I had asked on a Peavey group on Facebook but figured I'd ask here with a bit of an update.

I've had a Rockmaster for a few years that I've never really used because it seemed the mid (body) control on the dirty side's eq acted like more of a volume than a mid control. I'm going to have a local tech check it out tomorrow to make sure the caps/resistors/etc are in spec, no dead ones, etc and give it a basic checkup, but mostly to see if the mid control on the drive side is functioning according to the schematic.

I hooked it up tonight through the fx loop of my Plexi and the clean channel was loud and boomy as usual (man the clean channels on rack gear is so loud) and switched it over to the dirty side. Crunch's pre and post work, and lead's pre and post work. The bass on the eq doesn't seem to adjust it a whole heck of a lot, and the same with the treble, and to be honest the mid control doesn't seem to do a whole heck of a lot either frequency change wise but I also wasn't really letting it breathe, cuz ya know....neighbors and Plexis don't mix. Anywho, once I got closer to 0 in the mids, and below it, it is much much quieter. In fact, the dirty channel doesn't get anywhere close to the clean in volume output unless the mid is cranked. I've heard people say the Rockmaster is very very similar to the Ultra Plus with them both having active eqs but I've had an Ultra Plus and it didn't act that way at all. If I scooped mid, it was still pretty much the same volume, just lacking mids and a wee bit quieter, but when reintroducing them, it came back up....but not mega drastically like on this Rockmaster.

Anywho, I just figured someone on here might know if it's supposed to be that way or not. Either way, the tech is getting it in the morning.

 

[fek]

On most of my amps I feel that the mid control does act in a way like a volume control. More mids helps to cut through the mix and I end up getting a perceivably louder tone. That is with keeping my mids somewhere in the 10:00 to 2:00 range anyway on just about every amp that I have used.

The Rockmaster is not an amp that I have had, and I know nothing about circuits, so don't listen to me. Let the tech give it a tune up and hope it comes back working better for you than it does now.

 

[trey85stang]

Sounds broken the active eq has a lot of range. Clean all 7000 loops on it and deoxit on the pots before taking it to a tech. I had one repaired a couple years ago and spent almost $200 on bench time having relays and some pots swapped out. The pots are not available anymore so if they can be cleaned up want to do that.

I actually have mine sitting on my desk currently if you want tomorrow or the next day I can make you a few clips going through the eq on it.

 

[trey85stang]

to be clear I’m talking about the preamp.

 

[gtrwun]

I recorded an entire album with a Rockmaster pre into a Marshall power amp.

From what I remember, mine worked very similar to yours.

It was a struggle to get the mids to sit where I wanted. I also remember struggling with low end rumble on palm mutes. This was before we had access to high/low pass filters.

If I had it to do over again, I’d throw that thing in the river and go another direction. Just my opinion.

 

[M@tt C]

The EQ is SUPER touchy on those. With that said more mids do raise the perceived loudness.