People with multiple EQ pedals: why don't you just buy gear that sounds good?

[TheGreatGreen]

Most pieces of gear are bus tickets, not Ubers. They get you most of the way there but almost never all the way. I’ve always thought of EQ as the Uber you take from the bus stop to where you really want to go.

If I could only have two pedals in a rig, tuner aside, I’d have two EQ pedals. One in front to boost / shape the guitar and character of the distortion, and the other in the loop to pick up where the amp EQ leaves off. But I can’t really imagine needing much more than that.

I know Tosin Abasi used to use a mid boost pedal exclusively after a Friedman BE-OD pedal because it needed a mid boost that nothing else in his rig needed, but edge cases like that aside, once you have more that that, yeah it does start to feel silly.

Here’s another example, in my home studio (where I don’t have to worry about portability) I have a Strymon DIG that I mostly love except for one thing it does that basically ruins the entire pedal. Its Tone control does not darken the first repeat. I could strangle those assholes at Strymon for ruining an otherwise basically perfect delay like that. Anyway, I route it into a parallel mixer in pedal format called the Parallelizer II. It adds parallel stereo loops to your signal path. In one of the loops, I have a ParaEQ going into the DIG. I use the ParaEQ to darken my core tone going into the DIG as well as to scoop out some mids to clear things up a bit, then I set the DIG to kill dry and with that in parallel with my dry core tone, out comes the perfect darkened ping pong delay sound. Yes it’s cumbersome as hell and there’s no way I’d be caught dead using that Rube Goldberg contraption live, but in the studio I haven't found a delay I like better than an EQ into a DIG in parallel with the core sound, so that's what I use there. Live I’d just use a Keeley Halo or something that gets dark on its own. It doesn’t do ping pong but… close enough for live.


But the guy in the OP is using two post distortion EQ's which to me seems redundant. He's using one EQ right after his distortion pedals and a stereo EQ after all his loop effects as an overall tone shaper. Why wouldn't he just set the stereo EQ to also do the job of the EQ after the distortion pedals? It even has presets so he could set a preset for distortion pedals off, and another preset for distortion pedals on.

 

[Findthetone1]

An EQ in the loop of some amps can be a game changer. Much like the onboard EQs on Mesas and VHT/Fryette amps.

 

[Eazy-ESP]

I’d never stop changing settings.

 

[cobrahead1030]

I only break out the GE7 to run in front of an amp while recording, it’s good for a nice little clean boost & to adjust the frequencies just a hair. Occasionally I’ll find a setting I really like with that particular amp & rock it accordingly for a while.

 

[VonBonfire]

I don't generally use them, as I don't need them.

But they are a good swiss army knife to have around, to solve problems or to boost in a pinch.

What the fuck is this mindset?



My brother in christ, I have an idea, why don't you just buy pickups that sound right instead of the EQ pedal INTO the drive pedals?

Why don't you buy drive pedals that sound nice instead of the EQ pedal AFTER the drive pedals?

Why don't you buy an amp that sounds nice instead of the eq pedal at the end of the loop? Or use the fucking presence and resonance knobs that are on 90% of amps made nowadays?

I am trying really hard not to be a hater. I swear. BUT JESUS CHRIST MAN WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE LIKE THIS?

Looks like a giant mess if you axe me. He's using EQ like a band aid for bad guitar/pickups/effects/amp selection. Complete trainwreck.

 

[Rackman]

I can see an EQ out front when dealing with backline. Otherwise with a typical post-EQ amp I'll be expecting to use what's on the amp, and that the input-side voicing is reasonable.

Pre-EQ high gain amps like Mk series need post-EQ.

 

[mctallica1]

I put an MXR 10 band in the loop of every amp I play. Sometimes I don’t even adjust the sliders and if I do, it is usually 500 dipped a tad and maybe 62.5 dipped a touch to tighten it up.

But….ive never used two EQ’s at once other than my Furman PQ6, which I would use one channel in the loop and one in front as a boost.

 

[BeZo]

 

[matttornado]

I don't generally use them, as I don't need them.

But they are a good swiss army knife to have around, to solve problems or to boost in a pinch.

What the fuck is this mindset?



My brother in christ, I have an idea, why don't you just buy pickups that sound right instead of the EQ pedal INTO the drive pedals?

Why don't you buy drive pedals that sound nice instead of the EQ pedal AFTER the drive pedals?

Why don't you buy an amp that sounds nice instead of the eq pedal at the end of the loop? Or use the fucking presence and resonance knobs that are on 90% of amps made nowadays?

I am trying really hard not to be a hater. I swear. BUT JESUS CHRIST MAN WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE LIKE THIS?

I Know! It's so stupid. There's a lot of stupidity in general when it comes to gear. Especially on YouTube. Nothing wrong with using one EQ for minor adjustments and tweaks though.

 

[tallcoolone]

Those Boss EQs are noisy as hell—stacking them has to hiss horribly

 

[MadAsAHatter]

The guy in the OP is using two post distortion EQ's which to me seems redundant. He's using one EQ right after his distortion pedals and a stereo EQ after all his loop effects as an overall tone shaper. Why wouldn't he just set the stereo EQ to also do the job of the EQ after the distortion pedals? It even has presets so he could set a preset for distortion pedals off, and another preset for distortion pedals on.

Pretty much this. One EQ out front to do some tone shaping if you need some final tweaking after the chain and one in the loop for specific frequencies the amp's tone knobs may not hit. Anything else would be approaching overkill or trying to compensate too much for something. Maybe that's just me since I'm not overly anal about my tone. As long there's nothing that's making me cringe when I hear it I'm generally good to go.

 

[WizardAmpIphoneClip]

Theyre ok to fool around with once in awhile.

 

[shredi knight]

I don't generally use them, as I don't need them.

But they are a good swiss army knife to have around, to solve problems or to boost in a pinch.

What the fuck is this mindset?



My brother in christ, I have an idea, why don't you just buy pickups that sound right instead of the EQ pedal INTO the drive pedals?

Why don't you buy drive pedals that sound nice instead of the EQ pedal AFTER the drive pedals?

Why don't you buy an amp that sounds nice instead of the eq pedal at the end of the loop? Or use the fucking presence and resonance knobs that are on 90% of amps made nowadays?

I am trying really hard not to be a hater. I swear. BUT JESUS CHRIST MAN WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE LIKE THIS?

Pfft, half measures...

 

[VonBonfire]

Those Boss EQs are noisy as hell—stacking them has to hiss horribly

Boss sucks.

 

[DanTravis62]

Here’s another example, in my home studio (where I don’t have to worry about portability) I have a Strymon DIG that I mostly love except for one thing it does that basically ruins the entire pedal. Its Tone control does not darken the first repeat. I could strangle those assholes at Strymon for ruining an otherwise basically perfect delay like that. Anyway, I route it into a parallel mixer in pedal format called the Parallelizer II. It adds parallel stereo loops to your signal path. In one of the loops, I have a ParaEQ going into the DIG. I use the ParaEQ to darken my core tone going into the DIG as well as to scoop out some mids to clear things up a bit, then I set the DIG to kill dry and with that in parallel with my dry core tone, out comes the perfect darkened ping pong delay sound. Yes it’s cumbersome as hell and there’s no way I’d be caught dead using that Rube Goldberg contraption live, but in the studio I haven't found a delay I like better than an EQ into a DIG in parallel with the core sound, so that's what I use there. Live I’d just use a Keeley Halo or something that gets dark on its own. It doesn’t do ping pong but… close enough for live.

So, I can understand using ONE eq pedal for a million things, including that

I already said that, and everyone else on planet earth understands EQ pedals are useful

But at what point does your gear just sound bad? At what point are YOU just bad?

 

[DanTravis62]

Pretty much this. One EQ out front to do some tone shaping if you need some final tweaking after the chain and one in the loop for specific frequencies the amp's tone knobs may not hit. Anything else would be approaching overkill or trying to compensate too much for something. Maybe that's just me since I'm not overly anal about my tone. As long there's nothing that's making me cringe when I hear it I'm generally good to go.

I am overly anal about my tone, I just buy gear that sounds good

I guess this is a shortcut to find out everyone who has awful live tone on RT

Because literally every single person I have heard play live with 3+ eq pedals on their board had absolutely horrific guitar tone

 

[VonBonfire]

I am overly anal about my tone, I just buy gear that sounds good

I guess this is a shortcut to find out everyone who has awful live tone on RT

Because literally every single person I have heard play live with 3+ eq pedals on their board had absolutely horrific guitar tone

I've never seen anyone using a football field sized pedal board live who was any good.

 

[DanTravis62]

I've never seen anyone using a football field sized pedal board live who was any good.

me either honestly, but i would guess we have different definitions of that

I would say have having 10-12 pedals on a board is overkill for ME but not crazy shit; ive seen plenty of decent guitar players have somewhere in that level.

I have seen some CRAZY shit gigging and touring. Like, theres one indie band we played with where the guitarist and bassist both used plywood boards that were like 3 feet by 6 feet for their pedal boards. Each of them had between 25 and 30 pedals on their giant board, including multiple EQs - the guitar player played a boss katana artist.

They sounded like shit.

I have seen multiple bands that had giant pedalboards like this, and the ONLY ones that sounded good? Bands where they had a giant pedalboard and used like 4 of the 40 pedals.

 

[VonBonfire]

I would say have having 10-12 pedals on a board is overkill for ME but not crazy shit; ive seen plenty of decent guitar players have somewhere in that level.

So many points of possible signal chain failure. Like setting yourself up for a migraine headache...

For a variety band it makes sense in some aspects, even though the audience mostly won't care anyways. For everyone else it strikes me as a child like mentality where you surround yourself in your room with every toy and gadget you own at all times. Christmas morning pedalboard, LOL.

Someone over at JGF posted a video of a some guy who is some sort of semi-name player but I forget who it was. His board looked like a 2x4x8. Guy should've owned a set of tap dance shoes, he was all over that thing, jumping from OD to OD for this section and that section. All it did was detract from his performance. He didn't hit an OD where you thought "oh yeah that totally makes sense for this section" it was just another mediocre gain tone LOL. It's weird that someone so musically sharp on their instrument would be dim enough to do that.

 

[DanTravis62]

Stacking an EQ pedal with your dirt is pretty common. Randy, Eddie, Dime, and many others have done it.

Look at Gilmour's rig

I guess it's not a coincidence that I think all four of those dudes (as popular as they are) have awful tone and sound like shit

I do love randy's playing, but i hate his tone

I think you are conflating separate things here - yes, an eq pedal is great for a swiss army knife solution as a gigging player with backline. Neither I, nor anyone else is disputing that.

But when you get to the point where you have 4-6 EQs in your signal chain, at what point is it just that your gear doesn't sound very good?

So many points of possible signal chain failure. Like setting yourself up for a migraine headache...

While technically true, that is more of a function of how good you are at building the pedalboard. I've not moved a wire on my pedalboard for over a year and a half and it has never failed in probably 70-80 gigs If the pedalboard is solid, with solid components, it's not hard to make it bulletproof.

But yes, you are correct that it becomes exponentially more likely with a gigantic 30 pedal board.

For a variety band it makes sense in some aspects, even though the audience mostly won't care anyways. For everyone else it strikes me as a child like mentality where you surround yourself in your room with every toy and gadget you own at all times. Christmas morning pedalboard, LOL.

Someone over at JGF posted a video of a some guy who is some sort of semi-name player but I forget who it was. His board looked like a 2x4x8. Guy should've owned a set of tap dance shoes, he was all over that thing, jumping from OD to OD for this section and that section. All it did was detract from his performance. He didn't hit an OD where you thought "oh yeah that totally makes sense for this section" it was just another mediocre gain tone LOL. It's weird that someone so musically sharp on their instrument would be dim enough to do that.

To some extent I agree, and partly disagree. I've certainly seen plenty of dudes with gigantic boards where it made no difference whatsoever, and they had half a dozen different overdrives for no reason and the audience had no idea.

But there are 1000% reasons to use a handful of effects, that the audience WILL notice. Using delay or wah the right way can push a lead guitarists solos into the territory where it becomes an entirely different instrument. Using some sort of wobble effect can fill up sonic space in a 3 piece or 4 piece band without a second guitarist, etc etc.

There's a million reasons to use effects pedals, it's just once you get to the "half dozen of the same type of pedal" level it seems like it would be obvious that you are getting diminishing returns..... well obvious to you and I anyways