Orange Amps Forum

I play in a cover band so having a variety of tones available would be pretty sweet. I love my AD30HTC. what it does, it does very well. problem is, it doesn't do everything. it's a very "chewy" amp. that's how i describe it. for bands with a typically darker tone, i.e. AIC, it sounds great. For others, i could use a more "neutral" tone. I also play different guitars. 2 LP's , a Strat and a Tele. the amp eq doesnt' do it for all styles. So, i want an eq. I was looking at the MXR 10 band. Great eq, 10 bands and looks awesome. Then I saw the Source Audio Programmable eq. 7 bands and 4 different user selectable presets. That's gotta be the way to go, huh? Anyone used one of these? Opinions? Suggestions? Obviously, it would go out front as i dont have an EL.

Was gonna suggest a para metric eq in the loop. If you don't have a loop then provably not. Didn't find it did much out front of my amp but was amazing in the loop

Wouldn't really bother with a parametric EQ... you've only got one band you can play with then, and they get more use at finding and killing bad freqs.

If you have to get one, the MXR isn't bad, so I hear.

Personally, i'd be looking at what you can do with the amp first... depending on what styles you're trying to play, it's surprisingly versatile. Cut all the mids and some bass and you've got some light elegant tones. If however you're just looking for something that'll switch you mid-song, then it'll have to be an EQ.

Just remember that with any extreme positions you're taking with the EQ pedal, they tend to add a fair bit of hiss.

I'm actually reconsidering the whole eq thing. i love this amp and it sounds good to me no matter what i ask of it. i can change it's characteristics with the change of an OD. i have a TS for smoother, less distorted OD and some Mid boost for leads and an OCD that i can kick on over the dirty channel for some grind. I have an EP Booster that I leave on all the time, just because i love what it does for the tone.

Speaking EQ pedals and Oranges, I just found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=Rlz1pd0Uy ... ata_player

Ade

Ade wrote:Speaking EQ pedals and Oranges, I just found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=Rlz1pd0Uy ... ata_player

Ade

Link doesn't seem to work.

I had the 10 band MXR eq for a number of years with my AD30. I used it as a solo boost but it's really handy. Also since it runs at 18v it's a lot quieter than their smaller EQ. Great pedal and even though it's not on my board today, I won't sell it. Too many uses.

Whoops, I'll try again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rlz1pd0U ... ata_player

irish_admiral wrote:Wouldn't really bother with a parametric EQ... you've only got one band you can play with then, and they get more use at finding and killing bad freqs.

Huh? Tell that to my four band Parametric Joe!


http://www.bossarea.com/other/pq50.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I promise you a good three or four band true parametric EQ is a VERY powerful tool. By 'true' I mean one with three controls per frequency band: centre frequency, bandwidth ("Q") = spread of frequencies being affected, and the gain (cut / boost). If the "Q" control is missing it is only a 'semi parametric' with fixed bandwidth, effectively just a sweepable filter.

Main disadvantage of parametrics is that they aren't nearly as easy to use as multiband graphics. Graphics give you a nice picture of what is happening with the slider positions. With parametrics it is easy to mess things up by both cutting and boosting certain frequencies if you get some overlap betweeen the frequency bands. (Too close together or too broad a 'Q' with one or more bands.) But if you do know what you are doing they are way more flexible than you'd expect. For starters you can make far more precise adjustments than with a graphic. Also they tend to sound very nice and natural. And as I say you don't need many bands to give very powerful EQ solutions - four bands are usually more than enough.

I'd agree that for most general use (eg an EQ pedal for a guitar amp) a 10 band graphic will do the job really well and be way easier to set up and use. But parametrics are great tools. I know of other bassists using freestanding one, two and three band ones as part of their rig, and as I say I've had my trusty four band unit for years. I can use it for general tone sweetening but it is also great for sorting out any frequency problems in a particular room or hall. (Often I can do both at the same time!) Also great for setting up a radically different EQ for a different instrument so you don't have to touch the amps controls at all when swapping, just punch the EQ in or out.


Andy.

Does anyone care to offer their opinion on the Source Audio Programmable EQ?
http://youtu.be/sVNfhBBMFfs

misterfolkertsma wrote:Does anyone care to offer their opinion on the Source Audio Programmable EQ?
http://youtu.be/sVNfhBBMFfs

seems super cool, especially the preset function. source audio makes some cool (if somewhat odd) stuff.

personally, EQ pedals make my brain hurt. it seems to me that way too many of them don't sound very natural whenever you tweak them. at least this is the case with 6-10 band EQ's. if i were to get an EQ pedal today, i would check out the EQD Tone Job, or maybe a HBE Detox EQ. 3 knobs and a makeup gain for each of those. seems simple enough.

You can get good results with digital EQ or any good EQ if you don't overdo things...

For many guitarists though Digital EQ is probably tantamount to using a solid state amp

a.hun wrote:

irish_admiral wrote:Wouldn't really bother with a parametric EQ... you've only got one band you can play with then, and they get more use at finding and killing bad freqs.

Huh? Tell that to my four band Parametric Joe!
Andy.

No quibble with you Andy... you're talking to a guy who's PA teched every other week for the last 4 years, tearing rigs up & down! I'm very very familiar with parametric EQs and their uses!

Just in terms of a single parametric EQ in a pedal which sits in front of your amp, i'd take a 10-band over it as you've got more control. And i'd probably give musicians a 10-band for the reasons you cite, in that they're easier to use, and in my experience, most musos just don't get how parametrics work that well.

If you gave me a 4-band EQ to sit in a rack (we've got a 5-band para, along with a couple of 31-band EQs!), then that's a different story. I tend to use a modelling board straight to the mixing desk these days, and appreciate the semi-parametric nature of most desks to fine-tune the patches i've set up. I was sort of assuming your man didn't want to rack anything though, as it's an extra layer of faff that most guitarists probably wouldn't want...