EQ question

[remastered]

This may be an elementary question to some of you, but do any of you have any suggestions on how to set the EQ on the Pro-Mod?
I don't know whether to boost the mids way up, or back them down a touch.

I know this is probably a preference type answer, but if there are any settings you have found particularly good, I would appreciate any input!
Thanks

andy

[kramerxxx]

I am not an expert on Splawns as I only have owned my Pro Mod a couple of days, I have been playing a long time with many other tube amps so take this for what it is worth. YMMV

Remember that the sound you hear is going to be effected by the size of the room, what kind of objects are in the room(* hard/sharp surfaced objects or soft/curved objects), cab placement in the room/to the band/to the audience, where you are standing in relation to the cab/amp, what cab/speakers you use, the guitar, the Pickups on the guitar, where you set the tone/volume on the guitar and the volume you play at. Pretty much everything is relative so this is going to change with every variable that you add/subtract/change into the equation. If you are playing by yourself what sounds good alone may not sound as good when you add bass, drums, keys, vocals, horns, loud barking dogs, screaming naked women, etc., etc....

OK, having said ALL OF THAT. LOL

I have several 2x12s and 2 4x12s, different speakers. I try to match the cab with the room. Bright room - warm speakers/cab.
Crowded room, small room or carpeting - brighter cab/speakers. This make sense?

Good starting place is put everything at noon and turn on a stereo. As you play along with your favorite songs adjust the tone controls as necessary to blend in or stand out in the mix. Try not to play louder than whatever song you are playing to as it will defeat the exercise. Make note of the kind of songs that require you to make big changes. Like a stereo I find that I set and forget the amp and just get into the performance of playing the guitar and with the band, while interacting off of the audience too. Most of the time you are going to find a sound you like that fits with the style of music you are playing and are not going to change it that much. I make more changes to my guitar settings throughout the night than I do to the amp. I step on the OD1/OD2 button on the footswitch or solo button but once I have my EQ set for a practice/jam/show I don't change it all that much. For me it is really about playing the guitar and not about how many different gain sounds I can get. The really surprising thing about leaving the amp alone and only using your hands and guitar controls is that it forces you to work on your technique. Again, this is just the way I do it, disregard if you want.

The Pro Mod will get Massive low end so set this up to get along with you bass player.

Mids help the guitar come through in the mix. Cutting the mids sounds great while you are playing alone, not so good in a band situation. Cut the mids for effect on a song or two, then turn the mids back up.

Treble - season to taste. Watch the people in the front row of a show. If they are making 'Squinty faces' you probably are too spikey, turn down the Treble.

Presence - this is the sparkle you get on the cleans, the sizzle you get on the leads and the clarity you get on your crunch chording.

Settings on mine with a Mesa 2x12 Recto cab w/Vintage 30s, (*as if looking at a clock):
Presence: 2 o'clock
Treble: noon
Mids: 11 o'clock
Bass: 9 o'clock
Preamp: 11 o'clock
Master: 10:30 o'clock

Hope that helps.

[trendkill1168]

Yeah no doubt, it's going to depend on the rest of your equipment as far as pickups, speaker cab, etc. I usually keep my mids between 11 & 1:00. Treble is always about noon but I'm running vintage 30's. I keep my bass relatively high at like 2 or 3:00. My presence is always at 12:00 or less, like say 11:00 or so. Kramer is right though......what sounds good to you while your playing alone might not sound as good in a band situation. You would most likely want to boost your mids to cut through as he stated.

[DonaldDemon]

trendkill, your settings are almost exactly the same as mine. I am also running V30's (Bogner cab) and the only thing I do different is keep the bass around 10-11:00. I also find the the mids are best btwn 11-1:00 as well. Treble is noon and presence usually around 10-11:00 and usually never higher than noon. Basically my amp sounds great with everything around noon except for the bass being lowered.

If we play a bright room with tiles or wood I will turn the presence almost off.

[trendkill1168]

donalddemon said:

trendkill, your settings are almost exactly the same as mine. I am also running V30's (Bogner cab) and the only thing I do different is keep the bass around 10-11:00. I also find the the mids are best btwn 11-1:00 as well. Treble is noon and presence usually around 10-11:00 and usually never higher than noon. Basically my amp sounds great with everything around noon except for the bass being lowered.

If we play a bright room with tiles or wood I will turn the presence almost off.

You know man, I was thinking the bass might get a little boomy with my settings but my cabinet seems to handle it pretty well. It's oversized so maybe that has something to do with it. Plus this head is very articulate even at extreme EQ settings. With the V30's I definately feel the need to back off on the presence and keep the treble under control so you don't get that shrill high end happening. I got an MXR 10 band EQ today and had a few minutes to throw it in the effects loop. I like what I hear so far.....tightened up the bass and I boosted the low mids a hair, cut the higher mids, and there again kept the treble settings almost flat and it sounded NICE! I need to play around with the settings some more but what's cool is you can cut the volume down some on the EQ and then push you master volume on the head up to about 10:00 without it killing you and it sounds thick!

[DonaldDemon]

trendkill1168 said:

donalddemon said:

trendkill, your settings are almost exactly the same as mine. I am also running V30's (Bogner cab) and the only thing I do different is keep the bass around 10-11:00. I also find the the mids are best btwn 11-1:00 as well. Treble is noon and presence usually around 10-11:00 and usually never higher than noon. Basically my amp sounds great with everything around noon except for the bass being lowered.

If we play a bright room with tiles or wood I will turn the presence almost off.

You know man, I was thinking the bass might get a little boomy with my settings but my cabinet seems to handle it pretty well. It's oversized so maybe that has something to do with it. Plus this head is very articulate even at extreme EQ settings. With the V30's I definately feel the need to back off on the presence and keep the treble under control so you don't get that shrill high end happening. I got an MXR 10 band EQ today and had a few minutes to throw it in the effects loop. I like what I hear so far.....tightened up the bass and I boosted the low mids a hair, cut the higher mids, and there again kept the treble settings almost flat and it sounded NICE! I need to play around with the settings some more but what's cool is you can cut the volume down some on the EQ and then push you master volume on the head up to about 10:00 without it killing you and it sounds thick!

Are you using a Mesa cab? I had bad results with the Mesa cab in the practice studio. It was very dark and had a looser bass response. My Bogner sounds 10x better to my ears at least. No looseness in the bass and not dark. And yes the V30's can get shrill so I think its necessary to tame the presence and highs with them.

I used to use an EQ in the loop of my Rivera KHR because the amp was so muddy but I tried it in the Splawn and it sounded so good w/o it that I like it left alone. It's just one more damned thing to set up at a show anyway. It is good for boosting the power amp though as you said.

[trendkill1168]

donalddemon said:

trendkill1168 said:

You know man, I was thinking the bass might get a little boomy with my settings but my cabinet seems to handle it pretty well. It's oversized so maybe that has something to do with it. Plus this head is very articulate even at extreme EQ settings. With the V30's I definately feel the need to back off on the presence and keep the treble under control so you don't get that shrill high end happening. I got an MXR 10 band EQ today and had a few minutes to throw it in the effects loop. I like what I hear so far.....tightened up the bass and I boosted the low mids a hair, cut the higher mids, and there again kept the treble settings almost flat and it sounded NICE! I need to play around with the settings some more but what's cool is you can cut the volume down some on the EQ and then push you master volume on the head up to about 10:00 without it killing you and it sounds thick!

Are you using a Mesa cab? I had bad results with the Mesa cab in the practice studio. It was very dark and had a looser bass response. My Bogner sounds 10x better to my ears at least. No looseness in the bass and not dark. And yes the V30's can get shrill so I think its necessary to tame the presence and highs with them.

I used to use an EQ in the loop of my Rivera KHR because the amp was so muddy but I tried it in the Splawn and it sounded so good w/o it that I like it left alone. It's just one more d**ned thing to set up at a show anyway. It is good for boosting the power amp though as you said.

I actually have a Randall XXL cab. I would imagine that your Bogner cab probably sounds alot better but I'm not sure how mine stacks up against the Mesa cab. One of these days I'm just gonna get a Splawn cab.

The EQ works pretty good to tighten up the bottom on this cab and maybe with the right cab I might not need it as you said. I hear ya on having too much gear in the chain though. It's nice to have just like an OD pedal, a wah, and maybe a delay. I've gone that whole multiple EQ route when I used to have solid state Randalls and you tend to sit there and tweak your settings all the time. Partially the reason why I bought the Pro Stock because it is very simplistic being only a single channel.

[brian]

mesa cab owner here and it is true about the darkness or darkness's if your rick james talking about Eddie and Charlie Murphy!!-brothers darkness ;D LOL (sorry for the chappelle show reference!)but anyway,i plugged my splawn into a newer Marshall 1960bv cab with the v30s and it was better sounding than my mesa(and the new Marshall cabs are built like crap IMO) so i can only imagine what it will sound like with a splawn or bogner cab.i might try a bogner ubercab(x pattern of g12t-75s and v30s) has anyone tried this combo.i have seen them on ebay a couple of times now.

[DonaldDemon]

trendkill1168 said:

donalddemon said:

Are you using a Mesa cab? I had bad results with the Mesa cab in the practice studio. It was very dark and had a looser bass response. My Bogner sounds 10x better to my ears at least. No looseness in the bass and not dark. And yes the V30's can get shrill so I think its necessary to tame the presence and highs with them.

I used to use an EQ in the loop of my Rivera KHR because the amp was so muddy but I tried it in the Splawn and it sounded so good w/o it that I like it left alone. It's just one more d**ned thing to set up at a show anyway. It is good for boosting the power amp though as you said.

I actually have a Randall XXL cab. I would imagine that your Bogner cab probably sounds alot better but I'm not sure how mine stacks up against the Mesa cab. One of these days I'm just gonna get a Splawn cab.

The EQ works pretty good to tighten up the bottom on this cab and maybe with the right cab I might not need it as you said. I hear ya on having too much gear in the chain though. It's nice to have just like an OD pedal, a wah, and maybe a delay. I've gone that whole multiple EQ route when I used to have solid state Randalls and you tend to sit there and tweak your settings all the time. Partially the reason why I bought the Pro Stock because it is very simplistic being only a single channel.

Yeah, I can't really say that I keep it simple because I use a pedalboard with about 12 pedals. ;D Some are in front and some are in the loop so I try to reserve pedal space for more interesting sounds and I love the natural sound of this amp. Its one of the first amps I ever had that I felt didn't need eq'ing. I have never heard a Randall cab before but it may be the cause of some looseness in the bass, especially if its oversized.

[DonaldDemon]

brian said:

mesa cab owner here and it is true about the darkness or darkness's if your rick james talking about Eddie and Charlie Murphy!!-brothers darkness ;D LOL (sorry for the chappelle show reference!)but anyway,i plugged my splawn into a newer Marshall 1960bv cab with the v30s and it was better sounding than my mesa(and the new Marshall cabs are built like crap IMO) so i can only imagine what it will sound like with a splawn or bogner cab.i might try a bogner ubercab(x pattern of g12t-75s and v30s) has anyone tried this combo.i have seen them on ebay a couple of times now.

Yes, going from my Bogner or Rivera cab to the Mesa in the studio was like, "Hey, what happened to my amp?" It made it sound muffled like Mesa cabs tend to do with amps. It seems like they only sound good with Mesa heads.

Uber cabs are nice form what I hear. I always wanted to try the 30/75 x-pattern but I have yet too. I am pretty pleased with my V30's. Then again I used shreder75's cab with GB's and I loved that one too!