MXR 10band EQ

[jaebee]

hey, was wondering if any of you had experience with this pedal. Was thinking about getting it both as an eq and a booster.

how well does it boost without adding too much hiss/extra noise?
it's lowest band is down on like 60hz or so, so i am assuming it works well with bass, but would like some feedback.
i am also thinking about runing this before a distortion to boost / drive the distortion even more, while sculpting the eq

on a side note,

good cheap rack noise supressors?

thanks!

ps i did search and didnt find anything on this particular pedal

[bongomania]

The old blue MXR 10-band was excellent and low-noise, but I haven't tried their recent ones. EQ is a good combo with a distortion, very useful either before or after for different tones.

Good cheap rack noise suppressors... not really good, but Rocktron and Behringer make/made ones that are cheap. Noise reduction is generally so invasive that I wouldn't use it unless I was in a loud band with a busy mix. I prefer to eliminate any piece of gear that is causing noise, or optimize my chain to reduce the amount noise gets boosted. Another option, if you have something like a high-gain distortion that you love, but it's noisy, is to put it in a bypass loop. That way you only get the noise during your distortion use.

[jaebee]

thanks, after checking out some reviews of noise gates i am probably going to steer away from that.

i plan on combining the mxr with a proco rat (hopefully modded for bass friendly frequencies, if anyone has a link or knows what to change) and putting it in my sans amp loop, probabbly via an ehx 2 loop looper so i have a footswitch for distortion and a footswitch for mute / tuning, and if i understand the sansamp correctly (which i prob dont) having the effect loop at 50/50 will let me mix in the distortion via volume control, and muting the fx loop with essentially bypass the entire fxloop box (so i dont have to worry about running a parallel unaffected signal) without volume loss from the sansamp

please let me know if these assumptions / plan of action is one i should take or if i should revise

thanks!
justin

this place is so informative

[JanusZarate]

Originally Posted by jaebee

it's lowest band is down on like 60hz or so, so i am assuming it works well with bass, but would like some feedback.
i am also thinking about runing this before a distortion to boost / drive the distortion even more, while sculpting the eq

It's lowest frequency is actually 31.25Hz. In addition, it was designed with distortion-boosting/driving in mind; it has pre-EQ Level AND post-EQ Level controls.

This pedal has come up quite often - in fact, I've mentioned it a few times myself in the past few years. There are a few TBers that use them. Overall, it's a great pedal, with frequency centers that provide a different kind of flexibility that similar EQ pedals don't have. The major drawback is that it's 18VDC.

If nothing came up with your search, try using "M-108", or "MXR 10-band EQ". If you still don't get results, use the TB Google search; from what I understand, the normal TB search isn't too great for non-supporting users.

[JanusZarate]

Originally Posted by jaebee

i plan on combining the mxr with a proco rat (hopefully modded for bass friendly frequencies, if anyone has a link or knows what to change) and putting it in my sans amp loop, probabbly via an ehx 2 loop looper so i have a footswitch for distortion and a footswitch for mute / tuning, and if i understand the sansamp correctly (which i prob dont) having the effect loop at 50/50 will let me mix in the distortion via volume control, and muting the fx loop with essentially bypass the entire fxloop box (so i dont have to worry about running a parallel unaffected signal) without volume loss from the sansamp

...wait, what kind of SansAmp do you have? Just the usual pedal one?

You won't be able to do that. The SansAmp pedals don't have loops, but they do have Blend controls to blend the SansAmp's effect with whatever's coming into it. It's nothing like what you're trying to achieve, though. Think of it as sending distortion to a SansAmp, the same distortion to a clean path, and then blending those two variations together. So... no actual clean signal involved, there. You'll need a dedicated blend/bypass loop pedal (see my notes below).

Also, EHX doesn't make loop pedals of that sort. They make a recording looper (the 2880), but not a bypass-loop pedal.

There are manufacturers like Barge Concepts and Xotic that make specialized bypass-loop pedals with blend knobs; that would work for blending the distorted sound with your clean sound.

[jaebee]

i have the rbi, and sorry, its actually a radial pedal, it had EFX and i misread it (its sideways standing up...) as ehx.

so i do have the fx loop.

question.
does the blend on the rbi blend the sansamp with the effects? i was under the impression that it was the input signal and sansamp, and the 50/50 switch would 'blend' the effect loop with the post sansamp signal.

i basically just want to know if there will be a volume loss from muting the effect loop in 50/50 mode

an alternate plan i had was splitting my signal with an aby before it went into the sansamp, running one to the sansamp, the other thru a distortion box, and into the return of the sansamp. will there be enough volume on the distortion for this? as it is instrument going into line (without the boost of the effect send jack)

thanks

and for the ps: i plan on donating when i get some extra money, just cant justify it atm (just traded the gt6b for the sans and a power amp basically) as im a poor college student

[JanusZarate]

Originally Posted by jaebee

i have the rbi, and sorry, its actually a radial pedal, it had EFX and i misread it (its sideways standing up...) as ehx.

so i do have the fx loop.

Okay, that clears that up!

Originally Posted by jaebee

does the blend on the rbi blend the sansamp with the effects? i was under the impression that it was the input signal and sansamp, and the 50/50 switch would 'blend' the effect loop with the post sansamp signal.

From what I understand about it, you're right, and it should do exactly what you want (50% "clean" RBI, 50% effects). Volume-wise, you'll have to tweak your pedals and RBI as needed.

The only problem is, I'm not sure if it's a "typical" effects loop in the sense that it works best with rack effects, and not so well with pedals. Based on the RBI manual, it seems that it's meant more for rack units. However, it might work fine with pedals anyway, but it's going to be hit-or-miss in terms of whether or not your results are good. The higher output of the preamp could overdrive your effects. Of course, you can adjust levels to fix that, but then you might lose too much output for the running of a poweramp.

Originally Posted by jaebee

an alternate plan i had was splitting my signal with an aby before it went into the sansamp, running one to the sansamp, the other thru a distortion box, and into the return of the sansamp. will there be enough volume on the distortion for this? as it is instrument going into line (without the boost of the effect send jack)

With a normal effects loop, you wouldn't be able to do that - your preamp wouldn't work; only the signal at the "Return" jack would. But the 50/50 mix thing on the RBI has me intrigued... maybe it could work, since it's routing 50% of the signal around the loop? Honestly, I don't know what the results would be. You'd have to try it out....

IMO, if both of these options we discussed do work, you're definitely better off with the first one; the ABY switch and your routing idea present a wealth of extra problems. It's far easier to adjust your preamp level and effects pedal levels to prevent overdriving your pedals, than it is to use the ABY switch idea.

[fishtx]

[quote=bongomania;4640015]The old blue MXR 10-band was excellent and low-noise, but I haven't tried their recent ones. EQ is a good combo with a distortion, very useful either before or after for different tones.
QUOTE]



I want one of those old Blue 10 band MXR EQ's. I have seen older black ones as well, with the AC cable...are they the same as the blue ones?

[bongomania]

I've never seen a black one with an AC cable (not saying they aren't out there). The main peculiarity of the blue ones is they have no footswitch, they are just "on". Maybe the black ones w/AC have a switch?

[Crabby]

I had the newer 6 band eq with the lighted sliders. it used a standard 9v adaptor was very compact. I really liked this pedal and found it provided a good set of frequencies for bass.

i didn't keep it I try to keep my tone pretty flat and wasn't using it. Very good pedal though, built like a brick, no noise and the lighted sliders are cool!

[fishtx]

Hey Bongo..Here is one of the old black ones I mentioned. It doesn't look like it has a switch either:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA:IT&ih=013

[bongomania]

Interesting... I'd hit it. It looks just like the blue ones, but with the more modern paint job. For reference, here are two recent auctions for the blue ones.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-MXR-10-B...QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Blue-MXR...QQcmdZViewItem
Searching in Completed Auctions, six blue ones sold in the last two weeks, and they cover pretty much the entire range of selling prices, so it's up to the buyer how much it's worth to them.

[jaebee]

for the record, sansamp effect send and return had no volume disparity between mix 50/50 on and off on a bypassed wah.
only the usual volume loss of the wah when it was on, and the effect was much more subtle (~1/2) of what it is without the 50/50 in

guess it gets boosted to line level after the effect loop (which makes sense since its next to input 2, which can be instrument level or boost to line level before the fx loop)

[Baird6869]

I have the new black version and I love it. I use it just to boost my mids but it can give lots of reverb as well as quite a large amount of boost. I have never had hiss problems. Also it is built like a tank.

I also have a Sansamp RBI and the RBI and EQ are always on. I have never been happier with my tone.

This is the model I have....
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...ype=osi_widget

[jaebee]

how do you get reverb out of a eq?

[fishtx]

Originally Posted by jaebee

how do you get reverb out of a eq?

Good Question!