Calling all ACG filter preamp users! - Page 4

mikezimmerman · #61 10-02-2012, 01:51 PM

Can you explain what you mean by "lends itself more to a humbucking pup vs. a single coil"?

The only aspect that I can see it making any difference is if you like to boost the lows on your single coil pickups, which is something the ACG won't do.

Quote:

Originally Posted by echoSE7EN

Thanks Mike. Putting output aside for a second and looking at it from a tone perspective, does the 01 lend itself more to a humbucking pup vs. a single coil? I'm still slightly up in the air whether or not to pair the 01 with a P/J, or a P/MM configuration.

Skelf · #62 10-02-2012, 02:16 PM

Not sure I agree that boosting the lows is not possible. The upper ring on the lowpass filters adds 10 db of boost around the frequency set by the lower ring. If you select the area you wish to boost especially the lower frequencies it will certainly boost them. With a dual filter system you also have the option of using one filter/pickup to supply the bottom end and the other to supply the lower mids/upper mids and then use the blend to give you more or less of either. This makes for very easy tone changes on the fly. It does not give you the precision of a 3 band EQ that is not how it is intended to work. The filters will give you sounds that you will struggle to get with a typical 3 band EQ however the converse is also true. But bare in mind most amps have a 3 band EQ built into them the filters give you something different.

mikezimmerman · #63 10-02-2012, 02:34 PM

Alan,

Sorry, I should have said that "you can't boost the lows without affecting the rest of the frequency range", because it's definitely possible to boost the lows!

Skelf · #64 10-02-2012, 02:44 PM

Yes you can't boost the lows and still have the mids present in the same pickup the filter can't be in two places at the same time which is where having the two filters helps. This problem has been address as much as it can be with the 03 where you have low mid and high mid boost on push pull switches. This does allow you to boost the bottom end then dial in mids which are not effected by the filter boost.

SPYD3R #9 · #65 10-05-2012, 02:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SPYD3R #9

about the knob layout, since my current had 5 knob >> vol - pan - bass - mid - treble, then for the ACG:
the 02 >> vol - pan - bass filter stack - treble filter stack - passive tone

(similar to east U-retro knob layout??)
the 01 >> vol/pan stack - bass filter stack (neck pu) - bass filter stack (bridge pu) - treble filter stack - passive tone

can anyone on the boards post some pics from the guts of EQ01 and EQ02, i need to see how crowd it is.. thanks a bunch!

bump for this question..

mikezimmerman · #66 10-05-2012, 07:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SPYD3R #9

bump for this question..

The Shop section of the ACG page (http://www.acguitars.co.uk/shop/) has photos of all the different versions of the preamps, and there's a photo of the 01 preamp installed at http://www.acguitars.co.uk/News/66/

Mike

Mongo Slade · #67 10-05-2012, 09:23 AM

I have the preamp in a Zon Legacy with a Nordstrand P and a
fat stack and the sound is amazing. I use the filters kind of like paint- I mix the sound and sculpt it untill I hear what I want, and then I might use the passive control to tame it down for the room or whichever speakers or headphones I'm using. Not like a trad EQ at all, but I never saw the point of EQ on a bass. Capable of a wide range of very cool tones, but never really sounds eq'ed. That is, the sound tends to stay the same no matter which register I'm playing in. I absolutely love it!

Peace

Roscoe East · #68 10-05-2012, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikezimmerman

you can't boost the low end or the mids a little bit and leave everything else the same. That's really the biggest downside.

Well... I agree that boosting the mids isn't yet something that I've figured out how to do on the fly! Definitely requires some left-brain thinking... but fwiw when I want to "boost the low end...and leave everything else the same" I find that turning up the LPF gain while turning the LPF frequency down just a hair almost always generates the desired effect.

btw, I've got an EQ02, and one of my favorite things about it, irrespective of all the cool tones it's capable of, is that when it's essentially bypassed (filters open all the way with gains all the way down) my bass still sounds better than it ever did with any other preamp!

badboy1984 · #69 10-22-2012, 07:33 AM

i just got my ACG 0078 J Type 5 string, haven't had a chance to try the preamp yet apart from a quick plugin and play the bass. I left all knob on centre position and the bass sounded superb already, the blend knob is actually very powerful to get deep tone to heavy mid tone depend on where i blend it.

Haven't mess around with the filter and gain yet so will keep you guys updated on the preamp.

mikezimmerman · #70 10-22-2012, 07:44 AM

If the top knobs on the 3 concentric filter knobs are in the centered position (where the detent is), you're actually doing a little bit of boosting. "Flat" is the top knob all the way counter-clockwise (no boost at the cutoff frequency) and the bottom knob all the way clockwise (filter cutoff frequency setting eliminating the smallest range of frequencies).

Nonetheless, I have no doubt you'll be able to get some amazing sounds out of that bass!

Quote:

Originally Posted by badboy1984

i just got my ACG 0078 J Type 5 string, haven't had a chance to try the preamp yet apart from a quick plugin and play the bass. I left all knob on centre position and the bass sounded superb already, the blend knob is actually very powerful to get deep tone to heavy mid tone depend on where i blend it.

Haven't mess around with the filter and gain yet so will keep you guys updated on the preamp.

badboy1984 · #71 10-22-2012, 08:05 AM

i still try to get my head round and understand the concept of filter preamp after using traditional 3 band EQ with sweepable mid freq i.e J-Retro.

All i know so far is i have a gain/low pass filter each for my neck and bridge pickup and then a treble freq and treble level stack knob.

After reading the instructions on the ACG website and some starting point on how to adjust the preamp first for each pickup, i kinda know what i would expect.

The idea seems exactly what i need, sometimes i have problem getting a balance of heavy deep tone and mid heavy tone when using a global EQ system. This seems like a perfect solution for my taste.

Jared Lash · #72 10-22-2012, 09:55 AM

Here's how I got myself familiar with the ACG preamp and what it was capable of.

Mine is the EQ03 5 knob version with the tone control and the active/passive switch so I started by playing the bass passive just to get a sense of the non-EQ'd sound - panning back and forth between the two pickups.

If you don't have the active/passive mode, the next step should give almost the exact sound, just with a touch more gain. Set both the LPFs and the HPF to allow the widest range of frequencies and set the boosts on them to zero. This will be more or less the "flat" setting.

Then what I did was roll to one pickup or the other. I started with the neck pickup. Play a bit and get an idea of the sound and then take the neck LPF control and start dialing it back and forth. Set it all the way closed and play a bit and then open it up bit by bit to see how it affects the sound.

Then find a spot you like for the LPF and start rolling the boost control back and forth to see how that affects the sound. You hear what it does to add that resonance at the cutoff point. Remember that a little can go a long way.

Then I'd repeat the process with the bridge pickup to get an idea of how the LPF stack changes the sound.

Finally, set both LPFs all the way open and turn the boosts off. Set the blend wherever you'd like and boost the treble with the HPF all the way open. You get a Stingray like clack to the high end which can get very harsh as the boost crosses the halfway point. The harshness comes in because the HPF's cutoff when all the way open is at 1.5 kHz. You can dial out the harshness a bit while keeping high end sheen by closing the HPF a bit, raising the cutoff point somewhat. This is good for slapping.

Also, if you have the 5 knob version with the tone control you can take the edge off the treble control a bit by closing the tone a touch.

Now start mixing and matching. Set everything flat again and get a tone you like using the neck LPF stack and then one you like using the bridge LPF stack. Adjust the blend and the treble stack to taste and (if you have it) use the tone knob to fine tune. If you ever get too extreme, set things flat and start again.

Lastly, try out the two mid boosts. I found the high mid boost set perfect for my needs but the low mid boost was not at the frequency I wanted and had the gain set too high for my liking so I adjusted it internally. These boosts are nice (especially the high mid boost IMO) for adding in some of the frequencies pulled out by tweaking the filters.

Once you have an idea of what each control does to the sound, just use your ears and the idea of what you want your tone to sound like and you can tweak it to get pretty much anything you need.

If you want any specific advice about copping standard tones (Pbass, Jazz, Stingray, modern hi-fi, slap etc) let me know.

Hope that helps.

badboy1984 · #73 10-22-2012, 02:47 PM

After spend a few hour playing with the preamp tonight i got to admit the preamp is more then amaze and i personal think is better then the traditional 3 band EQ. I can also say this preamp is not something you can just plugin and turn a few knob and off you go when you don't exactly know what result you will get.

I pretty much nail the ideal tone in my head but i still struggle a little to dail in the ideal tone on my bridge pickup without getting too much of that wah sound ......

Knob adjustment is very very sensitive, even with a fraction of a turn on the knob will change your sound completely, which means their will be a tone for pretty much everything.

I'm getting tone like from deep heavy low end to hifi sizzling high end. My ideal tone is that low mid growl with good low end (like the warwick stream stage 1 tone). Once i adjust the both pickup setting and blend it a little towards the neck pickup i got my tone straight way.

Credit to Alan for the preamp. I'm a one happy man now

Was wondering whats everyone's favorite setting? Consider you have 2 pickups.

My setting are:

Neck Pickup: gain boost a little and low pass filter turn a little anti clockwise
Bridge Pickup: gain boost around half and low pass filter turn a little anti clockwise also
Treble: gain set in the middle and filter set in the middle also
Blend: a little towards the neck pickup and play near the bridge pickup.

Jared Lash · #74 10-22-2012, 03:18 PM

It depends on what I want to do.

Last night I wanted a little more vintage tone so I was soloing the neck pickup, slight rolloff on the LPF with a bit of boost, 0 treble boost and the tone rolled off about a third of the way.

Later I was going for more of a Fodera-like modern and super even tone so I ran the blend 50/50, cut both LPF back about a quarter turn with no boost, set the treble stack just past the "gank" region (a third of the way or so) with the boost set about the same and rolled off just a touch of the top with the tone control.

badboy1984 · #75 10-22-2012, 03:38 PM

i still trying to get my head round after coming from a tradition 3 band EQ setting. Roll off on the filter means turning the knob clockwise right?

i.e anti clockwise on LPF will give me alot of low end and clockwise will start to roll off the low end

Jared Lash · #76 10-22-2012, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by badboy1984

i still trying to get my head round after coming from a tradition 3 band EQ setting. Roll off on the filter means turning the knob clockwise right?

i.e anti clockwise on LPF will give me alot of low end and clockwise will start to roll off the low end

Well, the filters work in different ways. A low pass filter allows notes BELOW a certain threshold to pass through while a high pass filter (the treble knob) allows notes ABOVE a certain threshold to pass.

If the LPF knobs are turned all the way towards the neck they are all the way "open" meaning that they pass all the frequencies up 7000 Hz. Turning the knobs towards the bridge closes the low pass filters meaning that the frequency range is being cut, starting with the highest frequencies. At the max position only frequencies under 70 Hz pass through.

Either way, you're not really "rolling off" low end until the low pass filter is nearly closed. What you're rolling off are highs and mids.

For the treble stack, it's a high pass filter so it works in the opposite way. When set all the way towards the bridge it lets all frequencies above 1500 Hz to pass through. As you roll it towards the neck it raises that threshold to where all the way towards the neck it only passes sounds above 10,000 Hz. At the most extreme my tweeterless cab does nothing even when I crank the boost since they only have a response up to almost 9000 Hz. But if you've got tweeters, you'll hear the effect through the whole range.

So there's significant overlap in the range of the LPF and HPF but if you start turning them both towards their extreme positions the net result is a scooping of the mids.

The boosts work slightly differently between the LPF stacks and the treble stack as well. On the LPF stacks the boost is an "overshoot peak control" which basically means you're getting a gain boost right around the cutoff frequency. For the high pass filter it's a shelving boost which means that it boosts the frequencies at the cutoff point AND all the frequencies above it.

As I said, I'd really focus on the range of sounds you can get with ONE pickup and the LPF stack and treble stack until you're really comfortable/familiar with how turning the knobs changes the sounds. Then the fun really begins as you can set the LPF stack for each pickup different and blend the two sounds together to open up a pretty much limitless range of tones.

jacojbass · #77 10-23-2012, 07:53 AM

I'm interested in one of theses pre's. How hard are they to install, any soldering to do at all? I plan to uses mk-5 barts, anyone do this?

mikezimmerman · #78 10-23-2012, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jacojbass

I'm interested in one of theses pre's. How hard are they to install, any soldering to do at all? I plan to uses mk-5 barts, anyone do this?

No soldering at all. The installation instructions for the EQ-01 are at http://www.acguitars.co.uk/docs/news/160.pdf and for EQ-02 are at http://www.acguitars.co.uk/docs/news/161.pdf

Mike

jacojbass · #79 10-23-2012, 08:10 AM

I wish it showed the jack installed...I have a long barrel type on my bass, not usally the kind that is prewired.

mikezimmerman · #80 10-23-2012, 08:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jacojbass

I wish it showed the jack installed...I have a long barrel type on my bass, not usally the kind that is prewired.

Unfortunately, it doesn't show the wiring for the jack itself, but it sounds as if you already have that installed and wired. The output (jack), ground, and battery connections are simply screwed into three solderless connections on the preamp board.