Amp EQ

[Brady]

Afternoon all,
First up, apologies if this isn't the right forum but the Amps forum looks a bit too serious for this type of question! I'm a novice to bass guitar but have tons of experience in parametric EQ. Embarrassingly enough, I'm struggling to understand the EQ controls on my Belcat amp.

They're "chickenhead" dials twisting from 0-10. Somehow the answer is eluding me - so, for a flat EQ would all 4 knobs be on 0 or 5? I ask as I'm wondering if the answer is "0", then how can I attentuate frequencies?

Really appreciate any advice! One-digit answers most welcome

John

 

[ics1974]

flat means in the middle. If you go past the middle you are boosting, if you go lower then you are cutting.

 

[Brady]

So the flat point is 5? To reiterate mate, I understand EQ, just not these 0-10 dials (I'm parametric / graphic EQ background).

 

[Brady]

right no worries just realised I missed the point - thanks.

 

[ics1974]

Best to check your user manual to see exactly how the eq works just incase it's boost only or something weird but generally speaking setting it in the middle is the neutral (flat setting)

 

[bongomania]

Em, no, that's only true some of the time. It could be a Fender tone stack or a James/Baxendall stack, where 12:00 is definitely not flat. Those are very common. And even in cases where 12:00 does represent a zero point of no boosting or cutting, the amp may often have a baked-in preset EQ as an inherent part of its "voicing". So finding the flat position on those amps is not just a matter of finding whether the knob is set to cut or boost, but also finding out what the inherent EQ profile is.

 

[bongomania]

A common example of "flat" for a Fender stack is low 7:00, mid 5:00, high 7:00. (0, 10, 0 on the 0-10 scale).

What model of Belcat amp--and can you post a link to the manual?

 

[Brady]

Thanks for the replies, well appreciate the help!
It's a Belcat 15W, the manual was a slip of paper and the EQ details were limited. Cheers for the tips though, I think I'll run it through an EQ I'm familiar with and see what moves.

Thanks all, have a good evening

John

 

[InternetAlias]

Flat doesn't exist. Everything colors the sound. Try to get what works well in the mix and what sounds good to your ears. Flat tone stack doesn't help since the preamp and amp have certain frequency responses.