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Contour and 'Enhance' knobs on amps
- Thread starter Jason Harris
- Start date
I think you might be referring to an Eden? I bought an Eden EC8 for quiet practice in the living room. Here's what I found. Two controls. Enhance and Tone. I noticed when you have both controls at noon they're pretty flat. Move the Enhance to the left (towards 10:00 o'clock) and the sound gets deeper and high end taken away. You can compensate by turning the tone to about 2:00 o'clock for more treble. So, enhance is like to the left, bassy with little high end, to the right, less bass and more of a sharp slap tone. But you lose bottom end.
That's about the best I can figure. I'm finding the EC8 might be a little too light in the bass department. While I love the tone I'm thinking of returning it and going with the EC10. There's something magical about that Eden tone....
That's about the best I can figure. I'm finding the EC8 might be a little too light in the bass department. While I love the tone I'm thinking of returning it and going with the EC10. There's something magical about that Eden tone....
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Yeah, like he said!
Thanks for finding that, @Ant Illington .
On the Eden Enhance knob, yes that's true. It boosts the bass and treble and scoops out the low mids. It's great for low-volume where your ears don't hear the bass and treble as well and is also good for solos when no one else is there to cover you up. It's not a good choice to to turn it up much when playing in a club because when you lose those low-mids, you lose your place in the mix...get covered up without those low mids.
Generally with the older WT versions of the Eden amps you rarely want to turn it above 9 o'clock or you will get lost (that's with everything else set flat). The newer WTP series isn't quite as bad because it spreads the scooping and boosting over a wider range. Here's the response curve showing you what the Enhance knob did on the WT405:
As you can see on the graph, there is not a lot of difference between running that Enhance at 12 o'clock and Max. Most of the change takes place in the first half. Word is that the WTP spreads those changes out more evenly across the dial, so yours will spread the changes out over a wider range. But, that's what the Eden Enhance knob does.
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That's basically the exact opposite of the EQ curve I'd want for electric bass.
The 10" speaker is definitely better than the 8"
I agree, which is why I don't use the enhance knob on my Eden amp. I did it once at a low volume bedroom practice and then I actually tried it once at a rehearsal with the band. It did sound good for bedroom practice - made everything sound nice and full. But turn it up to rehearsal or gig levels and you fall right out of the mix. I have a number of friends though who do run it live, but NONE of them run it above 9 o'clock and most of those are using Eden's XLT cabs which have a built in low-mid hump (XST cabs don't have that low-mid hump). My DNA cab has a very even frequency response throughout the entire range and I typically boost ~250Hz a bit just to give it that low-mid hump that sounds so good and sits so well in the mix.
Some people use these controls to good effect, and have pretty good tone to boot.
It is all about context
It is all about context
All of the Sunn 1000 Series amplifiers have the Contour control. Some of the 100 series as well like the Sceptre. The 1st Generation Sunn Model T has a Midrange knob and a Presence knob. From my experience of owning 9 1000 series amps and a Model T, the Contour control is akin to a Midrange control. On this amp it's a mild boost and on my T the Mid knob is way more dramatic in affect. The term "Contour" is kind of vague in regards to tone shaping. What centre frequency and how much boost is hard to determine with the ear. It however works. It helps "cut through" the mix. In Modern terms who knows what Contour really means....sound like a RADAR term to me. With the 2000S it's best set @ 10. Shape your tone with bass and treble. 2000S is very Vanilla in tone shaping. Hope that helps.
The scoop control on the Traynor yba200 is quite interesting. To me it seems to add some compression when engaged even when the scoop is dialed down. From what I understand tube amps provide a natural compression from the tubes squishing the peaks in a smooth musical fashion. I wonder if that's what I'm experiencing.
Iso-contour radar is a type of primary radar used for weather detection.
And the RAF VC10s and C130ks still have it!
My 2000S has a RADAR control for weather detection then! Old amps do have some cool features....Oh no, I am off my meds again!
On a serious note, it would be great to hear from other Sunn users regarding their use of the Contour control. Several members do have these amps...Well?
Next time I am in a music store I'll have to check out the newer amps mentioned that have these controls. Happy Sunday people.
And the RAF VC10s and C130ks still have it!
My 2000S has a RADAR control for weather detection then! Old amps do have some cool features....Oh no, I am off my meds again!
On a serious note, it would be great to hear from other Sunn users regarding their use of the Contour control. Several members do have these amps...Well?
Next time I am in a music store I'll have to check out the newer amps mentioned that have these controls. Happy Sunday people.
I think the high part would be wasted on me... my cab doesn't put out anything over 5khz.
IIRC, the contour knob on a first generation Sunn is just the midrange knob from an FMV tone stack... flat at 10.
On my Carvin the CONTOUR control provides a variable mid range scoop. When this control is set to "FLAT" there is no change to the mid range frequencies. As you turn the contour control clockwise, the mid range is scooped at the center frequency at 250Hz. When the CONTOUR control is set to maximum the mid-range is cut by -9dB at 300Hz.
I like the contour, however I use it set at around 9:30-10:00 which I estimate is about -2db @ 260hz (?), the rest of my eq settings are mild, whatever frequencies I'm using are within +/- 3db.
I like the contour, however I use it set at around 9:30-10:00 which I estimate is about -2db @ 260hz (?), the rest of my eq settings are mild, whatever frequencies I'm using are within +/- 3db.
