EBS Drome 15 - Your Favorite EQ settings

[MrUsefulAlien]

please note that 'flat' for the bright knob is not 12 o'clock, it's 0. bright is a boost-only filter in 10-ish khz and if you find the highs harsh, the first thing to try is to turn this ccw fully. bright at 0, bass, mid and treble in the middle should be the starting point.

if the drome has the same finicky eq as my ebs rig, download the manual and look at frequency curves. it's typical for ebs eq to boost and cut in the same time. like you boost the lows and simultaneously cut the low mids, with one knob. this doesn't work like a hifi eq and needs getting used to. from then cutting a specific mid-frequency should be as easy as locating it on the 'freq' switch.

setting up the gain right (light acting on your heaviest notes) also greatly helps. also please note that using huge compression (fully cw) also plays part, try to eq with the comp ccw first.

hope it helps a bit

This is very insightful, I have not set the gain up correctly.
I have now experimented with all the suggestions and I find these settings to work best:

I have had my Drome 12 for 15 years now and I generally run it with a little bass cut and bright all the way down and treble flat. Mids boosted a bit around 800 hz. One thing I did when I got it was get an L-pad installed to attenuate the tweeter hiss. The 15 is a great amp so best wishes for a resolution to the tone issue.

Cutting the lows really works, as you've mentioned the low mids might be chained to the lows, so it really clears things up.
Now the various basses I play sound snappy and clear, with a little bit of the POG Octave artificial high end, but I can live with it as the rest of the sound is terrific.

My settings in o'clock format:
Gain - 1
Comp - Haven't noticed it changing the sound, so either off, middle, or full

Bass: 11:30
Mid: 1:30
Mid Frequency: 800hz (as sugested by AI T.)
Treble: Noon
Bright: Off

I will get an L-Pad installed, and sort out some strong directional hum from this ancient amp (built 1996).

I think thanks to all of your help I really managed to dial in a great tone, and the Celestion (not Eminence) driver (BN15-400X) really shines.

 

[Sid Fang]

Oh, yeah, getting the Gain setting right on these amps (and indeed most modern solid-state amps IME) is absolutely key to getting a good sound. The Drome actually has pretty pleasant subtle saturation when it's run with Gain just a little hot, if you don't like a clinically clean tone. Larger EBS heads have a separate Drive control that modulates this.