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What is flat EQ?

#61
greenboy said:
Hahahahah! That's taking an optimist's point of view. Arguably though, some of that is not engineered in by design choice or mad skilz - it's there because of cheepniz and sometimes even bad skilz. But on the other hand a lot of bass players probably can't EQ very well either so I suppose some sort of hidden default voicing will save them from figuring out how they want to voice their amp and a lot of the buying of gear is really just paying someone to EQ for you ; } ...I do like being able to buy different gain structures and non-linearities though, because that very much translates into feel, and not just sound.
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Sorry I just wanted to clarify this, your saying that the only thing that effects an amplifiers tone (if you take all the stuff about bad build quality out the equation like you mentioned) is the way it's fundamentally EQed? I've lost a part of my enthusiasm for life that's the case...
 
#62
SwamiRob said:
Sorry I just wanted to clarify this, your saying that the only thing that effects an amplifiers tone (if you take all the stuff about bad build quality out the equation like you mentioned) is the way it's fundamentally EQed? I've lost a part of my enthusiasm for life that's the case...
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So let's all run out tomorrow and buy Behringers ;)

I think you'll be fine, Swami. Build quality has a tremendous effect on the sound in the form of harmonic distortion, so it's not like all amps sound the same after you EQ them. Plus EQ's on different amps all have different frequency centers, so that makes a big difference as well.
 
#63
SwamiRob said:
Sorry I just wanted to clarify this, your saying that the only thing that effects an amplifiers tone (if you take all the stuff about bad build quality out the equation like you mentioned) is the way it's fundamentally EQed? I've lost a part of my enthusiasm for life that's the case...
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Other people's poor reading and comprehension has taken a lot of my joy for life away.
 
#66
JimmyM said:
It's cool. The Fender stack, however, is passive even though it boosts treble and bass...I always thought it was active, but it isn't. Just found this article on it...can't understand it, but it does say it's passive:

http://www.pentodepress.com/tonestack.html
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"The passive tone stack manipulates response through frequency-selective attenuation. " If you can understand that, then you are home free. No boost. All attenuation. Peaks in the response graphs are indicative of less attenuation, not boost.

The 5F6-A uses tubes as impedance buffers, isolating the EQ from the input and output so that you don't have a lot of unwanted freq response and phase weirdness as you raise/lower the resistance in the stack.

Lastly, you can use a combination of attenuation EQ and overall gain structure to create about any kind of response curve, and the tone stack is still passive (cut only).
 
#68
fretlessrock said:
"The passive tone stack manipulates response through frequency-selective attenuation. " If you can understand that, then you are home free. No boost. All attenuation. Peaks in the response graphs are indicative of less attenuation, not boost.
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Kinda reminds me of the flack Villex got for a passive booster. Which of course some know is about using resonance - apparently robbing frequency response in one area and placing that energy elsewhere.
 
#70
greenboy said:
Other people's poor reading and comprehension has taken a lot of my joy for life away.
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What difference do different gain structures and non-linearlarities make to tone then? Sorry to have unintentionally missed that last section and everything. I'll make sure to read peoples posts a few hundred more times in future, and have my personal comprehension of said posts sent off in writing to several prominent English language professors for evaluation to ensure that I have a proper grasp of it's content and context to stop such a tremendous irritation occuring again ;)
 
#71
SwamiRob said:
What difference do different gain structures and non-linearlarities make to tone then? Sorry to have unintentionally missed that last section and everything. I'll make sure to read peoples posts a few hundred more times in future, and have my personal comprehension of said posts sent off in writing to several prominent English language professors for evaluation to ensure that I have a proper grasp of it's content and context to stop such a tremendous irritation occuring again ;)
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See that you do.

:D
 
#72
SwamiRob said:
What difference do different gain structures and non-linearlarities make to tone then? Sorry to have unintentionally missed that last section and everything. I'll make sure to read peoples posts a few hundred more times in future, and have my personal comprehension of said posts sent off in writing to several prominent English language professors for evaluation to ensure that I have a proper grasp of it's content and context to stop such a tremendous irritation occuring again ;)
Click to expand...

Don't feel singled out. If greenboy wasn't so firm in his opinions right or wrong, I personally would think he was trolling at times? :) :hiding: I fear the heat! I fear the heat I may have created. :hiding:
 
#73
Son of Bovril said:
this is a really long debate for a post that was simply about where the OP's mid knob on his specific amp needs to be set so as not to be effected by the mid shift... lets keep this on topic.
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Of track a little, but I think the OP was asking which position of his mid shift control gives his amp a flat response. The point of a lot of the responses here is simply that the term "flat" may not mean flat. His amp may or may not have a flat response with the mid shift button in either position. Hopefully he gained some insight here.
 
#74
Back on topic ;)

As suggested earlier I tried setting the mid eq knob to max on the Commando and in that position the mid shift button has no effect. So, does this mean that in this position the mids are flat for this amp?

As I posted earlier about the Hartke LH500 where the 2-10-2 eq settings were flat I think a similar thing is happening on the Commando. Is this a feature of passive eq? It certainly helped my fretless cut through. With the 2-10-2 setting the bass and treble controls have less affect on the overall tone. It’s like the mid control is dominating the tone, but the mids aren’t harsh. I’ll try this at gig volume over the next couple of weeks to see how it works in the mix.
 
#75
Ya, I think you've got it now. And it does sound like a Fender tone stack from all the descriptions. Although I've never heard of a Fender tone stack with a mid shift, it could be easily added.
 
#80
Just FYI a GK MB200 was measured flat set thus:
Contour = Off
Treble = 10:00
Hi Mid = 2:00
Low Mid = 1:00
Bass = 10:00

An old Fender Bassman:
Flat = 2-10-2

An Ampeg SVT:
Bass 11:00
Highs 2:00
Mids 3:00 @ 800hz
Ultra switches off

An Ampeg Micro-VR:
bass 10:30, mids 12:15, and treble 10:00

Oh, and flat on the old Tube Works bass amps was 10-10-10
 
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