10 Band EQ... Trying to EQ room and Amplifier, Opinions please.

[Millennium Maestro]

Core of my rig is a POD HD500X into Hughes and Ketner 50W statesman. I use the clean channel which has only a 3 band EQ.

Looking for more versatility and being able to Globally dial my system into different rooms quickly I decided to purchase the MXR 108 10 band equalizer.

I am thinking of installing this into the amps FX loop... Good Idea?? Any better ideas for my use??

On a side note, I did not use, Dial in or Bring the EQ before the last show, I did however update all the drivers and bios for the POD and ended up playing a thin shrill guitar all night long.... YUCK

PS. I would love to use a guitar straight into one of my modern gain heads and be able to A/B the POD signal chain and a guitar into a Head direct but don't know how to make it work right with a single cabinet.

 

Thanks guys, Have at it!

[212Mavguy]

What is wrong with the H & K by itself for dialing in a great clean tone? Does it have OEM Chinese or Russian tubes in the preamp, btw?

[Millennium Maestro]

The POD is used as my preamp, I really like the clean H&K channel... need to be able to balance rooms with a little more precision than the 3 Band H&K clean channel.

The POD is used to emulate multiple sounds and distortion types and alt tunings 440, 1/2 flat, full step flat and 1 1/2 steps flat. One guitar all night long.

[212Mavguy]

OK. Way different from what I do, but still will try to help.

 

An a/b/y switch in front of the amp input could be used to compare the "Pod" chain to the "without" chain and routinely switch back and forth if it helps to be able to do so.

 

Different kinds of distortion... emulations...hmmm. None of them deliberately originate from a tubed circuit that they are named for describing the supposed tonal attributes. That can be worked on as well as the clean by the tube rolling thang, particularly the distortion. The classic H & K dirty tone is pretty Euro raspy, like a Marshall, capable of having a fair amount of bite and snarl, even at lower gain settings. But... what most folks nowadays think is a "Marshall" tone is really thin and scratchy, like a catfight. That screaming top end is supposed to be balanced against a huge bottom end that just can't come from most single speaker cabinets. Also, a lot of potential harmonic content character and voicing between low mids and high mids is completely lost by using new production tubes. Some frequencies are going to be boosted while others are not just by going to a different brand of tube, equal every note and octave in volume it ain't. If low, low mid, upper mid, top, and presence are all there, the tone is complete, however... slight frequency/volume differences and all.

 

There is also an interaction from hitting an old stock preamp tube with a distortion pedal that differs with the tube installed, the new ones don't have as nice of a voice from that interaction and there are very few interaction voices to choose from in the very limited variety of new production compared to old stock. So the tube rolling thang effects all of your distorting just like it does those original circuits, providing an individual response for that amp type, exactly what SS emulations can't do. Pluus, that tube amp will respond differently to the tone controls from the old tubes. The knob settings will be different.

 

It will result in your ears liking the clean tones more when you are done, but it's not something done over night. Acquiring nice samples for comparison may prove difficult and the whole process results in ears changing over time as to what sounds best.

 

It's worth every bit of the PITA and $$ factor personally, the difference in sound is very clear when compared to other guitarists. YMMV.

 

I get the idea about "One guitar." all night. It's what a lot of GREAT artists do. I greatly respect that.

 

I think completely differently. Living in the land of Polygyny and Polygamy Porter beer, why have only just one? I play through a different amp every three or four gigs, and never bring the exact same two or some times three guitars two gigs in a row. It's like being a chef in a restaurant, even though what's served may be pretty darn fine, if I serve the same thing all the time it starts tasting less wonderful over time to my customers as well as myself. And great chefs cook a great variety of dishes with a degree of being true to their type and origin. Personally, I'm not that guitar chef yet, but am ambling strollfully in that direction.

 

On the other hand, I don't want to be that good friend of mine in the 80's hair metal band with five different guitars on stage for various voicing and tunings, either.

 

That pitch changing thang is pretty darn handy, but i'd be personally displeased if the Pod noticeably colored the guitar tone when A/B'ed through the clean channel. One thing I've noticed is the processing lag sound artifact heard at the pick attack from some SS effects boxes when using a pitch change function as well as some other effects, it can be distracting when playing alone but is pretty much lost in the mix playing out.

 

Balancing the room with an eq box in the loop? Sounds like a great place to put it. Try it at home first and see how it does. Betcha like it. Before rolling all those stupid old tubes, hehehe.

[JeffB]

Ive gigged with both the Dual 34 Statesman and with a POD XTlive but not at the same time.

The Dual 34 is warm and sits in the mix well, its not the amp its the presets in the POD that are the problem.

The eq in the loop is a great place to do what you want it to do.

The Dual 34 has two 12ax7's. One is a phase inverter. The gain on the 2nd channel isnt created by the 2nd 12ax7. It sounds great, quite tubey despite the fact its diod driven.