Ever think of adding EQ to your signal chain? Here’s a brief but definitive guide on how to get started.
Equalization is a powerful sonic-sculpting tool. Almost immediately after we figured out how to convert the music we hear into electronic waveforms, electronic engineers devised circuits to manipulate those signals by attenuating and accentuating different frequency bands. In recording studios, equalization can subtract bass from a boomy kick drum or add sibilance to a breathy vocal. In sound reinforcement, we can equalize the response of a PA in a room with less than ideal resonances.
These resonances add or subtract energy from the PA output and present an uneven response to the audience. Equalization adjusts the PA’s frequency response to account for those room dynamics and makes the response even, or equal, across all bands.
Human hearing is usually understood to extend from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. The frequency range of the guitar is much more limited, typically ranging from around 80 Hz to 6 kHz. Interestingly, the human voice shares a great deal of the same bandwidth, meaning the same ears and audio-processing centers that are fine-tuned for distinguishing the differences in voices can readily adapt to distinguish the differences in guitar tones. Accordingly, small adjustments in frequency equalization can have big effects in the ears of the listener, making a world of difference in a guitar’s fundamental sound. No amount of EQ will turn a red-knob Fender Twin into a Marshall plexi, but a little EQ might be all that stands between the sound in your head and the gear that you already own.
There are a host of EQ guitar pedal options on the market, from the venerable Boss GE-7 graphic equalizer (which contains preset frequency centers and bandwidths) to the new-fangled Empress ParaEq (which contains fully adjustable frequency centers and bandwidths). If you’re an EQ neophyte, stick with a graphic EQ. The sliders will be spaced evenly, and you can train your ear to hear the difference between frequencies before graduating to the laissez-faire frequency selection of a parametric EQ. As you’re learning what each frequency does for your sound, pull the fader all the way down and listen carefully, then push it all the way up and do the same. Listening to the EQ at these extremes may help you key in on the change at a more tasteful setting. Make a habit of turning the effect on and off to sample what it is doing relative to your unaffected signal.
It may be helpful to think of EQ as a flavoring agent. Like a little salt enhances a dish’s existing flavors, EQ can make for some tasty tones. If you have an overdrive that you’d like to make a little more “screamer,” add a bit of 800 Hz. If your sound has got a little too much of that green pedal honk, cut 800 Hz just a hair. If your chunky rhythm sound lacks clarity, cut from 200–250 Hz. This is where the low-midrange mud lives.
“If the unobtanium overdrive du jour is a Ferrari, then an EQ is like a Honda Accord.”
Almost every move has a practical reciprocal. You can add clarity by cutting low mids or boosting high mids by a commensurate amount. I normally recommend cutting first as a rule of thumb, as excessive boost can make things squirrelly, due to increased overall gain. That said, boosting around 500 Hz can add midrange body; around 2 kHz can help a neck pickup cut through the mix; and around 5 kHz can add airy click to your sound.
As you tweak, remember the upper-frequency bands will have more of an effect when placed after overdrive and distortion in your signal chain, as those processes generate harmonics that add energy to higher frequencies. But, there are no hard and fast rules. Adjust with listening ears! Your sound is like a ball of clay, and EQ can help you shape it just how you’d like.
Experiment with EQ placement as well. Apply EQ after dirt in order to carve your signal like the channel strip on a mixing console. Apply EQ before overdrives to cause them to saturate sooner at specific frequencies. This can greatly affect a pedal’s feel as well as sound.
If the unobtanium overdrive du jour is a Ferrari, then an EQ is like a Honda Accord. It’s practical, modest, and functional, but most people don’t dream about owning one. However, with the ability to subtly sculpt and cut or boost in the extreme, EQ can get you where you want to go.
Some easy tricks for coaxing primo timbres from your guitars, amps, and pedals.
Someone recently posted one of my pedal demos in a thread on a guitar forum and stated that he really liked the sound of the pedal in the demo. Another forum member chimed in and said that for some reason, everything I play through usually sounds good. Shortly after, forum member “Squank" replied, “It's a talent. Most gear can be dialed in to sound at least decent."
I agree with Squank, and I appreciate the compliment! We live in a golden age of guitar gear and I'm in the lucky position of getting to play through quite a bit of it. It's rare that I come across an amp, pedal, or other piece of guitar hardware I truly dislike, and I can usually get a decent, useable tone out of most modern equipment. This month, I'll share some of my thoughts on dialing in great tone on amps, pedals, and guitars.
Guitars.
Having all your guitars set up properly is an obvious essential for dialing in good tone. I like low-ish action, and for low action to work, I need to set my guitar necks to have just a bit of relief so the strings won't buzz and rattle, and in turn choke the tone. I'm always checking the neck relief on my guitars and adjusting the truss rod accordingly.
Pickup adjustments are also very important, and I set the height of my pickups by ear. I typically like the bass side of each pickup to be a bit lower than the treble side, so the wound strings don't overpower the treble strings. Also, strings generate more energy and volume in the area closer to the neck, so I typically set neck pickups lower than bridge pickups.
It's best to perform pickup adjustments while playing through a clean amp. You can more accurately hear the true tone and volume of each pickup when the signal isn't being compressed or overdriven by a cranked amp or pedal. Listen to the tone of each pickup position, and try to balance the height of each pickup until the volume remains relatively the same when changing pickup settings.
Amps.
When I first plug into an unfamiliar amp, I'll start by setting all the tone controls to noon, and slowly raise the volume to a comfortable level. If the amp has a master volume, I set it for a good listening level and sweep the gain knob to explore the amp's overdrive capabilities. I then make small tone tweaks by sweeping each pot up and down and listen to the range they work in, and how they affect the sound from different points in front of the amp.
You want enough gain to get great sustain and an aggressive sound if desired, but you don't want to lose the punch, dynamics, and immediacy of a semi-dirty tone.
If an amp has a bright switch—and you decide to use it—be sure to check how your overdrive, fuzz, and distortion controls interact with it when engaged. A bright switch can make many drive pedals sound like a swarm of bees. Tip: Rolling the tone or treble dial way down on your overdrives and distortions can really help in this scenario.
Some amps have a bright cap on the volume pot. The purpose of this cap is to allow your amp to provide a bright, clear tone at lower settings on the volume pot. The more the pot is increased, the less effect the cap has. When the pot is turned all the way up, it should be completely out of the circuit. Like they do with a bright switch, drive pedals can interact with a bright cap and result in less-than-pleasant drive tones. If your amp has a bright cap and you don't like the way it responds to some pedals, or you find it excessively edgy at low volumes, consider having a competent amp tech change the bright-cap value or remove it altogether. This can be a worthwhile and easily reversible mod.
Speaking of overdrive and distortion, I come from the slightly less-is-more school. I recently heard Eddie Van Halen say he likes to crank things until they're ready to explode, and then backs them down just a hair. I dig that way of thinking, and it applies whether you get your distortion from a pedal, a cranked NMV (non-master-volume) amp, or an amp with a more modern preamp-gain circuit.
Excessive distortion homogenizes guitar tone. You want enough gain to get great sustain and an aggressive sound if desired, but you don't want to lose the punch, dynamics, and immediacy of a semi-dirty tone. Malcolm Young is my benchmark—a perfect sonic barometer to go by when talking about incredible rock-guitar tone. His playing proves you don't need a ton of distortion to rock with total authority.
Pedals.
I have a basic rule when it comes to overdrives, distortions, and fuzzes: When I engage them, I want the volume to either stay the same or increase a bit, so I'm "pushing" the amp with the pedal. Because drives compress the sound, they can tend to seem louder overall when you turn them on, but actually they might be reducing the overall peak level. I don't want to diminish the natural output level coming out of my guitar, and I don't want my guitar tone to vanish in the mix when I hit a pedal. As I mentioned earlier, I often run the tone control quite low on drive pedals, which I feel keeps them sounding warm and natural.
Above all, have fun, and remember: Even though I've implied there are rules, there really are no rules.
[Updated 11/2/21]
We conclude our tone cap journey with a guide to the most common types.
Let's look at the different tone caps to make it easier for you to make the right choice. Knowing the correct value makes the process even easier and less expensive, because you can buy one cap of each type to try them out. Imagine buying all available caps in all values – the time and money saved is worth spending some time with our cardboard chart!
There are no hard and fast rules as to what cap to use – there are no good or bad ones. "Good" is what you like; if super-cheap, 2-cent mini ceramic caps sound good to your ears, there is no problem with that. I've seen some odd things inside guitars over the years, so experiment. One general rule to follow, however, is to use standard, non-polarized film and foil caps. Polarized electrolytic caps don't sound very good as a tone cap.
Some tone caps seem to be more common than others, so I've prepared a guide to these. Most of the information is based on my experiences or advice from customers. If you have any special questions about tone caps, feel free to contact me.
Sprague "Black Beauties"
These, together with the "Bumblebee" caps, are definitely the most discussed caps, with an almost magical touch to them. They are usually from the late fifties or early sixties and can be found in a lot of guitars from that era. They are famous for their use in '58 and '59 (Burst) Les Pauls, and some say that they are responsible for the magical tone of those guitars. The Black Beauties can be found with red and yellow print, and the 400 and 600 volt types are the ones most often found inside guitars from that time.
These caps tend to dampen some high-end, making the tone softer, smoother, warmer or sweeter. The bass frequencies are also smoothed out, providing familiar sounds from recordings of that era. These caps are for those looking for the old vintage Les Paul tone, and they can be found at NOS or used on eBay. The only replicas I know of are from LUXE, but keep in mind that these replicas will sound different, like newer bumblebee caps. If you want to use the vintage caps, make sure that you use vintage cloth wire inside your guitar and the Gibson fifties vintage wiring, otherwise you will not fully experience the tones from these caps.
"Bumblebee" caps
The bumblebee caps are very similar to the Black Beauties, and the origin of the nickname is pretty easy to see. You can also find these caps inside late-fifties Les Pauls and other guitars from that era, and they are definitely the most famous tone caps. Everything written about Black Beauties applies equally to bumblebee caps. Replicas are available from LUXE, Crazy Parts, and singlecoil.com.
One thing to be aware of is the Gibson "replicas" from their Historic series. These caps only look like bumblebees; I x-rayed and also opened some of them, and inside there is a cheap, standard film cap, masked with a Bumblebee cover.
"Tropical Fish" caps
These caps are called "tropical fish" because of the colored stripes that look a bit like a tropical fish. The "tropical fish" are often mixed up with the "bumblebee" caps, but this is simply wrong. You can find the tropical fish caps mostly inside old vintage stompboxes, wah pedals and amps, but they can also be found inside some guitars. I really like these as tone caps because they offer a very fat tone, without turning the tone into mud. These caps are no longer in production, so you can find them on eBay or from vintage parts dealers. R.G. Keen from Visual Sound investigated these caps and found that they are standard film caps that are just painted funny -- very similar to the cheap "Greenies" from Xicon, so give them a try.
"Flat Disc" (ceramic) caps
These are the old "high voltage" ceramic disk caps from Sprague or Erie that are found in almost every vintage Fender guitar. You can also find them inside old stompboxes and amps. They sound very different from modern ceramic caps and add a special flavor to the tone. If you are looking for a typical sixties vintage Fender tone, you should try these caps. From time to time, you can find originals on eBay, and replicas are available from LUXE. Another option is to get some consumer electronic devices from this era, like old TVs, radios, etc., and cannibalize from there. Often you can find them for free!
Sprague "Orange Drop" caps
These caps are still available today from Sprague/Vishay and can be found in some high-quality guitars from PRS or Gibson. You can find old Sprague Orange Drops in a lot of old Fender guitars. The higher voltage values can also be found inside high-quality amps today, as well as in a lot of vintage Fender amps. This is another tone cap that I really like; it's very transparent and tends to pronounce the mid frequencies a bit. A lot of our customers choose these caps for Fender guitars of all kinds. Old ones are available on eBay and new ones are available in almost every local electronic store. Don't skip trying these caps!
Mallory caps
Mallory caps have a tubular shape and yellow color. You can find these caps in a lot of amps, and also inside guitars as tone caps. These caps have a great fat and punchy sound, pronouncing the mid frequencies while keeping the treble alive. This is the ideal tone cap for rock guys, and a lot of our customers choose them for their Les Pauls and SGs. They also sound great inside Fender guitars, and Leo Fender put these caps inside all of his "Music Man" amps, manufactured exclusively for him by the Plessi company. This is a good overall tone cap, and a great place to start; it seems to work well with both humbuckers and single coils. You can buy these caps new from a lot of companies.
Silver Mica caps
These caps have a typical "hump" in the middle of the body and can be found inside high-quality amps and stompboxes. They can also used as a hi-cut cap on the volume pot and, if you can find the correct value, also as a cap for the tone control. Higher values are often hard to find, large and very expensive, but still worth a try. They really sound excellent, without any coloration of the tone.
Styroflex caps
Styroflex caps are easy to identify because of their tubular shape and transparent housing. These caps are typical caps from the fifties and you can find them inside almost every radio and TV from the era. Some companies still make them today, and they're one of my favorite tone caps for maximum transparency of tone with absolutely no coloration. I prefer Styroflex caps inside semi-acoustic guitars and jazz boxes. You can find them on eBay, usually as assorted sets of different values, but they are also available from some companies out of actual production runs.
Oil-Paper caps
These caps from companies like Jensen can be found in high-end HIFI gear, as well as in high-quality guitar amps. They are very expensive but a lot of players swear by them. You can use them inside guitars if you have enough space for them; I tried them a while ago, and they sounded very similar to the Silver Mica and Styroflex caps -- definitely not a bad reference.
There are a lot more caps out there, like the Vitamin Q, Mustard caps and many others, however I think this is a good overview to help you choose which ones to try. Caps sound very different from one another, and they really affect the overall tone of the guitar – even with the tone pot fully opened. Remember, there is no right or wrong, it is simply a matter of individual taste. Don't be afraid to try cheap or historically incorrect caps with "incorrect" values; I never use the factory stock values, as I find them to be way too much. I prefer values from 3300 up to 6800pF, which makes the tone control much more useable. You can also mix up different types and values in one guitar; I have a Strat with a 6800pF Mallory cap for the bridge pickup only and a 3300pF Mallory cap for the middle and neck pickups together. Feel free to experiment and let your ears decide!
Next month we will get back to doing some guitar mods, this time discussing the wiring inside your axes.
[Updated 11/23/21]