HOW DO YOU EQ YOUR GUITAR SOUND?, SHARE IT!!

[Cristobal Tapia De Veer]

Hi, I found someplace the EQ sheets for Metallica's 'Ride the Lightning' and 'Master of Puppets', in general it goes like this: (in + or - 5 db increments) boost at 100hz, dip at 1k, boost at 5k... This has been very useful for me since it works pretty much all the time to give some weight and definition to metal guitars. I must add that I also dip some low mids (depending on your room tone) between 400hz and 700hz, some mud happens there very often. I always compress a bit depending on how dynamic the part is, it adds some punch to it.

How about you guys??

 

[waif]

You wanna share those EQ sheets plz?

 

[Cristobal Tapia De Veer]

I'm sorry but that quote you put in your message sounds like white power to me, correct me if I'm wrong...

 

[waif]

It's not entirely white power, but the guy who posted it is a racist gun nut. I quoted it because it makes me laugh really hard. It just occurred to me that many people will think I quoted it because I agree with it. Woops.

 

[viewerfromnihil]

I'm sorry but that quote you put in your message sounds like white power to me, correct me if I'm wrong...

How does it sound white power in anyway? There's nothing about it that says whites are superior or better. It merely points out how biased the stuff kids learn in school is.

 

[waif]

No, but the sentiments the quote conveys often go hand in hand with white power.

Also, tbh, I live in the most liberal place in the states and go to school there, and I can conclusively state that kids are not being taught that white people are evil.

 

[Orion Crystal Ice]

My amp has an EQ..


and I like turning the knobs around

 

[Harry Hughes]

The way the guitars on RTL and MoP make them sound really weak and thin compared to modern standard.
Sure, the frequencies they scooped out on those early Metallica records added a fair bit of grind to the tone, but at the expense of a lot of body.
Guitar is all about mid range dude, don't scoop out those mid frequencies like they used to.
Listen to, Gojira or the latest Between The Buried and Me records, and compare them to the old Metallica stuff.
For what those guitar tones lack in the old Metallica rhythm guitar grind, they make up for by having significantly more body to the sound.
Where the old Metallica stuff was more of a low end thump, BtBaM/Gojira is more of a mid range "shoved in the gut and then some" sound.
This really makes it sound a shit ton heavier and in a live situation especially, makes it way easier to cut through.
Even Metallica themselves, once the "gods of low mid scoop" tone had to resort to adding back some of those mids to their tone when they played live, which pretty much proves the point of how mid range is far more important than low end when it comes to guitar.
You have a bassist for the low end, so you may as well keep those mids and upper mids fairly high anyway to get the best out of the bassist's playing.

 

[Orion Crystal Ice]

BTTEHB&M has a very nice rhythm tone on 'Colors', something very close to what I shoot for, and despite loving tons and tons of bands, when the subject of tone comes up, I rarely have something extremely favorable to say.

Victor Smolski on the Rage album, 'Unity', has an extremely good tone as well. In subsequent records he scooped it more and it also sounded a little mechanical, but everything is good and right on that album.


Not to mention, you scoop too much on the good tube amps of today, it's gonna sound like butt, flat out.

 

[waif]

The sound on the old Metallica albums was pretty much perfect for what they were doing. Ride in particular.

 

[Harry Hughes]

The sound on the old Metallica albums was pretty much perfect for what they were doing. Ride in particular.

True enough perhaps, but I still don't particular enjoy the tone nonetheless.

 

[Vacant_Planets]

True enough perhaps, but I still don't particular enjoy the tone nonetheless.

We is right, it was the right tone for them, but I dislike it myself too. It's crunchy enough, but way too thin.

 

[Orion Crystal Ice]

Exactly, even some of my favorite bands, favorite songs, if I were to dissect it sonically, from my guitar perspective, most of the tones are stuff I would at if it came out of my stack, and have no idea what to play with it.

 

[Harry Hughes]

I guess more in line with what the OP was asking, as you could probably tell, I like my mids.
i confess to once using the silly ultra scooped tone back in my early days of playing, but as I started to play more lead and especially legato licks, I found the scooped tone and legato licks don't sound good together at all.
Once you bring the mids up, I found I could back down the gain, which added dynamics and the legato playing started to sound smoother and more controlled after that.

 

[Vacant_Planets]

No mids for meeeee, and a little more treble than bass too.

 

[Harry Hughes]

No mids for meeeee, and a little more treble than bass too.

Guessing you don't play in a band?
Once you play in a band, you stop doing the no mids bullshit, because it doesn't make sense to scoop mids, since a guitar is fundamentally a mid range instrument.

 

[Vacant_Planets]

Guessing you don't play in a band?
Once you play in a band, you stop doing the no mids bullshit, because it doesn't make sense to scoop mids, since a guitar is fundamentally a mid range instrument.

That's true, however the tone works for me just fine. There are plenty of recorded guitar tones this way through out metal.....of course how scooped it is is important. Can hear the bass well at this tone, I actually have 2 copy tones, one that has middles at 5 and one 7.

 

[patriot2011]

Guessing you don't play in a band?
Once you play in a band, you stop doing the no mids bullshit, because it doesn't make sense to scoop mids, since a guitar is fundamentally a mid range instrument.

Actually, I know some bands that do this in some of their songs. As I Lay Dying, Destroy the Runner, All That Remains, etc... I do agree in the sense that it can cause all the other instruments to over-power the guitar, but they don't have to. You just have to have every instrument tuned right. Yes, this is annoying and time consuming, but it can work.

 

[Harry Hughes]

That's true, however the tone works for me just fine. There are plenty of recorded guitar tones this way through out metal.....of course how scooped it is is important. Can hear the bass well at this tone, I actually have 2 copy tones, one that has middles at 5 and one 7.

A studio recording is a whole different ball game to a live environment though.
Hell, back in my young and silly days of "GAIN ON MAX, TREBLE AND BASS ON MAX NO MIDS FUCKING BROOTALZ" I recorded with those kinda settings and just double/triple tracked and could hear it fine.
What I tend to think happens in a band environment, is that since you lack mids you have to keep turning up the amp louder, which just results in this ice picky and boomy tone that competes with the bass, bass drum and cymbals. You shouldn't be competing with them, you need to give them space to breathe, which is why most pro guitarists prefer less gain, less treble and bass and more mids.

 

[mrbean667]

Definitely more bass than treble, mids about half.
For bass, I like a slight scooped sound to compensate for the mids in the guitars.