I have a darkglass vintage deluxe at the end of my chain for ampless/backline situations. The onboard eq works well for my needs when I need a little eq.
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Which EQ pedal for live electric bass use?
- Thread starter smeet
- Start date
I have the Empress ParaEQ V7 and I agree that it sounds subtle. This is not necessarily a bad thing IMHO.
Master effects has clones of two Rane PEQ units. Pricey though.
Any experience/opinions on the Boss EQ 200? Seems like maybe a nice compromise between presets and immediate access to sliders.
The source audio eq-2 is nice to have at the front of the chain especially if you have multiple basses with different output levels. Because you can use the presets to balance how hot the signal is from each bass before the signal goes on to everything else. It fixes issues like the amp and other pedals reacting differently to different basses. For example if you have a compressor and it’s set up for a higher output bass then switch to a lower output bass without changing the compressor settings the compressor might not actually be compressing at all because the signal it’s getting is lower. This problem is also super apparent with envelope filters that respond based on the signal from the bass. Another issue is dirt pedals. Hotter output basses push an overdrive pedal more so sometimes there’s this issue where if you switch to a lower output bass your drive sound end up sounding too clean.
I use my amps eq as my back end eq so putting an eq pedal last before the amp is somewhat redundant in my opinion. Unless maybe the eq pedal is effecting drastically different frequencies or something.
My main amp (Jule Simone) has a beautiful tone, but not a very effective eq. Also, sometimes I have to play with provided backline, so I’d rather have the control on my board.
I've posted about this exact thing constantly people are getting confused regarding EQ pedals type parametric EQs are used to sculpt your tone tone
Thank you. People get confused by thede EQ pedals. There are eqs that go in front to either shape your tone or drive other pedals like the empress para EQ or any pre amp pedal without a DI and then there are eq that go at the end of your pedal chain to adjust that tone to the room like boughton messenger or if you want it to have an amp sim like any of those pedals from origin effects, you don't use those to adjust your tone. One of the reasons I love my Hartke LH1000. Just a simple EQ that I set flat and can adjust for any room with a pre amp type pedal in the returns on the amp like my atomic bass box or if I ever play in ears for FOH but in general yes if you have an amp with a great EQ having a eq in the end of your pedal board is redundant.
If you need to supplement the EQ on your amp (or backline amp), the Orange Two Stroke is a good one. Just two semi-parametric mid bands and a volume knob. It's great if you find yourself wanting to adjust frequencies between the amps provided EQ frequencies.
It seems very limited but I can see it working incredibly well to make quick adjustments between the amp's eq. Options can be appealing but it's harder to **** up simple. I'd like to play around with one sometime.
Q strip user here. Love it. Quick little adjustments are super easy on the gig. Hpf is meh, would rather a range to sweep through, but oh well, it works nicely enough.
I’m glad that I’m not the only one who thought this. I found the empress stuff to be very subtle, almost like the eq was in parallel with the uneffected sound. I’m trying to find a true parametric with some power. I actually want the broughton but, it’s not currently available.
I have a hard time recommending anything other than the Empress Para EQ Deluxe. I used one with an Empress Bass Compressor and a REDDI and had the best bass tone EVER. I love Genzler stuff, and that EQ pedal is amazing and more affordable, but it's also bigger and doesn't have all the features of the Empress.
Boy, the one clip I’ve seen of the Revival eq sounds impressive. I’ve owned the Mai and niiiiiiice deluxe empress eq’s and found them to be very subtle. I’m looking for a parametric that can do powerful narrow cuts for bass and acoustic. Some units can do it but, you never know if they are going to affect your tone when switched off. Both buffered, true bypass, etc.
If you are okay with a digital interface consider Source Audio EQ2.
It looks like a graphic, but I believe it can be set to fully parametric.
It does look great. I’m trying to stay analog as I find anything digital changes my tone and feel of my bass. Then again, so do some analaog devices that claim to be “transparent”. I’ll give that one some more thought though, thanks!
Ibanez PTEQ Pentatone EQ Pedal
Quite affordable for what it is too.
Nothing beats the Source Audio EQ2 though, absolutely most feature rich and flexible EQ on the market in pedal form, but if one insists on having an analog EQ I have a hard time seeing anything better or cheaper on the market than the above Ibanez.
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Only fully analog fully featured 5 band parametric equalizer in pedal from on the market that I know of, and as said quite affordable too, compared to what similar but less flexible analog parametric EQ pedals on the market otherwise cost.