Real Producers and Engineers Know

How to Use Amp EQ

April 18th, 2018 by Mark Marshall

View Single Page

Mark Marshallʼs new course, Producing and Recording Electric

Guitar is out now.

Your ampʼs EQ might not work the way you think it does.

Guitarists, producers and engineers alike are often presented with a wide
variety of amps to choose from, whether itʼs on stage or in the studio, a
collection of vintage tube amps or virtual ones.

Sometimes, youʼll encounter an amp that youʼve never used, and you will
still need to figure out how to make the most of it.

This is made more difficult by the reality that each amp not only sounds
different, but also operates in its own manner when it comes to things
like gain staging and EQ.

Thatʼs right: You canʼt just dial up your Fender Deluxe settings on a Vox
AC30 and expect them to translate. They simply wonʼt.

Fortunately, with a little understanding about how each of the major

types of guitar amp will respond to your tonal tweaking, you can take a lot
of the guesswork out of the equation and start finding your ampsʼ sweet
spots much more quickly than if you just go about turning knobs in the
(metaphorical) dark.

Four Rooms

Before we get started, its important to recognize that each room you
record or perform in will sound different. Your bass and treble response
can be completely different depending on the room you are playing in.

Sure, there are some sessions when I fire up my amp and I donʼt have to
touch a thing. This is a result of either keeping the setting from the night
before, or from playing knob roulette. (Meaning, wherever the knobs got
bumped without me noticing.)

When you do have to consciously make changes to the EQ on an amp,

itʼs really helpful to understand the way in which each amp operates. This
is especially true in instances where there isnʼt a lot of time to
experiment.

Fender, Vox, and Marshall amps all act differently when it comes to EQ.
They may all have knobs named “treble” and “bass”, but that doesnʼt
mean they influence the same frequencies, or in quite the same way. I
have seen many guitarist scratch their heads when playing a Vox or
Marshall for the first time. (Including this guitarist.)

The Fender EQ

In America, Fender Amps tend to be among the most common. If youʼre

dealing with house gear at a studio or at a venue, itʼs likely youʼll get a
Fender unless you specify otherwise.

Even though many American guitarists are accustomed to running into

these, most still donʼt understand the way the EQ operates on Fender
amps.

Most classic Fender amps have 2 or 3 EQ knobs: Bass, Midrange, and

Treble that go from 0 to 10. Seems simple enough. Most guitarists
assume these amps work on the idea that “5” is a middle choice, and
turning them up beyond this adds more of each frequency.

Makes sense. But itʼs wrong. In reality, these are cut knobs. Leo Fender
actually designed the Fender circuit to be flat with all EQ knobs on 10!

The tone controls on traditional Blackface Fender amps are passive. In

fact, most EQ knobs on the best tube guitar amps are passive. The major
exception is the graphic EQ on some Mesa Boogie amps. They are active
which means you can cut OR boost frequencies.

Have you ever seen a guitarist start with all the EQ knobs turned up and
take them back slowly? Now you know why. I know it seems weird, but I
encourage you to try it! It brings out other qualities in the amp you might
not know exist. Most notably, the midrange on amps that donʼt have a
midrange knob.

Blackface Amps

Some blackface Fender amps only have two EQ knobs: Bass and treble.
Youʼll find this on such models as the Princeton and The Deluxe.
This doesnʼt mean the amps donʼt have midrange. They do. However, by
nature of their design, blackface amps have a more mid-scooped tone
than some of their older siblings like the Brownface or Tweed.

One way to get more mids out of a Blackface-era Fender is to pull the
treble and bass back. If you start with bass and treble on 10 and slowly
lower each one, youʼll not only hear less bass and treble, but more mids.

This also works in reverse if youʼre looking for less mids: Crank the bass
and treble up.

You will notice that as the amp EQ is turned up, you get more volume
from the amp. So keeping the EQ knobs up can coax more gain from your
amp. As you pull the EQ knobs back, the volume is reduced, thus cutting
gain.

Tweed Amps

The EQs on Tweed-style Fender amps can be as simple

as the titling tone control on this little Champ, or can add
in extra controls like “presence”.

There are two types of Fender tweed amps in my mind: Those with one
simple tone control and those with presence, bass, treble and sometimes
mid control.

The revered Tweed Deluxe is a unique amp in many ways. First off, the
tone knob acts like a cut OR boost. In the middle, itʼs flat. Turning it up
higher adds more treble. Turning backwards cuts treble.
But itʼs not just the tone knob that alters the EQ on Tweed Deluxes.

Riddle Me This

How many guitarists does it take to figure out how the instrument and
mic inputs work on a Tweed Deluxe? (After this article, I hope only one.)

The volume knob for the instrument channel and mic channel are
interactive. If you plug into the instrument channel on the Tweed Deluxe
and turn the volume up midway, youʼll hear a healthy amount of
midrange. But, if you start turning up the mic volume knob, youʼll hear the
tone changing. With the mic knob midway, youʼll start to hear the
midrange get scooped.

(Tip: You should also experiment with plugging into the mic channel on
its own. It distorts quicker than the instrument channel.)

Under The Bridge Downtown

On older Fender Tweed or Marshall Amps, you can do something called

“jumping channels”.

This means you run one channel into another using a patch cable.
Typically on these amps, there is a “bright” channel and a “normal”
channel. You can not only get more gain by running the channels into
each other, but you can further tweak the EQ.

Running a really bright channel into the normal channel can soften the
shrillness, especially as you start pushing the amp harder. The opposite
works as well, and you may want to try running the normal channel into
the bright one to brighten up a guitar tone.

Big Brother
Larger Tweed Fenders often add on a presence control
and allow for “channel jumping”. Click to enlarge.

Bigger tweed amps like the Pro, Super, and Bandmaster have more tone
shaping options. The most notable difference is the inclusion of the
presence knob.

One thing to know is the presence control is not in the same part of the
circuit as the treble, mids, and bass controls. You may be asking, “Why
does this matter?”

Unlike the Treble and Bass knobs that cut frequencies on Tweed amps,
the Presence knob can actually boost some of the frequency band. By
playing with the Presence knob you can actually make the amp distort
easier on higher notes. This has to do with the placement of the
Presence knob in the circuit which is in the power amp stage.

The Presence knob is an interactive knob. It behaves differently

depending on the amp volume. It can even influence the behavior of the
speaker and itʼs ability to handle high frequencies, especially at loud
volumes.

When you are going for a clean sound, the presence knob will influence
the treble and upper mids. But if the amp is really cooking from power
tube saturation (volume high), it causes the high notes on the guitar to
react unpredictably.

To me, the presence knob is the “danger” knob. You wonʼt always know
whatʼs itʼs going to do unless you play at the same volume all the time.

Those of us that like tweeds live on the edge a little. Weʼre the ones that
got detention, ignored curfews, and probably made a few teachers
despise their jobs.

Vox

A handwired Vox AC 30 offers some tricks of its own.

One of the most confusing things about Vox amps is the ever-elusive
“tone cut” knob. These donʼt appear on every Vox amp, but youʼll find
them on the classic AC30 Top Boost amps.

Before we get to the behavior of that pesky tone cut knob, letʼs talk basic
Vox EQ. When you plug into the “top boost” channel of a Vox, youʼll have
control over treble and bass.

These controls arenʼt so different from Fender Amps: They are passive
and cut frequencies rather then boosting them. But, unlike Fender
Brownface and Blackface amps, the tone stack comes after a stage of
gain. (Thatʼs something weʼll see again when we talk about Marshalls.)

These amps react a little differently than Fenders. Turning the treble
knob on a Vox back will cut treble and allow more upper mids through.
Turning the bass knob back will cut bass and allow more lower mids
through.

Just like with Fenders, with the treble and bass all the way up, a Vox amp
will be in itʼs most mid- scooped stage.
Remember, as you cut frequencies you lose volume and gain. When
cutting frequencies to get more midrange, one has to turn the volume up
to compensate if we desire the same volume. Itʼs also worth noting that
when cutting frequencies, an amp will not break up as quickly due to the
volume loss of the frequency cutting.

Yeah Yeah Yeah, Get to the Good Part

A close up of the controls on a Vox AC 30. Click to

enlarge.

As mentioned earlier, some Vox amps have more than a bass and treble
knob. They have a tone cut knob.

The tone cut knob confuses a lot of people. Why wouldnʼt it? Itʼs not on
Marshall amps. Itʼs not on Fender amps. This is a Vox thing.

Basically, the tone cut knob phases out (doesnʼt cut) high frequencies as
you turn the knob up. Yes, the opposite direction of how all the other
dials work. All the way down, there is no phasing out of high frequencies,
so you get the brightest tone. Turn it up and you cut the high
frequencies, darkening the tone.

The tone cut knob is interacting with the power section of the amp. Itʼs in
a completely different location in the circuit than the treble and bass
controls.

Why another treble adjustment? As you start pushing a Vox AC30 they
could have quite a bit of bite. But you may not want to turn down the
treble because you have the treble and bass knobs dialed in to your
midrange preference. Using the tone cut can solve some of the harsh
highs that may be the result of cranked volume and EQ settings.
Marshall

The EQ on the classic Marshall JCM 800. Click to enlarge.

Marshall amps, like Fender and Vox have passive EQ controls. On the
most common Marshallʼs, youʼll have presence, treble, midrange and
bass. These are the same options you would find on a Tweed Fender
Bassman, which the early Marshallʼs were derived from.

In fact, they operate a lot in the same fashion. You can even jump
channels for further tone and gain control. The presence knob also exists
in a different part of the circuit than the treble, mid, and bass. Volume
interacts with the presence knob just like on tweeds.

The Marshall circuit has a gain stage prior to the tone section.This is
unlike a later Fender Brown or Blackface amps where the tone stage
comes first and the gain stage follows.

An amplifier with a gain stage placed first followed by a tone stage does
not have as dramatic an effect on how the controls (Treble, Mid and
Bass) operate, compared to an amp design where the tone stage comes
first and gain stage afterwards (like higher powered Fender Brown and
Blackface designs).

Marshall amps are very midrange rich, considerably more so than Fender
and Vox. Even though all three of these amp makers use passive EQ, the
frequencies they cut and the gain in the circuit is different. Marshall amps
have the most gain and the least midrange scooping of all these amps.

Two Scoops

You might be wondering, “Whatʼs the deal with all this mid range
scooping?” That is, if youʼre a good student. You are, arenʼt you? Great!
Iʼll be expecting a gift on Teachersʼ Day then. Preferably something in a
sunburst, if you get my drift.

Most guitar amplifiers cut midrange to some degree. This is because

guitar pickups are very high in midrange by nature, and so amp circuits
generally cut midrange by default to try and make the frequency
response flat.

Of course, itʼs never perfectly flat. And the selection of what midrange
frequency gets cut is different on Fender, Vox and Marshall amps. There
is a frequency DNA for each amp. Itʼs like being born with brown hair. You
could dye your hair blonde, but youʼll still have brown roots. (Although,
my grandma wasnʼt convinced of this. She thought she had everyone
fooled. I wasnʼt gonna be the one to tell her!)

Trying to make a Fender Amp sound like a Marshall is very similar. You
can give the illusion that it is similar. But you always know when someone
is a natural blonde.

The Awakening

Ideally on a session or gig you want to feel in control of your tone. Both of
these situations tend to be high pressure. A distraction such as
struggling with the operation of an amp can add stress.

I mentioned some fo the most common amps in this article. Thee are
many variations on these designs, and some modern takes that are
entirely different. I encourage you to do a little home work before a
session or gig when you might be using a new amp.
Research a few key questions: Does the amp have passive EQ? Does the
tone stack come before or after a stage of gain? Is it a negative feedback
amp? How many EQ knobs does the amp have?

These basic inquiries will tell you a lot about the amp youʼll be dealing
with. Also, if possible, get the the session or soundcheck a little early to
experiment and donʼt forget, volume influences the tone. An amp often
sounds a little different at stage volume than at bedroom volume.

Well, I hope these tips will help you keep out of TREBLE on your next gig
or session and allow you to really AMP up your performance. Ba-zing!

Mark Marshall is a producer, songwriter, session musician and

instructor based in NYC. His new course, Producing and Recording
Electric Guitar is out now.

A special thanks to Greg Germino of germinoamplification.com for his

insight into amp circuitry.

categories: Tips & Tutorials

tags: Amp, Bass, EQ, Fender, guitar, Marshall, Middle, Mids, Presence,
Tone Cut, Top Boost, treble, tube amp, Vox