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Post subject: Re: How to set a Passive EQ ?
Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 4:59 pm
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Professional Musician
Professional Musician

Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2014 3:25 pm
Posts: 1023
Setting a Fender tone stack is a bit tricky. This is because all the controls do not work in the same fashion.
The Treble control works by sweeping from the treble capacitor to the bass capacitor. It should be called the Master Tone Control as it can change from piercing treble to the lowest bass.
The mid and bass controls only add and subtract a fixed band of designated frequencies from the bass end of the treble control.
In a practical use, turn the treble control first to obtain the brightness of tone you want.
Then adjust the mid control. Lead players will keep the mids high for cutting through the mix. Rhythm players will set mids around center for a better Fender shimmer in the background.
The bass control is set low if you are working with a bass player to give him clean sonic space and prevent muddy tones. You can set it higher playing solo or say, a power trio, to warm up the bottom end.

While the tone stack software produces an accurate response curve, it ignores the distortion and phase shift that makes the magic in the tone stack.
There is a natural dip in output from the tone stack in the midrange. This is not from a lack of signal from the treble or bass capacitors. Rather it is from the interactions of the treble and bass capacitors that are causing a cancellation of the overall output. The signal exits the treble cap before it exits the bass cap. The time difference causes a reduction and distortion of the waveshape at the wiper of the treble control .
Here is the important thing. The level is a byproduct. The distortion is the goal. The interaction causes the boring sine wave of a guitar to change into a shape similar to the sawtooth wave of a violin. These produce musical even harmonics. None of that is taken in account in the software. Phase distortion is ignored.
The phase distortion is easily chased away by modding the values of the tone stack. Lowering the $@!&# resistor swamps the treble signal in the midrange. Changing the .1uf to a .02 narrows the band and shifts the interaction up an octave for lead playing. Changing the treble cap modifies the waveshape of the interactive band.
You can easily hear the interactions by turning the treble control lock to lock while playing. By selecting the treble cap at 12 then the bass cap at 1, you will notice it cleans up at the extremes. Everything in between gives you the Fender shimmer. Its actually the sound of two guitars, one high, one low, mixed together. It was Leo's best trick.


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Post subject: Re: How to set a Passive EQ ?
Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2017 3:37 am
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Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Sat Apr 20, 2013 12:22 pm
Posts: 718
Thanks for the description TimsAudio, I am a technical guy and I like to understand how something works. I seem to be able to use it better once I know what is going on inside. :)

But in the end I think Shimmilou boiled it down to it's essence:

shimmilou wrote:
it doesn't matter if the knobs look "out of whack" as long as it sounds good. :idea:


8)

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Post subject: Re: How to set a Passive EQ ?
Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2017 12:21 am
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Amateur
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Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2007 7:28 pm
Posts: 126
The short answer: Turn the knobs until it sounds good.
The long answer: It may be tempting to try to obtain "objective" control settings. Settings that work for everyone, everywhere, every time.
Unfortunately, since no two amps, no two rooms where the amp is, and no two people's ears are identical, this can't be done.
Oscilloscopes are fun, but they are not musical instruments.
One's specific tone recipe will consist of all the various ingredients: guitar, cables, pedals, and amp, not to mention the fabled tone oozing from your fingers. Tweak to taste. Mix well. How do you know when it sounds good? When you say to yourself, "That sounds GOOD!"


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