Do You Really Use an EQ Pedal?

[Gillespie1983]

I've seen videos on how important and essential an EQ pedal is to excellent guitar tone. I don't use one and rarely do. Not sure it's deserving of the hype. What is your opinion? Why do you use one--if you do?

 

[PatrickE_FenderADV]

My amp has an EQ.

 

[MadFrank]

Yes. I use an eq to sweeten midrange frequencies far beyond that which my amps could achieve by themselves. It’s a really addictive practice once you’ve discovered it!

 

[AParrotLooksAt4O]

No I really don’t.

Considering it though.

 

[MothAttack]

I've seen videos on how important and essential an EQ pedal is to excellent guitar tone. I don't use one and rarely do. Not sure it's deserving of the hype. What is your opinion? Why do you use one--if you do?

My opinion is it should have been one of the first pedals I purchased years ago. It's not a sexy pedal, but the right one is pretty powerful in terms of tonal shapes you can get that the rest of your rig can't.

 

[John Mark Painter]

Yes

It is extremely rarely to see a “working” player that doesn’t have one.

But they are used as modifiers for pickup selection (rolling off lows from a neck pickup), to change a sound hitting a drive (cutting lows or adding mids before drive) or often as a lead boost

 

[skinvoyager]

It is the single-most powerful tone-shaping tool you can own. Seriously. Guitars live in the midrange frequencies. The ability to surgically tune those frequencies means the difference between a tone you can't hear in the mix and one that sits perfectly, often by a couple dB adjustment of a single frequency. Try it once. Put one in your signal path, and play with it for one minute and tell me it's not important. And your tone changes dramatically whether the EQ is pre or post gain.

 

[splatt]

It is extremely rarely to see a “working” player that doesn’t have one.

over here!


but maybe i'm the only one who sees me.

 

[GAT]

I use an MXR EQ for one thing on my board. When using the neck pickup of a dual humbucker guitar (Les Paul), I use an EQ to cut some low/low mids, add a hint of upper mids and add some high end. Really makes the neck pickup sound great, not so wooly and helps cut much better.

 

[John Mark Painter]

over here!

You definitely qualify as “rare”
And note my “ “ on working

Also note that because of YOU I will soon be buying another EQ pedal (Fairfield Longlife)!

 

[DR Mello]

Occasionally, mostly as a effect or if shaping for a piece that needs it, for the most part though the EQ on my Engager boost cover that, so for me the EQ pedal used as effect.

 

[Cedar]

I am a slavish devotee to Uncle Larry, so I have an Analogman Boss EQ on my gigging board.

Can't imagine life without it.

 

[splatt]

You definitely qualify as “rare”
And note my “ “ on working

Also note that because of YOU I will soon be buying another EQ pedal (Fairfield Longlife)!

well, that thing is just badass!

 

[JoeYello]

I can totally see how they could be extremely useful on a board but I never seem to have room for one.

 

[Gillespie1983]

I have an Earthquaker Tone Job, but it doesn't see much game time. I'm thinking of the Source Audio EQ2 for live use. Are these realistic duties for an EQ pedal or are there better solutions?
a. Roll off the fizz from OD and distortion pedals.
b. remove some mud from a Neck HB pup
c. add sparkle when switching to Position 2 or 4 on a Strat.
d. in line after a Strymon Iridium to tame scoopiness, thump, fizz, etc.

 

[AlmostWorldClass]

Definitely a must-have pedal on an acoustic guitar pedal board.

 

[I R P]

I use a semi-parametric EQ pedal. I find that acoustic guitar and bass benefit the most from very purposeful, "surgical" EQ. For electric guitar, for me, it's more about controlling the high end and the low end, which can be done with the controls on the guitar and the amp. I play mostly clean or slightly gritty though; if I were after high-gain sounds, I might see the need for more EQing in the midrange.

 

[Alabamarama]

Voted all the time. Granted, I'm using an OD as my EQ, ha.

 

[Liarparadox]

CB Automatone Preamp Mkii is my main EQ. I got tons of presets I can switch to if needed.

And sometimes I'll use one of the switches on my EUNA to make a bit of an adjustment.

So I voted all the time, even though I don't have a stand alone EQ that I use.

 

[IronBaden]

I use mine for a solo boost...put it at the end of the chain.. Mod some of the frequencies and add DB to boost.