What does the equalizer in a guitar preamp do?
Matty Cross asked:
What do they mean when they say the preamp has a “4 band equalizer”? Is that desirable?
What do they mean when they say the preamp has a “4 band equalizer”? Is that desirable?
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it controls the bass, midrange, and treble of your sound.
the sound of your amp is the most important thing – not how many bands of eq it has.
An equalizer can boost or cut your sounds different frequencies. For instance, the Hi/Mid/Low aka Treble/Mid/Bass knobs on your amp – those are equalizer aka EQ controls.
Each band represents a range of frequencies. More bands = more control over your sound.
For instance, let’s say you have a muddy low end and want to pull it down a bit, or your treble is a little too shrieky. A three or four band control (like the knobs or that 4 band EQ on the amp) may be just the thing to make a general tonal correction like that. If, however, you want to just scoop out your sound from 300-600 hz and leave everything else, then most likely you will need more control than 4 bands – usually closer to 7 or 10, or possibly even more.
What many players don’t realize is how subtle and how powerful EQ can be, especially when you start talking high-gain high-distortion. Let’s say you pickups have too much bass, and its causing your sound to be muddy and fuzzy. You could buy a new amp, or buy new pickups…. or you could just use an EQ pedal to cut some of that bass and maybe add some treble, etc to balance out the sound.
I see a lot of players go from one piece of equipment to another to another…. the guy with six distortion pedals, complaining that none of them gave him the sound he wanted…. huh? Seriously? Putting an EQ after a distortion pedal is one of the best ways to get new life out of it… you can take a Danelectro Fab Tone (a cheapo distortion fuzz pedal), slap an EQ pedal after it, and get tones that approximate a Boss Metal Zone (i’ve done it).
Anyways, EQ can be a very good thing, especially when your sound is *almost-but-not-quite* right.
What EQ cannot do, though, is make a Squier sound like a Gibson. So if the basic tone of the amp blows, then no amount of EQ can correct that.
Good luck – play before you buy!
Saul