Scooping...

Doug · Post by **Doug** » Sun Feb 27, 2011 5:16 pm

Many of you are very experienced musicians and are way familiar with this tone technique, but for those who have not tried scooping...

To get a gutsy blues-rock tone, I usually use my bridge pickup and set the guitar's volume and tone all the way up. I intuitively set my amp at:

Gain 7
Treble 10
Mid 7
Bass 3

...and even out of my 45 year old Mustang, I get what I consider a gutsy blues-rock tone. But last night a friend explained what happens when you "scoop" the mids. So I get home and adjust the amp:

Gain 7
Treble 10
Mid 0
Bass 10

Holy sheise! Like the Stones are jammin with me!

ykyk69 · Post by **ykyk69** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 6:00 am

yes!!! I always scoop mids, bass always 10,treble ten if on bass amp and around 6 on guitar amp. prrrrrfect!!!!! i love scoop

Post by **Mike** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 8:43 am

The mids are where the guitar sound is, scooping them is ridiculous.

wwrrss · Post by **wwrrss** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 12:12 pm

FUCK AN MIDSCOOP

Post by **Doog** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 12:47 pm

It's great until you want to be heard over bass guitar, drums and vocals.

Doug · Post by **Doug** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 1:30 pm

Doog wrote:It's great until you want to be heard over bass guitar, drums and vocals.

Okay, helpful responses all. Scooping is great, and has some limitations.

Thanks, guys!

robroe · Post by **robroe** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 2:05 pm

welcome to 1990's Socal punk rock

Haze · Post by **Haze** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 10:49 pm

teh kurdtz always had his mids on 10 on his mesa pres. Just saying

Gabriel · Post by **Gabriel** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 10:52 pm

Mike wrote:The mids are where the guitar sound is, scooping them is ridiculous.

This, to be honest you can find some much more interesting tones by boosting the mids and then messing with your guitar's tone control - they're there for a reason.

Scooping the mids can be fun when your playing at home, but as people have said earlier when you play with a drummer and a bassist you'll disappear to no-where

George · Post by **George** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 10:56 pm

I think it depends on the tone stack of your amp, and other ampy things. Mine's like this:

B - 3
M - 3
T - 7

That changes here and there, but really I wouldn't go full on scooped. However having the middle a little lower than B and T is important for the Fendery sound I think. I hate the sound of full on mids. It sounds grainy and flabby to me.

ohyeahfuzzbear · Post by **ohyeahfuzzbear** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 11:05 pm

I play through a solid state amp so my tone knobs are pretty much

Bass- Full
Mids- Full
Treble- about 4 o'clock

Don't like scooped sounds at all...

SGJarrod · Post by **SGJarrod** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 11:11 pm

look at it this way.....why do Big Muffs not cut thru the mix well?...they have SCOOPED MIDS

I am not totally against scooped mids because they do have there place here and there... and I do love BMPs

but I am against 90% of the crap on the radio now and most of it is all guitars with scooped mids and all the bands sound the same....

Freddy V-C · Post by **Freddy V-C** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 11:20 pm

I really really like mids. I use a Tiny Terror now so the EQ consists of a single 'Tone' knob, but on my old amp I used to have:

Bass: 5
Mids: 10
Treble: 7

I never like to scoop mids in a live setting, but sometimes when I'm mixing a song I have to scoop the mids on one of the guitars in order for it to sit nicely in the mix.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 11:26 pm

middle is my middle name.

ohyeahfuzzbear · Post by **ohyeahfuzzbear** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 11:38 pm

Saying that. I do really love how big muffs and other scooped fuzz's's's sound.

Maybe it's just heavily scooped distortion I hate.

however I still want one of these really badly...

[youtube][/youtube]

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 11:43 pm

The pedal that worked best with my old Tiny Terror, fact fans.

Noirie. · Post by **Noirie.** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 11:53 pm

I've never been a fan of scooped mids. It just sounds flat and mushy.

I leave my amp settings at:

Treble: 3
Mids: 8
Bass: 6

brambleperro · Post by **brambleperro** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 12:47 am

I set at

Treb 10
Mid 10
Bass 10

But then again, playing through a Bassman 10, the EQ is set up for bass and should be labeled "Low, Lower, Lowest"

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 12:53 am

I dunno what I set my EQ at, I rarely use an amp that has one. If I am using an amp with one, I put it flattish around 6's and then tweak accordingly. Given that I'm usually only playing with a pianist and sometimes a bassist too, I can get away with not having to zone in accurately on one space. There's loads if space in the stuff we do, which I love.

Scooped guitar sounds sounds amazing when your 15, then you join a band and realise it sounds shit.

mathiasx · Post by **mathiasx** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 1:18 am

Reminds me of the "can't you just fix that in Pro Tools?" scene in Metalocalypse.