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In a bid to help me stand out better in my band's mix I was thinking of adding a graphic eq pedal at the end of my pedal chain. My question is whether there is an ideal frequency, or frequency range, that I could boost in order to help me be heard better?

There are a ton of variables here that depends on your band and the makeup of it. Tone of the bassist. Tone of other guitarist. Tone of vocals. Etc, etc.

Boosting the high-mids will allow you to cut through instantly, but too much can cause listener fatigue in the audience and you'll come off as subconsciously annoying. Very often subtractive EQ can benefit more than additive when you're trying to avoid getting overly harsh (i.e. instead of boosting the mids to buggery to get more midrange, cut out a lot of bass and a little treble).

Still, when in doubt, mids mids mids. Hardly any bar band guitarists I ever hear crank their amp mids enough and the problems generally start there and progress as cheap PAs or shitty distortion/fuzz pedal settings come into play.

Thanks for that. I'll try taking the bass and treble down and adding a bit of mids and see how that works. First I need to get an eq pedal first though. My Bassman doesn't have a mids control so I guess any kind of mid control I can get would help, although I don't always get to use my Bassman for practice/gigs.

suggestions above are pretty bob on. i use a graphic eq for solos, works MILES better than an OD or distortion. might not seem it "onstage" but definately pays dividends out front

pens makes a good point about it being specific to your setup/band but mids boost is definately a good place to start if you just wanna "stand out more." start there and tweak each gig.

Agree with Paul.
You can stand out without one which seems to be more achievable with high mids and less distortion. Took me years to realise and it did me good to use pedals like the Tubescreamer because it limited how daft i could go with the gain.
Well worth trying an EQ though, might be easier and they have other uses as well.

Having the speakers as level to, or as pointed at your ears as possible is the most major jump you can make to definition.. do you use an angled 4x12?

I usually just use whatever amps are in the studio rather than my Bassman. For example last night I used the a Marshall Valvestate but had the amp at pretty much ear height and my guitar cut through fine most of time but when the drummer started whacking his cymbals and the bass player put his distortion on the guitar would get lost, despite being pretty loud in itself.

You might find a parametric EQ a lot more handy as you'll be able to sweep to the 'sweet spot' to suit the rest of the mix and the current amp, as well as adjust the width of the Q:



It kinda sounds like your guitar tone is relying too heavily on top-end to cut through, if it's getting totally buried by the cymbals. PUMP DEM MIDS

Thanks. I'll look into a parametric eq.

The sound would do weird things. I could be playing a heavy power chord riff and it would seem like my volume was quiet in relation to the bass/drums but then I could play a solo with exactly the same pedal and settings with no volume boost and it would seem really loud and totally cut through the bass/drums.

Get your band to play at a more moderate level?

Are you playing with a squashy fuzz, perchance?

Doog, do you have one of those Artec pedals? If so, any good?

Nopes, just came up on a Google image search for 'parametric EQ pedal' as a good example of what I was getting at: single sweepable band with control over Q and gain, rather than insane 20-band monster.

Mike wrote:Get your band to play at a more moderate level?

You can't turn the volume on a drum kit down. Telling a drummer not to hit their drums so hard tends not to work either.

In answer to Doog, i'm not using a fuzz - but I am using a compressor but it's not super squashed, only a very slight, hardly noticeable level of squashiness.

johnnyseven wrote:The sound would do weird things. I could be playing a heavy power chord riff and it would seem like my volume was quiet in relation to the bass/drums but then I could play a solo with exactly the same pedal and settings with no volume boost and it would seem really loud and totally cut through the bass/drums.

That's a bit of frequency masking. Basically your bassist and your drummer's cymbals are occupying the same frequencies that parts of your guitar sound does when you do the power chords... this is exactly what happens when your mids are scooped out, bassists and drummers wash you out.

Also you aren't laying the compression on real thick are you? Because then the harder you strummed the more it would attenuate you, which can give disappointing results jumping from 5th chord rhythms into single-note leads for sure.

The pedal I was using was a modded Metal Zone. I thought I had the eq on it set up to boost the mids, I guess I didn't. I've got a Boss OS2 coming my way so maybe I should try setting it up with the colour knob for a flat eq and use an eq pedal to boost my mids.

Re compression, I had my modded CS3 set with the compression at 9 o'clock - i.e. so little compression it is hardly noticeable. Maybe next week i'll try it with the CS3 off to see if it works any better.

Does your bass player use a compressor? I saw a band at the weekend that was alright, but the bass player was using a SG bass uncompressed and it was shitting all over everything else. It sounded bloody awful.

Nope, he wouldn't have a clue what one is.

johnnyseven wrote:The pedal I was using was a modded Metal Zone. I thought I had the eq on it set up to boost the mids, I guess I didn't. I've got a Boss OS2 coming my way so maybe I should try setting it up with the colour knob for a flat eq and use an eq pedal to boost my mids.

I could never get that mid boost sound with a MT-2, they are great for playing at home with but never worked for me in a band. The OS-2 will jump out the mix by comparison, especially if the setting leans more toward the Overdrive setting.