Do EQ Settings Vary With the Register Players Play Most?

[Jerry Overstreet]

Dunno if I worded it properly, but I'm curious how players' settings vary with the register they use most. F.I., I play just about everything from the lower frets and around the middle of the neck up to the 15th fret with the ocassional 17, 19 fret or so.

I generally eq my settings while playing around the middle frets v. the high thin strings frets and I notice sometimes when I go up high, the strings seem to lose some sweetness and sparkle.

Players such as John Hughey have such a wonderful tone and clarity up on the higher frets.

So, might someone who plays up there a lot set their eq's for that...figuring if things are sweet all the way up there, they certainly will be nice down low too.... or do they just know how to set them to cover all areas equally.

What do you do?

[Dennis Detweiler]

I zero in on the 5th or 7th fret to set my tone. Then make fine adjustments to the smallest plain string around the 12th and 15th frets.
I watched Emmons adjust his tone. He seemed to play some scales and mid strings in the area of the 5th fret and adjust his amp from there. He also would play octave strings back and forth; I assume to get a tone balance with the thumb and middle finger?

[Richard Sinkler]

Interesting topic. I never really thought about this. But thinking about it now, I guess I do it. I usually play stuff between the 7th and 15th frets as a warm-up and volume level adjustment, but that is also when I make any tone adjustments.

[Fred Treece]

Probably just like everybody else, I try to get the response from each string as even as possible. Playing strings 3-4-5 above fret 12 with the VP wide open lets me know if I have the treble and gain set too high because I can hear the distortion and the ice pick better there. Playing lower strings at lower frets will identify any boom in the eq. It’s a balancing act, compromising round full tone with clarity and separation.

[Erv Niehaus]

I just set my EQ and forget about it.
Erv

[Samuel Phillippe]

I just set my EQ and forget about it.
Erv

Erv I do the same, otherwise I am tweaking something after each song......I set it and leave it for the night, might change every night but it is left there. I found I never can or have found my sound.

Sam

[Fred Treece]

I just set my EQ and forget about it.
Erv

The question is how do you set it? I tend to forget about mine too, but when I dink around between gigs, there is a mad method. Inquiring minds want to know, Erv - how do you get to where you can forget?

[Dale Rottacker]

Jerry your post is worded well. I suspect we all approach this in a similar way, I know I do, but I've never dissected it in the manner you've described. I tend to do things a bit blindly without the defined parameters or purpose I probably should, but knowing what I'm after once I've stumbled onto it.

Jerry I NEED guys like you to explain to me what on earth I'm doing. Much like Music Theory

[Dave Grafe]

If I can't sound clear and full in any register I choose there is still work to do. With a decent pickup, amp, and speaker it is usually possible to dial in a response that is full and clear wherever I choose to play.
The key for me at least is to first get big lows with a clear attack edge, i.e. just enough highs to not be muddy. Then I go for the high strings at the 10th fret, trimming mid and high controls for a clear tone with controlled highs. Lastly I go to Hughey-land for fine-tuning the balance between mid and high controls, then go back check the low and middle notes.

I almost always have a big single-coil pickup and a JBL 15" speaker to work with, with various amps, and while I may fiddle with the knobs some they have really still pretty much stayed the same for years.

On my Webb:
Tone Selector 3
Treble 4
Mid 3
Bass 8
Aux EQ off

Various Fender BF/SF amps:
Treble 4
Mid 6-8 - Mids at 7 is approximately equal to the mids level of smaller BF/SF amps with no mids control
Bass 6 - EXCEPT more like 3 on the Super Reverb. The Super Reverb has a unique cap in the bass filter so the lows require special handling

Quilter TT12:
EQ Switch FULLQ
Treble 2
Mid 3
Bass 7

Revelation Preamp:
Treble 4
Mid 3
Color 6
Bass 7

Hope some of this is helpful to someone

[Donny Hinson]

Although it's less true with today's famous players, many famous players in the past had their own particular sound. A big part of emulating the sound of different players is trying to match their tone and reverb settings, so I usually choose an EQ and reverb for each song based on the sound that the steelplayer had in the original song. That way, the sound of the song (the most important thing) is more familiar and authentic to both the singer and listeners. To me, Tom Brumley's tone just wouldn't be right if the singer called an Ernest Tubb song that had Buddy Charleton playing on the original cut.

There is no bigger compliment for a steelplayer than to have someone come up and say..."Wow, you sound just like the guy on the record!"