The Art of EQ

[dberkowitz]

You've got a lot of tools available to you, but you've got to adjust things in the correct order. Start with everything flat. -- everything, including your input channel on your stage amp. Toggle the phase button on the Venue to ascertain where it needs to be -- one will sound better than the other, more full, the latter, more nasal and thin. Adjust the mix you want on the Anthem for the balance of mic and pickup you want, with the output gain on the guitar at its maximum. Now adjust the input gain on your Venue. Bring up the level on your amps and listen for feedback. Use the notch filter to dial out that frequency by sweeping the knob left to right until the errant frequency disappears.

Now problem solve what you want to hear. You've eliminated gain structure and resonance from what can affect your signal. Now you can use EQ to get closer to what you want to hear. It is always better to cut rather than boost, but you can use boosting to identify frequencies you don't like. The Venue has parametric EQ for low and hi-midrange. Boost by a lot, the low-mids and sweep the parametric to find the frequency that makes it sound terrible, now cut the level of the low mids until enough of that frequency is out of your signal. The Venue has +/-12db on each of their EQ sections -- most EQ can be done in less than 6db increments, so you probably don't need to cut (or boost) more than that.

Do the same for the remaining EQ. What's peculiar about the Venue is that the one frequency band that is attributable to piezo "quack," ~7k, isn't part of their EQ. You might find that a cut on the Treble control (centered at 10k) may take some of the sibilant treble out of your sound, as will the presence control which is centered at 3k which would be if the trebles are killing your ears. Boost the bass sparingly as that's where you're going to have the most problems with feedback.

[fuman]

You may want to check the balance on your Anthem and adjust it a little more to the undersaddle/Element. I hsave one and the guy who put it in said if you get much beyond about 70/30 mic/piezo your get too much "sizzle." In particular, I think yuour thumbpick noise might be related to this issue.