Quote:
Originally Posted by rockabilly69
I'm coming back to this thread to see how it all turned out. I must say though, that people say they like a simple setup IMNSHO rarely achieve what I feel is the best tone they can get from their guitars. Workable tone maybe, but not the best the guitar is capable of. And as for EQ not fixing things, I truly find that puzzling. When I first got the PARA EQ, my tone at stage volume got consistently better. It's just the nature of the beast, as volume goes up, things start coupling, and resonant frequencies take off! I just think it takes work to get what you want. Yes I know my time in studios got me on the map faster that the typical acoustic guitar player who uses a parametric EQ for the first time. But if you want to get it right, it takes practice and that practice needs to be at the stage volume that you plan to gig at! And BTW very rarely even with the best microphones in a studio do engineers not use EQ. I don't make huge cuts or boosts with my Grace preamps but the corrective EQ that I do really help me bring back the balance in tone and volume that I get when I play purely acoustic, and having twin PARA EQs is probably more effective than a Grace! That's alot of of power at your disposal! As for the Grace stuff, the multiple impedance on the INs is great, especially in your case as I think Grace catered to the K&K crowd. I also love the routing options on them. I've been single sourcing (two pickups with on-board blender into one output) for awhile so I've been mostly using the AliX and I find the transformer beef on the XLR does something nice to my signal! But as I said in earlier posts, I really like the Empress PARA EQ so I'm wondering how you're doing with them, and are you having balance problems with the slightly eschewed K&K pickup install!
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Well I will have to eat my earlier words as I ended up buying a Grace Felix!
I had the chance to compare it to a few different preamp/setups in a rehearsal room where I cranked up the PA to louder than I would normally play and it beat the Orchid/ParaEQ combo as well as a Lr Baggs Venue both in terms of general 'tone' and also EQ capabilities.
Also it was incredible how much quieter it was (even though I actually did return the first unit as I thought it was noisy at high gain, but it turns out I was in the wrong).
I don't know why but it seemed I could get away with less drastic tone adjustments with the Grace vs the other setup - maybe it's something to do with the general 'hi-fi' ness or just better components throughout but even the 'flat' tone was better - both the Orchid and the Venue had a slightly 'grainy' sound to them.
I started off with the HPF engaged and the using the bass control at 250hz, but I found that, although that dealt with a lot of the EQ issues I was having previously, it gave me a very hollow sound once I'd tamed the low end to my liking.
Swapping to engaging the notch filter (which I have set about 100 - 200) and then using the bass control of 125hz allows me to tame that boomy/feedbacky area without losing all the low end fatness.
I'm taming the mids a bit at between 600-800 with a wide Q, and then just boosting the highs a tad as well.
This is with my OM2hT which has the 'wonky' K&K install - no balance issues as far as I can tell .
I've actually had the K&K installed in my other Collings now as I always felt the Anthem was a bit 'light' sounding in that guitar and I'm happy to say that, combined with the Felix, I'm very happy with the K&K in that guitar.
I've used this setup (2 Collings with K&K into the Felix) at a couple of gigs now, both going through my AER Compact 60 - fingers crossed I think it's going to work for me.
I have a couple of gigs next weekend which should be a bit more testing as they are festival gigs with quick setups, but I think now I've got my 'base' settings dialled in on the Felix I'm hoping it shouldn't cause me any problems - the key I think to taming the K&K for me has been the notch filter as it seems to deal with a lot of the problem frequencies in the low end that were bothering me.
Anyway I think this is going to be the solution for me with my K&K guitars - my Martin will be keeping the Anthem as that system seems to work really well in that guitar and I'll be using that guitar for gigs where it's a bit 'plug and play' with no soundcheck as I know I can trust it, but, for gigs where I've time to soundcheck, I'm pretty sure it'll be the K&K Collings and the Felix (plus I think my AER as a stage monitor at some point).
Anyway, I know you recommended the Grace early on and I poo'poo'ed the idea but I eventually heeded your advice and I'm glad I did!