Embarassing newbie question

[hotwired]

I have a Taylor 312CE and have started playing solo from time to time. I am one of those annoying people who have literally no intuitive or learned knowledge of equalization. Can anyone give me a decent "how to" on the settings on a Taylor? I've got the old style.

I get volume. But for EQ it's got Bass, Contour, Treble, Brilliance, in that order left to right. Bass and treble I can wrap my mind around but are contour and brilliance just "fancy names" for 2 of the EQ sliders? Then there's a phase switch (toggle) then finally a left to right slider called "frequency". I'm literally clueless on how to set it up.

Thank you!

[egordon99]

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=626096

[rmp]

contour is just another EQ setting, where you can dial in or out Midrange.

Brilliance is the "top" end. Dialing back can reduce harshness, or that brittle sound, or you can add a bit if it's sounding muddy or too "dark"

I would start with base and treble at the mid way point (eg: flat, no bass/treble pushed or cut)

then just play around till with the others to get an idea of what they are doing.

Then, blend in or out, bass/treble and those others till you start to hear sounds you are liking.

[dnf777]

Originally Posted by hotwired

I have a Taylor 312CE and have started playing solo from time to time. I am one of those annoying people who have literally no intuitive or learned knowledge of equalization. Can anyone give me a decent "how to" on the settings on a Taylor? I've got the old style.

I get volume. But for EQ it's got Bass, Contour, Treble, Brilliance, in that order left to right. Bass and treble I can wrap my mind around but are contour and brilliance just "fancy names" for 2 of the EQ sliders? Then there's a phase switch (toggle) then finally a left to right slider called "frequency". I'm literally clueless on how to set it up.

Thank you!

Ray already answered your question, but if you want to dive a little deeper, I found that playing around with a DAW (especially EQ plug-ins) really enlightening as to "tone sculpting". Having a visual graphic depiction of freq response, as you are listening to a sound, helped me immensely to understand audio concepts. (not that I do, but I'm getting a little closer each day!) I now understand at least half of what the great amp designers and performs are talking about in those terms. Well, not even half, to be honest.

[rmp]

Originally Posted by dnf777

Ray already answered your question, but if you want to dive a little deeper, I found that playing around with a DAW (especially EQ plug-ins) really enlightening as to "tone sculpting". Having a visual graphic depiction of freq response, as you are listening to a sound, helped me immensely to understand audio concepts. (not that I do, but I'm getting a little closer each day!) I now understand at least half of what the great amp designers and performs are talking about in those terms. Well, not even half, to be honest.

The plug ins stuff these days is a freakin wonderland.

But an old school a parametric EQ would offer a deeper dive too.

Those are strange and very effective tone shaping tools. A bugger to get the hang of tho. Especially the 5 and 6 band ones.

[rmp]

to take this one step further. Imagine a straight line.

At the far left of that line is where your low / bass frequencies are.

At the far right, your treble.

In the middle sits contour.

as you increase these frequencies, you will push up your midrange. .

The line now has a Bump point UP in the middle.

pushing the MIDs with an acoustic gutiar, will render more unpleasant sounds. the "quack" from that under saddle pickup will become more pronounced.

It will help you cut thru the mix if you're in a band, or on stage, but it's going take the natural sounds of an acoustic out of the equation.


Decreasing those mids, is going to render a more natural sound to the tone.

It will remove some of the "quack" if not all of the most audible frequencies

your line now has a sag/dip in the middle. we often refer that this as "Scooping" the mids.

you can use the "brillance" to bring a bit of dynamics into the mix, but you wont want too much, it's going to add string noise and harshness.

Treble and Bass will do what they do of course, but those are usually the easiest to sort out.

when your setting those, as mentioned, start out flat, and add bass to warm up the tone, and treble to give it some articulation.

at the end of it all, your flat line now kind of looks like a smile..

Bass is boosted a bit, mids (Countour) is cut to some degree trebles are pushed a bit.

hope that gives more insight.