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  #16  
Old 01-26-2021, 08:30 PM
Paleolith54 Paleolith54 is offline
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As you add mids, you increase the gain and the chances of overdrive. The Fender Eric Clapton strat has a mid control just for that purpose.

So, no. For a clean sound, not important.
Once again, mids matter in terms of the overall EQ curve. Any relationship with increased or decreased gain is associated with whatever volume increase may or may not occur, not with which frequencies are being boosted or cut. Playing clean or dirty doesn't matter; it's a function of who else you're playing with and how your frequencies sit in the mix with theirs.
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  #17  
Old 01-26-2021, 08:45 PM
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Bob Womack Bob Womack is offline
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It also depends upon the location of the EQ in the circuit. My old Gibson's EQ was pre-gain, meaning that I in a medium-gain situation I could roll up the mids and hear them enter distortion. Lovely. Marshall EQs are typically post-gain, so you are simply EQ-ing the results of whatever gain you've selected.

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  #18  
Old 01-26-2021, 09:16 PM
Paleolith54 Paleolith54 is offline
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It also depends upon the location of the EQ in the circuit. My old Gibson's EQ was pre-gain, meaning that I in a medium-gain situation I could roll up the mids and hear them enter distortion. Lovely. Marshall EQs are typically post-gain, so you are simply EQ-ing the results of whatever gain you've selected.

Bob
Excellent point, and if you're adding them at the pre-amp stage you're increasing the strength of the signal which is what results in a gain increase going to the power amp section. It isn't the fact that the frequencies you boosted were mid-frequencies. I'm just trying to help the guy understand that "mids" are not equal to "gain."
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  #19  
Old 01-26-2021, 09:25 PM
guitararmy guitararmy is offline
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Depending on your electric guitar, a humbucker pickup might benefit from a decrease in the midrange, while a single coil pickup might need a bit of midrange oomph...
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  #20  
Old 01-27-2021, 07:12 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Paleolith54 View Post
Once again, mids matter in terms of the overall EQ curve. Any relationship with increased or decreased gain is associated with whatever volume increase may or may not occur, not with which frequencies are being boosted or cut. Playing clean or dirty doesn't matter; it's a function of who else you're playing with and how your frequencies sit in the mix with theirs.
Well, we're going to disagree on this. An increase in the preamp stage of bass or mids increases gain going into the power amp and speakers. Same w/ an increase of mids from the guitar.

A lifetime as a working musician and the last twenty years field testing (on stages, various venues) for a boutique tube amp company allowed for some actual experience. So that combined with designing and building higher output single coil guitars w/ more mid range content, and years recording, mixing and mastering audio,.. I like to think gives me a decent, maybe unique perspective on the topic.

Last edited by stephenT; 01-27-2021 at 08:07 AM.
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  #21  
Old 01-27-2021, 09:19 AM
Paleolith54 Paleolith54 is offline
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Well, we're going to disagree on this. An increase in the preamp stage of bass or mids increases gain going into the power amp and speakers. Same w/ an increase of mids from the guitar.

A lifetime as a working musician and the last twenty years field testing (on stages, various venues) for a boutique tube amp company allowed for some actual experience. So that combined with designing and building higher output single coil guitars w/ more mid range content, and years recording, mixing and mastering audio,.. I like to think gives me a decent, maybe unique perspective on the topic.
Just to clarify what I'm trying to say: let's say I have an EQ pedal in front of the amp, set such that it sends a certain strength of signal to the amp's input. I decide I want it to sound different. I raise the mids and drop the lows and highs a bit to compensate for the gain increase that is (obviously) brought about by only increasing the mids. The strength of the signal remains constant, so the distortion caused in the pre-amp will remain constant. I don't get more pre-amp distortion because my EQ curve is more mid-heavy; that only happens if I leave everything else alone and also boost mids. My point is that a couple of people (maybe you) made it sound like mids=gain, and that makes no sense to me: I don't see how a frequency increases gain. Hitting the pre-amp harder with any frequency increases distortion, not changing the ratios of those frequencies to one another.

I don't understand how this can be wrong, but am willing to learn.
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  #22  
Old 01-27-2021, 10:25 AM
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I raise the mids and drop the lows and highs a bit to compensate for the gain increase that is (obviously) brought about by only increasing the mids.
I think my work here is done, always glad to help.
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  #23  
Old 01-27-2021, 12:01 PM
Paleolith54 Paleolith54 is offline
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I think my work here is done, always glad to help.
Yeah, I think you're all caught up now.
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