Remember scooping your mids for the first time???

[anomaly]

even angus keeps his mids at like 2.

3, but he has his bass and treble at 3 as well. They're Marshall superleads as well, so that EQ ain't exactly cutting out much. Angus has a very balanced tone IMO.

 

[ccn]

I think going through a bunch of amps is just part of being a guitar player . No matter what you have at any current time you will eventually start to crave something new and different (Even when others insist your tone is great as is ) , it's just a never ending quest that's seemingly impossible to overcome .

Some people can't be happy with a single sports car they eventually need multiple garages full of different sports cars .

 

[RaceU4her]

6/4/6 BMT works great with most amps for most applications

 

[anomaly]

6/4/6 BMT works great with most amps for most applications

There are a lot of amps out there that need some rather extreme settings to get the best results.

 

[VESmedic]

Totally disagree with setting everything at noon. Never worked for me

Totally agreed. I have never used any amp with everything at noon. The exception being amps with an an active eq like the JSX, or the recto in that everything is around noon often I’ll admit, but not always. Scooping out my recto sounds like ( big shocker) some of the most coveted tons in metal: Meshuggah’ish etc. but who would wanna sound like that? Turn up thay boxy bloated honky midrange! The fuck does EVH know!?

 

[Rex Rocker]

Which is why I'm always surprised about people speaking of the 6/6/6 setting on a 5150.

Are we hearing the same thing? Mids above 4 on any iteration of the 5150 sounds like a honking duck!

 

[VESmedic]

Which is why I'm always surprised about people speaking of the 6/6/6 setting on a 5150.

Are we hearing the same thing? Mids above 4 on any iteration of the 5150 sounds like a honking duck!

No…. They are Fucking idiots. I laugh every time I see people swear by those settings because it’s been regurgitated for years and years as if it somehow sounds good. It doesn’t. Another example of how idiotic the internet is….. because MIDZ RULE! …..

 

[311boogieman]

 

[TheGreatGreen]

There are some subtleties that can be touched on here. There’s scooping mids, and then there’s scooping mids.

You can be relatively subtle and scoop some mids just to the point of minimizing bloat and honk so you can sound relatively balanced, while shifting the emphasis to the highs for more detail and articulation. Or, you can open palm slam that mid control through the floor until your overall EQ signature looks like a bathtub curve and all you hear are boomy sine waves under a wall of fizz.

However, these guys who slam their mids to 10 to the detriment of everything else because "guitar is a midrange instrument," always sound like a goose honking into a megaphone, or like they’re playing through a half-cocked wah. It just sounds stupid. And once you hit a certain threshold in cranking those mids, your guitar will start to sound small, narrow, and flat.

It’s all about balance.

 

[Jdub]

Schenker

Uli

The Kings!

 

[cetanu]

You can be relatively subtle and scoop some mids just to the point of minimizing bloat and honk so you can sound relatively balanced, while shifting the emphasis to the highs for more detail and articulation. Or, you can open palm slam that mid control through the floor so your overall EQ signature looks like a bathtub curve and all you hear are boomy sine waves under a wall of fizz.

When people are talking about "scooping mids" in a non-recording/mixing context on a gear forum I'm sure it is pretty much about the "bathtub curve" instead of finding balance in a mix/guitar tone.

 

[ZEEGLER]

Totally disagree with setting everything at noon. Never worked for me

It certainly depends on the amp, speakers, pickups, etc., and of course I'm not saying I keep them right at noon, but on most of my amps I don't deviate too much from the middle positions.

 

[ZEEGLER]

This myth is a big reason why so many people flip amp after amp.

If people are flipping amps because they don't like the EQs set at noon, well those people are idiots.

 

[thegame]

Some people don't realize that some circuits are inherently scooped sounding, by design. Eg. Recto Red Channel, Uberschall, ENGL Powerball. Modern amps like that with tons of low and high frequency extension will always have a relatively scooped sound compared to a vintage Marshall for example. When dialing in one of those modern amps, some may think they've dialed in "a ton of mids" by adjusting that parameter to 8 or 9, but the reality is they're just minimizing the scooped nature of that particular circuit, especially if they don't correspondingly lower the bass/depth and presence as well.

 

[ZEEGLER]

People say the old mesa rectifier clean sucks. When the eq is set to everything around noon, they're right, it sounds terrible. Change settings to treble and mid maxed, bass and presence 9-10 o'clock and gain and channel vol about noon. Is it blackface fender clean? No, but I'll be damned if it doesn't sound quite good. How many nooners would even think of trying those settings?

I'd argue that if you're a habitual set it at noon and forget it type person its likely you never truly experienced great tone. Of course many would disagree because this is guitar forum and everyone is a self proclaimed tone expert, (which I'm also guilty of) but I just don't see how people think they're getting the most out of their gear if they take this approach.

I'm not sure who is even saying that.

Playing with your mids scooped is fun when you're 15 and playing in your bedroom, but it completely sucks when you're playing with a live band. Mids are your guitars essential frequencies. When you scoop them out, you're left with frequencies that are competing with bass and cymbals. The only way to combat this is to turn up louder and louder. Great way to start a band fight.

Amplifier designers for the most part kinda know what they're doing, so when you've got your EQ settings all at noon, you can pretty much get a decent tone without deviating too much from that.

I've owned a ton of amps (still, not even close to some people on here) and yeah some of them, you kinda have to shake your head and think that maybe the designers were really fucking high when they decided where their EQ setting would sit. The Krank Rev 1 comes to mind.

But having said that (and here I go repeating/re-stating) the majority of the amps I've owned really did sound very decent (in a band setting, because that's how I use my 100 watt heads) with minimal deviation from the middle (noon) settings. Does that mean I set the knobs there and never touched them? Fuck no. Who the fuck would do that? That's the dumbest shit I've ever heard. Also, I feel it necessary to point out that I don't really give a flying fuck about clean tone.

I'd be interested to see a poll of how many dudes here actually play in a band versus how many are just into recording or bedroom playing. I'm certainly not knocking those who don't play in bands. God knows, it's sometimes a massive pain in the dick. But I do think it is a HUGE factor in how you use your gear.

 

[anomaly]

I can recall scooping my mids right from the beginning. I always just set the dials on my amps where it sounded heaviest. I really liked Metallica's AJFA album tone when I first started so I tried to emulate that tone. I would basically zero the mids on my little combo amp, crank the gain, bass and treble pretty high.

When I started playing with a drummer I didn't understand at the time why I was getting buried, so when I discovered midrange, that was the real revelation. Boosting with overdrives was another revelation. I thought to myself, why didn't I think of this earlier? I had to come to a musicians forum (HC) to find out about boosting and midrange. That was around 2001 when the internet was starting to get a little more popular.

 

[anomaly]

I'm not sure who is even saying that.

I've owned a ton of amps (still, not even close to some people on here) and yeah some of them, you kinda have to shake your head and think that maybe the designers were really fucking high when they decided where their EQ setting would sit. The Krank Rev 1 comes to mind.

But having said that (and here I go repeating/re-stating) the majority of the amps I've owned really did sound very decent (in a band setting, because that's how I use my 100 watt heads) with minimal deviation from the middle (noon) settings. Does that mean I set the knobs there and never touched them? Fuck no. Who the fuck would do that? That's the dumbest shit I've ever heard. Also, I feel it necessary to point out that I don't really give a flying fuck about clean tone.

I'd be interested to see a poll of how many dudes here actually play in a band versus how many are just into recording or bedroom playing. I'm certainly not knocking those who don't play in bands. God knows, it's sometimes a massive pain in the dick. But I do think it is a HUGE factor in how you use your gear.

Other than my master volume setting, my settings in the bedroom and in a band are pretty similar. I just lower the bass and gain a little bit when I jam with a band, and maybe dial the treble back a bit depending on how loud i'm playing. I like to get the clearest, most articulate tone possible so everyone can hear every note i'm playing well without cranking it to ridiculous volumes.

 

[creep66]

I'm not sure who is even saying that.

I've owned a ton of amps (still, not even close to some people on here) and yeah some of them, you kinda have to shake your head and think that maybe the designers were really fucking high when they decided where their EQ setting would sit. The Krank Rev 1 comes to mind.

But having said that (and here I go repeating/re-stating) the majority of the amps I've owned really did sound very decent (in a band setting, because that's how I use my 100 watt heads) with minimal deviation from the middle (noon) settings. Does that mean I set the knobs there and never touched them? Fuck no. Who the fuck would do that? That's the dumbest shit I've ever heard. Also, I feel it necessary to point out that I don't really give a flying fuck about clean tone.

I'd be interested to see a poll of how many dudes here actually play in a band versus how many are just into recording or bedroom playing. I'm certainly not knocking those who don't play in bands. God knows, it's sometimes a massive pain in the dick. But I do think it is a HUGE factor in how you use your gear.

I used to play in bands regularly (I'm getting old now) and I always thought this was hillarious: had a bass player that wanted to be over everyone and complain about your volume, and complain if you turned up. Volume nazi.

I would just walk over and bump my mids. He'd be like "did you turn up?" And I would explain I adjusted my mids. He'd always look confused and I'd show him my volume and he would relent and go back to playing. Worked everytime cause he knew shit about eq.

 

[VESmedic]

Other than my master volume setting, my settings in the bedroom and in a band are pretty similar. I just lower the bass and gain a little bit when I jam with a band, and maybe dial the treble back a bit depending on how loud i'm playing. I like to get the clearest, most articulate tone possible so everyone can hear every note i'm playing well without cranking it to ridiculous volumes.

Agreed. More ridiculous myths that you need vastly different settings for playing live vs in your room. Everyone I know that has a modern high gain amp, especially something like a 5153, pretty much sets them the same whether they are playing live or in their house. I don’t know where people come
Up with this shit that is just regurgitated over and here ad nauseum on guitar forums.

 

[ZEEGLER]

I can recall scooping my mids right from the beginning. I always just set the dials on my amps where it sounded heaviest. I really liked Metallica's AJFA album tone when I first started so I tried to emulate that tone. I would basically zero the mids on my little combo amp, crank the gain, bass and treble pretty high.

When I started playing with a drummer I didn't understand at the time why I was getting buried, so when I discovered midrange, that was the real revelation. Boosting with overdrives was another revelation. I thought to myself, why didn't I think of this earlier? I had to come to a musicians forum (HC) to find out about boosting and midrange. That was around 2001 when the internet was starting to get a little more popular.

Pretty much same here. At 15 years old playing along to my thrash records with my Peavey Bandit, scooping the mids sounded fucking awesome!

When I started my first band, I was shocked that I had to turn up so loud to even hear myself.

Other than my master volume setting, my settings in the bedroom and in a band are pretty similar. I just lower the bass and gain a little bit when I jam with a band, and maybe dial the treble back a bit depending on how loud i'm playing. I like to get the clearest, most articulate tone possible so everyone can hear every note i'm playing well without cranking it to ridiculous volumes.

Me too. In fact I rarely ever touch my EQ settings. As I've gotten older I've been generally been using less gain and more mids. As you say it's definitely more articulate, and it ultimately makes me a better player.