MakeItShredNo1 Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 So the thing that excited me the most about 2.0 is something I haven't seen a lot of chatter about - the 5 band eq from the Mesa Mark series. There's a reason they can charge $250 for a pedal that is just a 5 band eq, it's pretty crucial to the sound of a Mark. And also weird - centering around frequencies that many other eqs don't use, and having a Q than varies depending on where the slider is.* So I would love to see someone make a video/soundcloud going to town on the EQ. I do have one concern though: So most people are familiar with the "Mesa V" that people often put into the eqs of their Mark. But a "scooped mids" sound is notorious for sounding fizzy and hollow in a mix - see also: every early 80s metal album. However, many famous/well-regarded guitarists use a V shape in the EQ of their Marks, like John Petrucci. So I did some digging, and it seems that it's crucial where the EQ is in the chain. So it often (including in Petrucci's rig) goes like this: First, boost the mids going into the amp, say with a tube screamer.** But then, the Mesa EQ lies BETWEEN the preamp and power amp - so before the distorted sound hits the poweramp tubes, you scoop the mids out and boost the treble and bass. For whatever reason, this keeps things hunky-dory in power-tube land, as well as putting back some of the lows you probably backed off to keep the preamp from getting "farty."*** Trouble is, the Helix doesn't let you put things between the preamp and power amp of a full-amp model. So if the Mesa EQ doesn't work quite that awesome post-amp I would love to see someone try it: Between a dirt box and a full amp model. or Use a distorted Cali-pre model as a "pedal" in front of a clean Cali model, with the EQ in the middle (I've experimented with this sort of thing in the HD500 - and Chad Boston has experimented with it in the Helix on his Youtube channel) *(details are a little fuzzy, but various forums around the net - especially those trying to build a clone of the eq pedal - support this) **There are various theories on why this works/is necessary when you're just going to take them out again, usually revolving around "boosted mids make preamp tubes do nice things" ***I have a hypothesis that a power amp is going to bring the mids back out again, by virtue of tube compression - or perhaps that too much mids overwhelms a power amp tube and they can get along just-fine-thanks with -6db of mids. Just pet theories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roscoe5 Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 I think the 5 band eq is both part of the Cali IV amp model and a separate effect block. I would imagine Line 6 kept the signal routing true to the amp. Were you wanting to hear it on a different amp? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakeItShredNo1 Posted July 12, 2016 Author Share Posted July 12, 2016 Huh. No, I was wanting to hear it on the Cali model, but I hadn't heard they made the eq part of that model. That's potentially very exciting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patrick_g_nelson Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 Page 3 on the amp model itself has the 5 band EQ (80, 240, 750, 2200, 6600). So, you don't need to use it as a separate block. It is available as a separate EQ block if you want it though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HonestOpinion Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 I suppose you could try the EQ between the amp and cab as well. Still not the ability to insert between preamp and power amp but a possible alternative. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarrellM5 Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 Huh. No, I was wanting to hear it on the Cali model, but I hadn't heard they made the new part of that model. That's potentially very exciting. They modeled the Cali correctly, including the 5 band EQ. I believe that they decided to 'break out' the EQ into a standalone effect afterwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duncann Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 They modeled the Cali correctly, including the 5 band EQ. I believe that they decided to 'break out' the EQ into a standalone effect afterwards. Ben Adrian made a post about this on tgp: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/so-the-helix-got-scenes.1722547/#post-22254483 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarrellM5 Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 Ben Adrian made a post about this on tgp: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/so-the-helix-got-scenes.1722547/#post-22254483 Thanks. I knew I saw something about that somewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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