Need Help on EQ for Hollowbody

[jyanes]

Hey friends.  I am looking for others that are playing a Gretsch hollowbody with filtertron pickups.   I use a Black Falcon but anyone with a similar guitar, hopefully you can help - 

 

I can get pretty good tones from the guitar and the Helix, however i wanted to see what EQ settings (parametric, etc) others may be using to tame the hollowbody.   Getting the best sound you can from the guitar. 

 

I play mainly worship/rock music.  So i go from clean to a bit of high gain.  

[cornerstonetom]

When you say, "tame the hollowbody" are you talking about feedback? Or, are you talking about different frequencies being accentuated?

 

If it's feedback, typically the frequency to attenuate could be within the range 125 Hz up to 250 Hz. It's often referred to as a "notch" filter.

 

If it's certain frequencies, it could be related to either pole piece heights on the pickups or the body of the guitar itself. If it's related to the body, you could try running your guitar through an EQ (either an external pedal or internal to the Helix) before anything else in the chain. Strum each string individually and see if you have an even frequency response across the strings.

 

And then there's the type of cable and its length which could have an impact, but that is not likely an issue here.

 

I hope this helps. You'll need to play around with a few things as it could be a combination of factors of feedback and hot frequencies..

 

Best of luck.

 

Tom

[shanecgriffo]

might be best and easiest to use the parametric eq block .. make a narrow q then boost around the lows and low mids to see if you can find an offending frequency area , then drop it... then try a very minor boost in the top mids to see if it sweetens it any .. seems to work with my old archtop

[DunedinDragon]

I play a Silver Falcon.  As mentioned above, it's not clear what you mean by "taming" the sound.  As far as EQ, I can't say there's really any difference in how I address it on the Silver Falcon and how I address it on my Les Paul or Strat...which is just adjust to taste using my ears.  The amps models I use are typically different however.  I stick a lot with the Fender Deluxe, Twin and Vox AC-15 with the Gretsch, but I've also used the Soldano and the Matchstick CH 1.  I never use any of the high gain amps with it.  Those are better suited to the Les Paul or Strat.  If I need a transition to a higher gain sound I'll typically use a higher drive setting on the Vox or Deluxe or sometimes use an overdrive pedal.

 

One unique trick I use with the Gretsch sometimes is to split my path and have a Twin, Deluxe, or Vox on the main path mixed with a Gallien-Kreuger bass amp on the second path.  This gives it considerably more fullness and body and punch, particularly when I'm finger picking using a thumb pick.

 

As far as feedback, I don't really have any problems with it.  But I'm not being fed the sound from the front monitors.  I use my own dedicated monitor which is a Yamaha DXR12 placed on the floor behind me.  I can see where you could have problems if you're being fed your sound from the FOH through the front monitors because the sound would be going right into the sound holes.  I think the Black Falcon uses post bracing whereas the Silver Falcon uses trestle bracing.  That could account for some feedback issue, but I suspect it has more to do with positioning of your monitor.  Prior to the Silver Falcon I was using a G5420T and never had feedback problems with it either.