# tone chasing...



## damonp (Jun 19, 2019)

So I play a baritone guitar tuned to open Gm (also use a sub-n-up a LOT)... I am looking for a nice tone shaping type box to compensate for the fact that I now go direct into a PA (I run a stereo rig and my JC-120 wasnt even replicating a good portion of the frequency Im generating)
Currently I compensate for the lack of amp with a soul food with all knobs at 12:00, which works fairly well, but I was hoping for something a little more shaping.
Im looking at both the Integral Preamp and the Pro-filter, Im wondering what the frequency ranges are on these and if they will solve my problem, or if the resistor/cap values could be changed to do so...


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jun 19, 2019)

How about a 10-band EQ?  I bought a Caline CP-24 for less than it would cost to build most of the pedals here.  That would allow you to experiment and figure what frequency bands you like to adjust.  After that, you could build any of the clean or dirty boost pedals here and tweak the tone controls as req'd.  That's one of the advantages of building your own pedals, you can tune 'em to meet your taste.  I built the Brown Betty & Covert, they both have 3-knob eq and are capable of running in clean mode, if that's what you're after.  They can both make lots of nice crunch too.  Something to watch out for: a lot of boost & dirt pedals deliberately roll-off the low freq content.  It's easily fixed with some capacitor value changes.


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## damonp (Jun 21, 2019)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> How about a 10-band EQ?  I bought a Caline CP-24 for less than it would cost to build most of the pedals here.  That would allow you to experiment and figure what frequency bands you like to adjust.  After that, you could build any of the clean or dirty boost pedals here and tweak the tone controls as req'd.  That's one of the advantages of building your own pedals, you can tune 'em to meet your taste.  I built the Brown Betty & Covert, they both have 3-knob eq and are capable of running in clean mode, if that's what you're after.  They can both make lots of nice crunch too.  Something to watch out for: a lot of boost & dirt pedals deliberately roll-off the low freq content.  It's easily fixed with some capacitor value changes.


yeah, I already check for that, several of my effects are back on the shelf because of it... On new builds Im checking those values and changing them for sure!
I thought about the EQ, but Im not sure its EQ Im actually after, I think I might be loving the buffer sound on the soul food... Im not really sure I know what I want... lol


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## Robert (Jun 21, 2019)

I'm not sure if the frequency ranges would be right but the UniCab is an excellent tone shaper, especially since you're running direct.


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## zgrav (Jun 21, 2019)

you could also look at some of the VFE pedals with tilt EQ that you can build from madbean.  that might give you a more dynamic ability to dial in where you want to shape your tones


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## damonp (Jun 21, 2019)

Robert said:


> I'm not sure if the frequency ranges would be right but the UniCab is an excellent tone shaper, especially since you're running direct.


Hmmm, I've always thumbed my nose at cabinet simulators, but looking at it, it might do the trick... Any advantage to adding a charge pump and operating at a higher voltage or is that just klonhype?


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## the_grumpy_gnome (Jun 21, 2019)

Cab sims are unique EQs and are very useful even if you're not trying to emulate a the sound of a cab.  I think your issue is is that a lot of your gear is designed to only use a certain frequency range, the rest being rejected on purpose for various reasons.  You should look for effects that are geared towards both guitar and bass, that way you won't end up having the bottom of your signal cut off.  I'm unsure if the Pro-Filter is specified for bass, but you can check by googling "Anderton Super Tone Control for bass and TC Integrated Preamp for bass."  I know the UniCab should accommodate you though.


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## evitative (Jul 4, 2019)

The Valhalla might be something to look at. And it has two outputs, one of which I think is intended for preamp usage.


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## bowanderror (Jul 4, 2019)

Bari nation unite! I've had the same problem going in to a keyboard amp (after DI & line level mixer) and I haven't found a pedal-based solution yet, but I did find a rack based one: a Peavey T.G. Raxx. In essence it's a combination of a 3-band passive tone stack into another 3-band active tone stack, both with difference ranges on the Hi/Mid/Low controls.

It's defo not perfect, but the active EQ portion is AMAZING for some reason! It really helps to dial in "that sound" before going to a hella bland amp. Now that I'm looking at both the Integral Preamp & the Pro-Filter, you could almost cascade the former into the latter to give yourself a really similar setup to the T.G. Raxx. It might be a good idea to compare the frequency bands for each control to make sure you're not doubling up, but if they overlap you could always mod it to shift the target freqs.

I'd love to see your setup sometime, I switch between a B-B Bari Strat, A-A Bari Jazzmaster, & an E-E Squier Bass VI. My signal chain could really be improved to help with switching b/w them live, so keep us up to date on what you decide to do!


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jul 6, 2019)

You might want to check out the Chela (EQD Talons), it has 3-band active filtering and a passive presence control.  The EQ bands are easily changed by tweaking a few capacitors.  You can adjust R4, R5 and/or delete the LEDs if you don't want distortion.


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