Out of curiosity, and possibly the benefit of learning more,
how do you prefer to use your EQ?

Is your shape an A or a V? Or something different completly?
Do you boost or only cut your signal?
Where in the loop do YOU put your EQ?
Pedal or rack?
Graphic or Parametic?
How much EQ bands do you have?

Anything else you'd like to tell us about your EQ and you?

My prefferences.. I much prefer graphic over parametric. Altough a parametric can do more, for me, nothing beats seeing at a single glance what your boosting or cutting.

I use a simple BOSS 7 band EQ pedal, that does it for me.
About the shape..well, I like having a mid heavy tone for my lead, for rythm I have kinda a W shape, boosting the base and to a lesser extent the highs, and being a bit less linear about the mids

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I don't use an external EQ (apart from in my multi-fx unit in my rack rig), but on my amps, i generally set it to \/\ so the bass and treble are around 8, and the mids cut back to about 6. In the rack setup, i use the parametric EQ mainly, and use it to adjust where needed, ie; boost the mids and the highs for a lead patch.
The number of bands available on my Quadraverb varies depending on what other fx you have- you could have a 15band or a parametric, 8 band, or a 3 band.

I do fiddle with the EQ on my Marshall a lot depending on what style i'm playing, and what cab i'm running through, but the \/\ shape is a good starting point for my more metal sound

Voted for post-preamp, but that's due to the ADA MP-1 not having a stereo fx loop, so i run the stereo out from it into the stereo in of the quadraverb for stereo image lush-ness

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dont use one. its one of those things... if your amp cant get what you want bare bones, why the hell do you have that amp?

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I don't use an EQ. But if I were I suppose it would just depend on my goals. If you put the EQ in your FX loop you're actually shaping your tone more. Where as if you're putting it before the preamp you can use it as more of a boost, unless you're cutting frequencies, but that's just lame.

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I just use the EQ on the amp, it get's the tone I want fine. Bass around 8, mids around 6 and treble around 8. I voted for before pre-amp (I guess that's what it would be considered as it IS in the pre)

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cutting frequencies is lame? thats the only way to go. You cant tell me that any EQ that you are going to buy (probably not a Klark-Techik) is going to make those tones that you are boosting sound better. EQ's are not pre-amps, they are not designed to add gain. End of story. As far as before or after the preamp(Line-level), you should always go after because your preamp is what gives the ultimate tone coming from your guitar.

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You CAN boost certain frequencies with an EQ and make them sound better. Like add some subtle treble or mid boost before the preamp for a more vowely sound for leads. Or add some nonexistant thumping bass in thin sounding amps.

In the world of mixing and mastering music though, boosting frequencies a whole different subject, and not a suggested as a common practice. That's probably what you've heard the whole cutting is the way to go stuff.

And I haven't been using EQ much recently, but when I do it's always after the preamp, it's the most effective method.

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My preamp is electrically in the FX loop of my GT-8 so I got EQ options at damn near every stage if I want. You never know when you might want a little boost here or a little cut there but I mostly keep them out of the chain. Its just an inherited part of my setup. I normally run dry or use an EQ for very lightly specific changes.

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I dont use an external eq either, never felt the need with my marshall , i usually rely on my guitars volume and Q-tone to adjust my eq when playing.

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As I stated. I don't use an EQ. My rigs sound fantastic the way they are.

If you boost any frequency or level before the preamp you ARE hitting the preamp harder and this can cause overdrive in some cases.

And yes boosting frequencies before the amp can make them sound better. Just as easily as they can make them sound worse. You just have to know what you're doing and what you're trying to acheive.

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yeah.. some rigs need huge equalization changes to sound good, others just a little tweak here and there..

Hmm, I guess the quality of your amp can be told by how much you need to adjust everything outside of the amp to make it sound good..

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