EQ Settings for Stratocaster

smitty_p

smitty_p

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This will likely be changing for awhile.

But, this has seemed to get me pretty decent results, for starters.

Just for reference, my amp settings have the treble, mid, and bass all set to 12:00.

I lowered the 31.25 and 62.5 Hz settings to bring the sub-bass band down because a Strat can be kind of boomy.

I left most of the bass and lower mids alone.

However, I brought down the 2 Khz, which is near the upper end of the mids, and I brought the high mids down even more. This lessens that harsh spikiness you can get from a Stratocaster when using it with a lot of gain. I'm still playing around with this.

To keep the guitar from sounding like it had a wet blanket over it, I brought the highs back up to restore some presence.

I keep the gain at unity and only boost the volume very slightly to compensate for the attenuation of some frequencies.

Anyhoo...this is a work in progress and I'm sure to post updates and revisions as I play around with these settings a little more.



MXR_10Band_Strat_Settings_092919.JPG
 
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smitty_p said:
This will likely be changing for awhile.

But, this has seemed to get me pretty decent results, for starters.

Just for reference, my amp settings have the treble, mid, and bass all set to 12:00.

I lowered the 31.25 and 62.5 Hz settings to bring the sub-bass band down because a Strat can be kind of boomy.

I left most the bass and lower mids alone.

However, I brought down the 2 Khz, which is near the upper end of the mids, and I brought the high mids down even more. This lessens that harsh spikiness you can get from a Stratocaster when using it with a lot of gain. I'm still playing around with this.

To keep the guitar from sounding like it had a wet blanket over it, I brought the highs back up to restore some presence.

I keep the gain at unity and only boost the volume very slightly to compensate for the attenuation of some frequencies.

Anyhoo...this is a work in progress and I'm sure to post updates and revisions as I play around with these settings a little more.



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Best thing you can do for a Stratocaster is add the bridge tone control...just one loop of wire..
 
Robert Herndon said:
Best thing you can do for a Stratocaster is add the bridge tone control...just one loop of wire..
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My Strat came that way from the factory - and then some!

When using just the bridge pickup (Position 1), the lower tone affects the bridge pickup tone.

On bridge and middle (Position 2), the lower tone affects the bridge and the upper tone affects the middle pickup.

On middle pickup (Position 3), the lower tone affects the middle pickup.

On middle and neck (Position 4), the upper tone affects the neck and the lower tone affects the middle pickup.

On the neck pickup only (Position 5), the upper tone affects the neck pickup.

The lower tone also is a no-load pot, so that when the pot is at 10, the tone control is switch out of the circuit.

This wiring scheme came stock on the 2006 USA Diamond Anniversary Stratocaster. I got mine brand new.
 
smitty_p said:
My Strat came that way from the factory - and then some!

When using just the bridge pickup, the lower tone affects the bridge pickup tone.

On bridge and middle, the lower tone affects the bridge and the upper tone affects the middle pickup.

On middle pickup, the lower tone affects the middle pickup.

On middle and neck, the upper tone affects the neck and the lower tone affects the middle pickup.

On the neck pickup only, the upper tone affects the neck pickup.

The lower tone also is a no-load pot, so that when the pot is at 10, the tone capacitor is literally disconnected from that pot.

This wiring scheme came stock on the 2006 USA Diamond Anniversary Stratocaster.
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I didn't know that. It's about time!!!

My wiring is less sophisticated. Bottom tone is bridge only. Position two allows bottom and middle tone interplay. Middle and up uses the uppermost tone pot with twin/parallel 0.0.01uf box-type capacitors.

Tell you what...those GFS non staggered Tru-Coils eliminated my Wolftones.
 
Robert Herndon said:
I didn't know that. It's about time!!!

My wiring is less sophisticated. Bottom tone is bridge only. Position two allows bottom and middle tone interplay. Middle and up uses the uppermost tone pot with twin/parallel 0.0.01uf box-type capacitors.

Tell you what...those GFS non staggered Tru-Coils eliminated my Wolftones.
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Yeah, Fender has been featuring different wiring schemes on certain models of Stratocasters for quite a few years. It’s nothing new. My guitar is thirteen years old. Before that, they offered the S1 Switching system on the Deluxe American Strats. The volume pot had a nearly imperceptible push-push switch in the center of the pot. This switch, in combination with the main selector switch, offered a dizzying array of options. If you got an American Deluxe Fat Strat, the bridge humbucker had a coil split. The American Deluxe also had Samarium-Cobalt noiseless pickups. Fender has actually made several iterations of noiseless pickups. The “Hot Noiseless” were supposedly made for Jeff Beck.

Unfortunately, the various noiseless pickups and alternate wiring schemes met with tepid approval from the typical Fender fans, who want “vintage” stuff and who claim it doesn’t sound like a “real” Strat. But, Fender has been innovating new ideas with the Stratocaster for quite a few years on certain models.
 
smitty_p said:
Unfortunately, the various noiseless pickups and alternate wiring schemes met with tepid approval from the typical Fender fan, who want “vintage” stuff and who claim it doesn’t sound like a “real” Strat. But, Fender has been innovating new ideas with the Stratocaster for quite a few years on certain models.
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Let's have vintage magnet stagger so we can enjoy Wolftones!!!!

Cloth wiring!!! Vintage!!! Even if its unusable!!!!
 
Robert Herndon said:
Let's have vintage magnet stagger so we can enjoy Wolftones!!!!

Cloth wiring!!! Vintage!!! Even if its unusable!!!!
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Ha!

Unfortunately...there’s some truth to that.

But, it isn’t Fender’s fault.

It’s funny, they’ve made efforts to incorporate changes that a lot of people do to their guitars, anyway.

Somehow, it’s fine to mod your guitar’s wiring yourself and replace the pickups. But, it’s not okay for Fender to build that into the guitar at the factory! I don’t get it.

The funny thing is, Fender wasn’t even forcing its customers to buy these features. They were incorporated only on the really expensive or limited issue models, like my Diamond Anniversary model. If you just bought a regular American Standard Strat, you’d get the typical Strat setup and pickups.

Ah...well...

I am seriously considering using one of the genuine Fender noiseless pickup sets on the Strat project I’m contemplating.
 
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I’ve made some tweakages to my EQ settings. This takes out a little of more of the boominess while still taming some of the spikiness you can get when using a lot of gain.

When running perfectly clean I may switch the EQ pedal completely off. I tend to use the EQ mostly if I want a less edgy, smoother clean, or if I’m using overdrive or distortion (my amp’s distortion channel). I’d wouldn’t use this for funk, though, as it would remove too much snap.

I do edge up the level control just a touch to compensate for the attenuation of some frequencies.

These settings give my Strat more body without being wooly or boomy.


1571069623813.jpeg
 
smitty_p said:
I’ve made some tweakages to my EQ settings. This takes out a little of more of the boominess while still taming some of the spikiness you can get when using a lot of gain.

When running perfectly clean I may switch the EQ pedal completely off. I tend to use the EQ mostly if I want a less edgy, smoother clean, or if I’m using overdrive or distortion (my amp’s distortion channel). I’d wouldn’t use this for funk, though, as it would remove too much snap.

I do edge up the level control just a touch to compensate for the attenuation of some frequencies.

These settings give my Strat more body without being wooly or boomy.


View attachment 32874
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Kill those high frequencies.....

20190720_054835-1032x581.jpg
 
Robert Herndon said:
Kill those high frequencies.....

View attachment 32878
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Good observation!

I’ve found that if I do that too much I lose some presence and the guitar can start to sound a little muffled. But, those higher freqs are still lower than unity.

Of course, all this is rig dependent. With a different amp, I’d likely have do some things differently.

But, this is a work in progress!
 
smitty_p said:
I’ve found that if I do that too much I lose some presence and the guitar can start to sound a little muffled. But, those higher freqs are still lower than unity.

Of course, all this is rig dependent. With a different amp, I’d likely have do some things differently.

But, this is a work in progress!
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I EQ a little different for the Jackson for solos...but I have so much midrange and top end available its unreal...

20191006_082105.jpg
 
Mitch Pearrow SJMP said:
I think there is no right or wrong way it’s just what you want to hear out of it.
And we are all different ;)(y)
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Very true.

I also think application has a lot to do with it.

As I implied above, if I were playing funk, I very likely wouldn’t EQ a thing at my board (the audio engineer may want to EQ a bit for the house, however). A style like funk really benefits from a clean, Stratty snap. I’ve heard funk done with a Les Paul, and it sounds almost too smooth. I‘m listening for that snap.

However, for other forms of music, it’s more appropriate to EQ (I’m speaking of live situations).

In recent posts elsewhere I’ve been touting Stratocasters quite a bit. But, now I will tell you where I think (personal opinion) they have a real shortfall. The traditional type of Strat setup really doesn’t stand up well to heavily distorted, high gain use. That same frequency that sounds so good when played in a mildly overdriven blues or snappy funk becomes a harsh ice pick when playing power chords with distortion or a lot of gain. This is where EQ comes in.

My personal opinion is that a non-EQ’d humbucker sounds much better with distortion or high-gain than a non-EQ’d Strat-type single coil.

Here’s an example where I am not really a fan of the Strat sound. It pains me to point it out because it is a band I love - Deep Purple. And, it is a guitarist I respect - Ritchie Blackmore. And, it is my favorite rock song - “Smoke on the Water.” But, you can hear that spikiness on the main riff. This is one area, in my personal opinion, that EQ would have been good. A humbucker would have been great. But, I realize this was live in the early ‘70s, so EQ for live use may not have been very prevalent.



In a way, though, I don’t have the right tools for the job. I really should have a spectrum analyzer and a 32 band EQ to allow me to more selectively dial things in. A 10-band EQ pedal kind of paints with a rather broad brush on the EQ bands.
 
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smitty_p said:
Here’s an example where I am not really a fan of the Strat sound. I pains me to point it out because it is a band I love - Deep Purple. And, it is a guitarist I respect - Ritchie Blackmore. And, it is my favorite rock song - “Smoke on the Water.” But, you can hear that spikiness on the main riff. This is one area, in my personal opinion, that EQ would have been good. A humbucker would have been great. But, I realize this was live in the early ‘70s, so EQ for live use may not have been very prevalent.
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Yeah, this has been the constant struggle for me with Strats, both playing and listening to them. Hendrix' tone was horrible IMO. Robin Trower would be king of the World with a Les Paul. Blackmore here is bringing it, but let down by his thin, reedy sound...and I seem to remember an interview from way back where Blackmore basically said he glommed on to Strats because they look so cool and when he got it he wondered how he would ever use it and constantly struggled with the hum and thin, biting tone. Evidently it was the reason DiMarzio made the Quarter Pounder for him, so he could finally get some balls out of a Strat.

Special shout out to Gillan, who obviously can't hear himself right in the monitors but sounded great anyway.
 
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