[Harp-L] EQ pedals for harmonica

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Tom Richardson

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Sep 12, 2013, 11:15:35 PM9/12/13
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Hey Harp Buddies,

I do blues jams often.  My style is better represented with country, pop and rhythm & blues.  When doing these latters, I use pedals such as the Line6 POD2 and the EHX POG2.  The problem with the POG is using octaves up when playing the upper third of the high harps and using octaves down when playing the lower third of the low harps.  I need to use an EQ pedal to reduce the volume of the lowest and highest frequency bands while leaving everything else flat. 

I would appreciate some advice as to what EQ pedal to use:  

Do digital EQs really suck the tone from the harmonica?  How do you know that to be true rather than just superstition? 

Is it really important to go analog with EQ?

The digital MXR has ten bands whereas everything else I have seen has seven.  Are there any analog pedals that have ten bands?  I haven't found any.  

EQ pedals that have a booster switch are intended for electric guitars going from rhythm to lead modes.  How does that work?  Does it really help the harmonica?  Is that available in analog?

What about parametric EQs?  Is that helpful for harmonica?

After all of that is said, which brand and model of pedal do you suggest?

Your advice will be very appreciated.

Tom Richardson
Bakersfield, CA. 

Mike

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Sep 13, 2013, 10:04:30 AM9/13/13
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Consider compression. Something like the Lone Wolf Flat Cat would help
balance the mix. The Harp Tone+ would be a great eq option as well. I
have both and depending on how you set them, you should be fine with
either.

The Flat Cat, in part, will level out the overall tone. You'll notice that
the dynamic range is narrower (anywhere from just a hair to a lot depending
on settings) so you'll lose any weird transients. It will also lower the
volume of the loud stuff and increase the volume of the soft stuff.

David Brown

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Sep 13, 2013, 1:06:33 PM9/13/13
to Tom Richardson, har...@harp-l.org
For what it is worth:
I use a Boss GE-7. It has 7 bands. I've been happy with it, but I usually
use bullet mics and go for a "Chicago" sound. However, I have used it to
model sound for an SM57 when playing country straight through a PA and it
works well for that.
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