How do you EQ your heavy "crunch" guitars?

guitartrek


I'm trying to acheive the sound of Slashes guitar in this song:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmWoASCTqsA
 
Check out 00:20 where the verse starts and Slash is pumping with a right hand mute on the low strings.  There is a ton of bass on his guitar.  Seems to be more low end than the bass guitar itself.
 
Usually I'll roll off the lows of everything except the Bass and Kick.  But if I do that to this kind of "pumping" crunch guitar I lose that "meat".  I'm still rolling off the lows, but the point at which I do (maybe 90khz) is so low I might as well leave the EQ wide open down there?
 
What would you do?

 
Don't low cut as much as you might have... sometimes the guitar part does go deep into the bass region.
 
best regards,
mike

there's no real reason to roll off anything on your guitar track.

make sure your capture, is exactly as you want it to be.
(nothing boomy, clean tight low end).

anything below about 75hz on guitar, is usually a combination of thump and mud.

in a mix, i'll high pass at 70hz, and i'll hear nothing go away, unless i'm monitoring with subs, and since almost no one i know, listens to final mixes thru systems with subs, i think i'm ok.

i mean, ultimately, you're trying to mix for the lowest common denominator, correct?

the most systems?

consumer speakers, typically can't produce 40 - 80hz anyway.....
they boost 80-160 to give the appearance of low end, even tho the real meat is clearly an octave below.

so...........

maybe, tweaking the low end of the guitar around 130-140hz will give more OOMPH than boosting at, say, 80hz, which on my vintage boogie, is where the bottom eq on my 5-band eq sits.....

but what you push thru a speaker (will a guitar cab speaker actually reproduce much lower than 55hz anyway?) in ways of the amp head, is different than what gets translated into the mic.....

big experiment, eh?
i'm still looking for my sweet spots.....

I don't usually record this kind of guitar.... although I sure do like to play that kind of driving guitar....

If you HP the guitar to eliminate the mud, the kick and bass should easily compensate and fit nicely into that space in the sound mix.

On stage you have (generally) quite a few speakers that are moving air and that makes it easy to do live.... then trying to capture it on HD is the trick.

For me sometimes more low end pump means notching/carving some lower mids . 

Not the standard  rookie scoop.............but some precise notching.
Try recording your guitar how you like it...........

Then throw a parametric in the bin............

Set a band with a Q of 10-16............

Use a negative gain of around -6db, during playback sweep thru...125-400. 

Maybe do this with a couple of bands.....roller coaster type.

Play with the gain and Q a little bit......this can help reduce the woofy mids......

And allow for more low end definition..........

I have had some luck with this......

-6-12db notch @ 250-350............

With another.....

-4db notch around 160

Then I'll throw a very narrow bump(Q12) +2-4db @65-70


Good luck man...I've listened to your stuff .....you'll get there......your good.
 

I have tried on numerous occasions to duplicate the sounds of various guitar tones on records and CD.... and I must say I have come close, but I can never seem to get it exact. Amps, speakers, guitars, settings, mics...all contribute to the recorded sound......

The most recent one I tried to duplicate is the guitar player from Kenny Chesney's band. My wife is a big Chesney fan, and often plays his CD's in the car..... I'm not so much a fan but I was taken by this guys playing style and tone on one of the solo's....... I even grabbed the CD and ripped it to my MP3 player...and imported it into a track in my DAW to try to simulate that tone..... so far... I have not even come close. It's a rainy day project for me......

Back in the day, a bunch of the albums had liner notes on the equipment used...and guitar player magazine would often cover the artist and go into details on the equipment and even settings.....

now days I mostly don't try to copy a sound..... I go for the sound that I like and will work in a given song situation, and I am content with that when the result is pleasing to me.

my 2 centavos

Mike ...what you say is truth.

I also had a couple of closed back 4x12 cabinets.... and yeah, the speakers used, and the cabinet style makes a huge difference in the tone and the EQ adjustments needed for low end response.

In addition, to that, the more speakers you use, the more air you are moving and the low end becomes much more evident accordingly.

Thanks Kylotan.  I am using POD Farm2 exclusively, and do have all the metal shop amps.  I have traditionally not used any pedals and go straight into the amp.  With POD Farm2 I can now go into one of their preamps at the end of the chain, like the Neve and that seems to focus and tighten the signal.  I'll give your suggestion of the tube screamer a try. 

I've come to realize that Slash example is quite unique.  The sound is amazing, but if I compare to Nickleback, which I also love, the production of the Nickleback crunch guitars don't have that super tight low end of Slash.  I can come closer to the Nickleback sound than that Slash example.

I did raise the crunch parts which was a lot louder than before.  I had them too loud at one point where the vocals were getting messed up and the lead solo was getting lost so I dropped them down a tad to where they are now.  But it was in the higher frequencies where the masking was occurring.  Maybe raising the low mids will accomplish what you are saying without affecting the other parts.

That's interesting what you are saying about the multi-band compressor.  It makes sense.