Guitar Equaliser Pedal

[JOHN HABS 10]

If any guitarist out there could give advice it would be appreciated.......

I play guitar - not fantastic - only for my own personal pleasure.

 

For the past 12 years, have had an hearing problem which prevents me from being able to hear mid to high frequencies, ( having browsed the web, have read numerous musicians have the same problem due to hearing damage ), I can only just hear the pitch of the 3rd string up to the eighth fret - about that and the sound is just a click - the 2nd and 1st string I cannot hear at all.

 

I have tried hearing aids when playing the guitar but they are of no benefit - the 1st, 2nd and 3rd string all sound the same......just a click click. I can hear a little better through headphones - but I don't get the same buzz playing through headphones as I do when playing normally through an amp.

 

Any songs I play, need to be transposed to a lower key in order for me to be able to hear what I'm playing.

 

I've just bought an Equaliser pedal to see if I can boost the frequencies I'm unable to hear to see if that works ( at this point, I should like to state that I don't play at low volumes I have to be considerate towards my neighbours ).

 

Am I correct in saying that if the guitar is plugged straight into the EQ pedal then out into the amp, the EQ will make no difference........in order to be able for the EQ pedal to work correctly, it needs to be part of a ' Chain ' of pedals ?

[Spacebadger 10]

No, you can certainly go Guitar > EQ pedal > Amp, many people do. Some amps have an 'effect loop' in/out at the back that adds any effect pedals after the amps own preamp and EQ section in order to get the tone and drive this imparts, but in your case I don't see much of an advantage to doing that, though experimentation is always good.

 

Good luck with it helping your hearing loss. This would be taboo for most guitarists, but the average guitar speaker is quite limited in the frequencies it outputs - if you've got an old hi-fi speaker of the correct impedance (and a speaker output on your amp) you may get some joy out of adding this to your 'stack', as the tweeter will kick out the higher frequencies that a guitar speaker won't.

[BlueGuitar 10]

As Spacebadger says, an EQ pedal can be used on it's own but unfortunately I doubt that it will make a great difference in your case. 8th fret on your G is only about 300Hz whereas most adults will have hearing above 10000Hz, 5 octaves higher.

 

Are you able to hear middle or higher notes on records? e.g. intro to "In My Life". Are you certain it isn't partly your guitar? It seems odd that you can hear the 3rd string on the 8th fret but not the 2nd string - when played open this would be the same pitch as G on the 4th fret.

 

Another option if you want to carry on enjoying to play guitar might be to try a baritone guitar - as this is pitched lower you may be able to play it with more versatility.

 

Good luck.

[JOHN HABS 10]

Hello BlueGuitar,

 

The EQ pedal I've just bought I have been experimenting with at different settings and it has improved things a minute bit, would help I'm sure if I could turn up the volume a bit on the amp but in doing so, the next door neighbour would complain ( due to thickness of walls I can only play at about 5 watts ), as I've said in my post.... you don't get the same buzz when playing through headphones as you do when playing direct from the amp.

You ask if I can hear mid to high notes on records....... NO... all I can hear is the bass and drums, if I go to rock concerts with my wife - more or less I'm just going for the visual aspect of it as I can't hear vocals, or the lead breaks - I have to try and work out what's being played by the vibrations coming through the floor from bass and drums - very frustrating !

Can't be anything with any of my guitars as they have all been professionally set up.

I also play keyboards and I have the same trouble with those.....have to transpose songs into a lower key and just stick to organ sounds - can't hear other instruments voices.

There's a lesson to be learnt here - only wish I had taken notice of my parents when I was younger: ' To turn the volume down ' you will regret it when your older.

I would be very sad if I had to give up playing my guitars and keyboards due to slowly going stone deaf - its one of my only pleasures in life......Music !

[ecactus 10]

What about using headphones?

[JOHN HABS 10]

What about using headphones?

 

Hello ecactus,

 

Have a look at what I've said in the original post about my using headphones.........

its not the same playing through headphones as it is playing directly through an amp.

[Qfactor 10]

I think the point ecactus makes is that your listening experience is being diminished anyway through reducing amp volume to keep neighbours happy - but at least with headphones you could raise the volume (but not so much as to cause further hearing loss...) I have to record with headphones as even 1 watt is way too loud for my neighbours.

[Spacebadger 10]

Sometimes hearing loss isn't just a case of the patient hearing certain frequencies quieter than others (with the assumption that if, say, they are 12db down from 1kHz+, then playing them something 12db up from 1kHz+ will 'cure' them). Sometimes a frequency range just isn't there for people, and no end of boosting will help. I myself have a particularly odd loss in one ear, I'm bass deaf from about 200Hz down and although it's gradual, beyond a certain point it just 'gone', no matter what I stuff in there. Feels very odd. Thankfully I can work around this pretty well and don't lose stereo imaging etc.

 

It's like the old mixing maxim, "you can't boost what isn't there".

 

Not being facetious at all John, but maybe play bass instead? Much more visceral and also has less upper harmonic overtones to lose...you're neighbour may not be happy though. In all seriousness, you can get body speakers to help you 'feel' low end, think gamers and home cinema geeks use them....

[JOHN HABS 10]

Sometimes hearing loss isn't just a case of the patient hearing certain frequencies quieter than others (with the assumption that if, say, they are 12db down from 1kHz+, then playing them something 12db up from 1kHz+ will 'cure' them). Sometimes a frequency range just isn't there for people, and no end of boosting will help. I myself have a particularly odd loss in one ear, I'm bass deaf from about 200Hz down and although it's gradual, beyond a certain point it just 'gone', no matter what I stuff in there. Feels very odd. Thankfully I can work around this pretty well and don't lose stereo imaging etc.

 

It's like the old mixing maxim, "you can't boost what isn't there".

 

Not being facetious at all John, but maybe play bass instead? Much more visceral and also has less upper harmonic overtones to lose...you're neighbour may not be happy though. In all seriousness, you can get body speakers to help you 'feel' low end, think gamers and home cinema geeks use them....

 

Hiya Spacebadger,

I know you mean well, but playing bass is not for me - I'm a big fan of The Shadows and play their music, wouldn't be able to play the things Hank does on bass.

[Spacebadger 10]

Have you considered trying an octave pedal, transposes what you play an octave down? Works well on lead lines, though modern pedals like the POG will happily have a go at chords with variable success. I'd have thought 'Apache' and a lot of Marvin's stuff would sound pretty rocking....

 

I think there are some cheaper generic digital octave pedals (old analogue ones are dirt cheap, though some are next to useless) out there these days too, my POG was eye wateringly expensive not many years back.

[JOHN HABS 10]

Hiya Spacebadger,

 

Had a practise Thursday night using my Zoom G3X multi FX pedal and that has an octave

effect in it, tried the Shadows numbers and it didn't sound right.

 

Octave I've found is best suited to Black Sabbath numbers....... guitar - fuzz - octave and the sound is good for those type of songs.....finished up coming away from the Shadows numbers, changing guitars and using the effects above playing: Paranoid, War Pigs and Iron Man!

 

Getting back to the hearing thing..... I've tried most things: hearings aids, headphones, EQ pedal, playing through powered hi-fi speakers ( they have a different frequency ) nothing seems to do the trick - nearest I can get to hearing mid to high frequencies is when using headphones but as I've already said, its not the same feeling you get when you play directly from an amp.

 

Guess I'll have to persevere and accept that I can't get those frequencies back that I'm missing. Just as a footnote: Pete Townsend to name but one has the same problem as me !