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Question 3-band EQ Sr 4 and Sr 5 highpass - question

Kong

Kong

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Jun 26, 2011
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Hi folks!

A guy in my german bass-community claimed it, and Rod Trussbroken approved it in a post: The three-band - EQ of the Stingray 4 "has a high pass filter" that cuts low frequencys. My community-mate sayd, it will cut anything under 40 Hz.

So now I have two Stingrays, a 2005 Stingray 4, three-band - EQ with alnico-pickups, and a 1995 Stingray 5 with ceramic-pickups and the usual the three-band - EQ.

My question: Is there a highpass on both EQ? Or are there different EQ for different basses with a different number of strings? :confused:

Thanks a lot.
 
Kong

Kong

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Joined
Jun 26, 2011
Messages
79
Location
Germany, Baden-Württemberg. South Germany, near to
In my understanding a "high pass" is a filter that allows the high frequencys to pass. It cuts low frequencys.

The purpose of having a thing like this is to make the he sound less "boomy".

Lets talk about a cab everybody knows, an Ampeg SVT 810 E. The manual says: Frequency Response (-3dB): 58Hz-5kHz, Usable Low Frequency (-10dB): 40Hz. You know that the real frequency of a low B is about 31 Hz, a low E will be at 41 Hz. But the cab sure is able to deliver this tones.

Now it gets a bit technical, I am able to understand this things but maybe I am not able to name it right because english is not my native language. So please have mercy.

Cabs, especially vented cabs, deliver deeper tones than you can see in the manual because we are able to hear the upper harmonics of the tone. Our brain is the thing that puts it all together then. This is called psycho- acoustics.

A high pass filter will do two things: First it will make your deep tones less boomy because of filtering out infra-sound, tones that are so deep you can't actually hear them. Second benefit: This ultra-low frequencys make the speakers excurse a lot. And this is useless, it steals a lot of power and will kill your speakers sooner or later. Some people use a thuminator or other hpf to avoit this. It is visuable, if you play with speakers with a high excursion, called x-max.

Without a thumpinator or high-pass-filter you will see your speakers flapping out, it does look like they are out of control. With a high-pass it does look more controled, less flapping around, and it sounds much better, less boomy.

My community-mate showed by measured graphs, that there is a highpass at the three-band-EQ of the Ray 4 that starts at about 60 Hz, cutting low frequencys about 10 - 12 dB down to 40 Hz - if all knobs are in the neutral-position. It just does look like a 12dB Butterworth high-pass-filter.

You have to understand that this is not a bad thing, because you can dial in lots of low end by boosting with the LF-knob of your bass.

By the way, the Stingray two-band-EQ does not have this high-pass, so you have to be more carefull with your speakers.

So my question does make sense: Is there the same 3-band - EQ in the SR 5 and the SR 4? I am asking this because I want to take care of my speakers.
 
Rod Trussbroken

Rod Trussbroken

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Originally the SR4 3EQ used to be the same preamp as used in the new SR5 3EQ untill about 1991-92. From then on I believe a newer preamp was developed for the SR5 to accomadate the addition of a dummy coil. I don't know the makeup of todays SR5 preamp. I think the SR4 3EQ is the same as it always was although the board shape has varied over the years. Customer Service would be the guys who'd know.
 
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