Frequency Comparison

[ericar]

Hi
I am in the process of putting together my first warmoth project. I am using emg sa single coil pickups . I don't know if it is the guitar woods or the pickups but they are a lot fatter sounding than my malmsteen strat with dimarzios in it. I would like to set up an EQ preset to make my emgs sound the same as the dimarzios but need some sort of software that would show me a frequency graph of
each guitar to compare. Any ideas other than take out the emgs and buy dimarzios?

 

[rapfohl09]

I think I would just sit down and play with the knobs and see if you can find anything. I think it would be really complicated to try and actually analyze the sound to make a comparison.

 

[Firebird211]

I am not sure from your description if you already have two different guitars you are using those pickups in or tried the same guitar with two different pickups.  The software you would need would have a Spectrum Analyzer, so use that term to search for it.  Even after that, getting the two to match closely would be difficult, and you might also want to make a sample recording of the two guitars playing the same exact thing, so you can tweak according to your ears too.  If you already have the warmoth and it has different wood types than your other strat, it's voice can only deviate so much, and in that case changing pickups would be one of the only big changes you can make.  The wood will still dictate the theme of the guitar after that.  Did you want to have both sounds as well?  Changing the bridge material will change the dynamics of a guitar as well.  An example of that would be the difference between a standard bridge, Graphtech saddles, or Graphtech NVS bridge.  I have changed over a TOM chrome bridge to a NVS bridge and the dynamics changed from dull and low to a much wider spectrum.  A standard Graphtech saddle would keep that same guitar in the midrange.  The cheapest and easiest thing to do would be to experiment with your EQ and start cutting the lower frequencies down first to see what you can come up with.  Good Luck.

 

[Cagey]

If it was me, I'd just buy a set of the DiMarzios I liked. But, I'm lazy that way. Plus, that's no guarantee I'd get the sound I'm looking for.

Pulling the DiMarzios out of the Malmsteen strat and installing them in the Warmoth would tell you more about whether it was the pickups, wood, or both. Chances are it's both, so you may not learn much, if anything. Might not even be happy.

Surely you've heard the stories many times about "The One That Got Away". Many players with any time in grade have one. Run-of-the-mill Strat [or whatever] with a maple neck, rosewood 'board, alder body, bog-standard pickups and strings - they make 10s of thousands of them every year - but for no apparent reason that particular one just sounded magical. The typical story always ends with losing track of the thing... stolen, destroyed, traded, sold, gifted, etc., and nothing else has been quite right since.

The point of the story in this case is that if it were as simple as tweaking a filter to get a particular tone, there'd be a tremendous upheaval in the stringed instrument industry. But, there are dozens of variables involved which all interact different ways. So, good luck with that.

To that end, here's a company that sells a variety of software tools for measuring frequency response.

 

[ericar]

I guess what I would like is to play the first guitar with dimarzios in it clean into my computer through some sort of analyzing program and then play the second guitar through the same program and
find out what EQ settings to use in order to get a similar sound. Just by ear , I have found that cutting the mid and low frequencies some gets close.

 

[spauldingrules]

Well, for one the Malmsteem Dimarzios are super weak pickups (in terms of output - I much prefer "weak" pickups myself), and I'm pretty sure the EMG's would be a lot hotter. 

 

[ericar]

Yes the Malmsteens are very weak but also very clean and no hum. They are the stratiest pickups
I have ever heard. My reason for the emgs the added oomph for driven sounds.

 

[spauldingrules]

The hotter the pickup = more midrange and less highs, = (generally) fatter sounding.

 

[Steve_Karl]

@ Cagey "...the one that got away"  ... Yes ... agreed. It's a real phenomenon.

@ the OP:
If you had the same pickups in both you might get close.

My typical "old school" after the guitar processing chain has ( at it's best ) always been:
guitar > channel strip with 4 band eq ( 2 parametric mids ) > 31 band graphic eq > DBX 160X compressor > recording device.

I can tell you for sure there's no way that I can make my G&L F-100 II sound like my Warmoth strat and vice versa.
It's just not possible.
Even if I get them as close as possible it's still very obvious which guitar is which.

Anyway ... the object is to get a good sound that works and even though they're both different I can get them to both work in the same song together with no problems.

My 2 warmoth strats ( the new one less than 5 months old ) have the same electronics and pups.
I can get them close enough that one can take up where the other left off and there's no ( extremely ) obvious change, and that's with no EQ on either.

 

[Jusatele]

Cagey has a great post about  " the one that got away "
I have a buddy with a Mexi Strat, about 15 years old that there are guys dyeing to buy from him. It has tone to the bone and you are amazed when he plays it one stage. Plug that sucker into your amp you are used to tweaking, and just sit back and the MOJO goes nuts.  All that in a Strat that is stock from the factory in Esenada and you can not find another like it.
Sometimes Shit happens. Try what you want but somehow do not be disappointed if it just is not the same.

 

[swarfrat]

EMG's are high output, but not 'hot' in the traditional sense of the term for pickups. it's a very low impedance humbucker with resonant frequencies up out of the normal range, thats been eq'd to more or less sound like traditionalesque pickups.  It's really a super super weak pickup in the terms you're tossing around, it just has a preamp in it.

 

[Steve_Karl]

Pickup height might have something to do with it also.
You might want to try lowering them as far as they'll go.

 

[Firebird211]

Pickup height might have something to do with it also.
You might want to try lowering them as far as they'll go.

+1 I always seem to do that a little with hotter pickups, or you can drop them until they are flush. :laughing7:

 

[Steve_Karl]

....or be adjusting the pickup height when plugged in and playing to see what it does to the sound.
I finetune all of my pup heights this way.