Just bought a Throttle Box EQ

cadaveric · Mar 13, 2015

Hi everyone,

This is my first post on the board. Like I mention in the thread title I purchased yesterday a Throttle Box EQ pedal and it seems amazing. Since its my first Mesa/Boggie product and I have no experience with the 5-band EQ I was wondering if any of you have this pedal and have some suggestions on how to use it or any advise in general regarding the EQ.

For now I am looking mainly for a thrash tone close to Master Of Puppets or Justice albums of Metallica.

My Amp is a Marshall TSL 601 and my guitar a Les Paul with the original humbuckers.

Thank you for your time in advance.

nor · Mar 17, 2015

Drop the middle slider all the way down and start from there.

cadaveric · Apr 12, 2015

Thank you for you responce and sorry for the delay in my answer I am in the army for the time beeing and time is rather limited.

I know that Metallica requires scooped mids but since I mostly new to distortion pedals and completely new to the boogie eq I was hoping if any of you guys could further elaborate .
I am mostly concerned how the eq and the midcut knob reacts with each other as well as with the eq of the clean channel of my amp. I am not necessarily trying to to copy the Puppets or the Justice sound but I am looking, for the luck of a better word, the same "feeling" I guess? A sound that cuts through the mix that its not overly scooped and has that punch.
In summary are there any guidelines that i should be following that would help make my quest for tone easier, or things i should avoid?

Thank you in advance for you time.

Rock on!

shortaus · Apr 14, 2015

People seem to think dropping the middle slider first is the best way to shape the sound but for me it's the last one I touch. If you're after the old Metallica tone you want to try the following:

80Hz: Boost this to pretty much max then back it off to taste, if you have excess bass on the amp dialed in it can be very flubby (Mark amps keep the bass below 4 and compensate with this slider).

240Hz: Boost to near max then drop it down to taste, somewhere between max and 0 is where this should sit, it will make your lower mids seem heavier

750 Hz: Drop so that it's basically at the bottom line then bring it up to where you like it, you can also drop it from 0 gradually until you find the level of scoop that you're after

2200Hz: Boost this slowly until your guitar's rhythm becomes nice and percussive, this is the slider that makes Metallica (and any rhythm) cut through a mix

6600Hz: Boost this to taste, consider it your mastering slider (along with the amps presence) as it adds top end shimmer that you may or may not want in excess.

I'm not sure how the throttle EQ works but if it has the same scoop feature as the Throttle Box (non eq version) then try to balance this with the EQs V shape, as too much scoop sounds like ***. For your clean channel you can either eq the channel around the Mesa eq settings or not use it at all for the cleans, which is what I do...I have a Mark V so I have that option without using multiple buttons, if you want a simple setup then try to EQ your clean channel around the mesa EQ and keep it on.

cadaveric · Apr 23, 2015

Thank you for your response!

Unfortunatly I am having a problem with the pedal. I finally got the time to play and use the pedal basically for the first time.

What happens is that the sound of the pedal sounds broken when I palm mute like there is a problem with the speaker. The distortion sounds hollow, thin and fizzy regardless of the eq settings. I want to clarify that its not that I dont like the tone but that the sound coming from my amp is not normal. While I can hear well the chords and they sound full and the sustain of the pedal is there, when I palm mute the sound seems broken and thin. The problem is more noticable when I sit in front of the amp and and even more when I am near the speaker. I know it sounds strange but when I am not sitting in front of the amp the distortion sounds less broken but still as thin.
I spend the whole day yesterday trying to find the issue. I changed batteries, I tried every gain and eq setting possible but nothing changed. I listened to almost every sample and video of the pedal on the internet and the distortion sounds full with amazing clarity.

My amp is a Marshall TSL 601 and my guitar is a Gibson Les Paul.

I was thinking that maybe there is an issue with the tubes or speaker of my amp that affect the sound of the pedal. At least I hope that is the issue but the clean channel sounds good and the distortion of the amp as well. I should note though that there is a humming coming out of the amp when I raise the volume so it may indeed need a tube change.

Do you guys know if a bad tube can affect the way a pedal sounds? I paid a lot of money for the Throttle Box and I was really excited so I really do hope its not broken since there was already a replacement from the online store I bought it.

Sorry for the long post and again thank you for your time and answers.

Chris19 · Feb 18, 2016

Do you have the pedal in the loop? That's where you'll want it to achieve what you're going for. Running it out front won't alter the amp's tone. It'll act more like an OD or distortion pedal, in that it will only shape the sound going into the amp.