Target EQ bands and positioning for mandolin?

[GrampaBob]

Hi I'm a leisure player running my mandolin thru my Helix and FRFR amp. I was curious if anyone could give any insight how to better my EQing or overall helix tone? There's a bunch of good EQ blocks I can use. So for instance if I use a 10 band parametric, what bandwidths should I be looking at to reduce/increase to improve my overall tone?

Thnx for the read.

[Tom Wright]

Would be helpful to know what tone/style you are amplifying. This graph shows the archtop F5 style in red, Graham McDonald's oval-hole in blue (I think) and an Italian bowlback in green. The F5 has a very scooped midrange, a major bump at about 350 Hz, and all three are falling off after 1600 Hz.

If your pickup is an undersaddle/bridge type you should try an emulation of one of these curves and I would start with the F5 for the American sound. If your pickup is a contact on the top, like a K&K, you will have to try various bands to see what you should cut and what you should boost. My guess is you should go at the midrange, which can be too strong in any pickup. For undersaddles it will be the 800-1200 Hz area. For body-contact pickups the high bass/low mid of 400-800 is the likely area of interest, mainly to cut.

High end should always be dialed down with a bridge pickuo, but usually is not too strong from the body-contact types.