MXR M108 Ten Band EQ

31Hz slider

Sub-bass — felt more than heard on guitar. Useful for bass guitar to add physical weight, or to cut when sub-bass is causing problems with your monitoring. Most guitar signals have almost no content here.

63Hz slider

Deep bass — the bottom of the guitar's fundamental frequency range. Boosting here adds thump and body. Cutting here tightens up a bass-heavy amp model. On bass guitar, this is where the core low-end weight lives.

125Hz slider

Low bass — fullness and body. Boosting produces warmth; cutting reduces boominess. On a modeler, cutting 125Hz slightly (2–3dB) can clean up low-end mud from amp+cab simulations that have excessive warmth in this range.

250Hz slider

Low-mid — warmth or boxiness. This is the most common 'problem frequency' range in guitar and bass tone. Too much 250Hz produces a cardboard, boxy quality. Cutting here slightly (3–6dB) opens up the tone significantly, particularly on clean amp models. Boosting adds warmth but risks muddiness.

500Hz slider

Mid — presence or honk. The 500Hz range is where the 'honky' midrange character of many amp models lives. Cutting here produces a more scooped, open sound. Boosting produces a nasal, forward tone. On lead guitar tones, a slight cut at 500Hz combined with a boost at 2–4kHz is a classic presence-without-honk approach.

1kHz slider

Upper-mid — attack and definition. Where pick and pluck attack lives on guitar and bass. Boosting around 1kHz adds clarity and note definition. Cutting here softens the attack. On high-gain rhythm tones, a slight boost at 1kHz improves palm-mute definition and chord clarity.

2kHz slider

Upper-mid/presence — where guitars cut through a mix. Boosting 2kHz is one of the most effective ways to make a guitar or bass audible in a dense arrangement. On a modeler, if your tone sounds good in isolation but disappears in a band context, try a 3–6dB boost at 2kHz.

4kHz slider

Presence — articulation and pick attack. Boosts here add a crisp, defined quality to the attack of each note. On clean tones, a moderate 4kHz boost makes fingerpicked passages more articulate. On high-gain tones, too much 4kHz can produce harshness.

8kHz slider

Treble — brightness and air. Boosting adds a sense of open, sparkling high end. Cutting removes brightness. On amp simulations that feel dull or cloudy in the high end, a boost at 8kHz can add the 'air' that restores realism.

16kHz slider

High treble — air and shimmer. The uppermost audible octave. Boosting adds extreme brightness and shimmer. Most guitar tones have limited content above 10kHz, so this slider has a more subtle effect on guitar than on cymbals or acoustic instruments. Useful for adding sparkle to clean tones.

Output

Overall volume after EQ processing. When making significant cuts (removing problem frequencies), the output level will drop — compensate by raising the Output control. When boosting multiple bands significantly, the output will increase — lower the Output to maintain consistent overall level.