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EQ
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== External EQ's ==
Many guitarists fail to see their tone's EQ in terms of specific frequencies, instead defining it by the cookie-cutter names "bass", "mid", "presence", and "treble", due to such controls being built into most amps. Sure, these names work well when speaking in generalities. But when you want to dial in a specific tone, those amp knobs usually don't cut it. You may want to tweak "between" the knobs, or "narrower" or "fatter" than the knobs allow. Also, the precise frequencies these knobs control vary from amp to amp, forcing you to learn the nuances of the controls on each individual amp. Moreover, these controls don't necessarily adjust only EQ, especially if you are getting some power amp compression/distortion. Sometimes the knobs are gain-staged a certain way, so turning all the controls up to 100% affects tone differently than keeping them all at 50%. I still use those controls; I just don't rely on them exclusively. We can augment the traditional BMTP controls with external devices.
EQ effects come in quite a few varieties. Perhaps the most common are the 5-12 band graphic EQ pedals, such as those made by Boss and MXR (and now Mesa/Boogie). These are nice because they are relatively cheap, provide greater frequency shaping than the Bass/Mids/Treb/Pres knobs of the amp, are compact and portable, are durable, are analog and thus don't create any latency or phase-shifting woes, and can be easily toggled on and off. The only downsides are that they might not provide enough fine-tuning as you like and they are stuck at one setting, requiring you to either purchase more of them or tweak on-the-fly if you need other settings.