The Guitar Frequency Guide - 8 essential frequency areas

Sculpting your guitar sound with EQ

Where can I pin-point that annoying tinny sound from my guitar? What guitar frequency is that? How can you EQ that boomy and muddy sound out of your guitar production?

Just like with every other instrument, the guitar responds to boosts and cuts in the audio frequency spectrum. There are specific guitar frequency areas that make the guitar sound a specific way. 

Read through the following article for a great guide to EQ'ing the guitar.

Low end, high pass filtering.

There is not all that much we can do with the absolute low end of the frequency spectrum. It's usually a better bet to leave that whole area up to the bass guitar and filter out everything below around 100 Hz. Turn your filter on and filter up the spectrum until the guitar starts sounding thin, then back off a bit.

If you are dealing with few instruments and you need the guitar to pull some weight in the track then just filter up to around 30 or 50 Hz since the guitar doesn't really have anything down there and you would just be using up headroom that won't be heard. 

Since acoustic guitars have a more bassy and thicker sound than the typical electric, a boost at 80 Hz can fill up the spectrum and give it some thickness.

Thickening up the tight bass around 150Hz

If your guitar sounds thin or weak then a plentiful boost around the low mids, say, around 150 Hz can give you a nice round thickness to the guitar. I use this guitar frequency a lot if I feel the guitars should have more bass and power.

Mud in the 200 Hz

If your guitar is muddying up the mix and it lacks clarity, try cutting in the 200 Hz area. This will clear things right up and won't leave a big fat low mid blister in your mix. This works equally with any instrument, if you feel it lacks clarity or sounds too boomy be sure to check each instrument in this area. See this article for more information on muddiness in your mixes

Fundamental frequencies around 500Hz

Then again, if you need to add some fullness or body to the guitar you can find that character around the 250 – 500 Hz area. This area can compete with the snare drum so if you are boosting both instruments in the same area it would be a better idea to find a specific frequency for each.

Honk at 1 kHz – Presence at 2 kHz

Any music mixing book will tells you that the mids around 1 kHz will sound tinny or horn-like. So if you feel that your guitar sounds too nasally or tinny a nice cut or scoop in this area can help fix that problem. However, if you feel that your guitar lacks presence, you can pull it to the front of the mix by boosting in the 2 kHz area.

High frequency distortion

Be careful when boosting too much of the high middle frequencies of distorted guitars. Boosting the guitar frequency of 4 Khz with a highly distorted guitar will usually result in a very hissy and noisy sound.

Vocal Cut

If the guitar is competing with the ever important vocal track, try cutting around 3 – 5 kHz. This can clear up that area in order for the vocal to shine through in a busy mix.

Brilliant guitars

If you have cut the high mids in order to create room for the vocal you might end up with a slightly duller guitar than you would have wanted. If that's the case, add some brilliance to it and lift it up with some boost in the 8 kHz area. Now the vocal can shine through in its own area as well as giving the guitar some additional grace. This can work especially work for acoustic guitars.

Sweep around

Every guitar is different and each one will react differently to a specific guitar frequency. You might need to sweep around the frequency areas to find the exact frequencies where the guitar jumps out and comes alive. 

By using these simple guidelines you can pinpoint where you need to EQ faster and easier than before. Don't sweep around the whole spectrum when you are looking to add some fullness to your guitar. Rather know in which area you are supposed to be looking and then boost or cut accordingly.

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More information on EQ'ing and the audio equalizer right here

Use the parametric equalizer to to find the guitar frequency you're looking for

Learn your way around the graphic equalizer

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