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I'm completely unfamiliar with Marshall hi-fi equipment (that's kind of recent?), but their guitar amps are not really known for being inherently scooped. At le

I'm completely unfamiliar with Marshall hi-fi equipment (that's kind of recent?), but their guitar amps are not really known for being inherently scooped. At least until the mid 70s, maybe even the JCM800 era, Marshalls were known for having more mids than their mainstream counterparts (Fender and Vox). Practically every guitar amp's "netural" settings are scooped to an extent, though. People like that sound and it's "traditional". Even when people play direct into a mixing desk, I find that they almost always scoop the mids a bit, it's simply what you associate with electric guitar.

kazinator 2y ago
I really believe there is more to it. It is hard to even begin to like the non-scooped tone, even through forced exposure. The funny thing is that the traditional mid-scooped rock guitar sound actually sounds midrangey, and that becomes obvious in a mix with other instruments. In other words, the EQ curve (particularly of distorted guitar) is actually a "volcano crater" shape. The overall profile is midrangey, like a low-band telephone call that is limited to around 4-5 kHz. Frequencies above that are too dense with clashing harmonics and so tend to get substantially rolled off to eliminate harshness, and guitar speakers being basically "midwoofers" do that naturally to a great extent. The guitar mid scoop is actually a fairly narrow area. E.g. centered on around 700 Hz, with a bandwidth from around 300 to 1.6 kHz. This is the "volcano crater". What may be going on is that when we have narrow band sound limited to below 5 kHz, we need to crater it so it doesn't sound like an annoying honk. Otherwise the natural midrange in that 700 Hz area will overpower the lacking high end. I'm guessing that the guitar mid scoop could possibly improve the perceived voice quality in narrow band calls. However, the upper end of the midrange cut is critical; extending the cut into the 1.6 to 3.1 kHz area will make the tone utterly disappear, and the 3 kHz to 4 kHz particularly has to be there so the tone has "bite"; it is often boosted a little. Volcano with not too wide a caldera. (By the way, I'm aware there are styles and guitar tones with a lot of high end past 5 kHz.)

kazinator 2y ago

I really believe there is more to it. It is hard to even begin to like the non-scooped tone, even through forced exposure. The funny thing is that the traditional mid-scooped rock guitar sound actually sounds midrangey, and that becomes obvious in a mix with other instruments. In other words, the EQ curve (particularly of distorted guitar) is actually a "volcano crater" shape. The overall profile is midrangey, like a low-band telephone call that is limited to around 4-5 kHz. Frequencies above that are too dense with clashing harmonics and so tend to get substantially rolled off to eliminate harshness, and guitar speakers being basically "midwoofers" do that naturally to a great extent. The guitar mid scoop is actually a fairly narrow area. E.g. centered on around 700 Hz, with a bandwidth from around 300 to 1.6 kHz. This is the "volcano crater". What may be going on is that when we have narrow band sound limited to below 5 kHz, we need to crater it so it doesn't sound like an annoying honk. Otherwise the natural midrange in that 700 Hz area will overpower the lacking high end. I'm guessing that the guitar mid scoop could possibly improve the perceived voice quality in narrow band calls. However, the upper end of the midrange cut is critical; extending the cut into the 1.6 to 3.1 kHz area will make the tone utterly disappear, and the 3 kHz to 4 kHz particularly has to be there so the tone has "bite"; it is often boosted a little. Volcano with not too wide a caldera. (By the way, I'm aware there are styles and guitar tones with a lot of high end past 5 kHz.)