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Only a tiny drop of amp verb in this track as I’ve decided I definitely can’t stand the chorusy detuning in the reverb tails. So the verb you hear in this is 90% from the Altaverb convolution reverb in my DAW- which I just love! Eq is still flat but I’ve upped the “presence” which effectively controls the tweeter for slightly more edge than my “normal” tone since I’m playing a blues (sort of). My favorite thing about this amp continues to be its non-existent self noise- which is a dream for recording. But it’s got a sound for sure, a little like drinking flavored vodka. I don’t mean the stupid lemon or chocolate shit, but the subtle flavor of say Belvedere with its hint of potatoes. Kettle One, on the other hand is more like the Clarus I’m used too- no flavoring or color whatsoever.
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12-16-2025 09:53 AM
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Did you try dropping the high mids? This works on the bud but don’t remember if it sounds good on the blu. Maybe drop the high mids and boost the low mids a bit. I think it really opens up the amp.
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Not yet. That will be next.
Originally Posted by omphalopsychos
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marvelous sound from the new amp!
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Here's a comparison of the tone stacks of the Bud Six and the Blu. The names of the controls are the same but the frequency centers are different. I have a Bud, not a Blu, and I've successfully followed Omphalopsychos's suggestion with good results, which was to drop the "Hi-Mid" (1.6kHz center) to nearly minimum. But that same frequency center on the Blu is labeled as "High". Originally Posted by omphalopsychos
So to do as he recommends on the Blu you'd have to adjust the "High" (1.6kHz center) to around 7 o'clock and do the best you can with the Low-Mid (350Hz center on the Blu) and Hi-Mid (720Hz center on the Blu).
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Wow thanks for taking the time to lay that out. Feel like it should be on the Henriksen site as these are pretty big differences and everyone thinks of the Blu as a 1-channel bud.
I feel like the bud should have one channel with the Blu EQ. And I feel like the Blu should have the preamp gain knob from the Bud. And both should have better reverb.
Peter if you're reading this, here's your next version of this product line. I'm sure there's more demand beyond just me for the changes above and lots of people would pay to upgrade to the new version. Seems like a relatively low cost revenue opp.
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Many thanks! I’m going to play with these in the morning when I plan to record another tune. Quick question for you Bud/Blu experts. It appears that the presence control is essentially a volume knob for the tweeter, which I find more useful than an all or nothing kill switch. It seems like the crossover on the Blue is below the 3.5kz since turning this presence knob with the tweeter off makes no difference to the sound as far as I can tell. Is that true or are my old ears just not able to hear it? Originally Posted by dconeill
Here's a comparison of the tone stacks of the Bud Six and the Blu. The names of the controls are the same but the frequency centers are different. I have a Bud, not a Blu, and I've successfully followed Omphalopsychos's suggestion with good results, which was to drop the "Hi-Mid" (1.6kHz center) to nearly minimum. But that same frequency center on the Blu is labeled as "High".
So to do as he recommends on the Blu you'd have to adjust the "High" (1.6kHz center) to around 7 o'clock and do the best you can with the Low-Mid (350Hz center on the Blu) and Hi-Mid (720Hz center on the Blu).
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The Beta 10 driver from Eminence has very effective upper response to 3.8kHz, above which point falloff is quick and steep. I don't know whether Henriksen bothered to include a crossover, as an effective solution would be to put the tweeter on a simple high-pass filter to restrict its role to maybe 3.5- 3.8kHz and above. Plus, you wouldn't have a crossover eating into the 97dB/w/m efficiency of the Beta 10. So it would make sense that that the Blu Ten "Presence" control at 3.5kHz is effectively impotent with the tweet switched off. There's only another 300Hz of response left in the Beta 10. The Beta drivers are not voiced guitar speakers. They are hifi and car stereo midrange and upper bass drivers with engineered frequency bands. The upper response of the Beta 10 falls off so steeply you wouldn't have to electrically address the top end unless you wanted to roll it off at a lower point. It's easy to choose a roll-in point for the tweet to take advantage of the acoustic roll off of the main driver. Originally Posted by Mark Kleinhaut
Phil
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thanks for these insights! Originally Posted by 213Cobra
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Here’s what I used this morning for test 3. It made me very happy. Will post it up once I’ve done the editing etc. Originally Posted by dconeill
Here's a comparison of the tone stacks of the Bud Six and the Blu. The names of the controls are the same but the frequency centers are different. I have a Bud, not a Blu, and I've successfully followed Omphalopsychos's suggestion with good results, which was to drop the "Hi-Mid" (1.6kHz center) to nearly minimum. But that same frequency center on the Blu is labeled as "High".
So to do as he recommends on the Blu you'd have to adjust the "High" (1.6kHz center) to around 7 o'clock and do the best you can with the Low-Mid (350Hz center on the Blu) and Hi-Mid (720Hz center on the Blu).
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You can go even deeper on those knobs FYI. For some reason it is designed such that from noon to 9:00 or 3:00 there is not much impact to the tone. All the juice is in the extremes. If you are liking the tone, then that's good, but I do have to remind people to use their ears and not be afraid to push the knobs to extreme positions.
Peter, here's some more feedback, make the EQ more intuitive.
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I found I could hear the differences right away at 11 and 1. I wasn’t looking for a scoop as much as just flattening out what I hear as some extra and unneeded mid presence. I be play this guitar unplugged quite often. Sometimes for days on end. Also, my space is quite naturally reverberant. That sound I live with is what I’m striving to reproduce to come out of YOUR speakers. Originally Posted by omphalopsychos
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Here's another graphic. I wanted to see where the tone control frequency centers related to the output of an electric guitar. The frequency response plot I found on the web has nothing to do with the instrument in use here; it's part of a study using solid body electric guitars. But I think its close enough to give an idea of how much energy there is in an electric guitar compared to the Bud and Blu tone controls. I overlaid the frequency center lines by eye, so they're just approximate. Recall that the tweeter kicks in somewhere around 3.5kHz.
So, for what it's worth:
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My experience with the original version Bud is that most of the EQ magic happens with the Low Mid knob (420 Hz). I think that's borne out by the graph above, if I'm interpreting it correctly. It looks like most of the electric guitar energy is at that frequency or below.
For me, cutting the Low Mid gets more of a scooped Fender tone. Flat or boosted Low Mid leans toward the typical fat Polytone-like mid-heavy jazz sound. The High Mid does not do as much, or have as much range, as the Low Mid to my ears. I usually season to taste or just leave it flat, actually.
One thing to note is I do not have a lot of experience with Fender amps, so my taste is not necessarily prejudiced towards the scooped Fender tone.
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One thing I will say off the top of my head, having never played either, it looks to me like the EQ points on the Blu are more suited to the guitar than the ones on the Bud. For instance, 760 is right where a tube screamer lives, so a major cut/boost location for guitar. Even if you don't have a tube screamer.
What experience do others have on the comparative EQ points?
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