dbx 215 Dual Graphic EQ

This is a twin channel 15 band per side graphic equalizer. No patch editing to do - it's analog - no midi nothing. The manual is an easy read. As far as "getting your sound" from it , that depends upon your gear , how it's set up , your guitar pups and your cab/speakers ... let's not forget that all important "room environment" factor you're playing in as well.

I use the Dbx 215 in my rack setup which is: Marshall JMP-1 , Mesa 20/20 power amp , Rocktron Intellifex , TC Electronics M300 , and a Furman PL-8 power conditioner all contained in a Gruhndorf 8 space cube. The Intellifex , M300 , and the Dbx 215 are all routed to the effects loop of the JMP-1 in the order i just listed. It's a good idea to place a graphic equalizer at the end of your chain before the power amp. I use a Lopo 2x12 closed back loaded with a pair of WGS ET-65 speakers (these are great speakers)! My guitars are common - Strat , Tele , SG , McCarty(PRS), Charvel So Cal. The pups in my Strat are DiMarzio area '58 and area'61 ... the Tele has a set of area T's. The differences between my guitars' pups and the resonance of my speakers is why i chose to impliment the Dbx 215 into my setup. The idea was to set a "graph" of EQ that would yield a best overall curve at maintaining the integrity of my tone when switching from guitar to guitar. Did it work for me you may be thinking? Yes , most assuredly. It didn't take me long to do either because i knew what to "dial up". All of the pups on my guitars other than the So Cal have a "bright" charateristic - the So Cal pups are more "dark" sounding. My speakers are very good in the mids. So , i had to find an EQ setting on the Dbx 215 to bring mids from the pups to a balanced point with the speakers ... this really gives better definition and punch to the natural mids of the speakers. Each channel of the Dbx 215 is set the same except for channel A where i use a boost at 4k and at channel B a boost at 2.5k - the boost to each is not equal either. These boost positions are because of the pups in the So Cal to give it more sparkle and yet not being too spanky when using the other guitars. I also engage the "low cut" buttons on the Dbx 215 so the overall bass frequency doesn't flub on me. The Dbx 215 operates clean and quiet in my rig - of course a bit of hiss when reaching LOUD volumes is to be expected. Also , i find the Dbx 215 to be transparant and not messing with my tone other than the additonal EQ'ing. In bypass mode, this reveals what i'm detailing.

So far so good - comes with a manufacture's three year warranty.

I play a variety of styles but love the Blues and Jazz as well as Fusion. As far as copping an artist's sound , i favor the Robben Ford flavor. I like the seemingly transparent quality of the Dbx 215. I dig the low cut option to further taylor the tone - bassists and vocalists would appreciate it more i'm sure. There's really nothing i don't like about it and the pricepoint is exceptional. I admit , i'm using the Dbx 215 in a rather limited fashion as just using it to treat my guitar tone. How it performs in other applications i could not really say. My guess would be with the same transparent quiet quality. For my objectives the Dbx 215 is just what i needed. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to other guitarists using a rack system.

This product was very easy to use. I am really impressed to how this makes my whole rig sound way better. I bought it brand new at a local music store and for some reason it came without a book or anything, but I didn't need it. I am using this for a bass guitar rig and it worked great!

I easily hooked it up with no problems, very simple and straight forward.

If you have ever messed with an EQ before its pretty straight forward, I just kept strumming a string and pulling each slider up and down to hear how it effected my sound. It took me no longer than 30 minutes to get a great sound that made my overall sound even better!

High quality especially for the price! This unit is totally silent and built great, has a lot more weight to it than I expected. The effect of the EQ is very high quality in my opinion. I personally have not used any other rackmount eq's. The only other EQ I have used is a BOSS Programmable 10-band EQ in my pedal board and the DBX has sound quality higher than that (but the boss is still great).

I was basically trying to buy something to get rid of a hissing sound that was being picked up by my microphone on recordings and live.
From my bass guitar I am going into a pedal board that includes a mute/tuner, compressor, mxr di, 10-band eq, bass submarine pedal, and slight chorus then into my preamp, then into a BBE sonic maximizer rack, then into my power amp normally. I just set this EQ in between my preamp and my power amp.

I first bought a noise suppressor and that definitely got rid of the noise when I wasn't playing but when I hit a string I could still hear it which makes sense. If I was using a distorted guitar it would be fine, but my bass is nice, punchy and clean so the hiss still came through!

So my bandmates suggested I get a rack EQ to cut out the frequency making the hiss. Compared to others in the same price range and higher this EQ has nice/better features for the price. Well to my surprise this totally got rid of the hiss, I just kept messing with the sliders until I found the frequency to cut on the eq until it was gone.

After getting rid of the hiss I adjusted a few others settings on my overall setup. This EQ was so great it allowed me to turn up my drive, mids, and highs on my preamp and even turned up my highs on my actual bass guitar. Overall this improved my sound greatly and made it sound more high quality and punchy.

I have never used a DBX product, but this thing is built with high quality metal and the sliders feel really sturdy and not flimsy. Like I mentioned before this unit has a lot more weight to it than I expected. Most other rackmountable equipment I have (excluding my power amp) feel really light weight compared to this. But all of this is in my rack so it should stay pretty safe.

Never had to deal with support yet and hope I don't have to!

I have been playing bass for about 7 years and I currently play anything between hard rock and metal. I go from Tool to Pantera to Fear Factory to Old Metalica, etc. I feel like my sound is very versatile and I can play almost anything with it. It doesn't matter what kind of music you play to use this EQ. It would make anything sound better if you are looking for high quality equalizing on a budget.

If this were lost or stolen I would definitely buy another one as quickly as possible, the same night even or next day.

I love the high sound quality, it has no noise whatsoever totally silent unit, feels heavy, and the sliders feel really sturdy.

I compared this to a behringer dual 15-band eq mainly and a few others in a higher price range and I ended up getting this because guitar center did not have the behringer and this one was only 50 dollars more. I am happy they didn't have the behringer now!

It couldn't be simpler. You have the option bypass, low-cut, and +/- 12db (as opposed to 6db) adjustments.

I'm using this 215 in my guitar rack. I play through either a Standard Strat, or a an HSS strat, running through a BOSS GX-700 processor, a dbx 166a compressor, an Aphex 104 exciter, and finally the 215, before it hits the amplifier section of a Fender Ultimate Chorus. The unit is really quiet, and bumps up (or tones down) the frequencies I want, or need to accentuate or deaccentuate, in any given venue. I couldn't imagine playing wihtout it.

Yes, there are certainly nicer equalizers out there, but not anywhere close to this price range, in my humble opinion.

I've been using dbx products in my rack since the mid-nineties. I've never had reason to question their reliability, or consistent sound quality. To be honest, I had my doubts, whether or not the sound quality of this 215 (built in China) would be on par with my 166a (a U.S.-made dbx product); but, once I hooked it up and started using it, my fears were laid to rest.

I've never had to deal with customer support. Their products are solidly constructed.

I play many different styles of music (on the guitar), both acoustically and electrically. I also occasionally play keyboards. A friend of mine owns the 231, and is using it in his home studio. He loves it. I'm considering getting another 215 for my acoustic guitar system, and possibly a 231 for my live setup (a little further down the road), to use a a monitor EQ.

I pretty much set and forget it, and very minor adjustments are made, depending on the venue. The only thing someone with larger fingers might not like are the very thin sliders; but again, that's not a huge issue for me, and considering they crammed 30 sliders into a single rack space, I can't really complain.

I've used some of the Rane and Souncraftsment EQs, but this seems to hole its own against them, and is hard to beat, for the money.

The only thing I wish this unit had was a power light; but that's small potatoes compared to the features I love about the unit.

Very easy to use. Two EQs in one rack unit, each with 15 bands and level controls. Switchable to 12db or 6db of boost/cut. The only reason I didn't give it a 10 is because it wouold be great to have multiple programmable presets, but then that would mean a digital unit. This is analog, which I prefer.

I am using the first channel in front of my amp and the second in the effects loop of my amp. I roughly a "frown" in front, boosting mids and cutting bass and highs. And then roughly a "smile" to reverse this in the effects loop. The idea is to avoid distortion in lows and highs in order to remove flub, mud and buzziness, and emphasize distortion in mids, where the guitar lives. I am using this with a Voodoo modified Mesa Hertbreaker head. The results are truly awesome. The unit does what it's supposed to do and is very quiet.

I guess it's dependable. I haven't had it long. I believe this is a very good brand though.

I e-mailed them before I purchased with a question. I received a prompt repsonse that was somewhat helpful.

I play blues and classic rock. This piece has helped me really get the most out of my amp. I can use neck pickups anywhere in the amp (gain or clean) without mud and flub. I wouldn't mind getting another so that I have one set for my stratocaster and the other for humbucker guitars.