A trick with setting your EQ pedal up (or most pedals for that matter) is to setup a looper in front to play the same phrase over and over and dial it in with your ears without the distraction of trying to play.
I'm just gonna point this out, because I've scanned the whole comments section and it appears everyone has missed it. With the knobs in the centre The Pentatone EQ is essentially giving you the frequencies MESA Boogie use in their Mark amps, with the added benefit of control of Q and sweepable frequencies. This essentially the Mesa Graphic EQ pedal, with some extra bells and whistles. You put it in the loop, you leave the knobs at centre and you do the scoop - thats what its for. You get the same effect as on the Mark amps, as their graphic EQ is after the pre amp controls. Sure, you can use it for whatever, but youre missing the point if you put it in the front. Pentatone freqs are 80, 250, 780, 2.4k, 7k Mesa's is 80, 240, 750, 2.2k, 6.6k As soon as that clicks, it becomes obvious where the design has come from.
Minutes 5:00 to 7:00 is why I keep watching his reviews - free education of how a noob like me can use these pedals I already know I want but don’t yet play well enough to actually need.
Trigger/Side-Chain gates are the best. I run into one (Joyo Legal Done), then the immediate output from the pedal goes into a precision drive (clone - Joyo Argos Drive), then into the amp, then the FX loop hooks up to the actual gate. Essentially, my amp is effectively double gated in the most effective way. If you don't have a Precision Drive or other drive with a built-in gate, get a Smart Gate or NS-2, throwing it right after your trigger gate, or after your first overdrive/distortion/boost, is the way to do it.
1) EQ after Your distortion Pedal for more precise distortion tone, as i do currently. 2) I have used EQ in the Loop (certain amps) like its part of the Amp or an Amp mod. 3) I have not tried yet, an EQ as last pedal in the chain, but you could try that too. 4) Try it anywhere you like as it could make a difference inserted at different locations
I think or hope that younger guitar players have a better understanding of EQ. I say this because I meet so many younger players that use plugins with EQ. I started in the late 80s. Getting a tube screemer was the most EQing we ever did. Just a thought. Sweet pedal.
Guitar Player can also be a signal engineer. I just use parametric EQ oft on my multi effects. Its very powerful feature to shape the signal and also to eliminate some frequency. But this is special tool for the people which are comfortable with signal technology.
How much headroom does the EQ pedal have? I'm very interested in buying it but if it cannot take the effects loop level of my ENGL Savage then it's basically useless to me.
Yes you can duplicate a Mesa 5 Band w this after your OD/Preamping it requires a tight Q cut at 750Hz and you can match the other freq easily, that makes a killer EQ w that sharp Q cut at 750 and bass boost slope. A Mesa curve can really punch your high gain stuff. Can be too much bass of course but adjust to suit. Amazing the cost of this. I was concerned about noise floor hiss but I have not heard any yet. The gate use on this one would negate that but I still want to know the noise floor hiss, some cheaper EQs produce noise. This is so low priced it sort of scares me that it might not be as quality a build as needed in my rather over populated board. Adding a noisy pedal for my gates to have to eat is not something I want but if it's quiet oh hell yes! Does anyone know from personal, use is it quiet?
You really need to take all these things apart. Learn about the component’s. Like that scene in Pink Floyd’s the wall when breaks all his guitars apart and then sorts out the pieces. Build quality? You need to tear into it to really know build quality. Get an automatic screw driver to quickly remove fasteners and then a pair of snipers to snip out parts. A desoldering tool to take apart soldered parts. I know that’s too much work and it makes a big mess. No one that I know actually does this on new gear?
Controversial opinion: The greatest tool to a guitarist is a BBE sonic maximizer in the effects loop, because how hard is it to fuck up sound with 2 knobs?! Studio guitarists would benefit from the eq pedal, ]not your ooga booga chug chug player.
I'm a big fan of multiple EQs on a board. I use parametric EQs both before and after the drive section of my pedalboard. Lots of people are effectively using their Tubescreamers or EQD Arrows before the rest of their drive section primarily as EQs + boosts. I'm dumb and still buy a bunch of boutique overdrive pedals, but you can recreate a whole lot of different overdrive sounds with an EQ pedal and a much more limited set of drive pedals.
Thank you for reviewing this! I appreciate and trust your takes sir. I was on the fence about this EQ vs more well-known competition, local stores don't carry it. I think it looks great! Learning the use and limits of EQ is one of the most valuable things a musician can do in the long term. This seems a good place to step up from fixed bands.
Tight “q” curve on eq are most useful when cutting frequencies. Removing something too harsh up top with out putting a blanket over the entire high end. Level matching will also become more important the more you boost a frequency. Adding DB. Use the level knob to match the unboosted level, and you hear more of what the eq is doing.
I love to see Dowina guitar. Just a small correction: they are from Slovakia, not Slovenia. Similar, but different. The EQ is sick and you are absolutely right it can mess up things really fast :)
If there was an XL version with a low/high pass filter I would be all over it, low/high pass filters are severely underrated, You can also get good results on the low/high end with the parametric EQ but it is still not the same as a good low/high pass filter
The Empress Effects Deluxe EQ pedal has high and low pass filters I'm pretty sure. It's pretty expensive but it seems like one of the best parametric eqs out there
These are awesome, holy cow. Really high quality, no BS gate and parametric 5 band hardware EQs. If you are a little bit into recording and learn this, this is super hand for adjusting to rooms/amps. Basically if you have this on your board you can stay old school and get a lot of the benefits of modelers with whatever amp is standing at the gig.
Excellent review as always! This is exactly how we all guitar players think. When we have a 10 band EQ, we tend to adjust all 10 sliders because we paid for it! :) Sometimes even slightly touching a single slider makes huge difference and solves the problem.
Ich lieb eq oedal und auf das hier hab ich schon lang jetzt gewartet :) eins vor den amp ein in den fx loop und man kriegt so viel mehr aus einem amp und einer gitarre. Must have, genau wie ein powersoak meineserachtens
Yeah, i got into stuff like this ages ago with a boss gt 8. It was really useful there to help sculpt it a bit more. A lot of the time it is just wasting time though, unless you know what you need.
3:11 is this why bass amps get all the cool slope, contour and multi band eq’s? And guitar amps have at most a 3 band eq or maybe just a knob labeled tone?
I was really spoiled when I started learning guitar, my guitar amp oddly had a 5 band EQ, besides the 3 usual ones it also had low/high mid controls, actually I remember Henning bitching about this some years ago and suggesting amp designers should add low/high mid controls to guitar amps
@@tiagoramalhais5493 another reason I positively love my katana mk2 112 ( soon to be joined with a gen3 head) because you can add another pair of eq pre or post gain parametric or graphic to totally shape your own sound. EQ whilst not glamorous is the most powerfull tone shaper🤘🏽
@@PooNinja I actually had a mk1 Katana that i quickly dispatched because I thought it was very bright and could not dial out the high end harshness, only later I found that you could add an EQ to the chain using the software, nowadays I personally don't have a use case for a Katana but if I was in the market for that type of amp it sure would be a top choice.
I was waiting for this parametric EQ! i had a parametric MID - Pot on my old DIY-Guitar AMP and was very very flexible already with one of these EQ-Knobs. with 3 Parametric MID-Pots, You could design Your Signature-Sound very well. Comared with a 11 Band EQ, this Parametric EQ from Ibanez could do much much more than a 11 Band EQ! ... I was waiting for this pedal and will use and test it with different guitars. Eytschpi, a schematic how the Noisegate works would be good also for "not engineers" ... I know how it works but You didnt explain it well. Sorry, I love Your videos but this was part wasn´t well prepared...
Not a guitar, but putting the Arturia Microfreak synth thru the Pentatone EQ turns the 'freak into a bass monster, and it's like lifting a veil off of the synth overall.
Studio tool is the right description..... not you Henning.... The obvious limitation of a powerful range with no presets is you really can't use it live. The only caveat being set up on a room by room basis and leave it on or dedicate to one guitar.
Use it as a low cut-high cut, then find the most annoying freq (usually 800-1000) and cut it (just slightly) then find that warm freq (250-400) and boost it (also ever so slightly) You're gonna like the way that sounds and it should work great in a mix as well... My two cents (to be fair I learned this trick from a very experienced engineer).. He was talking about how to record a JCM 100 but it seems to apply for most situations... just gotta use that freq sweep to find the exact whiney and warm spike...
Excellent that you picked up on my (?) tip to try this with acoustic guitar, too. :-) Meanwhile I‘ve been using it on my high-end acoustic pedalboard for a few months to great advantage, and loving it even more than my much-loved MXR 10-band. Why? Because - like the MXR - it doesn‘t color my sound when bypassed (because both are analogue pedals), and that‘s my first hurdle for ANY pedal I decide to use for acoustic. A great many color one‘s sound even when switched off, which can easily be discovered by listening with the pedal removed from one‘s chain, and then relistening with the pedal in bypass. So cudos to Ibanez for getting that right, unlike Boss and tons of others…. What a shame that Ibanez is focusing their promotion of this solely on electric players!!!! That‘s idiotic, since this thing will fit the bill for a great many acoustic players. It isn‘t digital and isn’t huge, either, which is an advantage. Dialing in a decent sound is quite easy with it. For me, it‘s now an always-on effect for my main acoustic guitar. And when I play electric through the same pedalboard, I just switch it off and use the EQ on my ToneX One to shape my Jazzmaster to taste. That way my board makes sense for everything I do. Without the EQ, not so. I definitely recommend the Pentatone EQ. And if not that, then an MXR 10-band (which takes 18V, though!) or a Joyo 10-band EQ that is very similar to the MXR and costs a lot less, and makes do with 9V without sounding any different/worse. But for me, the Ibanez is the winner.
That gate is amazing- or maybe I'm just simple, I don't know- but it's amazing to me. The idea of putting the trigger before the amp but the actual gate after- genius. I would've never come up with that- but once you see it, you're like "Duh, why haven't we been doing this?" It's unbelievably crisp and precise- precisely what a good gate should be. Ppl think of gates as just a wya to quiet a loud amp but- it's so much more. If you want that really powerful, punchy, staccato thing- a gate is a must- and the more precise it is the punchier and more powerful it's going to feel. Now get your bass player one and whip your drummer with a wet noodle until he tightens that sh1t up- there it is. Hmmm- I wonder what a gate would sound like on the drum mics.....
I can't help but wonder how the this EQ pedal stacks up against the Chase Bliss Automatone. I mean, I get that you're running this through the back, where else the Automatone is a preamp pedal. But they're both pretty flexible, so I'm curious about how they both work side-by-side going in through the front.
One of my favourite purchases was a gate with an effects loop. It's amazing the difference it made my confidence when there wasn't this extremely amateur-sounding wall of shit in the background the entire time I had my noisy pedals on, playing or no.
I have the original Ibanez pentatone, it's amazing, it's a monster. Just spend the time to set it up, it's fantastic, ha mine almost a year now. If you have an amp that you are on the fence about keeping etc. These give you options to maybe help dial in an amp with maybe something you feel it's missing. Just my 2 cents.
I'm not a big pedal man myself, I prefer multis. I bought an amp in the 80's from Musikhaus Bössmann in Osnabrueck. It was a Reuther st2408, transistor with the most amazing eq I've ever seen on a guitar amp. Build quality was second to none, as were the i/o possibilities. Sadly, Reuther no longer exists and there is as good as nothing on the internet about them. I still have the amp as a reminder about what quality should be. Cheers for the video.
I regards to the EQ thing, I have the Boss one to cut a little of the bass with my baritone guitar. I've found that cutting any more than ~2db ruins the sound. Guitar EQs don't really need any thing more than + / - 5DB imo.
EQ in front of your amp is just as valid but different, you should look at it more like tweaking your pickups or a boost pedal with character. I like that they kept the ranges usable here, it's not just a guardrail against overdoing it but also means you can be more precise.
I was hoping you would review this. Been thinking of getting one for my acoustic board- just ordered one through your affiliate link. Thanks for the review!
I use a 10 band equilizer from Joyo in the loop and I use it for solos. I will try this Ibanez equilizer. I need one for a new pedalboard. Maybe it's perfect with my baritone.
I thought it was an EQ and gate in one pedal at first which would be great for a first pedal on the board but that EQ is way more advanced than that. $99 for a simple gate that works is a great price.
The GE-7 is a graphic equalizer and this is a parametric equalizer. The boss you can boost or cut on the specific frequencies they have chosen to put on the pedal with the Q they chose. This you can turn the knobs to choose the frequency and Q you are boosting and cutting. It's a lot more flexible than the GE-7
