User Guide
®
BUILT IN USA
ADVANCED AUDIO EQUALIZATION
EQ. It’s one of the most misunderstood and misused part of our signal chains... EQ is
everything. It’s what makes every pedal sound like it does, it’s what makes every
amp sound like it does... a lot of people think that certain parts or tubes are the
deciding factor, although important, nothing shapes a tone like placing the right
EQ in the right place. Why do we overlook it so much? The simple answer, I don’t
know... maybe it’s because it’s not glamorous and not as exciting as a tube, or
maybe because it’s hard to visualize in the same way we can other parts of the
chain. Look at fuzz pedals, the reason they sound the way they do is because of a
certain shape EQ hitting the gain stages, in virtually the same way it does in a
dumble amp. Look at our favorite amps, the inherent ‘smiley face’ EQ in them makes
them sound like that... and what do we do, we put an opposite EQ curve into them
to make them sing... All this is EQ.
When designing the perfect EQ pedal, we located the frequencies that we are used
to hearing, without necessarily knowing what they are, and highlighted them. The
bass is centered around that warm depth, the highs are around the areas of
glassiness, and the mids... well, to properly control the mids you don’t need one,
you need two options to really cover the bases. Not high and low mids, but 2
controls over the entire spectrum to give maximum versatility.
Why does a TS sound the way it does? Why does a K style pedal sound that way,
what makes a 4x12” give it’s thump? What makes a tube amp have it’s glassy
sound... it’s all in the EQ. And with the EQuator, we can give you all those within one
pedal to tweak as you desire.
To get the most out of your new pedal, you'll want to become very familiar with the controls. The EQuator features Volume, Bass, Treble, 2
Mid levels, and 2 Mid Frequency controls. These can give you a HUGE amount of variation and exibility just from the gear you already
have... this is the perfect pedal for you to get lost in exploring various combinations and nding tones you didn’t know your rig was
capable of.
Bypass – A relay based true-bypass footswitch that ensures your signal is unaected when bypassed.
Volume – Controls the overall level of the pedal. The EQuator can be used as the perfect clean boost driving your other pedals or amp for
more gain, or you can use the pedal as an end-of-chain tone shaper... so, you’ll want high volume for one and unity for the other... Testing
is the easiest option. Put it in all places in your signal chain, nd where it works best for you.
Bass - Active control of 130htz, plus and minus 19db. As always, how this reacts all depends on where you put it in your signal chain. If
placed at the end of your chain as a tone shaper, this will react like suddenly putting your amp through a closed back 4x12” cab... A large
amount of warmth and thump will appear... It can also give the impression of tightening up the bass when cut to the right amount...
When positioned pre-gain, you can start to smash the low end of the tone, giving your overdrives and distortion fuzz characteristics
when pushed hard. When pushed in a more subtle way, you can thicken up your tone to sound a little like a D-style amp. Don’t overlook
the bass control, nd that sweet spot and exploit it fully.