EQ isn’t considered a glamorous subject among guitarists. If you’re a guitarist with more than a passing interest in studio recording techniques – or even just The Beatles – then you’ll be one of a lucky few who actually get excited when someone says “Pultec” or “parametric”. Otherwise, EQ tends to be sidelined as a utility effect, and hence loses column inches to the more exciting worlds of distortion, modulation and time-based tomfoolery. But, thrilling as the humble EQ pedal mightn’t be, crucial it most definitely is. And the best EQ pedals are far more than pure practical utility.
As a guitarist, you already engage with EQ all the time. Whether you’re nudging the tone control on your trusty Boss Blues Driver, mucking around with mids on your amp, or even just rolling back the treble knob on your guitar, you’re making active decisions about your tone. And an EQ pedal can unlock so much more for you, too.
If you have a huge pedalboard, an EQ could be just the ticket for taming certain frequencies before they reach your time-based effects; if you have a slight pedalboard, the right EQ could be just the ticket for making your guitar sing into your boutique drives. If you’re in a noisy band like me, EQ can be used to great effect to ensure you sit sonically in the right place. If you play solo, an expressive EQ can help you add dynamic interest to your performance. You might even just want to compensate for tone suck from long cable runs!
That said, if you’re not quite sure what you’re looking at or indeed for, you’ll find a wealth of information on EQ pedals, what makes them tick and how to choose between them in my handy buyer’s advice section.
Our top picks
The Boss EQ-200 is a workhorse EQ, through and through. Fitted with a dual 10-band graphic EQ, the EQ-200 enables you to run it in stereo, parallel, serial or A/B – meaning you can effectively put two powerful EQs wherever you want in your signal chain. User presets, expression, external control and MIDI in/out seal the deal for this as the last EQ you’ll ever need.
Source Audio’s pioneering digital tech smarts are on full yet unassuming display here, with ten bands of EQ and 128 user presets all controllable by Source Audio’s Neuro Editor app. When people talk about having tone in their pocket, they probably don’t mean this – but I do, now. Stereo I/O, CV control and MIDI only serve to seal the deal.
The Ashdown Geezer Butler Pedal of Doom may bear the Black Sabbath bassist’s name, but it’s not just an instrument of doomy destruction. The Pedal of Doom is a dual five-band EQ with optional fuzz and an XLR DI output, making it a surprisingly comprehensive dual-mode option for the gigging bassist.
The Origin Effects M-EQ Driver is a powerful little box, the simplicity of which belies an incredible range of practical applications. Whether adding a little warmth to throw into the preamp, a little sizzle to your top end or a cocked-wah for QOTSA-style cut-through, it’s an ideal go-to for shaping your chords.
Tilt EQs are alarmingly simple, and alarmingly effective for their simplicity; it’s great to see one well-utilised in pedal format, with this boost-EQ from Revv Amplification. The Tilt Boost combines a clean boost (with 20dB of transparent gain) and an expressive tilt EQ with a three-way low-attenuation switch for extra options from the same setting. There’s a neat little drive circuit bundled in too!
Aclam’s Go Rocky Go pedal is a magical mystery tour of vintage EQ tones – quite literally, being based on The Beatles’ sounds in 1968. It’s a Vox-ish affair, with bright, sparkly jangle and some decent gritty bite to boot. The psychedelic colour scheme is a world apart from the relative dryness of EQ pedals as a concept, too.
Best overall
✅ Buy it if you want a do-it-all EQ: This is a feature-heavy EQ that is seriously powerful.
❌ Avoid it if you want to keep it simple: Looking for a simple tone sculptor? Well, there are far simpler EQ pedals on the market.
Boss’ EQ-200 is nothing less than a studio rack EQ in pedal format. This entry to the 200-series, which has also seen some studio-grade modulation and time-based effects crammed into an ergonomic, small-ish pedal footprint, carries the torch for practical utility. In fact, in terms of its functionality, it bears a little more resemblance to a DAW graphic EQ, thanks to the LCD screen that offers you a delightful digital view of your EQ curves.
Fundamentally, the EQ-200 is a 10-band graphic EQ – or, more accurately, two of them in one box, which you can use in A/B, stereo, serial or parallel. This means you can accommodate wet-dry rigs and complex setups in a single pedal, enhanced all the more by expression and full MIDI control over parameters. Each band is active, with 15dB of boost or cut on tap, and the overall range covered by the range of the bands is customisable as well.
The neat thing about this is that you can use the individual jacks for in and out to create an effects loop between EQ A and EQ B, which enables you to spread the influence of the EQ-200 across your pedalboard. Though there isn’t a dedicated pre, there is a great deal of versatility in being able to slot your EQs variably within your signal chain. And, of course, there are presets: 128 of them. You’ll never need to memorise an EQ curve again.
The Boss EQ-200 is the utility EQ of dreams, with features that speak to practically every flavour of guitarist. They’ve thought of everything, from signal-chain switching to the ability to disable the front-panel controls to preserve your real-time settings. Unless you want something more colourful, this is exactly what you need.
Best compact
✅ Buy it if you need 10 bands: This EQ pedal comes with 10 selectable EQ bands with an impressive +/-18dB of boost or cut.
❌ Avoid it if you hate apps: This pedal does require you to use an app to access full capability.
For those who want the flexibility of the Boss unit but don't have the pedalboard real estate, there's the EQ2, which Source Audio claims is the most powerful EQ on the planet. Given it's the choice of David Gilmour and John Mayer, obviously, others agree.
Like the EQ-200, it has ten bands and stereo in and out. Each band can be fully customised between 20Hz and 20kHz, offering 18dB of boost or cut. There's also the option to add a noise gate or limiter to further control the signal's dynamics.
The EQ2 can store 128 presets, with 4 accessible via the quick selection on the front panel. It's possible to program the EQ2 using the single rotary encoder on the pedal. However, due to its complexity, it's easiest to work with via Source Audio's desktop or mobile applications, or via MIDI.
"Highly detailed sound sculpting makes this a consummate stage tool."
Read our full Source Audio EQ2 review
Best bass EQ
✅ Buy it if you want a wide-ranging bass equalisation station: The Pedal of Doom is an excellent all-in-one box for bassists, with dual 5-band EQs you can switch between, a deep fuzzy Doom circuit, and a DI output for practical use on-stage and in-studio.
❌ Avoid it if you’re purely looking for Sabbath tones: While it carries Geezer Butler’s name, the Pedal of Doom isn’t quite as good as other pedals for that uniquely fulsome bass. Its strengths, counterintuitively, lie elsewhere.
Ashdown’s a heavyweight in the bass-amp space, so it’s only right that it throws some weight behind something truly heavy. The Geezer Butler Pedal Of Doom is one of two signature products celebrating the Black Sabbath bassist, the other being a limited-edition 600W bass amp head, the Head of Doom. The Pedal Of Doom is a little more accessible, and purports to put the punishing tones of the signature amp in a small but highly useful dual-stompbox.
While, in testing, we didn’t find the Pedal of Doom to be especially convincing as a stand-in for the ‘Sabbath sound, this nifty dual pedal is frankly excellent at something else entirely – EQ. It’s functionally a dual five-band EQ pedal, with an A/B switch for getting different tones and levels of grit. Separately, there’s a ‘Doom’ pedal for smashing the hell out of your tone; this is undeniably cool, but we’re here for the incredible practicality of the P.O.D.’s subtler features.
There’s a boatload of tweakability here, letting you dive into some honest bassy tone-sculpting. If you have an 18V DC outlet on your power supply, all the better; it’ll run on 18V, giving you more headroom and even more dynamic control. Finally, there’s a balanced, transformer-isolated XLR DI output as well as the standard jack out, making this a doomy pedal that’s far more than its doom credentials.
"The Pedal of Doom is a strange fish; while it can undoubtedly summon some of the sonic Armageddon its name suggests, it isn’t necessarily a ticket to Geezer Butler’s classic sound. It’s a sturdy, useful box in its own right, though – with warm vintage tones, devastating fuzz and plenty of EQ shaping."
Read the full Ashdown Geezer Butler Pedal of Doom review
Best for rhythm guitar
✅ Buy it if you’re a team player: The Origin Effects M-EQ Driver is a great-sounding thing in and of itself, but its strengths are in singling you out amongst an ensemble. Use it wisely, and you’ll get more heft out of your band than you’re putting in.
❌ Avoid it if you want a lead boost: The M-EQ Driver can absolutely be used in this context, but it would be an immense waste of the warmth on tap – and without a separate boost switch on board, you’ll want to keep your settings somewhere better than “thin, please”.
Origin Effects is the true guitarist’s pedal brand. These effects units put primo circuitry in some incredibly well-engineered packages, creating bona fide pedalboard toolkits that only ever elevate sound; look to the quintessential Origin Effects Cali 76 compressor, and understand the black magic involved in squeezing a legendary studio compressor into a box that big, purely for guitarists. Fantastical stuff – much like the arcane boffin-ry going on here, with Origin’s exceedingly clever take on the Pultec EQ.
This is the M-EQ driver, a mid-booster and drive pedal that gives you hitherto unprecedented control over the EQ range that really matters to the jobbing guitarist. There’s a Pultec-style two-knob EQ going on here, with a mids control customisable by way of a three-way Q switch, and a Cut knob that rolls off high end the further you push it. Origin have innovated with an optional Adapt mode, that preserves high end when you play lighter into the thing – making for one of the most dynamic and lively EQ pedals on the market.
The Pultec sound is classic enough, but here Origin have shaped it into something far more guitar-friendly. You can set the mids anywhere from “more growl please” to “Era Vulgaris is the only Queens Of The Stone Age album”, granting you a great deal of power with respect to finding space in an arrangement or mix. A valve-like push-pull output stage combines with a tasteful saturation to give you plenty of dirt options, too. It’s love at first sound, and the tone-shaper you didn’t know you were dreaming about.
"Far more versatile than your average overdrive, Origin Effects’ M-EQ Driver is a touch-sensitive tonal enhancer that lets you get in and really adjust the character of your drive sounds, while offering a tactile relationship between your dirty and clean guitar tones."
Read the full Origin Effects M-EQ Driver review
Best for lead tones
✅ Buy it if you want the ultimate lead boost: The Tilt Boost is the platonic ideal for pushing your guitar up into the lead-tone stratosphere. It’s an elegant way to carve out some lows and accentuate highs, and it has some brilliant architecture for shaping that tone besides.
❌ Avoid it if you want a clinical utility EQ: The Tilt Boost does lots well, but isn’t designed to be the problem-hunting tone-smoother that some guitarists are in the market for. Let it sing instead.
Revv Amplification is a Canadian amp-making brand, and behind some of the more highly sought-after amp heads in the biz. Its pedal output isn’t so shabby either, as evidenced in no small part by the Tilt Boost – a re-iteration of the boost circuit in prior Shawn Tubbs collaboration, the Tilt Overdrive. Demand for a standalone boost pedal was high, and so a new, powerful pedal utility was born. And it’s great.
This is a simple pedal, really. It’s just two knobs and two switches, but between them a universe of tone-shaping potentiality. The boost knob offers up to 20dB of clean gain, or control over a bluesy overdrive circuit; the Tilt EQ knob either boosts highs and cuts lows, or boosts lows and cuts highs – with a corresponding Tight switch that offers three different approaches to handling the low end. In practice, this means finding an EQ setting you like, and getting three flavours of it without twiddling or tweaking.
The extreme ease with which you can get a variety of workable sounds is notable, and even appreciated in a world of digital-controlled multi-band EQs. Here, it’s easy: find what you like, and either leave it on or punch it in. The tilt-EQ approach is genius for boosts, allowing you to keep on top of the harsher highs without sacrificing brightness.
"The Revv Amplification Tilt Boost is essential for incrementally sculpting your boosted tones with clarity or as an “always-on” tone-shaping pedal that enhances any rig with touch-sensitivity and punch."
Read the full Revv Amplification Tilt Boost review
Best for vintage tones
✅ Buy it if you’re a Beatles fan: Vox Conquerors aren’t easy to come by anymore, but this handy little box is – and carries with it a shedload of tricks to launch you into the brittle, breakup tones of the late 60s.
❌ Avoid it if you want a transparent EQ: This isn’t a straight-up EQ, but rather an amp-in-a-box that delivers a wide set of very specific, very stylised sounds very well. Clinical tone-merchants need not apply!
Aclam is a Spanish company primarily concerned with the design and sale of some intriguing pedalboard alternatives (more on which in a sec), but which has recently come out of the gate with some very nifty little effects boxes indeed – including this 60s marvel, which aims to tackle the signature sounds of the late-60s Beatles.
The Go Rocky Go is effectively an amp channel emulator, gunning specifically for the sound of the Brilliant channel on a Vox Conqueror. The Conqueror, of course, is a solid-state affair used liberally by the Beatles in performances supporting The Magical Mystery Tour, and in the recording of The White Album.
For the EQ part of the equation, there are Treble and Bass control knobs, and a mid-range boost accessed via both footswitches; these support a supple set of sound modes spanning spanky cleans and gritty rhythmstuf. And this is before you go in on the fuzzed-out distortion circuit.
If you’re prescient enough to have invested in one of Aclam’s unique Velcro-free Smart Track pedalboards, for which they are arguably better-known (and for which they earned a spot in my guide to the best pedalboards), you’ll be glad to know that this pedal is particularly Smart Track-friendly. There are slots moulded into the chassis, which accept the proprietary fasteners for Aclam pedalboards and make for a much more reassuring fit. For the vast majority of us, this isn’t much of a selling point – but it’s nice that they did it. And nicer still to have ‘Helter Skelter’ in a box, ready to go.
"In a world where valve amps generally rule the roost, an amp‑in-a-box pedal based on a solid-state amp is a rare thing and offers the opportunity to embrace a less-travelled path of tonal colours."
Read the full Aclam Go Rocky Go review
Best on a budget
✅ Buy it if you’re on a budget: This Boss unit is affordable, reliable and very simple. It's a no-brainer for those on a tighter budget.
❌ Avoid it if you want something more detailed: This is a straight-up basic EQ. If you want something more sophisticated, look elsewhere.
The Boss GE-7 is a solid and affordable EQ. The reason it's not commonly recommended is because its op-amp often caused noise in the audio signal path.
Depending on who you believe, the op-amp choice was either a cost-saving measure, or one aimed at increasing the battery life of the unit in an era where fewer players had a decent pedal power supply. Whatever the reason for the choice, its effect was unevenly felt, with some units being quiet and some having an unusable hiss.
Of course, there was a straightforward mod available if you were a little handy. Removing the op-amp and replacing it would reduce the noise. This is no longer needed, however. In moving to a fully SMD design for the new GE-7, the op-amp used has changed, and reportedly the noise issues are gone. This change has resulted in the GE-7 becoming a better option than ever, assuming you get one of the current run.
Best for versatility
✅ Buy it if you need a boost: This unit has a pretty brilliant footswitchable boost onboard.
❌ Avoid it if you want something affordable: Quality like this comes at a pretty hefty price.
Simply put, there is no alternative to the Empress Para EQ in a compact format. Despite being small enough to fit on most pedalboards, it has three parametric bands, a high pass and low pass filter, and two shelving filters for high and low frequencies. It even has a boost on a second footswitch. This means, at least in terms of gain, you're effectively getting a two-channel preamp.
Parametric EQ is very common in studio applications, with the most common set of EQ moves for a guitar being to apply two or three parametric bands as well as high pass and low pass filters. The ParaEQ will allow you to have this kind of control live, in a pedal format with high headroom.
The non-deluxe version of the ParaEQ ships without the HP/LP and shelving filters. However, once you're spending that kind of money on an EQ, there's value in having the additional filters. You'll never need to buy another EQ again.
Because of the control you have over the Q of the three main bands, this pedal can be subtle in terms of the EQ moves available. Moreover, it has the depth to be a useful studio tool as well, for either guitar, bass or synths.
How to choose
Picking an EQ pedal isn’t easy, even for pro guitarists who know what they need. If you’re reading this and you’re not quite sure where to start, read on for five useful criteria to bear in mind when choosing from the best EQ pedals.
Primary purpose
You wouldn’t be considering getting an EQ pedal if you didn’t think there was something in your tone that it could ‘fix’. Unless you’re a card-carrying G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome, for the uninitiated) engineer looking for a new pedal type to obsess over. Assuming you’re not: what is it that you want to address?
EQs are excellent tonal utilities in several senses. If you have a dense pedalboard, it might be that you find yourself losing some definition between certain pedals or stages; some older drives are guilty of affecting your tone even when ‘bypassed’, while some newer digital effects can introduce some unwanted information alongside their boutique-y wet output.
On the other end of the spectrum, you might have little between your guitar and amp – but you might be in the market for adding some tonal colour, or hoping to counter some high-end roll-off from a long guitar cable.
EQs can also be used creatively, in their own right. You might just want to play with notching out certain frequencies, or cutting low end for brittle tones. You might even want a boost pedal that you can tame a little more directly.
Whatever it is you have in mind, keeping it in mind will help you filter out the devices that don’t really fit the bill. If you want to control your existing tone, you’re not likely to need a built-in drive or boost circuit past some make-up gain. If you want a lead tone, you won’t really need the granular control of a 10-band EQ.
Playing style(s)
Likewise, the way you play can dictate the relative usefulness of certain EQs over others. Taking the Origin Effects M-EQ Driver as an example: the M-EQ Driver apes a Pultec, but adds in a new Adapt mode that returns rolled-off high end in the presence of quieter signals. This means expressive, dynamic players are rewarded with an expressive, dynamic response to their playing in situ.
You don’t get the same treatment from a graphic EQ pedal – nor would you want to, if you’re a rock guitarist looking to reliably reduce some of the ‘honk’ in your riffs. Instead, you want something capable and comprehensive, there to sniff out problem tones and aid with accentuating the desirable ones.
Pedalboard space
Pedalboard real estate is a very real concern, whatever kind of pedal it is you’re in the market for. If space is tight and you know exactly what you’re after tone-wise, then you can narrow yourself down further to a small range of compact EQ pedals that tackle specific things. If you’ve got room to play with, you might consider a larger, more comprehensive unit just to cover your bases.
Modes of control
Tangentially related to size, there is also the relative complexity of your signal chain and EQ requirements. Some EQs are as simple as can be, designed either as always-on tone-shapers or simple, tweakable high-end boosts. Others are a little more complicated, featuring user preset banks for different effects and tonal assistance.
If your signal chain is on the more complex side, and if you’re playing a well-rehearsed set live with a band, you’re more likely to benefit from external control of EQ pedal parameters.
Some allow MIDI control, whether to shift EQ settings or bank up and down between different EQ profiles altogether. Others enable CV control of settings in real time, and others still have expression capabilities (making them, functionally, envelope filters or wah pedals, respectively).
If external control would make your gigging life easier, this should be a key requirement for your EQ pedal shortlist.
Extra features
It’s been touched on throughout, but as a final point, most EQ pedals aren’t just EQ pedals. There are also other effects and features, whether to set them apart from competitors or simply make them more useful for utility pedals. After all, if you’ve only got so much space on your board, you might as well get as much as you can from it!
Almost every EQ pedal utilises active circuitry, meaning you get EQ band boosts as well as cuts; some will have a separate boost circuit to make up gain from your alterations, or to give you an easy route to lead tones that cut through. Others will also bundle in a drive circuit to offer you some built-in grit. The lines between EQ pedal, boost pedal, amp-in-a-box and outright overdrive are indistinct at this point, but knowing which could offer more to your future pedalboard will help you pick wisely.
Glossary
- Active – circuitry that requires external power to operate. Active EQ circuits use active components in transistors and op amps, to enable the boosting of target frequencies, while digital EQs use digital audio processors and active converters, to turn your audio signal into manipulable digital data, then back again.
- Bandwidth – with respect to an individual EQ filter, the range of sound targeted and impacted by that filter. A broad bandwidth would see more of a signal affected; a tight bandwidth would boost or notch a small, specific portion of the signal.
- EQ – stands for equalisation, referring to the balancing of sounds by frequency.
- Frequency – the pitch of a sound, as defined in cycles per second, or Hertz. The range of human hearing is typically between 20Hz and 20kHz. Low frequencies, the home of bassy sounds, are loosely defined as below 250Hz; mid-range frequencies are loosely defined as between 250Hz and 3kHz; treble frequencies are loosely defined as 4kHz and above. EQ pedals target specific frequency bands for gain increase or reduction, whether to accentuate certain sonic properties or remove less-desirable ones.
- Gain – refers to the level of an audio signal; with respect to an EQ pedal, gain is the amount by which the volume of a sound, or specific targeted frequencies, are increased or decreased in volume.
- Graphic EQ – an EQ with a visual interface, typically using sliders, that enables you to boost and notch the gain of individual, fixed frequency bands; the settings of these sliders give a visual clue as to the impact on your sound.
- Hi-pass – the reduction or removal of frequencies below a given frequency. Higher frequencies ‘pass’ through unaltered, while low frequencies are prevented. Also known as ‘low cut’.
- Parametric – a type of EQ which enables you to control the bandwidth and frequency, as well as the gain.
- Passive – circuitry that does not require external power to operate. Many EQ circuits are passive, using combinations of resistors, capacitors and/or inductors to shunt target frequencies to ground. Passive EQs cannot amplify or boost target frequencies, only cut or attenuate.
- Preamp – a stage of amplification that prepares an audio signal for later stages of amplification. Preamps are a common find in EQ pedals, either to push a guitar’s signal into the EQ circuitry or to add make-up gain afterwards. Some active EQ circuits are themselves preamps, using preamp circuitry to enable the boosting of specific frequencies as well as cutting.
- Low-pass – the reduction or removal of frequencies above a given frequency. Lower frequencies ‘pass’ through unaltered, while higher frequencies are prevented. Also ‘high cut’.
- Make-up gain – a stage of amplification that occurs after EQ adjustments are made, designed to counteract volume loss from EQ cuts.
- Q – similar in meaning to the bandwidth of an EQ filter. The higher the Q, the tighter the bandwidth – and the more resonant the filter, owing to the steepness of rise in gain between the frequencies outside the bandwidth, and the frequency at the centre of the bandwidth. More specifically, Q is the ratio between that centre frequency and the defined bandwidth.
- Tilt EQ – a type of EQ design, designed to adjust the tonal balance of a signal by simultaneously boosting high end and cutting low end, or vice versa, about a predetermined ‘pivot’ frequency.
- Tone suck – a phenomenon where long runs of instrument cable create a natural low-pass filter, robbing your guitar signal of some high end.
FAQs
Why do I need an EQ pedal?
EQ pedals are often overlooked as sources of excellent guitar tone, if only for the fact that they’re fairly unglamorous as far as pedals go. When there’s a swathe of far more exciting pedals out there, that offer weird and wonderful effects from the tactile to the esoteric and beyond, it’s hard to get enthusiastic about a pedal that very much wears what it does on its not-so-remarkable sleeve.
But just because EQ pedals, conceptually, aren’t that interesting, doesn’t mean that they’re not useful. Nor does it mean they’re uninteresting in reality. EQ pedals are practical utilities at their fundamental best, offering you precise control over the tone you’re sending into your pedals, or into your amp.
You might need an EQ pedal if you’ve noticed there’s some tone suck in your guitar rig, and you’d like to reintroduce some life to your signal. You might find that certain pedals in your chain are too bright, and you’d like to soften things before they get too harsh on stage. You might be after a pedal you can kick on to shift your tone brighter, so you can stand out for lead lines or solos. You might want something honky, to excite the preamp in your posh secret-weapon tube head and achieve some mythic break-up.
Any of these reasons are reason enough to think about adding an EQ pedal to your setup. And there are many more too, whether you’re a bedroom guitarist hunting for the right ‘voice’ or a pro session player needing some tonal options for different clients.
What do EQ pedals do?
EQ pedals allow you to control the prominence of different frequencies in your guitar tone, using various different principles and circuits to do so.
Some EQ pedals are designed to act just like the bass, mid and treble settings on your amp; having these controls earlier in your signal chain enables you to retain more control over your tone before certain stages of effects.
Other EQ pedals are designed a little more like studio or FOH rack equipment; they give you direct control over a large number of preset frequency bands, allowing you to draw your own EQ curve. These graphic EQs are great for singling out annoying or problematic parts of your tone, and addressing them before they reach your amp or recording destination.
Most EQ pedals include some active preamp circuitry, whether to make up for lost volume from cutting frequencies, or to allow you to boost certain frequencies, or even as a separate boost or drive function.
What types of EQ are there?
The two most common types of EQ pedals that you will encounter are graphic EQ and parametric EQ. You may be most familiar with graphic EQs as a concept: they have fixed bands of audio that can be boosted or attenuated. Usually, these are controlled by sliders and visually indicate the shape of your EQ curve by their position. The most accessible example of this is the Boss GE-7, a compact seven-band graphic EQ that does exactly what it says on the tin – plus an eighth slider for make-up gain.
Parametric EQs, meanwhile, offer you a (typically smaller) number of adjustable frequency bands; this means you can set the bandwidth, gain and the central frequency around which the band operates. Parametric EQs are more precise, and more tweakable, but not always fun to dial in.
Alongside, and indeed often within, parametric EQ pedals, you’ll also find high- and low-pass filters. These roll off low and high end respectively – less a curve, and more an abyssal shelf. Rarely, you’ll come across something like a tilt EQ, which is a simple one-parameter effect that simultaneously boosts highs and cuts lows around a pre-set frequency – or vice versa.
How many bands do I need?
Again, the number of EQ bands you need is dependent on your needs. Ultimately, you will never need more than 10 with respect to a guitar signal, and with respect to a pedalboard-friendly EQ pedal. 10-band graphic EQs give you maximal control over the shape of your tone – probably more than you need, in most cases.
Where you’re aiming to accentuate part of your tone, you only really need one mid-range parametric EQ. Hi, and low-pass filters are a useful addition, and all the better if you have three parametric bands for more precise control. Again, though, even 3 parametric bands will give you radically more control over your tone than almost any guitar amp.
What features should I look for in an EQ pedal?
The features you should look out for in the best EQ pedals are dependant on your needs as a guitarist, and also your playing style. EQ as an effect goes hand in hand with preamps, particularly where preamp architecture is commonly used to enable the boosting of frequencies as well as the cutting of frequencies.
Here, a quick primer on EQ architecture that should save you an electronics lesson: EQs can be analogue or digital – and analogue EQs can be passive or active. Passive EQs use basic electronic components to target certain frequencies and shunt them to electrical ground, removing them from the signal passing through them; since energy can’t be magicked up from nowhere, passive EQs are only capable of cutting frequencies.
Passive EQs are a common sight, and extremely useful. The tone knob on most drive pedals tends to control a passive low-pass filter, for instance; as for EQ pedals in my roundup, the Origin Effects M-EQ Driver is based on the best passive EQ of all time – a Pultec. But even where passive circuitry like this is used, active circuitry is often used to restore gain. Some EQ pedals make better use of this than others – so if you want an EQ that can act as a boost, you’ll want an EQ pedal with a second footswitch for a boost circuit.
Digital EQs have the benefit of precise control and user preset-saving, which could be exactly what you need if you’re a gigging guitarist with a lengthy setlist – and another tour with a different band to prep for after this one is finished. Some, like the Source Audio EQ2, even enable you to save and alter presets from your phone; no more kneeling!
Ultimately, you want an EQ pedal that answers a specific question you’re asking of your equipment. If it’s “how can I brighten my tone?” then you don’t need much more than a pedal with a decent high-end performance. If it’s “how do I get rid of that weird honk?” then you probably want an EQ that’ll let you isolate problem frequencies. Anything else is ultimately a bonus, be it a DI output, an extra drive circuit or MIDI control.
How we choose the best EQ pedals
Here at Guitar World, we are experts in our field, with many years of playing and product testing between us. We live and breathe everything guitar related, and we draw on this knowledge and experience of using products in live, recording and rehearsal scenarios when selecting the products for our guides.
When choosing what we believe to be the best EQ pedals available right now, we combine our hands-on experience, user reviews and testimonies and engage in lengthy discussions with our editorial colleagues to reach a consensus about the top products in any given category.
First and foremost, we are guitarists, and we want other players to find the right product for them. So we take into careful consideration everything from budget to feature set, ease of use and durability to come up with a list of what we can safely say are the best EQ pedals on the market right now.
Read more about our rating system, how we choose the gear we feature, and exactly how we test each product.
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Guitar World boasts over 44 years of expertise and stands as the ultimate authority on all things related to guitars. The magazine and website feature expertly written gear round-ups and top-quality, authoritative reviews penned by a team of highly experienced industry professionals.
Guitar World's inaugural print issue hit the shelves in July 1980, and ever since, it has been captivating players and enthusiasts with engaging lessons, insightful interviews with the biggest guitar heroes, and priceless buying advice for newbie players.
Furthermore, GuitarWorld.com continues this legacy online and serves as the hub of the world's foremost authorities on guitar playing. The site not only hosts content from Guitar World but also showcases articles from respected publications such as Guitarist, Total Guitar, Guitar Techniques, and Bass Player. With a reach extending to 3.8 million players each month, GuitarWorld.com is a go-to destination for guitar fanatics globally.
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You can trust Guitar World Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing guitar products so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
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