After ushering in the new year with the experimental Axe Design Lab series – a collection of electric guitars that aim to create “new frontiers and limitless creative potential for any modern guitarist” – Ibanez has now turned its attention to the pedal market.
As such, it has unveiled the Pentatone Preamp: a distortion-based preamp pedal that offers a huge array of tone-tweaking possibilities by way of a flexible five-band parametric EQ and numerous versatile control knobs.
It looks to be one of Ibanez’s most intuitive and expansive pedal releases in recent memory, offering a generous 12 control knobs in total, four toggle switches, two footswitches and the aforementioned five-band EQ.
As for what all of these controls do, the bulk of the pedal is concerned with the EQ: the five level sliders – which cover -10 to +10 dB – work alongside frequency-altering control knobs, all of which open up opportunities for in-depth sound sculpting.
Above the main EQ are controls for the distortion, which include a simple two-band EQ comprising Treble and Bass, as well as standard Gain and Level knobs that are said to help users harness a wide breadth of tones all the way from clean to “crushing distortion."
Elsewhere, a Bright toggle switch helps to boost the high frequency range in an effort to enhance the pedal’s treble response, while an onboard noise gate – again, triggered via a toggle switch – can be used to tame particularly wild gain sounds.
That’s not all, though: the spec sheet is capped off by Pre Boost and Post Boost control knobs, which work to push the gain section of the Pentatone Preamp and adjust the overall level, respectively.
While only the Post Boost is assigned to a footswitch, the Pre Boost – engaged by a dedicated toggle switch – can also be controlled by Ibanez’s separate IFS2L footswitch for greater convenience.
That same input can also be used to give the IFS2L triggering control over the pedal’s five-band EQ section.
All of this results in a well-spec’d pedalboard companion that, according to Ibanez, “covers it all," from “simple tone shaping to crunchy overdrive."
The Pentatone Preamp is available to preorder now for $249.
To find out more, head over to Ibanez.
“The asking price represents a sizable outlay, but it’s justified by the sheer range of quality effects”: Fractal Audio VP4 review
“Ohio supports their own, Alaskans have expensive taste”: Reverb reveals the most popular effects pedals in each US state – and a quarter of the country favors one brand in particular
