At 18V, the 10 LEDs in the EQ slider pedals turn on and off when I press the bypass footswitch. At 9V, those LEDs never come on, and that makes it impossible to see whether or not the pedal itself is on or off.

However, there’s a tiny tonal thing you would like to improve. This is where an EQ pedal will come in handy. If you want to tweak a specific frequency, you’ll want the Q to be high, ensuring that most of the signal will remain untouched except for the area you wanted to change. Finally, we've alluded often to the fundamental note. Especially with guitar, the majority of its unique timbre is as a result of the mix of a fundamental note and its overtones - although this is true of all instruments. If you use a particular tuning or often write in a specific key, then working out what the frequency of a note is allows you to EQ around the impact of that note. Not only that, but you can then calculate overtones. This won’t cut the bass entirely, but it’ll still clear up any muddiness or resonance so that you get a tighter sound. This HPF setup is particularly great for rhythm tones. How to Cut the Mids with the MXR 10-Band EQ The MXR M108S gives you the control you need when other pedals can't quite finish the tonal tweaking job. Having the freedom to find the high and low-level frequencies you need adds a ton of versatility to your tone and allows you to find the exact sound you're looking for.This is actually what makes sound engineering such an art. They need to ensure that all of the different instruments occupy different space in the EQ spectrum so that they can be heard and don’t overpower each other or sound like mush. I love this thing. It's fantastic. It gives you a ton of control over the sound and doubles as a volume/gain boost. It's sturdily built and the switch is solid and the sliders have a good feel to them. This will help you get a sweet saturated tone without oversaturation or too much noise. Another great thing is that you can mimic different types of overdrives by adjusting the EQ. Annoying lights, every single slider is lit in this annoyingly bright blue while the pedal is engaged, one light would have been enough. Here’s the same image I had before because this is the setting that I almost always have on. Solo, rhythm, whatever man. I use it for everything because it just sounds great with my Tele.

this is where the 'body' of the sound comes from. Some snares will have their overtones in this area, and it can overwhelm their 'snap', which generally sits somewhere in the 'bite' frequencies. As you can see, it’s a pretty basic EQ pedal with some outstanding features. It features 10 Band EQ which is in most cases overkill. You have so many angles to hit your guitar tone and completely manipulate it.

Tech Specs

The good news is that, at 9V, the 10 LEDs in the EQ sliders do not light up at all. At first, I honestly thought the pedal was broken. It isn’t, it just needs 18V to run all the LEDs. If you get the chance, go to a store and test the various EQ pedals to see what works for you because there’s no right or wrong way of finding your tone!