Electro-Harmonix Knockout Attack EQ

[whosgarethparry]

hey all, thought I'd share my discovery of this pedal.

In a nutshell it's not a trad EQ, it's a low pass and high pass filter designed primarily to make a Humbucker sound like single coils.

there's a decent demo on youtube giving a more detailed breakdown.

I've always struggled with wanting single coil sounds out of my 335 at certain points on a gig. not enough to bring a second guitar, and also i struggle to change guitars, as my hands start to hurt. if i stick with 1, no probs ever, when i change guitars, i get aches and pains (different hand position i think).

this pedal seems like a solution.

the verdict? not bad at all. what the pedal does well is to emulate the position 2 or 4 of a Strat. That clean, funky, Prince/Nile Rogers sound. When i use it with mid position of my 335, i get a great sound that does the job well. it feels like it compresses it slighty too, i know it doesnt, but it has that quality.

with more playing around, i'm sure some subtle textures can be made out of it. so far, i find to doesnt work all that well with distortion, but that again could be dialing it in a bit (had the pedal for 3 days, done 2 rehearsals and a gig).

The Downside is, like all EHX it's a noisy little bugger when on, but in it's defense, no worse that most compressors (which i'd personally use for that sound anyways)

i'll play more with it and see what i can find.

I'll state clearly now, this is no way a replacement for a strat, nor would it beat a strat in and A/B or anything crazy like that, but as a useable tool on a gig to get in that soundscape, it's not that bad at all and worth a look.

cheap too.
gareth