Mesa/Boogie Flux-Five, Five-Band Graphic EQ and Throttle Box EQ Pedals

Mesa/Boogie unveils 3 pedals that feature their five-band EQ – Flux-Five, Five-Band Graphic EQ and Throttle Box EQ.     These EQ equipped pedals expand the brand’s guitar pedal line, featuring the same five band EQ found in their amps albeit in a floorboard friendly format.   Back when Metal guitar players where brewing their tone, Mesa/Boogie played an important role, popularizing the scooped-mid sound associated with hard rock and metal. This tone is achieved by scooping the mids while boosting the lower and higher frequencies, forming a “V Curve” on the amp’s five-band EQ. Now this same five band EQ is available in pedal form, as a stand-alone EQ, or joined together with two distinct flavors of overdrive/distortion.  

Boogie Five-Band Graphic EQ

  This pedal features the same hand-built quality and tone shaping power as the EQ found on amps. It’s a standalone unit that can be easily integrated into your rig. It’s most prominent feature is the Five-Band EQ long-throw sliders that let you boost or cut 12dB on the same five frequencies that the amp-bundled version targets – 80Hz, 240Hz, 750Hz, 2.2kHz and 6.6kHz. For easier matching of source and output volume, the pedal comes with Input and Output level knobs that allows for +6dB boost or -40dB cut.  

 

Throttle Box EQ

  Mesa/Boogie decided to inject the five-band EQ into the recently released Throttle Box pedal. The result is flexible high-gain distortion with expanded tone shaping and footswitchable Hi/Lo performance modes. Doug West, Director of Marketing at Mesa/Boogie, had this to say about the pedal: “With limitless curve possibilities, the graphic equalizer expands the potential for sonic diversity across all playing styles as well as being able to unleash sonic Mayhem. Like the original, this new model includes two modes but here they are controlled by a HI/LO footswitch that enables you to have two gain regions to choose from during live performance.”

 

FLux-Five

  The five-band EQ was also interjected into Mesa/Boogie’s Flux-Drive, allowing you to craft finely tuned dirt tones. The shrunk-to-size EQ works in conjunction with the Hi/Lo footswitch to give you wider tonal options. The Lo Gain setting is where the sound of the original Flux-Drive is found, while switching to Hi Gain mode adds sounds that were not previously available to the non-EQ version of the stompbox.  

  All pedals come with LED indicator, True Bypass footswitches and are powered either by a 9V battery or an external power supply. ach pedal is designed and handcrafted in their Petaluma, California USA facility.   The three pedals are now available on pre-order, with the Boogie Five Band Graphic EQ having a retail price of $249, while the Flux-Five and Throttle Box EQ share the same price tag of $299. For complete specifications and other details, visit Mesa/Boogie.   Related Articles: See what we rate as the 7 Best Overdrive Pedals   See our roundup of the best guitar effects including: Single Pedals – Multi Effects – Guitar Processors.