This eq is completely great, and it is super inexpensive. I am not sure how much it will retail for, but the list price as i understand it, is under 550 dollars US !!! Crazy inexpensive for a really well made EQ that is holding its own, currently, against the 2 Pultec EQP1R's, Mercury EQP1, Neumann PEV, Melcor GME20's, Manley Massive Passive, Chandler Curve Bender and Silicon Graphic, and also the Neve 31102's in the rack and the 31114's in the console.
With that much great EQ around, something really needs to be great for us to even think about going to it on the patch bay. Stuff that doesnt get used at Studio G winds up out of the rack, so something useful can actually get the coveted patch point and space in the rack.
The EQ 1B is a 1U unit, not too deep, and doesnt weigh very much.
It has a really cool tone and i cant believe it doesnt cost double what it costs.
It has a Low Shelf/Bell, Selectable mid with 5 or 6 frequencies, and a high Shelf/bell. All are boost or cut.
The frequency selector on the high and low bands also selects shelf or bell, which is a little weird, but kind of a cool, different interface that made me think differently about how I am using this thing. the mids are a fixed Q bell, and very wide when only boosting a little, but getting "pointier" as you approach max gain.
The sound of this EQ is really cool, the design is simple and really effective. Overall, I could see having a pair of these things and getting a lot of use out of them.
This EQ has not got massive amounts of headroom, but used correctly it sounds great. The cool thing about the lack of headroom is that it seems to really hate dealing with the mids most of all, but it becomes a great "poor mans" culture vulture at whatever mid frequency you are attempting to boost ridiculously. To be fair, it takes a stupid amount of boost to get it to drive, and I like the fact that it can even go past "safe" in the mids.
One other detail that i wish would be implemented, and hopefully wouldnt drive the street price up: Detents at "0" on each frequency, and an "off" position for each band. I LOVE EQ's that I can just make a little mid cut without going through all the other stuff in the box, and I also like to be able to take those filters out of the path to simply zero the unit out. Yes, i know there is a bypass button on this EQ... but thats the whole unit IN/OUT, and not each filter. Doable? I dunno. I just use the stuff.
This EQ really made my day on a cello, on a new record by a group called "The Parkington Sisters" and it helped out a violin and a concert bass drum as well.
It really has a cool tone, like an old school 4-track EQ but with "pro" features. I mean that with total love for some of the old 4 track EQ's. Something like a cross between that and the "oomph" of the low bands on my Neve EQ's, but with a hard-to-define-overall-compression-or-saturation-thing that is very pleasing. Its hard to describe, you just need to try one on a drum and crank the hell out of the bottom. It really seems to sit nicely....
Overall, the reason I am posting this is because the EQ sounds great and is an affordable piece of real gear that is made by good people. Thats the kind of stuff I really like to support. This is the kind of gear youcan feel good about owning, because it is unique and well made and not just a mass manufactured thingy from a giant store where nbody gives a crap about you or your needs as an engineer.
I am going to talk to these guys about getting one with detents and an off position for each band...
Enjoy.
http://squarestatesolidstate.com/products.html
^^^^^^^Actual information, rather than my opinionated blather....
