Maxon GE601 Graphic Equalizer

General

While an equalizer doesn't necessarily have the sex-appeal of a sweet, sultry overdrive, or the dreamy romanticism of an extreme modulation pedal, that doesn't mean it doesn't deserve a little space on your pedalboard. Treat the Maxon GE601 graphic equalizer with the respect it deserves, and it will treat your bass or guitar to a wide and brilliant tonal landscape. This unsuspecting pedal is able to make a humbucker sound like a single-coil, or a passive bass pickup sound active, and this is just the start. The GE601 is possibly the most multifaceted effects pedal that Maxon produce, setting up your sound with six accurate sliders able to filter or strengthen a specific frequency (100Hz, 200Hz, 400Hz, 800Hz, 1.6kHz, 3.2kHz), and by setting every slider to '0' and pushing the Level slider up a touch, you even get a transparent clean boost.

Circuit

The Maxon GE601 does some pretty unique stuff to the signal of your guitar. After being put through a low impedance input buffer, the signal is split into five parallel EQ bands, each with its own dedicated JRC4558 Op Amp. By shifting the sliders up, the selected frequency band is sent back through the Op Amp to multiply and further amplify that particular frequency-based slice of the signal. The more the slider is shifted up, the more signal is sent through the Op Amp, and the more it's amplified. On top of this detailed tone-shaping potential, the GE601 comes equipped with a silent JFET bypass switch and a low impedance outputs for noise-free operation.

Maxon

When it was first born in the '60s, Maxon was actually busy making pickups and by the end of that defining decade, had already started dipping into the dynamic world of effects pedal development. Since they were mostly making pedals for other brands, when the '70s arrived, Maxon were making pedals almost exclusively for Ibanez. As such, many legendary Ibanez pedals are actually Maxon designed and made. The most renowned pedal from this period has to be the Ibanez Tube Screamer (also known as the Maxon 808 Overdrive). This partnership carried on well into 2002 when Ibanez and Maxon finally parted ways. Ever since, Maxon have been producing their own gear, under their own name, and some of their fresh pedals include versions of older Ibanez stompboxes - reissued, and re-stamped with the now-independent Maxon name.