Based in Estonia’s capitol city of Tallinn, Alex Proshin’s one-man pedal operation offers an array of handbuilt JFET overdrive and distortion pedals. Newest in Tritonlab’s lineup is a preamp/overdrive for bassists called the Equinox. It houses a 3-band EQ with a parametric mid sweep (270 to 950 Hz), an adjustable notch filter, and a mini toggle for a bass boost at the preamp’s input. Gain and volume round out the control set.
The pedal’s 9V input is converted internally to 33V operational, so the Equinox offers loads of headroom. Playing clean with the gain at 10 o’clock, a slight bump of both the treble and bass, and cutting a click from the lower mids delivered a forward-sounding, warm tone with little to no coloration.
The pedal’s 9V input is converted internally to 33V operational, so the Equinox offers loads of headroom.
The gain’s noon setting is where the OD starts to show its teeth, and while plenty of gnarlier OD hair is on tap as the gain is pushed towards its max, I was most impressed with the natural, tube-ish-sounding drive tone I achieved with the gain between 1 and 2 o’clock. I also like that the lo shift toggle is conveniently next to the gain to compensate for possible low-end loss with the more drastic dirt settings. Across its range of OD intensity, the pedal was quite responsive to my attack.
A wet/dry blend control would have been welcome, but this is a solid box at a fair price when you consider its tone-sculpting prowess and range.
Test Gear: Orange O Bass, Schecter Banshee, Gallien-Krueger 800RB, Orange OBC212, Focusrite Scarlett 2i4
