Electro-Harmonix Attack Equalizer

Very easy to use it
Payed around 30?, for sure it's a good price :-) vintage 1975
Dont need a manual to use this one! Really easy to understand!
First knob 0 no bass frequency! 10 crazy sound and fat, my Orange head, crunch very fast with this knob but really interresante, these frequencies are adjust to accentuate the harmonique fundamental!
Second Knob 0 no sound; 10 original sound!
And the third Knob is for attack frequencies, 0 no sound; 10 powerful attack!

First knob 0 no bass frequency! 10 crazy sound and fat, my Orange head, crunch very fast with this knob but really interresante, these frequencies are adjust to accentuate the harmonique fundamental!
Second Knob 0 no sound; 10 original sound!
And the third Knob is for attack frequencies, 0 no sound; 10 powerful attack!
This pedal is not noisy, but sound vintage whatever! and of course it could create very crazy sound, but you can also mixed the original sound so you can obtain a very good sound! The sound of this pedal is very warm!!! Never eared that before!
I'd really like this pedal because it's a very warm sound, which you could use often!

It's All analog of course and vintage so...

I think it wiil be easy to repair that

3 knobs: Fundamental = bass boost. Blend = Dry/mids. Attack = Treble boost. Has a slide switch in back to turn pedal on/off. No led like most 70?s EH pedals, on/off slider on the front, and it takes two 9v?s. So it might be a good idea to buy a couple rechargeable 9?s, cos you can easily forget that you left it on.

I really like this pedal. I?m not entirely sure how it does what it does. Seems to have a LOT of power in it. Basically, it?s a smooth, extreme eq booster. When testing this out at the store, I compared it with a 10-band MXR pedal and it blew the MXR away. Then I tried playing with the actual amp controls. Turned all the bass down, mids and treble and volume to a hair above zero. Played the guitar, could barely hear a thing. Then leaving the amp settings alone, I activated the Attack Equalizer with the Fundamental (Bass) all the way up and the Blend and Attack all the way down and hit a string. The building shook. I was sold.
What I was wanting was a way to get that trebled 60?s sound ala the Creation, Eyes, Who, etc. without getting another Ric (my got stolen, don?t have the funds) or having to have my amp on 10 (more like on 2 cos of neighbors). Can it make you guitar sound like a Ric? Not quite, but I?ve been able to get a nice jangle out of it.
Also, I wanted to get a real crisp, clean sound in my notes so when I add in delays, reverbs and modulation effects for atmospheric type stuff, I can still hear the ?chiming? sound of what I?m playing underneath, adding some definition. This pedal does the job. I have two ?snipered? Boss Ge-7?s, a Yu Brothers EQ (Think MXR 6-Band knockoff), and a couple rackmounts. I have to say, pushing the treble up on all these combined doesn?t give me the sound the AEQ does by itself. So, yeah, definitely dig this pedal.
All treble does the playing through a transistor radio deal.
The bass turn up too high can get pretty muddy. But I?ve really only tested this at home in a chain and some lower watt amps and monitors. Maybe its ok for getting fake bass sound on guitar for someone who doesn?t have a bass and 4x12s to play through. I?m scared that the damn thing will blow out my smaller amps and monitors.

It?s EH. Haven?t ever had one of their pedals crap out on me yet. This things from the 70?s, but I got it basically new in the original box with the old ?directions? sheet EH used to have receptionists type up on type writers back in the day. The old on/off slider, with no led and two 9V?s are the only thing to worry about. You could drain your batteries quick if you have ADD or two much to drink and forget to turn it off.

Never had to deal with EH. Which should be considered a good thing.

As the review below says, I as well think this is a very underrated pedal. Its an EQ of sorts, but at the same time its more of an actual effect. In terms of stomp eq?s, I could go into battle with just this and one of my snipered (low-noise modded) GE-7 and feel fine instead of using three 6-7 band eq?s.
If it got stolen, I?d be pissed and try to find another. But they?re A LOT harder to find these days. I find it very useful during recording and almost always use it when tracking rhythm guitars now. Just has this sound that gives more bite/jangle/crispness (to even way effected out guitars) that I?ve never really heard on anyones recordings. Because of that, I?m not sure if I?ll take it on the road or not (and because it is in mint condition). Wouldn?t want it to get beat up. It?s now a part of my recording sound, and I can?t really give it a better review than that.

Its easy to use once you figure out what the controls do. Its not too hard to dial in the sound you want, but I prefer to just try many different combinations until I hear something I like instead of looking for something specific. The controls are Fundamental which is a bass boost and smooths out the attack. then there is blend, which just blends in the dry guitar signal. The last control is attack, which is a treble boost that improves note definition and gives a brighter attack. No manual, its about 20 years old.

This is a very cool pedal, if you know how to use it. I would probably give it a 10 except it doesnt sound too great with distortion, and I almost always have a fuzz box turned on. I am using this with a fender strat and jazzmaster into a marshall head with unicord 412. With the blend control all the way up and the fundamental and attack all the way down you cant tell if the unit is on or off. The thing I use this for the most is for writing bass parts, because it can duplicate the tone of a bass guitar perfectly. I do not mean it does an octave down, because it doesnt. what I mean is that it gives that really low bassy tone. It sounds like a bass being played an octave higher. But thats not all it does, thats just my favorite use because it saved me about $400 so I dont have to get a bass. Also good on songs where guitar doesnt go throughout the whole thing, because you can play along with the bass at those parts. That is with the fundamental control all the way up and everythign else down. with blend at the same level it sounds like a guitar and bass playing at once at the same octave. Turning down the fundamental and turning up the attack all the way makes it sound like your playing through a really cheap AM radio, a very thin sound. The pedal is also great if you need to add just a little more treble or bass to your guitar tone. In the original E-H advertisements for this pedal, they said it can emulate any other guitar with a turn of the knob. while it doesnt do this, its cheaper than buying another guitar. I cant get my strat to sound like a les paul but I can get it to sound like a different guitar (or bass) Its a great effect, the only problem comes when the distortion is turned on. it overloads it or something, I dont know, it just doesnt sound right on most settings.

It's last since the 70's, that says something about its reliability. Havent heard of many E-H pedals going bad. With vintage pedals you dont really have a choice about a backup. Even though this one isnt very expensive, it is somewhat hard to find.

New Sensor might be able to fix it if something went wrong. Never needed it though.

This is a very under rated pedal. Its about the cheapest electro-harmonix pedal you can find. Shouldnt be much more than $100. I got a good deal on mine, seen them for upto $130. there is also a Knockout Attack Equalizer which has somewhat different controls and is more expensive and rare, never tried that one though. For me its a great value, just for the bass emulation. and then the way it can be used as a regular guitar effect makes it a very good value. Its really good for clean sounds, it can really change the attack characteristics and tone to exactly how you want it, too bad it just doesnt work right with distortion. Another band of EQ would be nice too, but I'm not complaining. Its great for songwriting if you need bass parts to songs but dont have a bass. If you see one around, you should pick it up. I still need to try the bass emulation sounds on an actual bass. But remember this isnt a pedal to use on every song, and some people may not like the tones it has, but for me its a great pedal.