Review : Ibanez Pentatone Preamp

All the credit for picking this preamp pedal for review goes to my friend Cody Shaw. Also credit to him for working with The Arts Music Store to obtain for this review.

What Is The Pentatone?

The Pentatone, according to Ibanez, is a preamp pedal. It’s a double wide pedal that will mount to your pedalboard and has two foot switches. The right side switch kicks in the preamp and the left side switch kicks in an independent Post Boost. It also includes a very effective built in Noise Gate as wall as a very powerful switchable Pre Boost. There are two primary tone controls for Bass and Treble, but what makes this unit stellar is that it also includes a 5 bind EQ section where each band has a frequency selection range. This EQ can be switched out of the chain if you wish. There is also a Bright switch if your pickups get a bit too thick. When in bypass mode, the pedal is true bypass, based on what I can glean from the company’s less than clear marketing material.

A wonderful clean layout with minimal learning curve

Note the very useful jack for a TRS based two button foot switch

First Play-Through

I always read the provided documentation, if any. I will say that the documentation is provided and is mostly of nominal value, so you can safely skip it and get on with the play testing. Cody had advised ahead of time that while Ibanez calls the unit a preamp, it’s more a distortion pedal, best applied in front a clean amp. So i used my Fender Tonemaster Blonde Deluxe Reverb as the amp, and my much enjoyed early Seventies Les Paul currently fitted with Seymour Duncan Antiquity Humbuckers. With the Pentatone bypassed, I got a pleasant clean signal from the amp and it sounded like I expected it to. Then I punched in the Pentatone without the PreBoost or the PostBoost engaged and nearly went deaf. Twelve noon on the Level and Gain controls is really loud and has really heavy distortion. I dialled both of those back to nine o’clock to achieve similar volume levels with the unit in or out. I found that for those pickups, I liked the Pentatone sound better with the Bright switch engaged. I also found that as with most distortion units, the noise gate was important and the built in one is really very effective. It is a simple one note affair and you turn it clockwise to increase the gating factor. In what I think is a brilliant function, a green LED illuminates just as the noise floor is cut. So simple and so very effective.

I left the core bass and treble settings at noon as I tend to use the tone controls on the guitar a lot, The amp had all its tone controls at the mid point as well. With the EQ sliders in the 0 position and the parametric selectors in the middle, there is no impact from the graphic EQ sliders, as you would expect and want. With the EQ switched in, you can now set what frequency you want the slider to be working on and then have +- 10 dB to work with. Making a mid scoop or mid boost or any other soundscape is really simple and very fast. You don’t need an EQ pedal anymore as there is a terrific EQ pedal built right into the unit.

The PreBoost pushes the level going into the preamp/distortion section and I set it at noon for nice push without sending the device into what I felt was an unpleasant tone. It’s switchable on the front of the unit, but there is a TRS jack for a dual foot switch on the back so you can use a foot switch to bring in or kick out the pre boost and use the other foot switch to turn the graphic EQ on and off. I tried this with an old BOSS dual foot switch and it worked great. I would certainly recommend adding a dual footswitch and cable for live shows.

The Post Boost is controlled by the left foot switch as mentioned and it is basically a clean boost after the preamp to push the out coming signal louder, or when dialled back, quieter. I found having two independent boosts in the single pedal very useful.

The Pentatone also feels like it is toughly built, It’s a metal case in two parts with no sharp edges. The switchgear is premium, although the footswitches are the click type. The micro switches are positive feeling and are simple 2 way switches so no fumbling for a middle position. I think that this goes a long way to practical usability. In addition to the enormous LEDs for the foot switches there is a pair of nice bright LEDs for the noise gate and bright LED for when the PreBoost is active. When the graphical EQ is active there is a blue LED that lights up on the tip of each slider. All are appropriately stage bright and none are blinding.

Thoughts

I’m not really driven by distortion much, I’m more an overdrive kind of person, but for the times that I want proper enharmonic distortion, I think the Pentatone really hits the mark. The presence of the EQ and the Noise Gate make this a killer offering. Cody tells me that he has reduced his board to the Pentatone and a Delay, plus a Tuner of course. He sometimes adds a volume pedal, just as I do.

If Ibanez wanted my opinion, and I have no reason to think that they do, I would want something done about the visibility and the size of the fonts on the device. For me, when standing, the test is just too small to read and I cannot see it in a stage environment. Where that really bugs me is in selecting the frequency crossover for the parametric EQ section. Everything else is likely memorizable with some practice. I think that for $349 CAD MAP, this is a really incredible pedal. In fact Ibanez has even broken out the Noise Gate to be its own pedal and done the same thing for the parametric EQ/preamp. The two pedals actually come in a bit less together than the full Pentatone, which strikes me as odd, but if I were buying, I would spend the extra and get everything in the one pedal. Simpler to setup and one less power supply required.

My second opinion results from the second set of testing and that is that if Ibanez would build the thing with a Send/Return loop after the preamp and before the Post Boost, that would be amazing.

Sample Set

This first sample set uses the gear described earlier with NO post processing at all, just recorded and exported to MP3. The guitar volume and tone were at 6 and remained unchanged for the entire sample set It starts with the pedal bypassed, playing both pickups, then the bridge and finally the neck. The next section is the pedal in the circuit with no pre boost or post boost in the order both, bridge, neck. The next section has the PreBoost engaged in the order bridge, both, neck. The final section in this sample set is with both Pre Boost and Post Boost engaged with pickup order bridge, both, neck. The Noise Gate was active for each section but off when the pedal was bypassed. I think that the sample gives you a sense of what contributions the pedal, adding pre boost and adding post boost does. This sample has NO manipulation of the parametric EQ sliders.

But Wait! It Gets Better! Way Better IMO!

Cody positioned the Pentagon as a do all pedal for distortion, noise gate and superlative EQ. He is not wrong at all.

But in fairness to my dear brother, he missed a big bonus point. Ibanez calls this a preamp. So logically, I should be able to take the output and run it direct to a power amp and cabinet, bypassing an amplifier’s preamp section entirely, or better still for those doing gigs or recording, running it direct to the PA, or to an interface.

Good theory, on to the experimentation.

Wow! That’s all I can say. I plugged my SRV Strat in E Flat into the pedal and plugged the pedal output into the input of a Headrush 2000w FRFR. My goodness this sounds awesome. I like it BETTER than into the front of a clean amp. The noise gate was needed a lot less and the overall tone was richer and had more space. A small tweak of the EQ to open up the upper mids and highs a few dB and the whole configuration was a complete monster. If I owned one, this is how I would use the Pentatone. As a preamp. Direct to FRFR or the PA. That makes it a backpack rig of incredible power.

Direct Sample

I’m just blown away by how good this pedal goes into an FRFR or direct to an interface. For this sample I used my PRS Swamp Ass Special with Narrowfield pickups. The selector was for the bridge position and both volume and tone were at 10. The guitar plugged straight into the Pentatone and the output connected directly to input #1 on my Clarett+ 8 Pre which fed Logic Pro. No post processing was done and no effects added. The Pentatone had both the Pre Boost and Post Boost on set at noon, and the parametric EQ at 0 except for a +2dB boost at 2.4 Khz.

Oh but hang on! That’s the Pentatone direct to the interface with no speaker cabinets? The low end is missing, so the right course would be to add an IR or two to provide the sound and feel of cabinets. So that’s what I did. I used the superb Two Notes Wall of Sound plugin on the direct track to add a pair of Marshall 4x12 cabs with Celestion Greenbacks. Now we hear the great sound of the Pentatone as it would be through real amplifier cabinets and EL 34 power tubes. I used an Audio Technical AT4033 condenser mic on the left cabinet on axis and in close and a Beyerdynamic 160 ribbon on the right cabinet slightly off axis and a foot or so away.

Good to Go Kit

You have a couple of routes of course, the first to use the pedal into the front of a clean amp, or the second with IRs direct to PA, or to a power amp and cabinet or to an interface. You need the pedal, a good quality 9v power supply capable of delivering 110mA to the pedal and patch cables. If your pedal selection is small, one of those daisy chain things can do the job, but if your board is complex, I strongly recommend that you get a proper isolated power supply where each output is selectable for voltage and current. I personally use and recommend power supply systems from CIOKS. I’ve tried several and the CIOKS devices consistently prove themselves to be the best. Most are also shallow enough to mount to the understand of your pedal board if it has more than one level. If you go the IR route, and will not use a computer or a Two Notes Speaker emulator, consider the BOSS IR pedal. It is relatively inexpensive and easy to use. I do find that too many folks buy great instruments, amps and effects and then connect them together with the cheapest crap cables that they can find. That’s such a waste, but happens because there are about a zillion brands coming out of Asia all priced cheap and making amazing, but scientifically bullshit claims. For patches, the Ernie Ball Flat Ribbon cables are a great choice or if you have the space for the round flat connectors, the Audio Blast line have proven very reliable and come with high end Eminence connectors. I also like the Pig Hog line, but their patch cables are, in my opinion, a bit pricey, but they are exceptionally heavy duty.

Wrap Up

The Pentatone is an excellent distortion pedal, and I like it more than other distortion pedals that I have tried out, but you really need to decide for yourself. In my case, I would use it direct to a PA, FRFR or Interface and forget another amp entirely. It just sounds so delicious. Head into your favourite guitar shop that carries Ibanez and give it a try. If you are in the Newmarket area, head into The Arts Music Store, or if you trust my judgement, they ship Canada wide. If you are in the United States and want to buy one, please contact my buddy James Ridings at Sweetwater.

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