Empress Bass ParaEq

The Empress Bass ParaEq is a parametric EQ and boost pedal made by Empress Effects, built from the ground up for bass rather than adapted from a guitar design. Empress calls it the only parametric EQ pedal on the market built specifically for bass, and says it delivers studio-grade tone shaping in a compact pedal format¹. It was announced on 21 May 2025 and is now shipping worldwide²³.

At its core it is a three-band parametric equalizer: each band has a frequency selection knob, up to ±15dB of boost or cut, and a Q control that sets how wide or narrow that band is⁴. On top of that sit low-shelf and high-shelf EQ bands, high-pass and low-pass filters, and a footswitchable clean boost of up to 30dB⁴³. The signal path is analog, with 27V of internal headroom³.

The controls: three parametric bands, shelves and filters

A parametric EQ gives you three things per band: where the EQ acts (frequency), how much (gain), and how wide the action is (Q). On the Bass ParaEq, each of the three bands offers frequency selection, boost or cut of up to ±15dB, and a Q control that adjusts the bandwidth of the band⁴. Narrow Q settings let you zero in on a problem frequency, such as a boomy room resonance, while wide settings shape broader regions of tone.

The three bands cover bass-specific ranges²:

Beyond the three sweepable bands, the pedal includes a low-shelf and a high-shelf EQ, each offering ±15dB, along with high-pass and low-pass filters⁴⁵. The shelves tilt everything above or below their corner frequency at once, useful for an overall brightness or thickness adjustment, while the filters remove content entirely outside the passband, which can clean up subsonic rumble or hiss.

The boost is a separate circuit with its own footswitch, delivering up to 30dB of gain²³. Empress describes the pedal as an EQ/boost pedal with linked or independent switching, so the EQ and boost can be engaged together or separately¹. There is also an Advanced Mode, activated by holding both footswitches during power-up, which allows modifying the input jack behavior².

Power and connections: 9V stepped up to 27V

The pedal runs on a standard 9V DC supply with a negative tip and a 2.1mm barrel connector, drawing 300mA¹. Inside, the circuitry steps that 9V up to 27 volts of internal headroom⁴, the same approach Empress uses across the ParaEq line. As Empress head of engineering Jay Fee explained of the ParaEq MKII pedals, "Although they are powered by a standard 9-volt DC connection, these pedals are running off 27 volts of headroom"⁶. That extra voltage is why the pedal stays clean: Bass Musician Magazine's reviewer judged it "remains exceptionally clean even when applying large EQ boosts, maintaining clarity and punch across the entire frequency range"⁴.

On the connection side, the input impedance is switchable between 1MΩ and 10MΩ¹. The 10MΩ setting suits piezo pickups and electrified upright basses, which prefer a very high input impedance⁷¹. The output impedance is 100Ω¹, and press coverage describes an auto-detecting balanced output for sending clean signals across long cable runs⁵⁸. Other measured specs from Empress include noise below -107dBu, +30dBu of headroom, total harmonic distortion under 0.1%, and a frequency response of 14Hz to 22kHz¹.

History: built on the ParaEq MKII Deluxe

The Bass ParaEq descends directly from Empress's ParaEq line. The original ParaEq was discontinued after more than a decade on the market⁶, and the ParaEq MKII and ParaEq MKII Deluxe followed in 2022, in a smaller enclosure with a redesigned circuit⁶⁹. The Deluxe added variable bandwidth per band plus low-pass and high-pass filters and Baxandall shelves¹⁰⁹, and it became a fixture on many bassists' pedalboards; MusicRadar called it "already a super popular fixture on bassist's pedalboards"⁸.

Empress says the Bass ParaEq came about "after hearing from countless players who were already using the ParaEq MKII Deluxe on bass"¹. The new pedal keeps the same transparent, tone-sweetening approach but with frequency ranges, filters and features tailored for bass¹⁸. Guitar Pedal X described the result as having "the frequency clusters changed and fully honed" for bass⁵.

In Premier Guitar's demo of the ParaEq MKII Deluxe, John Bohlinger plugged in bass, pedal steel, mandolin and acoustic and electric guitars, and reported that the pedal could bring out the best of each instrument¹¹.

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Bass Musician Magazine's Cláudio Ribeiro reviewed the Bass ParaEQ in March 2026, judging it one of the most capable EQ pedals available. He used it live while switching between an active Jazz bass and a passive bass with flatwound strings, and reported that it stayed exceptionally clean even under large EQ boosts⁴.

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