Ibanez Pentatone

The Ibanez Pentatone is an analog preamp and EQ pedal from Ibanez, described on launch as an entirely new product in the Japanese company's pedal roster. It offers a switchable Pre-Boost that lets you set the amount of signal sent into the pedal, a Low Pass Filter with three settings (normal, slight resonant, very resonant), a switch that transforms it into an overdrive, and two footswitches, one of which activates an extra Post-Boost.¹²³

What it does

The Pentatone is built around detailed tone shaping: a switchable Pre-Boost sets how much signal hits the pedal, Pre Boost and Post Boost knobs give control over the gain stages, and a switch transforms it into an overdrive. Delicious Audio described it as "a new, analog Preamp and EQ pedal" when it launched, and noted that it was an entirely new product in Ibanez's pedal roster.¹

The signal path starts with a switchable Pre Boost, which sets the amount of signal sent into the pedal's gain section. Pre Boost and Post Boost knobs give control over the gain stages, with the Post Boost pushing the gain section and adjusting the overall level. Alongside those are standard Gain and Level knobs.¹⁴⁵

The EQ is a five-band graphic section that can be switched in and out, with blue LED-enhanced sliders. Each slider also has a knob to control the frequency being tweaked, and each band carries a continuously variable Q control, which Ibanez says allows a wider variety of sound creation and more detailed sound shaping.⁵⁶

Three toggles add further shaping. A bright switch enhances the top end of the tone, and a low pass filter offers three settings: normal, slight resonant and very resonant. A switch can also transform the pedal into an overdrive.³⁵⁷

Controls at a glance

What reviewers said

Premier Guitar's reviewer found the Pentatone covered a wide range of heavy territory despite its focused design⁵:

The Pentatone's Low Pass Filter offers three settings (normal, slight resonant, very resonant), and a switch transforms it into an overdrive.⁵

The same review noted that while the Pentatone is definitively targeted toward heavy sounds, the switchable five-band EQ is central to how it works.⁵ Delicious Audio's buying guide highlighted the resonant low pass filter and the overdrive switch as features that set it apart from a straightforward preamp.⁷

Where it sits

Although Ibanez is best known among pedal players for the Tube Screamer, MusicRadar's Rob Laing was quick to point out that the Pentatone "is definitely not another Tube Screamer." It is a fuller-featured preamp platform, closer in scope to the distortion and EQ pedals covered on the site's Distortion Pedals, Preamp Pedals and Equalization Pedals pages than to a simple drive box.³

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