Lightning Boy Audio MikeyQ

The Lightning Boy Audio MikeyQ is a three band inductor based passive EQ controller, announced on 24 December 2012. Its defining feature is that it is subtractive only: rather than boosting frequencies, it removes them, which Guitar Interactive Magazine described as "quite a different approach to equalization than what is currently available in other EQs"¹. It sits in the wider field of equalization pedals, most of which allow both cut and boost.

Controls

The MikeyQ carries six controls, giving a player cut control over each of the three bands plus shaping of the midrange¹:

• Volume
• High
• Low
• Mid cut
• Mid Q (bandwidth)
• Two-way mid frequency selector¹

The mid Q control sets the bandwidth of the midrange cut, and the two-way selector chooses which mid frequency the mid band works on. Together they let a player place the midrange cut where it is most useful, then set how broad or narrow that cut is¹.

Design and sound

Lightning Boy Audio built the MikeyQ around inductors and paper in oil capacitors. According to Guitar Interactive Magazine, "Through the use of inductors and paper in oil capacitors, 'MikeyQ' delivers ultra-transparent mastering-grade equalization" with very low signal loss¹. For a passive circuit, keeping signal loss low matters, since passive EQ stages typically attenuate the signal passing through them.

Because the circuit is passive and subtractive only, the MikeyQ shapes tone by removing frequencies rather than adding gain to them. Players who use it would set the cuts they want and use the volume control to manage overall level¹.

Context: the Bolt Bender announcement

The MikeyQ was announced alongside the Lightning Boy Audio Bolt Bender, a tube EQ pedal with a passive Baxandall circuit that Lightning Boy Audio announced on 24 December 2012 as expandable with the Sidecar Controller system¹. The two units were presented together in the same announcement, with the MikeyQ described as the company's passive, subtractive take on equalization.

Questions