Australia's Audio Blend has beautifully evolved the FA-1 Preamp - adding Advanced Audio Equalization via additional Parametric EQ Section
My now good friend Trevor Taylor has totally mastered the Boss FA-1 FET Amp / Preamp Circuit with 3 authentic takes of his own - all utilising premium parts, and including the original NOS Hitachi HA1457W OpAmp chips featured in the original. Most takes on the FA-1 rather feature the LM1458.
If you check out Trevor’s Audio Blend Effects Reverb.com page you will see that there are 3 main variants - this flagship Edge EQ FA-1 FET Preamp, the FourLeaf FA-1 FET Preamp, and finally the FA-1 FET Preamp. I own the first 2 variants - with a very special edition of the FourLeaf Preamp coming up next!
The Edge EQ variant is identified by a separate / additional 4-control Parametric EQ Section (PEQ). Where it has 4 dip-switches along the top edge to set the Frequency Range - which spans 16 segments from 65Hz to 10.6kHz; default is 226Hz to 4.83kHz.
Freq Range Segments below :
You further have push buttons to bypass the BAX controls (Treble + Bass), engage the PEQ section, and like the original - a Low-Cut switch.
Controls - PEQ } Level, Q Width, Gain, Freq; FA-1 } Treble + Bass [BAX], Volume (+26dB), BAX Out button, PEQ / MID In button, Flat / Low-Cut switch.
Obviously the core underpinnings of the circuit deliver that fantastic sweet boost / overdrive that the FA-1 is so well known for - and as smartly utilised by the Edge on a number of The Unforgettable Fire tracks - including Pride (in the Name of Love). This is very much a Tone Enhancer pedal as well as a gain pedal - and particularly with the PEQ Section.
The manual details how you get a classic cocked-wah sound with the PEQ set to Level @ 2 o'c, Q Width @ Min, Gain @ Max, and Freq @ 2 o'c.
It's one of those pedals that already sounds fantastic with everything at noon - including the PEQ section - where adding that opens out the voicing more - and turbo-charges it with harmonics.
There are lots of uses for this pedal - in that you can disable and engage different section - depending on whether you're mostly using it as an EQ or Gain pedal - the granularity and extend range is fantastic.
I've kind of settled on the following setting, of course with PEQ engaged :
Level @ 2 o'c, Q Width @ Noon, Gain @ Max, Freq @ 2 o'c, and then Treble @ 4 o'c, Bass @ Noon, and Volume @ Noon.
I came to this pedal via the below Brett Kingman demo - which encouraged me to seek out this brand. Its only online presence is on Reverb.com - there is no social media!
I was immediately attracted by the Candy Yellow Sparkle edition as pictured here. I love that combination of colours in particular - it makes the pedal looks extremely striking!
However, note that currently Trevor makes no two variants exactly alike - this is proper Boutique dynamics with each pedal in its own colourway, and a variety of different knobs being deployed.
I acquired mine of course via the Reverb.com site - where it went for a very reasonable $186 - where say the simpler JHS Clover Preamp goes for $199.
In any case these are highly recommended, and the next Audio Blend version I feature - the FourLeaf FET Preamp - has a unique additional Electra Distortion / Fuzz circuit onboard - on top of the FA-1 settings - more of that next week!
Demos
