NPQD: Furman PQ3 and PQ4

[Dave L]

I stumbled across both of these almost simultaneously a while back, but never got around to hooking them up and doing some proper A-B testing with them. I´ll only be keeping one of them, if any, so we´ll see how this goes. First impressions are that they in fact are very similar and sound very good, both the preamp section and the EQ bands. Maybe the PQ3 has an ever so slightly bigger bottom end in the preamp, but it could be just pot taper and component variance at this point. Really digging them for punching up a strat so far, apart from the typical 80s heavy stuff we know and love.

I had the TC 1140 earlier, which presumably is a vastly better unit from a technical standpoint, but I can´t remember liking that one this much for boosting a crunchy channel.

 

[Detroit1973]

One of the Best "Metal" Tones i've heard was the dude from 36CF using one of these to boost his Racktifier. It sounded so huge at their sound check.

 

[Dave L]

As you can see I´m missing the top of the preamp knob of the PQ4, so I wasn´t 100% aware where I had it set in relation to the PQ3. I probably had the PQ4 turned up higher, and when checking the sweeps at bit closer the PQ3 has a gainier/woofier and warmer sound in the pre section. The PQ4 is a wee bit leaner and doesn´t have as much gain available. Maybe not as noticable once you have the EQ blasting the mids and cutting bass or using heavy humbuckers that won´t benefit from tons of extra gain, but just auditioning the preamps by themselves with a strat there is a difference there.

 

[Wayniac3]

Great units!
Loved the PQ3, but they are noisy in front of a gainy amp.
Like you said - they just add a certain something to the signal.

 

[Dave L]

Great units!
Loved the PQ3, but they are noisy in front of a gainy amp.
Like you said - they just add a certain something to the signal.

Yeah, the secret sauce probably once again is "bad" specs on input impedance, always warms things up a bit I might try a buffer or buffered pedal in front and see how they behave.