MXR M-124 Dual Fifteen Band Graphic Equaliser

MXR has long been overlooked in favour of better-known brands like UREI, Klark-Technik and TC Electronics, but the Rochester, New York-based manufacturer turned out a wide range of high-quality studio outboard and effects pedals

MXR made the MXR Pitch Transposer – an early Eventide Harmonizer competitor – a delay line, chorus, stereo flanger, the rare stereo compressor and a range of graphic equalisers

The graphics were probably the most often-seen items of MXR rack gear, partly because they are very eye-catching with white caps on the EQ controls

MXR rackmount gear all came in the same 2U case with cast rack ears, pressed steel top & bottom panels and a front panel sandwiched between the two. Front panels were either bright blue or black

The Dual Fifteen is a 15-band equaliser with frequencies at less-than-octave spacings.  It’s great for finding problem frequencies & pulling them back, or for pushing narrow frequency bands.  Each filter is narrower than the UREI 10-band graphic, so is tight enough to pull out or accentuate a very specific frequency band

Used with care, a graphic EQ can be a surgical tool or a very subtle tone shaper – particularly when used to pull out frequencies to leave space in a mix.  Like the UREI, this EQ will be great on guitars

It definitely sounds crunchier and more focussed than plugin EQs and can be as subtle or as lairy as you like, depending how far you push it

I think the MXR range is due a resurgence in popularity and believe their vintage gear will appreciate, just as other brands have.  It has lots of sonic character and a very American design aesthetic.  As a newcomer to the pro audio industry, MXR looked to their guitar pedal roots and came up with a design for rackmount gear that was fresh, memorable & very colourful.  The later black-face designs may have been an attempt to blend in with other manufacturers but, when I think of MXR, I think of the blue-face units

Vintage Analogue outboard gear in really good condition is rare now.  Most equipment of this age has been out on tour, shuffled between studio racks, stored in damp basements for many years, or all three.  Finding something in excellent condition, like this Dual Fifteen, is unusual