The Artec Instrumental Eight Band Graphic Eq pedal is the perfect pedal for taming unruly distortion tones and shaping simplistic amps that may not otherwise have the controls to do so.
An EQ pedal can be used in a couple of different ways to affect the tone differently. It can be used in the front end of an amp - before the preamp (where most distortion is typically produced), or after the preamp (in the effects loop). If it's used in the former fashion, it can be used to sculpt the distortion characteristics - taming the bass response before distortion is often used because bass typically does not sound as good as treble at similar distortion levels. If used in the effects loop, it can function in the way that most normal bass, middle and treble controls do. It will shape the sound after the distortion, in effect trimming off some of the core sound of the amplifier, instead of fundamentally changing it. It can be used with amps that have normal tone controls due to the increased precision that having eight separate eq bands provides.
The pedal has bands in the 100, 170, 280, 500, 800, 1400, 2300 and 5000Hz ranges. Each slide can boost or attenuate the signal to cater to even the most severe of tone shaping. Along the side side of the pedal is a gain control. It does not distort the pedal, it is essentially a volume control that can lower the volume of the pedals output.
It has two 1/4 inch jacks on the side - one for the input, one for the output. It runs off 9v DC regulated supply and can also take an internal 9v battery.