Jackson Audio Prism Preamp Pedal

Jackson Audio Prism Preamp Pedal Overview

Mateus Asato claimed that Jackson Audio’s Prism is “like Photoshop for guitar” and that sums this pedal up pretty well. The Prism is a seriously powerful tone shaping tool, packing buffering, boosting, EQ, overdrive and a sweet preamp into a beautifully-made stainless steel stompbox. With the Prism, you can take full control of your tone and shape it how you see fit.

Innovative Design

Whilst the Jackson Audio Prism boasts a tonne of features and an array of circuits, its streamlined design makes it easy to dial in and each circuit has been meticulously designed to work harmoniously with the others. The result is a pedal that delivers outstanding flexibility and sonic performance.

Powerful Tone Sculpting

With the Prism’s EQ and Tone Sculpting capabilities, you can use it as a way to tailor any rig that you’re playing through to your unique sound. Whether you’re changing guitars between songs or borrowing backline, the Prism’s powerful +/- 15dB active EQ circuit provides you with complete tonal control. The Body and Tone controls work independently, which means the response of one doesn’t change when you adjust the other.

Jackson Audio have voiced the Prim so that it can excel as a master EQ at the front of your pedalboard or rig, allowing you to capture your tone with just a single pedal. This saves you having to dial in the EQ and tone settings of your pedals when you switch between amps, venues or guitars. The Prism is an excellent way to unify your rig, no matter what guitar you’re using!

Flexible Boost/Preamp

The Prism’s Boost/Pre-amp section boasts three voice modes, which draw upon over five decades of legendary effects - from early guitar pedals to modern designs. There’s TRANS (a totally transparent clean boost with zero tonal colouration, AMP (accurately replicates the tone & feel of a valve amp) and COLOR (a call back to a vintage silicon treble booster - perfect for Brian May tones).

Jackson Audio have engineered each Boost/Preamp circuit to be completely discrete and independent from the others (with each one residing on its own true bypass loop) to preserve the unique character of each one.

The Boost/Preamp section’s gain level is controlled via the Pre-Gain switch, which presents 3 distinct levels of gain - Low (plenty of clean headroom), Med (subtle breakup that works well for rhythm parts) and High (heavier breakup that’s perfect for solos).

You can use the Prism’s impressive output to wrangle additional saturation from your amp by driving the front end with it or, as Jackson Audio recommend, place it at the front of your pedalboard to breathe new life into your current pedals. When the Prism is first in the chain, the active EQ is going to be in a prime position to work its magic and the COLOR setting, in particular, responds best when directly connected to your guitar’s output.

Quality Buffering

The Prism features a smooth true bypass design and Jackson Audio’s proprietary silent switching circuitry, which prevents any annoying clicks or pops during a performance. The switch utilises relays with a soft-touch momentary-contact footswitch, which is significantly more reliable than a standard mechanical true bypass. These relays have a vast lifespan of over 100,000 cycles so you can stomp with confidence.

Right at the end of the Prism is a high-current buffer, which bolsters your signal strength and keeps your tone intact - no matter how complicated your 'board or lengthy the cable run.

Jackson Audio’s Prism can easily become an essential asset to any guitarist’s pedalboard, delivering top-notch boosting, a lush pre-amp, versatile EQ and tone buffering in a precision-engineered stompbox. Once you’ve switched the Prism on, you won’t want to switch it off.