A name nothing short of legendary in the pro audio realm, API entered the stompbox niche in 2017 with the TranZformer GT, an EQ + compressor inheriting the company’s technology used in their mixing consoles’ channel strips. As good as it sounded, that pedal had an obvious downside: it was enormous! The newly released TranZformer GTR is a lot more compact but ditches the compressor in favor of an overdrive/clean boost circuit (if you need a compressor, look at the API TranZformer CMP).
Based on a Proprietary API 2510 OpAmp and featuring an API output transformer, the GTR offers up to 40dBs of Output volume to feed to your amp and +/-15dB of EQ at the crucial frequencies of 200Hz, 1.5kHz and 5kHz, with the latter featuring options for peak of high-shelf EQ.
A toggle switch lets you choose between clean boost and overdrive mode, which drives the input OpAmp, and it accepts up to 18v power for extra headroom.
Here’s how the API TranZformer GTR sounds!
Features
- Proprietary API 2510 OpAmp
- Signature API output transformer
- 3-band EQ each with +/-15 dB of gain
- OpAmp overdrive circuit
- 40 dB of gain
- -20 dB output pad
- Buffered bypass
The API Select TranZformer® GTR incorporates API’s legendary EQ circuit into a versatile and compact guitar effects pedal. Designed to easily fit into your pedal board and engineered to run on standard 9V power supplies, the GTR offers +/- 15dB of gain on 3 specific frequencies. Additionally, the gain stage can be switched from Clean Boost to Overdrive mode to drive the input OpAmp and add even more tones to your arsenal. Other features include a buffered bypass, -20dB output pad, selectable peak/shelf for upper frequency range, transformer output, and of course the classic API sound.
