The Pultec Family

With UAs new plug-in

release of the PultecPro, I thought it would be
fitting to delve a little
deeper into the history of
the company and products
that brought the
burgeoning audio industry
of the 50s the innovative
The new Pultec-Pro plug-in combines the
technology which is still
Pultec EQP-1A and MEQ-5
widely used and copied.
The original tube EQP-1A fetches around $4000- $5000 on the used market,
and several companies have adopted the technology for modern recreations of
this revered studio icon.
UAs new Pultec-Pro Combines the two most widely used Pultec EQs; the
EQP-1A Program Equalizer, and the MEQ-5 Mid Band Equalizer, which
when used together, give the user a well-rounded EQ palette. This
combination is still standard fare in recording studios and was once widely
used in mastering sessions.
History
In 1951, Pultec introduced the first passive program equalizer, the EQP-1. The
EQP would see many iterations, but this basic design would be the companys
flagship product until the companys folding in the late 70s/early 80s. The
company was neither bought nor sold; Pultec simply closed its doors.
Founders Ollie
Summerland and Gene
Shank (no, not a family
relation to me) made up
the famous two-man
operation of Pultec (the
The original EQP-1A program Equalizer
formal name being Pulse
Techniques Inc.), who made every item to order, all by hand. The two men
comprised the engineering, marketing, sales and production staff for the entire
history of the company! The Pultec storefront was located in Teaneck, New
Jersey (although the formal address was West Englewood, NJ), the same town
where Les Paul built his first home studio and incorporated the first eighttrack recorder.

An interesting note in the Pultec design legacy, the passive EQ circuit designs
were licensed from Western Electric. Pultec combined the passive design with
a tube gain make amp to overcome the typical 16 dB insertion loss of a
passive equalizer. So this made the Pultec appear to be "lossless."

The build quality

and design of all
the Pultec
Original MEQ-5 Midband EQ
products was
unparalleled. A testimony to this is the numerous working units still available
in the audio production world. It is said the men were very secretive about
their designs, and very few were ever allowed to visit the facility. In addition
to the famous tube EQs, Pultec also made solid-state versions of these units,
which were the silver-face variety. Perhaps less known, Pultec made filters,
small mixers and preamps, one of the most intriguing products being the
MAVEC, an early channel strip that included a mic-pre, eq, and simple
compression all in a 2U rack mount design.
In Use
The Pultecs are known as magical tools that improve the sound of audio
simply by passing signal through them; by who wants to leave it at that? The
Pultecs have long been a choice of recording and mastering engineers for their
ability to bring out individual frequency ranges without significantly altering
other frequencies; so extreme settings are no problem with the Pultecs.
If youve never used a Pultec EQP-1A, the grouping of controls might be a
little confusing. The EQP-1A can control three frequency ranges
simultaneously, using three groups of interacting controls.

Control grouping within the Pultec EQP-1A

1. The first group controls the low

frequencies and has three controls:
boost, attenuation, and frequency
select. This section is a shelving
EQ.
2. The second group controls the high
frequencies and has three controls:
boost, bandwidth, and frequency
select. This section is a parametric
boost EQ.
3. The third group also controls the
highs and has two controls:
attenuation amount and frequency
select. This section is attenuation
only shelving EQ.

Cool Trick
In the documentation supplied with hardware version of the EQP-1A, it is
recommended that both Boost and Attenuation not be applied simultaneously
to the low frequencies because in theory, they would cancel each other out. In
actual use however, the Boost control has slightly higher gain than the
Attenuation has cut, and the frequencies they affect are slightly different. The
EQ curve that results when boost and attenuation are simultaneously applied
to the low shelf is difficult to describe, but very cool: Perhaps the sonic
equivalent of a subtle low-midrange scoop, which can add clarity. A great
trick for kick drums and bass instruments.
With the MEQ-5, handy upper and lower midrange frequencies are now
accessible for boosting, as well as the highly useful midrange parametric cut.
Straightforward in operation, the MEQ-5 is divided into three groups of
controls.
All groups are fixed Q parametric. In general the Q is medium, but can be
subtlety different depending on the frequency selected in each band. Total
boost or cut range is 10 dB.

Control grouping within the Pultec MEQ-5

1. The first group controls the lower

midrange frequencies and has two
controls: peak (boost) and frequency
select.
2. The second group controls the mid
frequencies and has two controls:
Dip (cut) and frequency select.
3. The third group controls the upper
midrange frequencies and has two

controls: boost and frequency select.

1951 Pulse Techniques Pultec EQP-1 Program Equalizer

Pultec founders Gene Shenk and Ollie Summerland unveiled the first passive program EQ in 1951. This
EQP-1 was based on filter circuits licensed from Western Electric and sounded great, but suffered the
gain insertion losses typical of any passive filter, so the duo upgraded their original unit to the EQP1A, which followed the EQ section with a gain makeup stage using a push-pull design with 12AU7,
12AX7 and 6X4 vacuum tubes. Designed for broad equalization of program material, the EQP-1A had
four low boost/cut frequencies, three high-cut frequencies and a choice of seven HF boost points,
along with a bandwidth control for shaping the high boost curve.
Like many boutique entrepreneurs, Shenk and Summerland built every unit to order by hand in their
true two-man operation. Other Pultec units included the EQ-H2 high-frequency equalizer, the MEQ-5
mid-band EQ and the EQP-1A3 (an EQP-1A in a two-rackspace chassis), as well as solid-state
versions, which had silver-face front panels. The company folded decades ago, but its spirit lives on in
products such as Manley Lab's Enhanced Pultec EQP-1A, an updated version with improved sonic
performance.