I am not a fan of plugged-in acoustic guitars. I'm not going to lie. For me, the litmus test for any acoustic pickup or DI box is whether or not I can tell it's even there. If it can massage that electrical signal back into its essential woody, acoustic form, I'll stick around and listen. All too often, though, I see an acoustic musician plug in on stage, strum that first chord and shoot the audio equivalent of tinny, metallic arrows out across the crowd. I cringe. I look away. I finish my beer quickly. I leave. That's why I was blown away after using the Fishman Platinum Pro EQ myself at a recent open mic.

Asking a sound tech to close-mic an acoustic instrument at a small club or bar these days is like asking a bartender equipped with only light beer and cheap vodka to make five different fancy cocktails for you and your friends. Most venues don't have the mics, most techs don't want to deal with the fuss of getting the placement and levels right, and let's be honest, most of the places you are playing aren't pin drop quiet. The Milk Carton Kids may be able to get thousands to lean at the edge of their seats and play into a single mic on stage, but the rest of us, we'll be plugging in. And that means we have to deal with all the unnatural things that happen when you plug in an acoustic instrument.

To do that, the Platinum Pro EQ has two separate weapons to fight feedback: a phase switch and a sweepable notch-filter, so you can dial in right to threshold where feedback starts in the space where you're playing that night. It also has a simple soft-knee adjustable compressor to keep your levels balanced. With a knob-adjustable five band EQ, a 12 dB boost button and a built-in chromatic tuner (that's very easy to read, btw), all the bases are covered. If you are using a bass, just flip a switch and the settings are re-calibrated to keep each band tight and clear.

On a bare bones level, a DI box or acoustic pre-amp has to boost your signal while simultaneously fighting feedback. The abilities to add compression and finely tune EQ are a plus. There are a lot of products out there that do this. What separates the Fishman Platinum Pro EQ is the fidelity, clarity and warmth of the signal, the high-quality build and the granularity of its controls.

What separates the Fishman Platinum Pro EQ is the fidelity, clarity and warmth of the signal, the high-quality build and the granularity of its controls.

It's pretty versatile as well, able to take signals from nearly any acoustic instrument (including basses) without losing tonal precision, shooting out the signal via 1/4" or XLR. Whether you're going into an amp or direct to the venue's system, regardless of whether this is a guitar, bass, mandolin, banjo, dobro, cello or violin, the Platinum Pro EQ can handle it without loss of clarity. Even if the sound quality wasn't so hi-fi, this Swiss army knife adaptability sets it apart from its peers.

There are some products that you just can't believe you were playing without after using them. The Platinum Pro EQ is one of those, something you'll look at on your shelf years from now, beat up and loved, and keep using as long as it lasts.