Every boutique builder eventually reaches for a Neve preamp. RhPf reached somewhere almost nobody has: the Amek Mozart MZ15-RN, the fully parametric mid sections that Rupert Neve designed when he had no constraints, and that most engineers have never touched. The Regista takes both of those mid bands (the MF1 and MF2 on the Mozart module), merges them into one continuous circuit, and stretches the range past what the original console could do. It’s the “Midfield Maestro” in RhPf’s Studio at Your Feet line, hand-built in Basel, and it chases a single idea with a lot of discipline: give you real, studio-grade control over the part of the guitar that decides whether a track sounds muddy, thin, or alive.
That focus is the whole pitch. This isn’t a mid boost with a fixed frequency, it’s a proper parametric band with continuously variable frequency, adjustable bandwidth, and up to 18dB of boost or cut, double the 6 to 12dB most EQ pedals give you per band. At noon it stays completely out of the way; a small turn and the mix suddenly clears.
Controls
Four knobs, and once you understand the order they make sense fast. Zone picks the center frequency, sweeping from 100Hz fully counterclockwise, through 1kHz at noon, up to 10kHz wide open. Despite the “midrange” label, that range covers everything from the body of the guitar to its presence and bite. Shape sets the bandwidth of the bell, from wide and natural fully counterclockwise (the smooth curve you’d expect off a big console) to razor-sharp and surgical fully clockwise. Drive is the actual boost or cut at the frequency Zone selected: 18dB of cut fully counterclockwise, flat at noon, 18dB of boost fully clockwise. Level is a separate post-EQ recovery gain, also 18dB either direction, so you can scoop hard and still come back at full output.
The workflow the builder suggests is Zone, then Shape, then Drive, and it holds up. In the demo above I’ve set up sweeps for all four knobs, so you can hear the frequency move across the guitar, the band tighten from wide to narrow, the boost bloom in and out, and the output level swing on its own.
How It Sounds
Everything in the demo runs through my Orange OR30 on a fairly clean setting, so you’re hearing what Regista does to a pedal-platform tone rather than a wall of gain. On its own it’s a sweetener, and the three EQ presets are the ones I kept coming back to: Top Boost adds air and clarity up top, Fat Mid Boost puts weight and body into the lower mids, and Tone Sweetener is the gentle, wide move that just makes the clean sound more pleasant to sit with. Because Regista adds no color of its own at unity, none of these feel like an effect stamped on top; they feel like the amp was always meant to sound that way. And since Shape and Drive interact, the same Zone can be a subtle nudge or a bold, forward shove depending on how tight you set the band and how hard you push.
Placement is where it got fun. For the Scooped Drive preset I put Regista in front of a Boss BD-2W Blues Driver, scooped the mids with the Level recovered, and hit the drive with that hot, hollowed-out signal. It pushes the Blues Driver somewhere it doesn’t normally go: fuzzier, thicker, more shoegaze than blues. Focused Fuzz does the opposite job at the other end of a chain. There I ran Regista after a Green Russian Big Muff Nano and used it to claw back the mids the Muff scoops out, balancing that classic mid dip and bringing the guitar forward in the mix. Both tricks are exactly why the builder keeps warning that one Regista tends to become two.
Regista vs JHS Colour Box V2
The obvious comparison is the Colour Box V2, the other console-in-a-pedal on this site, and they aim at different things. The Colour Box is a whole Neve 1073 channel strip: a preamp with real gain staging that runs from clean DI to grinding fuzz, plus a three-band EQ. Regista has no preamp dirt of its own and only one band, but that one band gives you far deeper control: continuously variable frequency across a huge range, adjustable Q, and 18dB of swing. The Colour Box colors everything you run through it; Regista stays invisible until you decide otherwise.
Who It’s For
Studio-minded players who know the midrange is where guitar tone is won and have never had real control over it live. It’s a genuine tool for anyone building a board with intention: use it at the end to shape your full signal like a console section before the amp, or up front to define how the whole chain saturates. It works on bass and keys too, since the sweep covers the musically relevant range for both. If you want an EQ with instant, obvious presets and no thinking, this fully parametric approach will feel like more knob than you asked for; the payoff only shows up once you learn to hear the band.
Specs
Circuit: fully analog, original design based on the Amek Mozart MZ15-RN parametric mid (MF1/MF2) sections, hand-built in Basel, Switzerland
Controls: Drive (±18dB boost/cut), Zone (100Hz to 8.9kHz center frequency), Shape (wide to narrow bandwidth), Level (±18dB post-EQ recovery)
Input impedance: 1 MΩ / output impedance: 100 Ω
Bypass: true bypass
Power: 9V to 18V DC, center-negative 2.1mm barrel, current draw under 30mA (9V works fine; 18V adds headroom for hot signals or extreme settings)
Enclosure: 125B, Pearl Gray, orange LED
Signal Chain
Fidelity Guitars Stellarosa Lite II with Lollar Firebird pickups (bridge pickup)
