Electro-Harmonix Riddle Q Balls vs Maestro Agena
The Electro-Harmonix Riddle Q Balls and the Maestro Agena are both pedals sharing dynamic. The Maestro Agena leans transparent. Current prices: $152.40 vs $59.
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Blended from circuit-archetype lineage, dynamic feel, tone-signal overlap and tone-vector distance — the tone vector itself is derived from editorial description text, not a measured acoustic signal, so this reflects how similarly the catalog copy describes the two, not a lab measurement. Shown only within a gear class, and only where there's enough evidence to be meaningful.53% — moderately similar
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Genres both listings are associated with.- Funk
- Soul
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Derived from overlapping tonal signals across both listings.- dynamic
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Citation/mention fame — how often this gear is cited across artist rigs and gear discussion.$152.40via Reverb
$59via Reverb
The Electro-Harmonix Riddle is a Q-Balls style guitar envelope filter pedal from Electro-Harmonix, delivering pick-attack-responsive auto-wah filter sweeps with Q, Range, Mix, and Drive controls. The Riddle produces funky, dynamic filter sweeps that follow playing dynamics with adjustable Q resonance for sharp filter peaks and Drive for adding harmonic content. Operates in both guitar and bass frequency ranges via Range control.
The Maestro Agena is an all-analog envelope filter, part of Gibson's revived Maestro pedal line, delivering classic auto-wah and funk filter tones with simple, expressive controls. A three-knob layout of Sense, Attack, and Decay shapes how the filter responds to pick dynamics, while a two-position Mode toggle selects between Hi and Lo frequency ranges. Hi mode emphasizes higher frequencies for a crystal-clear attack that punches through a mix, and Lo mode focuses the filter lower for a rounder, deeper quack. It changes the timbre musically without sounding overly affected, and true bypass preserves the dry tone when off. It suits funk, fusion, and players wanting an easy, vintage-flavored envelope filter that does its one job extremely well.
- transparent