Customer Reviews

Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb Pedal

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I recently got the Holy Grail. Mine came in a really cool wooden box with a print of the top of the pedal on the top of the box. This is a really simple but delicious sounding reverb. It has a level control and 3 settings: Spring, Hall, and Flurb. The Flurb is a flang/reverb combo that sounds kinda cool, but I'm really in it for the spring. There aren't a lot of controls for dialing-in exactly what you want, pretty much you get the sounds Electro-Harmonix built into this pedal and you get to choose how much of those sounds you want. For most reverb pedals that wouldn't work well, but it turns out EHX designed the sounds I'm looking for right off the bat. I'm happy using the spring as is, dialed in to about 10 O'Clock most of the time (less in a big room). In typical Electreo-Harmonix style, this thing comes with a setting that is a sound unique to this pedal--the Flurb. I don't have a lot of use for the Flurb, but I can see how it might be cool to record with and get some unique sounding parts once in a while. The hall setting is nice and expansive, I just don't use a reverb sound that over-the-top, so my opinion on the hall setting is limited to my own inexperience with hall reverbs. The Plate is where it's at, and I love it.

To those of you interested in reproducing old reggae dub effects: For the money, this digital pedal works wonders in your mixing board set up in an fx loop. The spring reverb here is very realistic, and the hall setting will make drums crash and explode very much like that early, very heavy King Tubby stuff. If you are seeking the shotgun snare drum, the "whip of jah," or "bag o' wire" effects, and can't afford the old analog equipment, this is a great alternative.

The description is misleading, because no longer how much you crank this thing you're not going to sound like Dick Dale. With that said, this does produce really good reverb effects. Spring and Hall definitely sound good and wet. Flange might be fun to play around with, but it doesn't really have any practical use unless you really want that specific sound. One minor complaint is that when you hit the reverb during a song your sound is going to recede a bit, so you have to turn up the volume some to compensate.

I bought this pedal new and I'm using the power supply that came with it. It's the last effect on my board before going to my amp. It has embarrassed me twice. First time it wouldn't turn ON. I stepped on the footswitch 5 or 6 times. The LED came ON but no reverb. I took it apart and found several cold solder joints. I re-soldered and double-checked everything. It seemed OK. Second time it started hissing and rumbling so loud I could barely hear my guitar. The reverb is good when it works but I won't let it embarrass me again. I love EHX gear but this one sucks.
The pedal I have is the old style, not the newer style with the cast case.

This reverb pedal is flat and boring. EHX pedals, in general, are flat and boring and I would advise against purchasing them.