5 Ugly Truths About The EHX Turnip Greens Reverb/OD Pedal

I was mindlessly scrolling through the list of effects on my favorite music gear website and came across a pedal from EHX that I wasn't familiar with. It was the Turnip Greens. I saw that it was described as Multi-effect so I checked it out. Turns out that this pedal is a combination between the Holy Grail Max and the Soul Food. On the surface this looks like a pretty good idea. The Soul Food is a pedal that replicates the exalted Klon, and the Holy Grail Max is an expanded version of one of the most respected reverbs. Put them together and what do you get? I'll give you a hint:

It's not "Bipity Bopity Boo".

1 Its Too Expensive

The cost of this pedal is roughly the cost of the two pedals that it combines. Which probably makes sense to most people, but when you stuff two pedal in one box there should be some price reduction. Like the package deal that it is, you should get a discount for buying in bulk. In case you were wondering, yes, I am cheap. But that is why I like EHX pedals in the first place. They make some decent pedals and they don't charge a great deal for them. You'd have to spend twice as much for the next best pedal. The make one of the best Tube Screamer clones (with improvments like: true bypass and bright LED) for just more than half the price. Their Klone is $60 which is crazy compared to the 300 and 400 dollar klones that are on the market. Are they worried that sales of the indivual pedal would suffer? Maybe. I can say that I'm a pretty big fan of the Soul Food and I'm looking for a reverb, and I don't think I'll pick it up.

2 Its Ugly

Yes, I'm picking on this pedal. But honestly, I don't want to put this on my board and have people see it. I don't mind stock graphics screen printed on top of my pedal. I don't mind the background color as it is the same color as the Soul Food, but the big green leaves are kind of obnoxious. Also, labeling each side the name of the pedal that it reprsents instead of the actual function is not as ugly as it is dumb. It makes the whole think seem like its trying to sell the individual pedals, but at the same time it makes you look silly for buy this one.

3. It Has A Stupid Name

I actually see were the name of this pedal comes from. Turnip greens are considered a type of soul food. So at best its a theme, but at worst it might point at some sensitive stereotypes. If you ignore the relationship between the two pedals (by the way, where does "holy grail" come in to all this) Turnip Greens and an odd name. Maybe it is because I grew up eating greens. If you named a bunch of pedals after food that would just be strange.

I'll just leave this here...

4. It Is less Convenient Than Having Two Pedals

I'll admit that this pedal has been thought through rather well. There is an effects loop that allow you to run what ever you want between the Soul Food and Holy Grail. That was my biggest complain when I first saw it. "What fools! I though. "How can you stick an overdrive and reverb together?!" and then I saw the send/return and it made a little more since. Then I noticed the toggle that reverses which effect is first, the Soul Food or Holy Grail. There is a buffer switch as well, but I don't think that is exclusive to this pedal. It all just feel like you are working around the pedal. 

5. It Offers No Advantage To Having The Individual Pedals

Lets add up everything that we know about this box: It combines two pedals that function just find by themselves, It cost as much as the other two combined, It tries hard to do everything that the two pedals do individually, There are no extra features that the other pedals don't have. You'll be embarrassed by the sight of it, when ever you talk about having "Turnip Greens" on your board, you'll have to explain that its a Soul Food and Holy Grail, and then explain that the Soul Food is a Klon Clone.