The Ugly Truth About The Electro Harmonix Nano Holy Grail

The Holy Grail is another pedal by Electro Harmonix that takes one of their classic pedals and puts it is a smaller box. It retails all of the original features of the old Holy Grail. It has Three settings: spring, hall, and flerb. The last one being the addition of flang to the reverb trails. The one knob is a simple interface like the one on an amp with reverb built in. It is simple and straight forward. The pedal in EHX's standard aluminum box with a simple decal. The pedal is true bypass with a solid click when thrown. All in all, this is a pretty pleasing pedal to look at.

The Sounds.

I've played many amps with analog reverb units. Fender, Vox, and even some boutique jobs. I am not exactly the biggest fan of reverb. I will often run my amps reverb pegged at zero. I get my "big" sounds from adding delay, but I've played enough to know what a decent sounding reverb sounds like. I can also tell you that a good spring unit is a pretty sweet thing to have available to you. The spring setting on this pedal is very usable. I could see having this on my board if I needed to fatten up a section of a song. The Hall setting is also a usable sound that creates a different "space". The Flerb is interesting. I think that there are applications for this effect, but as I am not huge user of this effect, I can think of any off the top of my head. The Holy Grail has been around for a long time, and might have even pioneered the use of modulation on reverb. Many other makers have copied this in there reverbs, so there is something to be said for that.

The Ugly Truth

This pedal is rather iconic. If you forced a guitar player to list reverb pedals, this would be one of the ones that he/she might mention. Its popularity is not contested, but that doesn't mean that it is the best choice. There are lots of solid options for under $100. The VHT Melo-Verb is a solid choice and comes with a separate tremolo channel. Not to mention, that the VHT has Dwell, Tone, and Mix to control the reverb sound. Digitech Probably has the most solid option for verb under $100. Then there is the standard Boss RV-5 Digital Reverb. It is more expencive than the EHX but offers many more sounds.

Conclusion

The pedal makes some really nice sounds. It is synonyms with reverb, but the price tag on this unit might be its down fall. Although it has nice features and interesting settings, it doesn't offer a great deal more than some other pedals that are close enough in price to consider. There are even options that cost less and do more. This pedal has some unique sounds that might make it special enough to warrant the purchase, but if all you are looking for is a solid reverb pedal, then make sure to check all your options before deciding.

The Ugly Truth About The Electro Harmonix Nano Clone

If you were like me, I've heard chorus in a ton of classic songs, but I had no idea what the sound was much less called. Those that use this effect will add it to make a subtle effect, others will add chorus to make a spacey, trippy type effect. I fall into the first category. I don't typically play big swells and soundscape type stuff, but it is something that mess with in a bedroom type setting. Delay, Chorus, and Vibe are some of my favorite thing to experiment with. So when I sat down with the Nano Clone I had some ideas of what it should sound like. What I ended up with was a little surprising.

One Knob Does It All

The first thing that you notice about this pedal is that it has a single knob. So if you want to control the depth, you are out of luck. However, the Nano Clone is a direct descendant of the Small Stone, which is legendary in it's own right. This translates into familiar, usable tones. This pedal is a great option for anyone getting into chorus and wants something simple and usable. When I started playing with this pedal, I felt like I needed more knobs to get anything desirable. Despite first impressions, There are many settings that are pleasing. However, the experienced player looking for particular tones might be disappointed with the lack of control.

There Is a Limit

Given my choice of playing, it is not a surprise that my favorite settings are on the lower end of the pedals settings. Everything that I could see using would be set before Noon. Up to that point, everything is pretty chill. When the knob get much past 12, the pedal develops a metallic sound that is somewhat unmusical. These setting might compliment certain styles of music, but they are diffidently outside my comfort zone.

The Result

In all honesty, this is a reboxing of a classic pedal. There has been changes to bring the massive Small Stone into today's compact pedal market. The original also had a strange power supply. Many of the quarks of the original have been brought into today's standards. EHX's standard Aluminum case, true bypass, and decals are present. What else is appealing is that it is less than $50 USD. So it might be the right solution for someone looking to get into chorus and doesn't want to invest a great deal of money. This pedal is not the best chorus I've ever played through, but it definitely brings a lot of good things considering the price.

The Ugly Truth About Your Boost Pedal

If you asked someone to name the pedal on their board, chances are that you'll hear a lot about distortion, overdrive, filters, reverb, delay, and maybe even a fancy programming or looping pedal. Chances are, that person won't wax poetic about their boost pedal. Sure, there are a lot of pedals out there that promise a "clean boost", but what is that really? Isn't that just turning up the volume on you guitar? Maybe you want something to drive the front end of you amp a little harder, but isn't that why we have overdrives? So say you don't want your signal clip before it goes to your amp. You want the sound that your amp makes when pushed past it's clip. Fair enough. Do you need a special pedal to do that? ...eh

So you want a straight path your amp. Chances are your no a bid "pedal" guy. So why not set your amp up to overdrive (turning up your level and lowing your master)? Maybe because your amp is too simple to have a level and master. So you're one of "those guys". Your amp came from Sear and Roebuck's back when it was a mail-order and it only have two knobs and one broke off. But this is the best amp and the only thing that you truly love. You just want to torture the tubes enough to make it scream. Your the type of guy that needs a boost pedal. Right? ...eh

So you have to have a boost pedal. You want some ridiculous box with one know that only turns up the volume on your signal. The simpler that better, right? that is your motto. After all, that amp of your has only got one knob and it's the best. Your amp is a relic and your ideas about "boost" pedal is a little screwy, but hang in there, I'll explain.

You boost pedal is basically the same thing as an overdrive, except that they've removed the clipping circuit and your are just left with a boosted signal. Great right? Maybe not. Everyone loves a good TS-9 tube screamer, and everyone is familiar with the big fat "mid-hump" that you get when you kick one on. (if you're not then you must be very board, why are you reading this?) So the pedal effect the shape, tone, color of your tone. In the same way, all these boost boxes do the same thing. Maybe its not as noticeable, or maybe you just like the way it changes things, Think all those wonder sounds are made by your amp being pushed? Maybe they are, or maybe its that pedal you just hit.

So you must boost, but your boost pedal is just a neutered dirt box that you can't control as much as said dirt box because they took the "tone knob off the thing! Don't worry. I wouldn't leave you hanging. I have an answer for you. You might not like it, but its the truth. Behold, your new boost pedal!

 Yes. The lowly Boss GE-7 Equalizer. Vile and reproachable as it is. Boss the brand of pedal that everyone started with and now no one will admit to using. I too have started limiting the number of boss pedals on my board. The humble GE-7 without as much as a 3PDT switch is the king of all boosts. The pedal does what it claims. It can cut or boost your frequencies, but it has a feature that not all EQ do. The level slide is actually the star of the show here. Now I know what you are saying, "I've used this pedal and its too noisy to boost." Ok, I hear you, but I raise you this: I once got my self into modding pedals. opening these things up and fiddling with their insides. There is a lot of potential in this box, but wait it get better. I was once half way into a mod, meaning I had removed all of the pieces of the pedal that were to be replaced, then just for kicks, I powered it on and played through it. It sounded identical to another GE-7 that had already been through the mod and it was missing bits of its insides. I'm not a electrical engineer (if you couldn't tell) but to this day I can't remember which one has the mod and which one is running around with less than a full deck of cards. And they are both dead silent. So for no more than you'd pay for a boutique boost and a little be of stomp-box-operation you can have a flat boost, treble boost, bass (fat) boost, mid boost, mid scoop or low-fi pedal. In short, friends don't let friends buy boost pedal.

Boss DS-1 Distortion Guitar Effect Pedal Mod

       So there is a lot of mods out there and I would be lying if I told you that I tried them all but I have done a few. Some turned out to be big improvements and others were even bigger disappointments. So how do you know which mod is right for you. Well, I can't really tell you. Maybe you want something completely different out of your pedal, I can't tell you that a mod makes a pedal better or worse. I can tell you which I've done and what I've liked.

       A few months ago I found my self owning a Boss DS-1. Picked it up in a gear trade. I've never been a fan of the pedal. It puts dirt on your signal like a box with the word "distortion" should, but there are complaints with the way it does this. I'm not technically gifted. I'm not going to tell you that it compressed my tone, or sucked it dry, or had some kind of mid-hump/scoop I didn't enjoy. It did seem like the mid frequencies were scooped and that no matter how I turned the "tune" knob I couldn't find a sound that I liked. I've tried the pedal in (bedroom)studio and life setting. I did not like what it did for me. So I then turned to mods to make it do something I did like.

      Research. (Google) so looking into what I should do with this big hunk of orange took some time. I had to find something that I found appealing and seemed like I was capable of. (also the first step could not include "throw pedal away and buy -enter boutique pedal here-") I dismissed anything that said "Metal", or "Crazy", or "Super". I did find a mod that seemed to fit the "make it not sound like crap" requirement. Described  plainly as "vintage mod"

The Mod:

Boss ds-1—Vintage 
Mod Location Mod value 
D5 Led 
C3 .033uf 
R16 1k resistor 
C11 .01uf 
C1, C5 .1uf

     Simple enough. 6 pieces. It took less than half an hour. It made all the difference. The Eq was evened out and the nasty, fizzy distortion was lightened into a more mellow, overdriven amp-type sound. Side by side test proved that the mod had turned a hunk of junk (in my opinion) into something that I'd actually use. The change of the diode really changes "type" of distortion and the resistor and capacitor change the "shape" if that makes any sense. (probably not) The tone knob seems to "work" better. The Drive actually controls the amount of gain the unit produces, unlike before were it just went from a little fizz to a lot of fizz. Level kinda works the same, but the sound sounds more transparent. I even had my non-music playing wife listen and she confirmed the mod made it sound "clear-er" 

    So, if you have a DS-1 That you hate and want something that you don't hate, then do what I did and make your own vintage-y overdrive boosty thing

The Best Resource For Guitar Effects

We've all been there, flipping through catalogs of music gear and reading flowery descriptions of every piece of gear found within. I have a weak spot for a shiny new pedal, but which one is right for me? This was the exact question I had in mind when I went online to look for some more information. A quick Google search landed me on YouTube. People love to show off, so the internet is flooded with people noodling around with some of their favorite pedal. There are a ton of pitiful videos. People who have low production quality or those that keep their first take no matter what. I'm glad that we have a outlet for all these creative people and people are free to share their video featuring their passion. But when looking for a useful review or demonstration it does somewhat because like shifting through a waste bin looking for treasure.

The Treasure:

There is one mann that does a excellent job at demonstrating a pedals usefulness. His name is gearmanndude. He has hundreds of videos and does not seem to be slowing down. He has review everything from everyday Boss pedals to mods, vintage, boutique, and even some homemade pedals. Not only does he give us a through look (and listen) at pedals that we'd probably only get to read about, but he also takes a look at other gear such as amps, guitars, picks, chords and other accessories. Not only does he do us a service with all of this, but he is rather unbiased. However there is an exception when it comes to reverb. He is vehemently apposed to reverb, but he will review a reverb unit just like the rest. He responds to viewer request, I know this firsthand. On top of all this, he is insightful, well versed, and entertaining.

The New Visual Sound VS-XO Dual Overdrive Pedal

So here it is. I have to be honest. I've been geeking out about this one. There are a couple of videos up on Visual Sounds' YouTube channel that make it sound very appealing. I have actually been a pretty big fan of Visual Sound in the past. I have had their Route 66 pedal in my set up, but I decided that the OD/Comp combination was good, but I wanted to be about to control my sounds a little more. The overdrive in that pedal sounded great and the compressor did a good job of being useful without being obvious. There are some speculations that this is an 808 and Open Road OD combo. I actually think it might be mentioned in one of the videos, but another view is that the way the tone is shaped suggest that the non-TS side is base on the Drivetrain pedal from the same maker. What the videos do well is show the versatility of this pedal. In addition to the basic three knob configuration that most of us are familiar with, the pedal has a bass knob on the left-side channel and two three-way, sliding selectors for the clipping section and bass frequencies. For a sound-tweaker such as myself, these fun little knobbies have gotten me foaming at the mouth.

Can't wait for this pedal to debut. Having said that, if anyone at Visual Sound would like to send me one of these pedals so that I can review it for them, then by all means do so. Anyone able to get their hands on one of these before the rest of us regular Joes? Let us know what you think. Big thanks to http://www.tdpri.com for always having useful info and insightful members.

My Pedal Rigg

So, here it is. The key to my sound. I bet you are just dying to know. I look at it now and personally, I'm not that impressed. I mean, I just transferred my pedals to a larger board and it looks way to big for the few pedals I have. See for your self.

As you can see. Pretty Simple. Going right to left: Modtone Wah, Modetone Chorus, Visual Sound Rout 66 OD and Compression, Modtone Volume Pedal, Boss DD-20 Delay, Boss TU-2 Tuner. I like to keep the effects simple. I don't like putting anything on my board that I could see my self using in nearly every set I play. Its just too much of a hassle to put everything you own on one board and haul it around with you. I have a single Power supply (visual sound 1Spot) I've used it for the last five year and its still running strong. I plan on looking into getting a couple of pedals to help flesh out the board; boost, tremolo, and maybe another OD to place post volume pedal.

So if you have any suggestion, I'd love to hear them.