Ugly Truth: Electro Harmonix Bass Preacher

This year at NAMM we saw a lot of new products. One standout pedal came from Electro Harmonix. They've taken their regular Soul Preacher compressor/sustainer and tweaked it to work with a bass rig. Hearing the samples form EHX, this pedal seems to help quite a bit. Being a part-time bass play, I see the need to have some compression in your rig. Sometimes a 'guitar' compressor doesn't compliment your tone. This pedal seems to well though out. At least it seems that way.

It's Simple

Two knobs and a switch. It borrows a lot from the Soul Preacher in this respect. This is one of those pedals that you use like a tool. It doesn't make a flashy difference that you use to make yourself standout. It just help reign in those frequencies that either get lost or overpower others. It may be a little too simple though. The Attack switch could have been a knob. This would allow for a varying degree of attack rather than the three presets that EHX have elected to include.

It's A Bit Of A Yawn

Compressors are not as sexy as your dirt or other effects. This is why many people don't start with or even get around to buying one until they play in a context (a band) where one can be extremely helpful. I'm not saying that you don't need a comp, I'm just saying that you might not notice everything one does until you start mixing it up with a group. Ever start playing with your friends and you can hear yourself, but if you turn up, then you're 'too loud'. A comp can be your friend, but it's your studious non-partying friend.

It Might Just Be A Re-Vamp Of The Soul Preacher

We've seen this before with the Soul Food. (lots of soul in these pedals...) The Soul Food is the very popular 'Klon' clone. EHX brought out the Bass Soul Food after selling tons of the standard Soul Food. There is a good bit of difference in the Bass Soul Food and the original, but not enough to warrant everyone dropping the original for the Bass Soul Food. This might be the case with the Bass Soul Preacher. Then again it might not. The Bass SF didn't have as much gain on tap and includes a -10db cut for active pickups. This is pretty useless for guitar (unless you run active pickups, I guess...) The Mix knob isn't 'the bee's knees' either. So unless you just get too much gain out of your SF and like the idea of a blending option, or you run active pickups, then just stick the the standard issue SF. Likewise, if you have a Soul Preacher and dig it, maybe you don't need to run out and replace it with the Bass Soul Preacher just yet.

Conclusion 

So if you are a bass player in need of a Comp, then you should check this one out. Everything I've heard from this pedal has been good stuff. Even if you are a guitar player checking out a Compressor Sustainer, then you should put this one in your 'maybe' pile. Of course this one isn't the only Bass Compressor to come out at NAMM this year.

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Ugly Truth About The New EHX Soul POG

If you follow Electro Harmonix, then you know they drop a new pedal into their line every other Tuesday (or something like that). It seems like they just announced the Lester pedals and hot on its heels is the new Soul POG. What seems to be a mash-up of EHX's two most popular pedal is... exactly that. They've put two of their highest selling and popular pedals into one box. Why? Go figure. They do a lot of things I don't understand. (like releasing a pedal with two different paint jobs). If you're asking your self, "Isn't this like what they did with the Soul Food and Holy Grail MAX?", yes, it's exactly like that. So, why the POG? Why now?

From EHX:

Combines two sweet pedals—-the Soul Food transparent overdrive and Nano POG polyphonic octave generator—-in one potent multi-effect. Use them alone or together, put either first in the chain, insert other pedals between them with the FX loop. Also includes a cool Mode switch for a choice of two different octave-up sounds. The versatile Soul POG delivers award-winning overdrive and flawless polyphonic octaves in any combination!

From the sound of it, Electro Harmonix don't sound very inspired by this mash-up either.

They Try'd This Before

The Turnip Greens pedal was the previous mash-up of the Soul Food and Holy Grail MAX. I was pretty interested in that pedal and almost bought it until I remembered that I already owned the Soul Food and the Boss RV-6 was a thing... So I like the idea, but if you have either one of these pedals, then it doesn't do you much good to buy it again, right?

There Isn't An Incentive To Buy This Pedal Even If You Want Both Pedals

Even if you are looking to buy a POG and Soul Food pedal, why would you buy this? It takes two pedals that would run on opposite sides of your board and sticks them together. Yes, it has a loop so that you can run pedal in between, but that seems like a cable routing nightmare. Especially if you are like me, and have a decent sized board already laid out. Not to mention, the price is basically the cost of both pedal combined. Why? The pedal is more complicated, but one unit with less flex should cost less than two independent units.

It's More Tempting Than I'd Like To Admit

For the reasons above, this pedal is not to be desired, right? It doesn't make any sence. I shouldn't want to buy it. That's what I though, unit I saw this:

I want to make all those sounds. You did it to me again Mike Matthews...

Ugly Truth About EHX Crayon Overdrive

So EXH have done it again. They have birthed a new pedal that everyone (that pays attention to such things) is talking about. I noticed a post this morning about these colorful pedal. I first thought that it was something old catalog that hadn't seen the light of day in ages. It doesn't seem to really fit in with the modern aesthetic that EHX drive pedl have been given lately. It almost looks more at home with the Pitch Fork or Key Board modulators put out recently. Looks aside, this pedal has gotten my attention. It's is a low gain overdrive that adds 'color' to your sound. Whatever that means... Electro Harmonix released a promo video that makes it looks like the bee's knees, but given their long list of drive boxes, do we even needs this thing?

It Is A Light Overdrive

With a million klones out their, why do we need yet another light overdrive? The Klon is the end-all be-all right? Well, even with the relationship that the Soul Food pedal and Klon share, there are still those that tamper with the circut. I've considered having mine modded to add more bass with the JHS Meat and Potatoes mod. There is room for improvement. However JSH add a oddly placed knob on the side of the pedal. The layout of the pedal does not allow for it to be front facing. Is this an attempt to to capitalize on that trend without hindering the Soul Food's reputation and sales?

There Is Another Crayon

So remember when I called "crayon" a dumb name for a pedal? Well, looks like JHS disagrees with me too. Sure, pedals color our tone, but do we really want to name a pedal after a waxy, fagile relic of our childhood? Two major pedal manufactors do. I will admit, I like the designs that EHX have done for the Crayon. JHS has done a modern flat design that has always appealed to me. The two of these pedal coming out like this is almost uncanny, but they appear to be different enough to be unrelated. Will one maker bend and rename their box? Have we run out of good names to call these things? I do see a trend in EHX pedal names though. Glove, Food, River, Fork, Key... They are just looking around the room and naming things! 

"What should I name this pedal? Where did that crayon come from? Wait! That's it!" Honestly, look around the room you are in. If you look hard enough, you'll find a crayon... Somewhere. Please, people in  charge of naming these things, talk to the guy that names the Earthquaker Devices pedals. Get some tips. 

Im Going To Buy It

Yes, I have a problem. I own too many dirt pedals. The problem is that they are all so different (yet all the same). And for the most part, they are affordable. There is no pedal I enjoy more than a dirt pedal. I love them. I always like to see how they effect my tone. EHX has made them rather affordable and to me, that is a recipe for disaster. I've already hounded my local music store about getting one. When I inquired about the availability of the Crayon, my friendly pedal pusher asked me "How do you know about that?!" I make it my business to know these things. And I follow EHX on Twitter...

Want more on the Crayon? Check this out! 

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.