Electro-Harmonix Flanger Hoax

This pedal takes some getting used to. No presets, no "example sound diagrams" suggested in the little two page manual. but - invest a little time and you will come up with something very unique. I don;t understand all the mathematics - but I can twist knobs and thats the fun of it. I don't know how it does what it does but I like the results.

I love the sound of this thing - but it didn't end up sounding like I thought it would. I used to have an Electric Mistress and the Flanger Hoax has a much different character. I will certainly keep my Pigtronix analog phaser and my Eventide ModPro - but the Flanger Hoax can do things these other pedals can't. I use this in my studio only - mostly for guitar but I will run synths thru it as well.

If you are looking for a typical fat flanger sound I don't think this is the pedal for you. The Flanger Hoax is awesome for over the top modulations. It also does amazing phasing but it has its own "sound." Its analog so it can get a little hissy at certain settings. I actually get the best results when I run the dry output along with the wet instead of just using the blended out. You can pan the two and get a really sweet stereo field.

Built in the USA!

Haven't had to use it yet.

My first 30 minutes with the Flanger Hoax were a disappointment. I bought it on Ebay and thought I was going to put it back up for auction. I held on to it and I'm glad I did. If you are looking for the sound of the MXR Eddie Van Halen Flanger then you need to go with the MXR. This box has a lot of knobs and takes some time to get to know. Its analog and I like that. Small adjustments in the knob positions can really alter the sound - there are so many parameters (amounts, feedback, degrees and delays, etc.)

I play a lot of ambient electronic/experimental stuff and this pedal has now found a home in my setup. Just be prepared to spend some time figuring it out.

This thing is actually only middling in complexity. It is much easier to control than the Jo-Mox M-Resonator, for example. It is a knob-twiddler's dream. If you want something you don't have to explore, you want a different pedal.

The noise factor on this pedal is not bad, as long as you remember it is set up for line level signal levels. I use it with an insert cable plugged into a mixer channel.

For guitars it would be important to buffer the signal before it hits this pedal.
Of course it is not an everything pedal. Do not think this can immitate other pedals (even other flangers), it cannot.

It is a very cool flanger, with phasing added like a condiment. There are two ways to pour on the phaser, either directly or with feedback (or both). There are two kinds of feedback, and you can get noise from this pedal only if you bring the feedback up. It gets noisy with feedback, get over it. Want quiet feedback? Go digital. This is an analog monster.

It is also possible to disengage the oscilation, allowing you to use this as a bizzaro-land tone pedal. Want to sound like you are playing in a tunnel? Pick your tunnel. Manipulate the flanges (the virtual ones, ie the two delay lines) by hand, by oscilator or a combination of both.

If you know calculous I'm sure this pedal will not be such a mystery. But really to learn to use it you've just got to use it.

If you want a thick sound, steer clear. This thing is as glassy sounding as a Q-Tron. That having been said, I've never used a flanger to fatten something up, so it isn't like this is a problem for me in application.

I don't gig, and I take care of my gear. If I were to suggest a flanger for a gigging musician, I would recommend the MXR (with or without van-halen-promotion your choice).

This Electro-Harmonix pedal is a studio beast. Once you learn how to use it, it is powerful and capable of real-time hands-on expression. A gigging musician would probably find that they could only barely tap the capabilities of this pedal. On the other hand, If you must have thru-zero flanging, this one will do it (use the fx only output, or turn the blend up to full for thru zero flanging sounds, and yes it is different, think 1960's, in sound from a flanger that can't do this (think most of them)).
Thru zero means that you will have no non-delayed signal coming thru. This is an option here, but using the main output and the blend knob you can thicken the sound,and defeat the Thru-Zero effect.

I have never had occasion to use customer support.

I like the pedal, though I kind of think I should have got a Micro-Pog instead. It sounds amazing in the right application. In the wrong application, you've got a fizz machine.

At first it seems intimidating and not fully intuitive... a lot of knobs and switches. But after sitting with it for about 5 minutes or so, you get the idea of how it works - it's just a really complex phaser (hence the name).

I started how I generally start when I try pedals. Initially, I put all the knobs (except the blend/effect volume knob) on their respective 0 positions. From there, I started from left to right turning 1 knob at a time to 10 and seeing what that influenced. After that, the knob goes back to 0 then on to the next.

With an idea of what knob does what, it's easy to decide what probably sounds good with what...

The manual was easy to follow but didn't really look at it until after I'd already gotten the hang of it.

The PCB indicates that this is model EC1500 Rev. A -- whether that's old or new, I have no idea.

I play guitar synth and favor electronic music (NiN, KMFDM, Dark Soho, Orgy, etc...). This pedal is a nice compliment for my set-up and I can get rid of 2 pedals with this pedal (Phase 90 w/ mods, Ibanez FL9).

The phases are very analog and not compressed. I read about the hum and hiss issue with this pedal and found that, yes there is a small amount of noise, but no more than you'd expect from a standard phaser or flanger. Depending on your settings, it can drop or increase your signal volume but, again, that's a common characteristic of signal modulation.

My setup includes a Roland GR700 & GR30, Zvex Seek Trem, Big Muff PI (Russian w/ mods), Ibanez AD9, Boss MD2, Akai H2 headrush and now - the FH. All the signal is going through 2 x Roland JC120 combo amps and a Roland CB100 bass amp. Overall, it sounds very rich and warm when other effects are going through it.

Also, newer strings really make a difference

Solid stainless steel, US made, solid footswitch, clean PCB layout -- seemingly very rugged and reliable.

Most likely gig worthy without a second one for back up.

The only contact I've made was checking out their website (http://.ehx.com) for more information on the FH

Music Style : Industrial/EBM/electronica/rock
Playing for : collectively bass/guitar for 10 years but guitar-synthesis for about a year or so

Overall Rating:
If this was lost or stolen, I would definitely get a new one. Aside from a rackmount Moog phaser I owned, this is probably the best piece of modulation hardware I've played in a long time. I worked at 4 different Guitar Centers in 3.5 years and was able to try out a lot of different pedals over that span of time (as I was in accessories). There's not really any other analog pedal like it.

If you like sonic textures, experimentation, and making your guitar sound not like a guitar, this is a great pedal to have in your collection. However, if you're more of a traditional, rock/jazz, bluesy, guitar-amp-cable kind of player, its more than likely overkill and are better off with a Phase90.

Cons: 4 jacks, 5 switches, and 9 knobs. There is a learning curve to using it, especially for beginners in sound synthesis who might not understand labels like LIN, LOG, or 270 degrees phase difference. The device is all analog, so there is no way to save settings electronically - just old fashioned paper or brain cells. This makes the Flanger Hoax somewhat difficult to use for live performance, unless you have the luxury of time for dialing in the settings on stage. The manual offers a diagram to show the signal flow, but it does not offer any suggested settings.

Pros: 4 jacks, 5 switches, and 9 knobs. For musicians who love getting lost in the possibilities of sound synthesis, this box is one of the most exciting inventions ever created for less than $200. There is a lot of territory to discover in those controls - some of it frustrating and confusing, but all of it entertaining and often suprising. As a tool for experimentation and studio use, it is awe-inspiring.

Cons: Being an all analog effect, you can expect a lot of extraneous noise and hiss, especially when the blend, feedback, and amount knobs are in the higher levels. If you are hoping to dial in famous EHX modulation sounds such as the Electric Mistress or the Small Clone, you will be very disappointed. Depending on your settings, you might also experience some volume drop when intiating.

Pros: Being an all analog effect, you can expect some very exciting and alive sounds full of unpredictability and chaos. I've had the FH since 12/2007, and 6 months later I've discovered settings for chorus, phaser, wah, tremelo, vibrato, ring modulator, self-oscillation, and of course, a dozen varieties of flanger.

No problems so far. The paint-job scratches easily, as with all EHX steel-box units. It requires an 18 VOC/500 mA power supply (wall wart). I would gig with it, but I'd want to be very careful.

I've never tried contacting EHX.

For less than $200, you rarely find a better value. The Flanger Hoax is, in my humble opinion, a work of sonic genius. I play my own music which has leanings toward classic British Rock (from Beatles to Radiohead and everything in between). The FH is perfectly suited with my style and my rig. If lost, I would cry and immediately buy another one. My favorite feature is getting lost in its maze of possibilities. Every time I approach the FH, it feels fresh and inspiring. In this way, I would compare it to the EHX MicroSynth. Tonally, it is unique from other EHX products. It sound nothing like EHX's other modulators. I wish it had: 1) real stereo separation, and 2) expression pedal capability.

For more info, visit this link:

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showpost.php?p=23027521&postcount=37

I didn't find it too hard at all to find usuable sounds in this unit, but I don't presume to have discovered all its capabilities. I'm pretty confident in Delay Mode "DC" and "3", but the other modes are still a bit of a mystery to come up with musical sounds, due to the multiple TZF going on. Still, keeps things interesting.

This is a special effects box - one of only two analog flangers I know of that will do the through-zero flange effect. It doesn't sound like an MXR or an Electric Mistress. It's a replication of the original flange effect, done on tape, only in real time. As the flanger sweep rises the volume falls as the frequencies of the two two delay lines cancel eachout out, reaching a point where there's no sound at all, before coming back down again, gaining volume. It's a pretty cool effect, best heard with a gain pedal pushing the front of the Hoax.

There's a fixed phaser on one delay line and a swpt phaser on the other, which you can use to accent the flanger effect or to get stand-alone fast phaser sounds. There's univibe type sounds and hi-res phaser sounds when the rate is set relatively fast, but, at the moment anyway, I won't be getting rid of my normal phaser as I've yet to find a smooth LFO in the Hoax that can replicate normal phase sounds at slower rates.

The Hoax has two main problems. First, it's very noisy. My unit is pretty much unuseable in delay modes "1-4" when playing clean, because even with the guitar volume maxed I can hear the hiss at the bottom of the LFO sweep over my playing. It's possible I could eliminate this problem by boosting the signal volume with a clean volume booster before the Hoax, but I've not yet investigated it. Cutting some of the highs after the Hoax with an EQ or low pass filter may help also, but then you're sacrificing some of your tone. That said, even with the feedback maxed the fange effect is very weak when playing clean, so it's not a huge loss not to be able to use it on clean. I doubt an uninterested audience could distinguish it from a volume pedal. You need the harmonics provided by a distortion pedal to get the sweep happening, unless you mix in some phase to accent it. With a distortion, the hiss is inaudiable. Virtually noiseless operation for clean can be had in "DC" mode if you set the delay times above the hissy ares, but the best TZF isn't found in this mode.

The second problem is the volume drop. Most settings have it, but I've stumbled on a few (particularly when set to LIN) where the volume increases. This could be rectified by simply running a clean volume booster before the Hoax.

The unit appears solid and I've had no problems thus far, but the paint scratches off very easy. There's quite a bit of scratching around the feedback switch, and I have short fingernails and have only had it a week.

I sent an email to EHX about the noise asking whether it was possible one of the trimpots were misaligned. They responded quickly and were kind, but were a bit dismissive of the problem, saying it was the price you have to pay for the effect and would be inaudiable in a band sitation.

Ultimately, you're buying this pedal for the TZF. The only other analog pedal that will do it is the Foxrox Paradox, which is about US$150 more expensive. The Hoax may be more flexible in that both its delay lines can be modulated (the Foxrox only one can be) and it has the phasers, but the Foxrox has no noise issues or volume drop by reports. If money is no object, the Foxrox may be the better choice. That said, I don't regret my purchase of the Hoax. Sure it has issues, but it's the only place you can get analog TZF apart from the the Foxrox. It's much more fun than the vintage Electric Mistress I had before.

There is a steep learning curve. Good knowledge of how modulation effects work is helpful in understanding the controls. It has the worst instruction maual ever.

This pedal has a seemingly limitless array of sounds at your disposal. It is only a matter of finding them and taking note of them because with nine knobs and four toggle switches it is hard to remember settings. With certain settings the pedal will oscillate a tiny bit even if the unit is in bypass but I could care less because I have come to terms with my noisy chain. I found a really cool rotary-vibe type effect, that I use for Robin Trower impersonations.

No problems so far.

EHX have always been good to me.

I play shoe-gaze and post rock and this pedal is an invaluable part of my rig. I don't understand all of the harsh reviews. I think some people may be a little too hasty in their judgement of this pedal.

many knobs.. not easy but fun!

that's the reason i am posting here a review. i've seen many people giving this unit a 10 and that's just not "real".

why?

i have owned it and i loved the sounds i got from it. so if everything were perfect i would give it a 10, too. but there are 2 bad things that should be mentioned that really degrades the pedal.

1) it has a small volume drop. that's something that many modulation pedals do. but that's no reason to ignore it. ehx brought the flanger hoax in 2005 on the market. why not put a volume knob into it?? maybe nothing bad about it if you play alone, but in a band i got completely lost when i engaged it.. (on clean notes,.. is better when distorted but still i am going a little into the backyard of the music with it)

2) if you use this pedal only for mad and/or distorted sounds, no problem with hiss.. because your setup is hissy by itself enough. but i wanted to use it in clean verses or something like that and i was totally annoyed by the it. once again i think any audience wouldn't bother.. but i do.

if those 2 things would be better: less hiss and a volume knob or a volume boost switch like on the q-tron,.. well this unit would deserve a 10 easily... i really liked that wacked out sounds i got out of that unit. but i sold it.

maybe i buy it again one day and put it in a loop with a clean boost.. but i will take 1 point off the rating for each "bad" thing it does.

so a 8 seems quite exactly what it is IMO.
a 10 should be perfect.

never had issues.

never dealt with them...

great sounds!! not your average flanger/phaser/oscillator/noise maker... so if you want just flanging or phasing look elsewhere.

2 bad points i listed in the sound quality did make it unusuable for me, though...

i play analogue synths and thus am accustomed to creating my sound on the fly. really, i found this unit not hard to operate after reading some info on how the two phasers are employed in a serial configuration.

my very first twaeking session resulted in a wealth of musically usable sounds, meaning the range of the pots is very well calibrated. you have nice subtle control over feedback, and all the settings and the panel layout make great musical sense, contrary to what others have written.

i can see, however, that this is not so suited for guitarists who want to operate it as a stompbox. i have it sitting on top an analogue synth and use it as a natural extension.

i use it mainly with synths, for recording onto my daw.
the slight hiss doesn't bother me at all, it only occurs during extreme settings and is only noticeable if you feed dullish sounds into it where the noise isn't masked by the signal. much exaggeration in the discussion.
within an hour, i made small stone like sounds, flanger sounds and subtle shimmering chorus sounds with no effort at all.
pristine is not something i seek anyway, but warmth and balls.
the sound quality is absolutely awesome.

mine was bought used and with minor defects.
the dc wallwart sucks, particularly since there is quite some room inside. maybe i'll have it modded.

the paint job is, as others have noted, a pretty shoddy affair.
also questionable design.
nice metal housing though, good footswitch.

don't know

i've been playing ambient, electronic pop and electro-acoustic experimental music for almost 20 years now. i try to use the best affordable technology (mainly but not exclusively "vintage") and would say my best work comed from combining expensive stuff with carboot sale shit but always aiming to record to a high standard.
i was searching for a deep, warm modulation effect (prior to this i used a dynacord tam-19) with many knobs that would give me a great variety of phasing and flanging sounds - this is it, probably the holy grail of (advanced) flanging.
my favourite feature is that you can effortlessly tweak it while playing and go from crass feedbacked flanging to shimmering chorusses to gorgeous phase shift effects and back. never the same sound twice, but 90 per cent of the knob settings are usable.
this unit should primarily be marketed to serious analogue synth players and not guitarists as you really need one hand on the controls for tuned phase shifts wafting in and out of your sound.
as a fellow reviewer put it: complex, ever changing washes, like waves on the seashore.
totally worth the asking price.

After all, it says "Foxy Mistress" on the pcb - wonder why they renamed it last minute?

Since there's nothing else like the flanger hoax, it takes a bit of getting used to. A lot of getting used to in fact. Ive had it for about a month, and I still dont know what half of the controls do. Im sure I would understand a lot better if I could be bothered to learn how a phaser works though. Someone explained it to me once, but Ive forgotten.
Its very hard to play along to a CD or live as well, because its all analogue, so it is hard to get the timing of the phasers exactly right.
If youre an impatient type of person, you will be frustrated, but if youre prepared to sit down with it for a couple of hours and experiment, youll get along just fine.

Awesome sounds are obtainable with this thing.
My setup goes something like this:
Ibanez GAX-70 guitar-->Flanger Hoax-->Danelectro Fab Echo Pedal-->EHX English Muff'n-->Alesis F2-->Behringer BX6000 Bass amp
(I realise it seems slightly eccentric to run a guitar thorugh a bass amp, but it sounds great to me)
Its great on both clean and distortion. Many people have complained about the hiss. It doesn't bother me at all really, and only hisses with distortion...I can live with it.
I heard it on the EHX website and immediately thought WAHEY! must buy one of those.
I was slightly worried that it would be difficult to get the sort of sounds heard on the website (sometimes, companies make things sound better than they actually are) but its very easy to get good noises.

Once again its the old sheet metal ploy from electro harmonix.
Its very sturdy. You could probably knock a burglar out with it.
In fact Im confident you could defend a fort with it.
Some people have complained about paint falling off. Mine hasnt exhibited this behaviour yet, and is still gorgeously shiny.
No knobs fallen off, no loose switches of jacks.
I would gig with it, if it was a bit more...digital. Thats the only problem - its hard to play in time.

Ive never dealt with these folks, but Im so happy with the pedal that Im sure theyre lovely anyway.

This was a sort of impulse buy (though I tried it out first) and Im now a very happy man.
I play all kinds of music - generic rock, blues, jazz, experimental Muse-Radiohead-Floyd kind of stuff, with everything in between. Because there is such a wide range of effects, I can fit it in nearly anywhere.
Its very spacey/psychadelic. I was looking for something different, and EHX seem to specialise in wierd effects, so naturally I looked in their direction...and Im glad i did!
Ive been playing for over 6 years now, and while my playing is far from perfect, this thing makes it sound a lot better.
I love everything about it. If it was stolen, I would buy another one and take care of the thief later.
As I mentioned, the only problem is that its analogue, so very hard to get the timing right.
Also, a note of warning: if you stumble across a good sound, write down the settings, because you will never be able to find it again otherwise.

Now! Here are some I made earlier.

(all designed to be used with distortion)

Something that sounds like 'If You Tolerate This' by the Manics:

Swept feedback, 3:10, amount 3:00, modulator mode 270, log response, delay mode 3, rate 10:30, invert and both phaser switches up, fixed delay amount 8:00, swept delay amount 4:00

Tremolo:

Swept feedback, 3:00, amount 12:10, lin response, modulator mode 270, delay mode 3, rate 3:00, all other switches up, fixed amount 8:50, swept amount 3:00

Ring mod:

Wet feedback, 3:10, amount 10:00, lin response, mod. mode 270, rate 3:55 (be careful not to set the rate too high - if you do, you will lose the effect and have to wait a while or turn the unit off and on again) delay mode 1, all other switches up, fixed amount 8:50, swept amount 3:00

Generic wierd sound:

Swept feedback, 3:00, amount 3:00, mod. mode 90, log response, delay mode 2, rate 1:25, invert off, phasers on, fixed amount max, swept amount min

If you want a more subtle effect, use lin response and no feedback. More obvious effects can be found with swept feedback and log response.

This is one of the best effects units Ive come across. Its Awesome! with a capital 'A'!

Difficult as nothing else! I've had oodles of pedals, and this one was the worst. Even with help from EH and presets, they just aren't the same. From what I've gathered you can't get the same sound twice.

When it did make flanger/phaser sound, it was very sublte, almost unnoticable. Or it just make speaker damagingly loud static/woorbles. (if that is a word)

I never used it at a gig, but to be honest it got the one for the fact that with out even stepping on it, the paint started to wear off the pedal. I'm not Freddy Krueger here, but gez, should it be coming off that easily when I"m not even stomping on it?

More importantly I would wonder how well it would work if the knobs got bumped before a gig, and you had to adjust it on the fly? Is that even possible? I say no.

EH has always been great about giving advice, and fixing pedals. Send them an e-mail, they will usually reply with in 48 hours. Turn around time to fix a pedal is about 2 weeks. You can't beat that!

I'll give it a four, because i was mostly disappointed, because the wav. files make the pedal seem much more dynamic than it really is. I spent about 8 hours with it, and still didn't get anything that was dynamic and usable. (mostly just a lot of feedback, without the guitar vol. being up!) Poor contruction. Poor graphics, I latter learned were just cheap decals. I come to expect good things from EH and they usually deliver, but this time, they didn't. And I am very disappointed. I returned it two days ago and got a full refund.

Try it before you buy it!!!