Electro-Harmonix Holiest Grail Reverb

This reverb is very easy to get a lush sound. The reason they call it the Holiest is because you can edit the heck out of any setting. Also with the sliders, it's very easy and quick. The manual is pretty crappy. 4 pages that was printed out on a blue cheap paper. They don't have sample settings and graphic explanations, but it's EH. They are known of kinda cheap manuals and build quality.
Another issue is the settings don't have a led to show you what the preset was last set at like LINE 6. That would be a nice upgrade EH!

I'm only giving it a 9 because there is an issue no one has addressed which is a little strange to me. When dialing up the "Spring" or "Reverb" or "DRY" settings you get this "out of phase" sound. I think it's because this is a stereo unit and the schematic shows that the signal gets split with these parameters. For some reason the phasing is quite pronounced. It's like using a rack mount effects unit and not having a "Kill Dry" setting. This unit is so good, I'm willing to overlook this kind of huge issue and just work around it. I DID order the new NANO grail pedal and I'm going to a/b them. If the NANO pedal does not have the phasing sound and is still similar to the Flag Ship Holier pedal, I may send back the Holier and keep the NANO.

The reverb on the Holier is the best I've heard in all my guitar playing years, but the phasing issue is pretty huge.

Only had it a day, but seems more solid than the EH products of old.

Again, a 9 out of 10 for OVERALL, but would be an 11 if the phasing didn't exist and also the issue that was stated about the other STEREO OUTPUT being muted when bypassing the pedal. I tried it and he's right.....nothing. That can be a deal breaker if you run a stereo rig all the time. The reverb from this pedal is so good though, you can overlook these two critical issues and get it for the value alone. 270 bucks for a very organic and lush reverb that rivals studio verbs on the floor!

pretty easy to use, the manual is 2 pages long,
and it explains everything to the spot.
haven't tried the midi features though...

first off let's say it's the best reverb pedal I've ever used.
it does what it's meant to do, and does so with crystal clear tone,
there is no lag or sudden volume changes and it's solid for my use.
once you get the hang of each knob, you can get some
wicked delays off it, and the reverb can be long and spiritual,
just the way I like it.

metal casing. need I say more?

contacted them a few times via email, and chip, the manager,
always got back to me with answers to my liking.
I whould say it's one of the best.

I play instrumental jazz solos, and maybe a rock solo now and then,
I consider reverb to be my main effect, and that's why i bought this
baby, because it's the reverb money can buy.

I like this pedal because it's so flexible, and you can get whatever sound you need from it. if you haven't heard it yet, go ahead and try it.
you can get pretty much every reverb effect there is with it.
it covers a wide array of effects, going from sweet soft delay
to creepy atmosphere horror inner tube like effects and all in beetwin. great for leaving your audience puzzled and amazed!

I will keep this short and sweet. I play a stereo rig. I really like some of the sounds out of this but it definitely colors your sound. No big deal because you can just turn it off when you want your pure sound, right? I was willing to use the reverb in my amps for a clean reverb sound. But for a stereo setup, there is a HUGE problem. When you turn off the effect, it kills the sound out of one of the outputs. At first I thought I had a defective unit or was missing something. The manual confirms it. If you are a single amp guy, no problem. It is not really a clean sound but loads of good sounds. If you run in stereo do NOT buy this pedal, it's worthless.

Its not a very easy product to use. I have been a sound engineer mixing live bands for over 20 years I have worked with the very best reverbs in the world and some of the worst. This reverb is very touchy with its controls you have to be patient to dial in the sound your looking for. Moving the controls slightly in on direction or another makes a huge difference.

The sound quality of this reverb is very good... If your looking for a studio quality reverb look else where.. If your looking for a revervb that makes you sound like your in a small room to a huge stadium this is the reverb for you. Imagine being behind the sound board 200 feet back from the House PA in a huge stadium The reverb this gives you gets you the sound of being in a huge space and when dialed in right its very convincing. I think this reverb is really designed for guitar. I found that reducing the levels to 50% resulted in a very VERY WARM sound that was pleasing to the ears. I am quite happy with this reverb. I dont really want to part with it. The nice thing is it does not take away your sound.. You dont get the sense that your signal is being digitized. VERY WELL DONE..

This unit is built very well ( I am also an electronics engineer ) I must say they did not cut any corners in the design. I would expect this to last for years.

Well I did not need any customer support so I cant say.. I guess thats a good thing :)

Like I said before I found you really had to tweak this thing to get the sounds you want but once you do there are 8 memory locations for you to store your sound :) And recall it. It really is the best reverb I have ever used for guitar and I have been playing for 30 years.. I have used everything. This is designed from the ground up as a guitar reverb. AND IT IS THE HOLIEST GRAIL :) good name.. You would never know by looking at this thing that its as good as it is. It does not look like a fancy processor with lots of LED'S AND LCD screens... Nope its old school looks with state of the art sound.

The Holiest Grail is a digital stereo reverb pedal that features 8 effect parameters and 8 preset saves spots. It???s EHX???s top of the range reverb, offering control over many more aspects of the effect than the cheaper Holy/ier pedals, and most if not all other manufacturers reverb pedals. The parameters available are delay time (length of time after which the reverb kicks in following the dry), feedback (loops the input and so thickens the tone), decay (length of reverb), dampening (a environment surrounding simulator ??? set at minimum the environment can be compared to carpeted walls, set at max, it's probably modelling some sort of mirror room like the one in Enter the Dragon), diffusion (very very subtle reverb complexity control), dry volume, spring tone simulator volume (this is not spring reverb, but an overtone the emulates the snap of springs), and reverb volume. The presets are accessible by two footswitches labelled A and B, which work in conjunction with a preset slide from which you select one of four banks. Only two presets can be saved and accessed per bank, which means that not all 8 presets can be activated by foot unless you have midi or are blas?? about whether or not you snap off the preset slide by trying to shift it with your feet. Presets are very easy to save. Simply switch to preset mode, select the bank you want to save in, and hold down either the A or B switch (to save A or B spot respectively) and wait for the LED to stop blinking.

It???s quite hard to make a bad sound with this pedal, but achieving the reverb sound in your head can be a bit tricky, given the level of control. If EHX had listed the ???ingredients??? for the preloaded presets in the manual this may have shortened the learning curve for this unit. I'm still having trouble getting a spring sound I like. One day I like the spring tone set high, then the next it will sound very fake and unusal. I should plug the Holiest into a Fender Twin (or better yet next to a Fender outboard reverb unit) and set up a preset from the real thing. Though I replaced all the preloaded sounds with my own, I particularly thought the preloaded spring sounds were rubbish. This goes to demonstrate why you want control over as much of the reverb as possible - everyone has their own tastes and EHX's spring tone and the one in my head couldn't be further apart.

Just great. As others have noted it can sound digital and harsh if you have the dampening up too high, but set appropriately it sounds phenomenal. Lush, complex, huge are words that come to mind. I???ve set my unit with a mild spring in 1A, dense spring in 1B, Recording room in 2B, Dance Hall in 2B, mild Concert Theatre in 3A, dense Concert Theatre in 3B, endless droning verb in 4A and 100% wet verb in 4B. This covers pretty much everything I could want, though in a perfect world it would also do reverse and modulated reverbs. There are no noise issues with my unit at all (I???ve read tons of complaints about the Holy Grail being noisy). The unit does have relatively low headroom though; run in front of the amp I had to set the input gain to an overall volume drop to avoid overloading it with modern humbuckers. I???ve recently acquired an amp with an effects loop and when placed in the loop the Holiest can be set at unity or even to provide a volume boost, no matter what pickup is selected.

For $270 or whatever the street is on these you'd want it to be the best damn build quality available. I've had a few EHX pedals and never had an issue, but you do hear a lot of bad reports on internet forums about the QC on EHX pedals.

I sent them an email about a different pedal I'd bought and they were quick to respond.

Given it's price the Holiest Grail had a lot of expectation to live up to, and really delivered on all fronts. It's great for traditional styles as well as more ambient music. Previously I'd had a Boss RRV-10 micro rack reverb which I thought was great, but in hindsight it pales in comparison to the Holiest Grail. The Holiest's dampening control is just so much more realistic at altering the nature of the reverb than the meager "tone" control provided on the Boss reverbs. Anyone serious about reverb in a pedal format should try this unit out. It's pricey, but the sound quality and level of control you get are no doubt without peer.

My first review!

I've got a good bit of effects experience mostly in the studio, but if you ever worked with a reverb, the diffusion and decay controls should make sense. I had a little trouble and deducted some points for the 'Spring' setting, but the 'manual' set me straight on that. The most confusing issue, which isn't even covered in the 'manual' was the reverb type settings which are tied to the presets, but more on that later.

Instructions are very thin, but it's pretty easy to dial in what you want sitting on the floor noodling away and tinkering with the settings.

EXCELLENT. This thing is a freaking BEAUTY. One of my best purchases ever and my first EH pedal.

For all testing, I go straight into the reverb > volume > amp. I mostly play Strats. I've been playing for a couple of years now (20 years as a keyboard/engineer) before that. Amp is a Fender Bassman '59 Reissue LTD.

This piece was to replace my genuine Fender '63 spring Reverb reissue. I am blown away by this thing. It sounds gorgeous.

At a good mix with the guitar (nothing overboard), it blends in beautifully and makes my guitar sound big. I didn't try any surf crap because I can't play that kind of stuff (nor do I want to). While tinkering with the controls, I noticed a digital harshness on the tail of the reverbs at first. This is EASY to fix. Just cut back on the Diffusion and Damping a little bit and it warms right up.

It's also very quiet. A little clicking when switching on or off sometimes (the only real curse of true bypass switching). You can hear a slight hiss when it's on, but overall it's really quiet.

I started to get the Holy Grail, but the tweak fanatic in me couldn't live without all the adjustments after having a real Fender tank. And the addition of the pre-delay really adds some depth to the reverb.

The downside is the pedal size. This thing is a MONSTER.

Another quick downside is the fact that the reverb types (Spring, Hall, Room and whatever the hell that last thing is) are tied to the preset bank. Bank A is spring, so when you program your own, you've got 2 spots for spring reverbs. Bank B is Hall reverb and so on. This isn't mentioned ANYWHERE in the 'manual'.

Bottom line? Beautiful pedal. Worth every penny.

Tnis is my first electro-harmonix pedal, so I don't know what I'm in for. It looks pretty sturdy and should hold up fine. Be advised this thing doesn't use batteries, only a wall-wart. I intend on getting a Dunlop DC power brick soon and I hope it works with that.

Never had to deal with them. Hope I don't either. It would mean my reverb is out of the mix.

I play mostly R&B, classic soul, classic rock and blues. As I said, my previous reverb was the '63 Fender reissue, but this thing has convinced me, and I'm particular. It's quieter, easier to transport and gorgeous. I couldn't be happier.

I also had a Boss RV-3. That was about a pound of crap. Awful reverbs. This thing is lush.

Takes a little reading to figure out exactly how to use all the sliders but anyone who's played a while should be able to understand it pretty quickly.

Probablly not the best for anyone relatively new to guitar, would confuse them more than likely. Plug in power supply (wall-wart) limits use just anywhere. I play at home or studio mostly so it is not much of an issue.

I think it sounds great, I love the hall reverb. I use this on a swart space tone 5 watt or my kendrick roughneck 6 watt class a tube amp, and my main guitar is a lefty Don Grosh retro s with fralin blues specials.
I get many sounds from this box- Really seems to like tube amps. This reverb gives me very David Gilmour esque spacey ambience. Adds so, so much depth and warmth to my tone. Never heard a hall this big before. I can get a lot of the division bell tones just from this and the guitar and amp. Try playing coming back to life with hall verb- nails the tone.

I like to set the input gain to where it is the same volume as when in bypass. I don't like the distortion it creates and don't need a volume jump or drop. If you wanted that it is easy to do. Very good tone when tube amps start to sweat a little.

Also you can easily reprogram the preset to anything you like. If you like the other reverbs they are great too. I just favor the hall.

Well I accidentally stepped on it right where the power cord comes out and it flipped it over but thats all it did. Scared me though and now it sits in a safer spot. I do agree with others about how the pedals feel hollow. But I think under normal use it will hold up fine. I wouldn't put any weight on it as I weigh 210 but why would you jump or stomp real hard on a 300+ dollar pedal?

I rock out all the time and never have to abuse mine! I wonder about folks who brag about how bad they abuse their gear. Sounds like they almost want it to crap out or don't even care. Using it a lot is one thing and accidents do happen but some people could break it no matter what.

Have not had a need to deal with them yet

Fits my style perfectly, which is all over the place. I like pink floyd the best and with a few other eh effects I get very good tone that I think Gilmour himself might even be proud of- he must have used some eh stuff over the years. I am so particular about my tone and this pedal is now essential to my rig.

If I lost it or someone took it that would piss me off but of course I would get another.

It definitley helps me get my sound where I want it when I need the reverb. And the bypass is true.

May be a little complicated-but thats why it is the holiest, if you just need a normal reverb sound and hate too many controls check out the other two grail pedals.

If you are like me and like really unique sounds-and with most better eh gear always over the top sounds check it out. If you are very particular as to the fine details of your sound you'd like this. It is just nice to be able to tweak it- Gives you some nice options to express your individuality.

I use my Holiest Grail for mixdown on my Tascam analog multitrack cassette. It stays permanently connected to the effects in/out. I can add any type or amount of reverb to any track; vocals, guitar, bass.
I don't use the factory presets, but you can save your own settings in place of them. Flip a switch and your previous settings are right there.
Like most EHX manuals, they assume you know what you're doing.
They explain what each function does, but it's the experimentation that's cool. Good instructions on how to save your settings.

I've never owned a reverb unit before. I did research before I bought and Electro-Harmonix is top-shelf in my opinion.
Adds a little noise which is easily controlled with volume, EQ and compression.

So far, so good.
Well built and I'm sure it will last.

I emailed with questions before I bought this. They answered all my questions.

I've always liked EHX stuff. Reliable, dependable and affordable.
I don't see a need to try any other unit for my needs.
It does what it says to my satisfaction.
I decided to spend the extra bucks and buy the Holiest Grail instead of the Holy Grail or Holier Grail. Well worth the sound.

i find it extremely easy to use and logical and human friendly

editing patches is a breeze I have always HATED menu editing find it completely frustrating experience so having avilable immediately is perfect

manual is beautifully short and to the point
has flexible routing options too

i find it easy to carvve out and settle on a sound and not get lost in endless options to loose my creativity (well thats how it affects me anyway)

This is mostly used on my bass guitar, operating as a send from my post amp (full chain)

and this is the hammer it holds it all, it takes the full frequency range and does not mush it up into an unintelligable mess, amazing, and in my experience very rare

have to take care not to overheat the input or it will make an acceptable digital distortion

the pedal is very musical sounding so even when it clips, althuogh I always try to avoid it it is not the crappiest clipping I have ever heard - not embarrassing

I spend very little time editing with it, I just find a sound and off I roll with a big smile on my face, also sounds great on vocals, guitars, and good inputs of elctro / percussion

I think I can get it to sound like old swans bass riffs

I thought the presets were usable some not at all but some great

I think it sounds great on bass thats my tip here

feel very safe with it and if I had another 335 euros I would by another different electro harmonix pedal

not the same thing twice, BUT VERY IMPORTANT


make sure the pedal you buy is the same one you tried in the shop

while testing we discovered a faulty unit - so dont get yourself stuck in getting a replacement for bad luck outtta the box

since my pedal seems ready for the road I giuve it high score

I play heavy distorted bass music, and you can stuiill here it with this thing all over it, it enhances it further so me happy me so happy

been playin 13 years

tried many reverbs , BOss cack, Tc electronics, VERMONA spring reverb which I love but which is totally untransportable and this makes up for that thing well

I would be well pissed if I lost this thing and I would not feel confident with my sound until I had it back

I will never borrow it to any body either,

I love that it holds my rather demanding bass signals

I compared it to the holier grail which I thought sounded vastly infereior to it and also to an ebs reverb which was far to clean for my tastes

this pedal has a dark cavenous sound to it which I want it also looks DOPE

it does not need more features it is fine, but I do wonder abnout the weird stereo use bypassing options

one side of the stereo channels gets cut out completely and the other stays on with the dry signal? guess it serves some purpose

it is not fantastic value for money but it is a fair deal for the results, shave off 100 euros and I would score it as 10 FANTASTIC VALUE but this is just an expensive unit that sounds wicked - so no hard feelings on the price

it might freak some others out, those that love boss reverb will likely hate this I hate BOSS really I do

they served me well as a poor teenager but when it comes to big boys toys (and sounds) it was time to move on

sure the pedal options I choose today cost twice as much but i like to feel I get twice as much sound quality

no disprespekt to the millions of great records that have likely been made only possible by BOSS products

but this is just a personal statement - I wont be likely to use them anymore

(except for maybe a tuner if it does not degrade my sound too much)

and no disrespekt to all you that can achieve your sounds with them, I just cant get mine with them

peace and lots of big noise

fairly easy... everything works off sliders. it can get a little annoying getting to know the presets since they aren't labeled "HALL" or "GATE" like previous models. i scanned the manual briefly when i bought it, haven't really looked at it since.

i use the reverb for recording in my home studio, mostly for really spacey shoegazer type guitar and rhodes, but i've also ran it through a drum machine and vocals.
to me it seems like it essentially has one reverb, but you can infinitely tweak that one reverb to sound anyway you want. like all pedals most of the presets i find kind of useless, and just stick to the one or two that i like and then tweak with it. over all it would be good for most music, including spacey abstract instrumental music which is what i bought it for. i do like the pedal and plan to keep it, but for the price i was hoping for something that would blow my mind... the holiest grail is only slightly more valuble to me than a regular holy grail or boss RV-5

so far no trouble, though i've only had it for a couple months, and it hasn't really left my studio. i can see the sliders being a problem if i ever wanted to tour with it, -you'd have to be careful when packing it so not to bend the little guys... not a problem with most other reverb stomp boxes.

haven't had to.

i play really minimal instrumental space/drone type music... like eno and fennesz. i got this pedal cause i wanted the best reverb i could get in a pedal.unfortunatley i didn't have a chance to try it out first since no stores carry it. i had to order it online. it's a nice reverb that i would say is better than your average pedal reverb, but for the price, i don't think it's worth it. IMHO i would have bought the boss RV-5 and saved $200.