Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Plus

very easy, just 3 knobs.

The basic sound quality of this is sorta there...they sound like EH reverbs, which some people love, and some people hate. I love the reverb in the Holy Stain, but feel sorta dump for using that thing solely as a reverb pedal since it does other cool stuff as well.

So, I bought this, thinking I'd be able to get a similar sound in a smaller footprint, with a bit more control.

It does have that same sorta EHX reverb sound, but there are 2 big problems. Once youturn the mix knob past about 50% wet, it starts to hum. Like, the second the reverb gets to a certain level, hum. To exacerbate this, at that same point the overall volume dips a bit, makeing the hum more apparent.

Thinking maybe I had a bad unit, I asked around online but I found some other folks with the same problem.

I *really* wanted to like it, and I'm not *super* picky about a little hum, but this was useless to me.

If you were someone who doesn't ever turn the reverb up too much this woiuld be usable. The sounds are quite nice. The spring is excellent, as is the hall, though the room isn't as nice as the Holy Stain (sounds like a smaller room, which might be ok for some folks.) If you just use a little verb for thickness, this might work, but if you ever feel like getting surfy or ambient, you're outta luck.

I like the new XO enclosures, seems pretty solid....

Disappointing.

Very easy to use. Put the blend and the amount straight up and pick anything but flerb, plug into a clean sound and you have a very usable reverb.

Excellent sound. I was surprised at the high quality of the reverb from a little digital box. I had a fender twin reverb and this reminds me of that reverb very much. It is very clean and transparent but at the same time adding that third dimension to the sound. My JSX has a very sterile clean channel and this makes it wet and alive. It hides just a bit in heavy overdrive or distortion but its still good. It is one of those pedals that I add to my pedal chain, and ALWAYS include it in my sound.

Again, the flerb is unnecessary and this pedal would have received a 10 if they would have just left it off all together. Since its there, I have to include in the rating.

I like it more than the single pot holy grail because it lets me control the blend and even try out some different combinations of blend/amount. ehx does a great job of providing 'really simple', 'simple', 'kinda complicated', and 'need a freaking phd complicated' versions of this underlying reverb sound. The 'room' reverb is a nice addition as well.

I think it's way more natural sounding than the boss rv-5.

I think its fair to say that this is a slight issue with EHX. I bought this used, and it's been perfect so far, but I know that at least one of the pots have been replaced (it stands out as different from the other two). Its been great for me though, so I'll give it an eight.

N/a

I play only a few things: Bluesy Rock/Classic Rock/Heavy Metal. I have a jsx head, bunch of guitars; gibson flying V, les paul, ibanez js1200, etc... If it were stolen I'd replace it as soon as i could find another used one.

My two favorite features of this are that it sounds exactly the way i think reverb should sound and i can get that sound so easily.

You would have to be brain-dead to have trouble operating this pedal.

As far as digital reverberation is concerned, this is it. Nothing else I have used has even come close to the Holy Grail. RV-3/RV-5, T-Rex, and anything else in between just sound like trash to my ears. This is a very musical reverb. It reacts very well with playing, and works well on a number of different instruments.

Just keep in mind that this is Digital, which means very clean/clear and shimmery reverb. This isn't going to sound like an old tank reverb or a Space Echo.

EHX is a tad shoddy with their wiring and whatnot. I can't say I haven't had to re-solder wires back into place from time to time. I would take extra special care of this over my Boss or other home-made pedals. Not terrible, but not superb either.

I asked for a schematic for a 70's Small Stone to repair mine, and they gladly gave it to me. They were very kind and quick to respond.

I play a mixture of Low-Fi, Shoegaze, Indie rock. I've been playing for more than 10 years now, and this is a fabulous match for me.

I own a few guitars (Telecaster, Jazzmaster, Thinline) and a few amps (69 Twin Reverb, Unicord Stage 400). But I'm quite the pedal whore. I build my own custom pedals (and have about 10-12 of them now) and also own a throng of others. I know my pedals well.

Very easy to use

Three controls

Blend, amount and reverb type

9v input

This pedal sounds great, each reverb has its own character, and tone very nice. You can create some nice reverbs by varying the settings of the blend and amount controls. It can be set to self oscillate too which is cool. It has alot of reverb on tap. There is no notice tone loss with this pedal.

Have had this only a while, its my first EH pedal so no comment.

Not needed them of yet so no comment.

I like this pedal alot. It can be applied to many styles of music. It is more of a standard sound reverb pedal, although it can self oscillate.

This pedal is very easy to use and figure out. Three knobs, two to adjust the amount & length of reverb, and the third is a four way switch to choose what kind of setting you want: Spring, Hall, Room, Flerb.

Like the other review currently up, I'm comparing this to a Boss RV 5 and the original Holy Grail. The RV 5 had a decent Hall setting, but it was only practical for over the top-atmospheric like reverb. The spring setting on that pedal made simulated springy sounds-very annoying, I'll never understand why they built that in....

I did not appreciate the original holy grail pedal at all, it becomes muddy and flerb-y too quickly in my opinion. I always thought of that pedal as being overrated.

The Holy Grail Plus is by far the superior pedal of the three. It allows you to generate very realistic, and very practical reverb tones. I use it on both spring and hall settings. I don't think I'll get much use at all out of the Room setting, and the flerb setting is just plain silly to me. If you dime all the controls on the flerb setting, you can make your guitar sound like a hovering UFO! That's fine for joking around, but I wouldn't ever do that on stage!!

Seems very well built in a sturdy aluminum case.

No Opinion.

I think it's a good pedal and it's definitely an upgrade for me over the Boss RV-5. However, it's still a subtle effect. If you want over the top Fender surf reverb, you'll have to buy a fender reverb amp. I play an old hiwatt combo, and a bad cat wildcat, both of which have VERY mild reverb tanks built in. The Holy grail plus helps round out the tones I often go for with my clean sounds. Like I said, it's subtle and mild, but still very warm and deep sounding. When i activate the holy grail plus and my amps' reverb units, i can get pretty close to my fender amps.

My biggest complaint is the after effect on the hall and spring settings. If you set the levels too high, the pedal sends out a residual looping kind of sound, so I'm only able to set the effects to about 80% on the knobs, after that you get too much background noise.

This should answer any questions that you might have about the HG+. I own both the HG and HG+ and will give you my honest opinion of both.

The HG+ trumps the original Holy Grail. The HG+ has the same lush, natural tone as the HG, but goes a step further. It gives you the ability to control both the amount of reverb(length), and how much of the effect you want mixed with your dry signal.
The HG only has one knob to control the level and length of the effect. I run my reverb pedal through the effects loop. I found that I could only use a tiny fraction of the reverb, almost to the point where the effect was practically non existent. Using larger amounts would muddy my tone. Not what I want from a reverb pedal.
The HG+ allowed me to increase the amount of reverb to my taste and blend that signal to my dry signal without degrading my tone. It's just what I've been looking for. Now I have that great reverb tone that I got from the HG without it washing out my tone. Another advantage, the HG+ has a lower profile which makes navigating around the pedal board much easier. The casing seems to be more durable as well. If you are looking for an easy to use reverb pedal that is flexible and sounds great, the HG+ is for you.

Casing is durable. So far I haven't had any problems with it.

Never had a problem with their products so I've never had to deal with the company.

I play in a band. We play mostly Rock and Alternative music.
I play through a Mesa Triple Rectifier which doesn't have reverb.
The HG+ gives the amp the kind of reverb that I would expect a Mesa amp to have. If it were stolen, I would definitely buy another one to replace it. I've compared it to the Boss RV-5(sounds very digital), and the Original Holy Grail(not as versatile). I chose the HG+ because it has a natural, analog type sound. The best feature is the Blend knob. It allows you to blend the wet signal with the dry signal so that your tone doesn't get washed out. I basically just use the Hall setting. I don't need a bunch of settings that I will never use. Simple is better. It has definitely improved my sound on my clean channel. In my opinion, the HG+ is the best sounding reverb pedal out there.