Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb

Please see my comments from 03/14/2004.

Please see my comments from 03/14/2004.

I took my HG to befixed by a top pro (and yeah, I mean a top pro from a very high class vintage guitars shop). The thing had shorted on the board. He tried to fix it, even declared it fixed, but the death of the board had gone too far.

So sorry, Mandrake. If this pedal dies like mine did, it doesn't help you if you "know your stuff" or "it's simple inside". If it was point-to-point, it could be fixed. But it isn't, and you can't.

How I miss the old days when products like this were meant to last.

Please see my comments from 03/14/2004.

Please see my comments from 03/14/2004.

ONe knob. More to the right, less to the left. Simple

I notice lots of complaints down here. Strange. Mine's a 2003 model, maybe the old ones aren't so good? I love my reverbs, have several and I play a lot of different gear, from cheap and cheerful to $$$ but I aint gonna boast about that...

No noise, not at all, in any setup and I've tried lots! But most importantly its the sound. The hall is huge, wet and lush. The spring is excellent too, but its more sort of half plate/half spring sounding. The flerb makes me smile, it is weird, true but I know peeps who'd love it, anyone into trippy sounds basically, and it is done well.

Not having a make-up gain control, there is always a small, subjective gain difference. Shame really, I use a custom A-B to switch it in-out and I think anyone serious would want a solution too.

Top quality sounds overall but maybe not to everyone's tastes. Natural sounds but maybe not good for 'modern' tone junkies who want it 'just-so'.

I used to work for studios doing repairs so I know my stuff. Internally its simple - which means good. The switch is unusual - triple pole?! (hard to get replacement) but is sealed (probably will last forever).No problems here - would chuck around carelessly and gig with it.

Where it falls down is the cable and plug on the dumb ass wallwart. It WILL break. On the plus side tho, the regulator is IN the pedal, so it wont be fussy about voltage. In fact, a little measurement reveals that mine actually takes 12v at 210mA. Miles away from whats on the tin! So any old wallwart will power the thing really.

Reliability assumes you've thrown the wallwart in the bin, otherwise it'd get 2. maybe.

Sorry, never called them. doubt I'll need to either.

Me; I'm a simple lead squalling metal lover. Less confusion means more playing :-) thats my theory. If it doesn't sound good before you touch the controls it'll never BE good! I love it. Plug it in. Turn it on. GO!

Only wish the thing had make-up gain. grr. In the studio I suppose I'd want more- decay length and colour controls most likely but that's not what this is about really. And anyway, they make the holier grail for those with itchy fingers.

Want to know who I am and why the heck you should listen to me? check out http://www.verm.co.uk

Couldn't easier to use this pedal.

This thang gave me the twang that I needed - a really wet spring reverb sound that I need for surf/instrumental music.

HG failed me. After one year and about two months, it stopped working. Some kind of internal problem, can't say what it is though. Nothing seems to be disconnected or burned.

I have gigged with it, but I have always taken very good care of all of my equipment. This problem is definetely caused by the very low quality of this product and not improper use.

The warranty was expired two or three months before the thang broke, so I didn't get to make a complaint.

This thing is worth absolutely nothing because of the low reliability. After reading some other reviews I can see that I'm not alone with the problems.

What is particularly annoying, is the fact I really need something like this. But I am never ever going to buy a new one, probably not even a Holier Grail. Maybe I'll check out the Danelectro Spring King. A real Fender reverb unit is in a different price range, but that's one possible choice too.

I was so dissappointed with Holy Grail that I might never be able to recommend any EH product to anyone. Or buy one myself.

the controls coudn't be simpler. one switch for reverb mode, and a dial for how much you want. gearheads will be driven crazy by the simplicity, and people who want to play guitar with reverb will dig it.

I play a godin radiator through this pedal into a '63 fender bassman. I haven't had any trouble as far as noise and hiss is concerned. the spring reverb effect isn't quite as "wet" sounding as a proper spring reverb (in fact, the hall mode sounds closer) so thats why it gets an 8 instead of a 9. the hall reverb is rich and creamy...I love it! the flerb effect is interesting, sort of a combination of the spring and a slight twinge of flange. I haven't found a use for it but it's still cool. it's one of those effects that you have to write for.

I've played a handful of gigs with it and I've used at every practice for the past few months with no trouble. it's a metal case with metal input jacks, so it looks and plays tough.

haven't had to deal with them, but I understand they are easy to work with.

I play more indie poppish and beatlesy kinda music, with a dash of glam and punk. before I started using this, I had a univox univerb and I have to say I prefer this. it's simple to use, durable, and sounds good. worth every penny.

Does it get any easier. Simple and it has all that it needs.

I play it with my victoria double deluxe and my silvertone combo and it adds what is missing in those amps. I keep it on spring somewhere between 9 & 12 o'clock and it sounds very real. It is a little noisy, but it sounds better than other pedals I have tried.

This is tough because it hasn't broken down yet, but I think we all bought this knowing that it will in the near future. I would love to gig with a backup but I'm not dropping another $100. I wish they would have built this a little better because I have had a few troubles with EH pedals before.

Haven't dealt with them yet.

Even though I own fulltone stuff and I really love those pedals this one is hands down my favorite. I play in a "garage rock" band where we have
guitar, drums, and vocals-no bass. It gives me a ton of depth that I need without having to haul a reverb tank. This sounds better than any stompbox in the price range. If it was made a little tougher I would give it a 10.

Easy as can be - one knob, three selections (Spring, Hall, Flarb).

My main guitar is a Gibson LP Classic, amp is a Boogie Dual Rectifier through a Marshall JCM 900 Lead 4x12. I'll admit, I was kind of an effects loop retarded early on. I was used to playing dry for so long, just guitar-wah-amp. I initially used this unit out of the loop. It didn't sound horrible, I accepted it. I recently looped it (I now know, time-based effects go IN THE LOOP!), and WOW. The full capability of the pedal was released. The spring selection sounds just as good as the Marshalls I used to play (I always liked how Marshall reverb sounded, but alas I've had other issues with them), and the Hall selection is kind of neat, I may be using that one more often.

It's pretty reliable so far. I've had it six months, no problems left. I'd gig without a backup, I'd just suck it up and use no reverb for a night.

Haven't dealt with them, but I've heard they are wonderful.

I've been playing 18 years, my band plays classic rock, some modern stuff, and blues. I've always owned amps with reverb, I don't like a totally dry sound, and I think this unit really recreates some classic reverb sounds. I didn't have some of the problems with noise that others had. I was surprised to read those reviews, and wish I knew the reason why. I'd definitely buy it again if it got stolen.

basic as hell...just the way I like it !
you have 3 choices, 2 of them are useful,and one is to piss off your band mates.

I needed some reverb for my 5150's rhythm channel,I run it through the fx loop which is foot switchable so the reverb is always on.
This thing sounds very nice,I like it!

I've had this on my pedalboard for 10 months and it hasn't failed me yet...if it did,I wouldn't have reverb for a nite (BIG DEAL!)

I have had no reason to call

I play all kinds of rock music and have been for 25 yrs.I love my 5150 and just needed some plain and simple reverb for it, and this pedal gives me that,it looks cool,sounds cool and works like a charm,just keep it between 9 and 12 o'clock,run it through your fx loop, and it's no different than having a built in unit

Yes, there's only one switch for selecting among the three reverb types (spring, hall, and flerb), one knob for dialing in dry/wet, and one off switch. I guess that makes it easy to use, BUT wouldn't it be easier to use if you could change between reverb types with your foot? What it there was a slider or, better yet, a rocker/pedal for adjusting the wet/dry mix? How do you adjust the decay rate? Oh, that's right, you can't. What if that slider/pedal/whatever adjusted the decay. With a few inexpensive add-ons (maybe $5 in parts wholesale), this could be a truly easy to use unit.

Okay, okay, you can't have (they won't give you) everything. What about ease of use as the pedal is designed? Well, when I have to double, triple, quadruple clutch the footswitch to cycle through all the different permutations of volume cut (effect off, effect on/input off, input on partially, etc.), it's NOT EASY.

Minus 3 points for the weak controls. Minus the rest for the headaches that come with the faulty controls.

One last thing, if you switch between hall and spring or flerb, you need to readjust the wet/dry mix to balance the volume difference. That's another "ease of use" hassle.

Sounds good. The spring sounds springy! It doesn't "burp" like the Digitech Digiverb I tried.

Hall is voluminous (in more ways than one).

Flerb is groovy! (Wouldn't it be cool if you could tweak that flanger as well.)

If you could adjust the parameters, this would be a solid 10.

Oh, then there's that pop from the footswitch (when it's actually working correctly). That doesn't sound too good.

After less than ten hours of playing, the footswitch started producing all kinds of mix/cut problems. Maybe it can't handle the incoming signal. I don't know. These mix/cut volume problems have been triggered by other effects as well sometimes. There's no way I would trust this unit for performance, except if it was being used always on with no other effects.

I'll probably call or write EH out of curiosity, but the unit's going back to the store in exchange for something else. Goodbye EH.

I like to (try to) play a variety of music. My amp doesn't have the reverb I want for clean styles (rockabilly, surf, jazz, etc.). I could've lived with the limitations of the unit, if it had worked reliably, but it didn't.

This is a good sounding, very limited, unreliable pedal

Very simple! One knob, one switch....

Fantastic verb! Spring not a springy as my Super Reverb but more spring than my Classic 30. The hall setting is great for a more freaked effect and the Flurb...might be useful for some songs. I run the the adapter into the courtsey plug of the line 6 pdeal power and have not any problems with noise.

N/A but have had any problems with other EH products.

N/A

Excellent sound and value. I play a lot of different styles of rock but got this primarily for spooky, freaky verb effects and it does the job well. Would be great for music where the use of verb is essential.

1 pot and one switch, really easy.

i use it with a cheap ibanez guitar-big muff-some cheap fender amp
i like my grail, the tone is GREAT. there is a tiny bit of noise on the flerb setting, i think that one is kind of useless. the rest is really usefull.

the pot in the pedal wasn't really good. it broke in about 2 weeks. i replaced it and it works ok now.

fix everything myself

my most loved piece of gear with my big muff. but my collection of stuff is very limited..