Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb

This is an extremely easy pedal to use. It's got a 3 way slide switch that allows you to go through the 3 settings: Spring, Hall, and "Flerb" (reverb with a light flange). It's got a knob to set the level of the effect. That's it. Finding a good sound is also not hard. Just plug it in and chances are that you're there. Every sound on this pedal is usable IMO, the only trick is finding how to use it.

I play Fenders and Squiers (Mexican-made Duo-Sonic, Squier Fat Telecaster, and Squier Affinity Strat) through a Fender BXR bass amp. The amp sucks and the guitars are worse. I can still get a great sound with this setup by using this pedal I've tried it with other guitars and amps and been impressed as well. Like I said earlier, every setting is usable, and I can get some great sounds out of it. It works best when placed after everything else in an effects loop. By doing that, I can add a nice "larger than life" effect that sounds like something off an old Pink Floyd record or something (this pedal's really good for getting David Gilmour's "space" tone on the Hall setting, along with Robby Krieger's "slippery" tone on the Spring Setting). Flerb isn't useless, though the lack of controls over the depth and rate of the flange are annoying. I think they were going for Kurt Cobain's watery chorus tone on Nevermind (which he got with another EH pedal, the Small Clone), and I find that by turning the level up on Flerb I can nail the intro to "Come As You Are" and the verse of "Smells Like Teen Spirit". This pedal also gets a passable Dick Dale Surf Rock tone, and works nicely for electric blues licks as well. If you turn it up to about 3 o'clock, it sounds a little like a very warm, lush chorus pedal. All this is if you put it AFTER your effects. Put it before them and it muddies everything up, though you can get some nice Radiohead/Sonic Youth-ish feedback by putting it before a distortion pedal and playing note stuff. This pedal can go from being subtle to being very full and lush, though on higher settings the Hall setting becomes more of a delay, throwing your signal off by a fraction of a second and burying it under so much reverb you can only hear the effect. Still, it's not a bad sound. On lower settings, it's extremely transparent and quiet. It might not be a perfect duplication of a spring reverb, but I can't tell the difference. According to the ads, neither could Dick Dale.

It's given me no problems so far, and since I'm broke and can't afford a backup I'm forced to gig with it. It's a reverb pedal, so even if it does break at a show, it's probably not going to throw your sound off THAT much. It seems to be built very solidly. I suspect it'll last, but since I've only had it for about 4 months it gets an 8 from me just because I don't have the experience with it to know if it'll hold up forever.

Never had to deal with them. No opinion.

I've been playing for about 2 and a half years, with my own style of bluesy psycadelic punk rock. This pedal has taken my sound to a place I had always wanted to go. If it were lost or stolen, I would have to look at the new Danelectro and Boss pedals, but I'm confident I would come back to this. This is my favorite pedal, and I can't see myself doing without it. At under $100, it has a better sound than the more expensive delay/reverb pedals out there such as the Boss and the Digitechs. A great bargain.

one knob, it's killer baby! turn it up to half and it gets in the marshall spring reverb range, turn no farther than 2 o'clock or you'll get all kinds of nonsense. manual is a little ticket inside the box. ya don't need it, really.

gibson sg to pedals, reverb is placed last before the ORANGE HEAD! good reverb filter, does not corrupt your sound. very transparent.

power source only to run this thing. don't kick out the plug!!!

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this a great end-line effect for amps like THE ORANGE which don't come with the traditional marshall spring reverb. i wish this box had a "kick" simulator so it could sound like you dropped the head down a flight of stairs. my old marshall MOSFET does that, it's hell-arious. this is a very practical and useful pedal for my purposes. leave it on if you don't have a speck of reverb in your amp.

very easy to use,see other reviews

I used it through the fx loop of my Laney valve amp,after the preamp and the amp,between them,I even tried it between the amp and the guitar.The Laney GH-50L has an fx loop that allows different options (see above)with a knob to control the volume of the fx.

In all cases I was very disappointed with this box,it is a very,very cheap digital sounding thing,very weak and IT IS A DELAY,NOT A REVERB,the problem being it's very easy to spot it.The box looks great but the sound is a real let down.it is not nice at all,doesn't bring anything to your sound.If you have ears,DO NOT BUY IT!!It gets better at low levels of reverb and I eventually ended up not using it at all!!
The reverb of my 4-track boss digital recorder wasn't worse...

The reverbs with the AVT Marshall amps (Which are crap amps by the way) are much,much better than this one for example.

Once again:if you are a musician able to listen,do not buy it

The only good point:it is very transparent.

I don't know,I sold it after a few days

If you need a nice sounding reverb to add to your quality rig,look elsewhere.I wish I had never bought it,fortunately I sold it for #50 to a guy who didn't hear the obvious poor sound quality of it...
I'll give it an overall 4/10 because it looks and feels the business (as long as one doesn't use it as a reverb for guitar)

Only a moron couldn't operate it.

I've tried every reverb unit out there and nothing touches this.
It's vintage fender verb and I've A/B'd them side by side with an old vibrolux. The spring is superb..the hall is lucious and I even like the flerb..perfect unit for a verbless amp bar none.

seems fine..not a fan of warts but...beats paying 1500 for a fender verbhead.

don't know...no probs ever..

True verb and for digital it's amazing and warm and exactly want I was looking for for years in a stomp box. I use Gibsons and a Boogie and bought it for my old Beltone but it will now replace my Acutronics verb on my Boogie as well..

One knob, 1 three postion slide switch, one bypass switch. Very simple, but very effective.

I have always been a fan of two things when it comes to recreating vintage sounds, and they are tape echo and spring reverb. When I was a teen, I recorded tons of poor quality electronic music tracks at a local cable TV studio, with nothing to use for effects except a reel-to reel and a PA mixer (Kustom) with an onboard sring reverb. This made all the really cheap synths and electronic pianos I ran thru it sound really nice and thick, saving many recordings from being totally embarassing.

Years passed, and even if the board and studio were long gone, I still yearned for that spring reverb sound... The only problem was, every time I found a unit in a pawn shop, it was either rusty, humming like crazy, broken, or just plain atrociously weak sounding.

Nowadays, there are a few options if you are looking for a real spring reverb, but none so compact as the aptly named Electro Harmonix Holy Grail. It's only natural that after having purchased a Line 6 DL-4 Delay Modeler, the next step in achieving that vintage warbling warmth would be to add a spring reverb to my kit list. I was quite suspicious at first, having been disappointed by many "spring" algorithms in rack mount units, and wasn't so certain the Holy Grail could cut it, but after listening to it on the Buzzfox.com site, I was somewhat curious and impressed, so I placed an order.

I wasn't disappointed at all with what I got; in fact, it sounded even better than on the demo. I have never heard such a perfect emulation of spring reverb. The realism of the effect, coupled with the unit's vintage EH look, makes you wish you could tap it to make the spring go BOOOIIIINNNG! (heheheh). Danelectro have implemented that lovely feature on their new Spring King Pedal, but I figured the EH one would be a better buy because not only does it have a spring model, it also has a nice lush Hall setting, free of the metallic "chickahhh" sounds normally heard in rack units, and something called "Flerb", which many of the guitarists who have posted their reviews did not seem to like, but sounds absolutely amazing when applied to hi-hats and string synth lines. Kudos to EH for three useful settings.

The last time I heard reverb this warm, it came from a Lexicon. But the Lexicons seek to emulate real acoustic spaces, whereas the Holy Grail serves an altogether different purpose.

The Holy Grail is a unique, musically useful box, and it is sweet sounding too, with no hiss or hum of any kind; makes me think I should add some for authenticity...

Electro Harmonix boxes have never been known for their sturdiness, but then again, they tend to get scuffed up more than suffer internal damage, a fact that is evidently apparent when visiting pawn shops and second hand music stores stocked with beaten but working original issue EH pedals, which they try and sell you for more than it costs to get a reissue. I would gig without a backup, but perhaps if I had two, I could do stereo spring lines...

I have not dealt with Electro Harmonix in the past.

A great little box everyone who is into vintage studio sounds should look into. This is one of the few new products Electro Harmonix have put out that will someday achieve the same legendary status as the Big Muff, or the Electric Mistress.

Very easy to use. Like the simple control on the top. 3 patches (spring,hall,flerb) all very usable.

I was a bit sceptical at first about it being a digital unit but was really suprised by the amazing quality, especially the spring setting. I use it with my strat and mesa boogie rectifier head and cab. I play deep heavy sounding music - tool, deftones, rage. I can keep the pedal on constantly without it affecting my precious tone. The spring is almost exactly like the real thing, the hall sounds big but I tend not to use it because it can sound a little synthetic, and the flerb is good if used low for a subtle effect for swells etc. I have no hums or problems of any kind

seems ok. so far so good

This box is ideal for somebody wanting a reverb for their reverbless amp. I tried the RV-2 from BOSS but it sounded like a digital unit where this actually sounds real. Really pleased

I'd like to start off saying I like this Reverb unit and it was easy to use.When I first got it on and hooked up the knob was turned to 100%.It sucked up all the tone .But as I dialed it back the magic happened.It comes with a manual thats easy to read and understand. The unit is not complicated.

I used this unit with a 1966 Blackface Bassman w/original 2-12 cab.The guitar is a 2000 Gibson S.G. 61 Reissue/maestro vibrato.
This reverb unit was dead quiet on all settings.The spring reverb sounded as good as my 1965 deluxe reverb,The hall setting is drinched
spring and very fender sounding(warm)But the best to me is the flerb.
If set just right (clean) you get the sound of the old Gibson oil can
reverb. But, this effect has a swirl to it that makes it fun to play old Lonnie Mack songs off his 1963 Fraternity label album. Wham of the Memphis man.

I must admit, I thought the unit would be heavier built.. It's made of
lite aluminum and plastic. I would depend on it with out a back up.It
being a Reverb unit I would leave it on all the time so I would hook it up and just put it back out of the way. Maybe in the back of my amp on a gig.

I have never dealt with Electro-Harmonix.

I play Blues ,Classic, Southern rock.This reverb will able me to use non-reverb amps that I like (point to point wired)
I've been a gifted guitar player since the Beatles first showed up on Ed Sullivan.I'am 43 yrs. old. I started when I was 6.But,like a million other kids that saw the beatles play I had to beg my parents to buy my first guitar.If this unit were stolen I would have to find another.I don't think I would want it to have anything else.It's pretty much got what a reverb unit should be and sound like. I like it simple!

This thing is extremely simple. Just plug in, set at 10 oclock, and play.

Pretty much classic Fender reverb in a convenient little box. Spring for the guitarist who wants a mild dose of reverb; Hall for the heavy dose. As for the "Flerb" setting; it is completely useless. Before I got this pedal, I had heard bad remarks about the Flerb... but I thought, maybe I can get some pschedelic sounds out of it. Not true. It's weak and weird and therefore unusable. Thankfully, the Spring and Hall settings work wonderfully, and do exactly what I had hoped they would do. I have mine set at 10 oclock, and it's last in a chain of boutique overdrives going into a BF Bassman. Very little noise. So, in all, a very nice classic Fender reverb emulator -- but I have to detract a point for the Flerb setting.

Had it a very short while, but I've had nothing but luck with other EH products.

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I play original indie rock, sort of a Byrds meets Television sort of sound. This is a great addition to my pedal board. Very happy with it. But if forced to make suggestions for the good folks at EH, I would improve it by:
-getting rid of the Flerb setting and maybe adding a chorus or, better yet, a vibrato
-re-think the power supply strategy... either make it 9voltable; or more like the Boss system. That wall wart is a bit of pain.
-I also would like to be able to footswitch from Spring to Hall and vice-versa.

Bottom line: Say your amp doesn't have reverb, but you want that Fender reverb sound without shelling out bug bucks for a standalone tank, and prefer it in a pedal-board-ready package? Here's your ticket.

Easy. Plug it in and whail.

A tad noisier than I'd like, but still within reason. I'm using it with a '66 Silvertone 1481 tube amp, which has no reverb. I play Jazz through it. The Holy Grail is about as close to a real spring reverb as you can get. I tried the Boss RV-3 and thought it sucked. The Spring setting on the H.G. sounds the best to me; very spring-like. You can almost hear the springs in the tone. I can hear the digital side of the tone if I listen carefully, but it's certainly not obvious. The Hall setting is alot like Spring, but more transparent and a bit longer of a tail. I hate the Flerb setting- what the heck am I supposed to do with that?! If they're gonna give you a multi-effect with a reverb unit, it should be chorus and you should be able to at least adjust the mix of reverb & chorus.

I just bought mine, so I don't know. I don't understand the gripe others have with the aluminum casing. It's not built like a Boss pedal, but it's alot nicer looking. You'd have to really abuse it to break it, it's not like it's made of plastic.

I've been playing 24 years now. I love the sound. It's the best fake reverb unit I've ever found. Besides the Flerb thing, I also hate the wall wart. A box as large as these should have a built-in power supply and hard- wired AC cord. Besides, only units that are battery powered should be wall-warted as a backup power supply! I love the unique look of these aluminum boxes. If some big fat bastard crushed it, I'd get another one.

One knob, one switch with three settings. Easy enough

Very quiet. Spring reverb emulation is convincing. I use two small amps, one with real spring verb and one using the Grail next two it. When both amps are on, very hard to tell which is the real spring verb.

Only had it a month, no problems so far. Solidly built.

No need.

The spring verb is the only setting I use. Flerb is interesting but probably not that useful. The Hall verb is great and expansive. Maybe a hi eq roll off knob would be helpful in damping the verb as needed. All in all, a quality pedal that does what is states it does and does well.