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..

3-way switch, 1 knob, doesn't take a brain surgeon.

WOAH, gotta love that last review...betcha dollars to doughnuts it was written by one of the cranks over at EH! The sad fact is that their effects are notoriously unreliable, due to such cost-cutting methods as poor solder work, cheap pots, PLASTIC input jacks, clock noise, switch noise, NOISE noise, significant signal degredation & tone loss, laughable "quality control," etc. Several reputable dealers I know, including a rep at Musician's Friend, report that a larger-than-normal amount of pedals have to be shipped back to EH for warrenty repair (they're usually just replaced, if bought new, often with the same problems cropping up, etc. - Big Muff being worst of them all, especially the Russian ones).

The hiss was unbearable, so I can't even compare tone loss with other EH units.

Caveat Emptor! Browse the different categories in the EH section & see the same problems crop up time & time again. I would not trust this on the road, no way, no how.

I get a feeling there is a high turn-over of young, inexperienced employees (or people that have no practical musical experience at all). My email reply was fast, & though that didn't help, the replacement was processed quickly, which gives me the impression they're used to this kind of thing (scary!). The rating isn't higher, as I didn't receive any useful "support," but it isn't lower because my replacement was processed quickly.

I play roots/retro/surf/hillbilly/rock & everything in between - Tele & Gretsch through blackface Fender VibroLuxe, with minimal effects (occasional compression &/or delay). Based on my experience with this & other pedals from them, I'm completely over my EH fetish...& YES I was born before those turkeys at EH have been around...

As always, you get what you pay for...save up your pennies for a Little Lanilei REAL spring reverb tank & forget this hunk of junk!

Easy to use ... self-explanatory knobs and switch.

Why, oh why, are these inexperienced guitarists putting reverb on high gain amps? What planet are you guys from? You need reverb too, when using high gain??? That makes you about the crappiest guitarist on the planet. Hope your proud of your negative reviews here ... even Dr. Z recommends these units, but you geniuses have 'tone' all figured out, right? For crying out loud ... take some lessons, and stop your complaining. The only thing that sucks tone is your own left and right hands.

EH has been around since before most of these turkeys who wrote reviews were born. Their pedals last for decades in gigging bands. Enough said.

Never, in 30 years, have I had to deal with them.

Please, weenie kids, get a life. Reverb does not go with high gain amps. You are maybe thinking of digital delay, like on Randy's recordings with Ozzy? NOT REVERB, so stop bitching about the noise, the feedback, the lack of tone. You guys are wrong, you don't even know how to use pedals yet, and as far as I am concerned you poisoned the ratings of one of the best digital pedals ever made.

a 3-way switch and one knob. it's VERY easy to use!

i rarely use reverb when i play with my band, but i wanted to use this mostly at home to add some reverb to my non-verb'd fenders. now, the reverb sounds are excellent, but unfortunatly they're almost unuseable because of the dreaded HISS this pedal has! it is VERY noisy!

no, nada, not at all. the first one simply stopped working after one week of very moderate use. the second one developed a serious hiss, and finally dropped my guitar-signal a good bit when i switched it on - it became unuseable, too, and i only used it at home! this is my THIRD unit. it arrived today, new/sealed in box and the moment i plugged it in i knew i was back to square one. can you say NOISY? i can't even use it at home, how would i take it to a gig?
i'd say the quality of this unit is just not there. they must build it so cheap that they don't mind shipping 3 pedals for the price of one.

no problems here. i got fast e-mail response when i asked them about the HISS and the volume-drop in unit two. it didn't help with the pedal, but they sent me a replacement when i asked for it.

i'm a singer/songwriter and guitar-player and i play in two original indie rock/pop bands. been playing for a long time and i have a couple of amps and guitars (including a bf fender pro REVERB) - not too many effects, though.
i tried a Boss RV-3 in the meantime, but it sounded too "processed" and that digital attack-"toc" on any setting i tried, so i quickly resold it.
like i said, i wanted a touch of reverb when playing at home, and i dig the spring/hall-sounds of this pedal a lot.
if only they could make it work.
the incredible HISS makes it unuseable for me.

Pretty simple...only a couple of things to change here.

It sounded like it might be ok...until I turned the distortion on my 5150 amp on. It totally wiped out the tone and gain...made it sound like a tiny 10 watt acoustic amp. Not good at all. I tried it through the loop as well as the front of the amp but same problem. Also doesn't take batteries which kinda sucks if you're trying to condense wires and cables.

Not sure...never tried it in a live setting...didn't work at rehearsal correctly.

Probably would have a decent sound if it didn't totally cut my sound out.

Very Easy to use. Nothing could be simpler.

Great sound, totally useful as a replacement for reverb in amps that lack it. A tad on the noisy side but not terrible.

I have had the worst luck with mine, having had returned it to Electro Harmonix no fewer than four times in 18 months. I only used it as a studio piece and it was not subjected to heavy duty wear and tear. I have had other people say they've had dependable use from theirs but my experience has not been good.

I always deal with the manufacturer through the store I bought it from but the have a reasonably quick turnaround and they have been

This is a great piece for people who play in the Classic Rock style. As I've mentioned, it is a good vintage type reverb sound for amplifiers that lack it, or in my case I often use it in conjunction with a Line 6 Pod instead of the digital reverb. It is a very authentic sound and it's great in the studio but I would not want to use it as a key piece in my sound chain for gigs.

Sure, easy to use, if you can bear the noise.

SHEAT. HUGE noise. A very loud, high pitched whine. Stayed present w/ different amps, different power supplies, different wall jacks, not to mention a new pcb.

Never got to this point, got me money back pronto, after sending it back to the manufacturer twice.

Great customer support. The gentleman i dealt w/ was super friendly, just never managed to help resolve the actual issue.

ran this into a dual rec. other effects in chain, phase 90, crybaby, and tremelo... when i plugged this in. HUGE whine, on or off. terrible, terrible when on, still unbearable when off. sent back to manufacturer twice. finally just got my money back. they were seriously very nice to deal with tho. prompt email responses.

ummm....three way switch (spring, hall, flerb) and a knob for the mix. Not really rocket science here....plug and play...

This pedal gives out a very good reverb. I am more than pleased. beats the heck out of many subpar spring units and the hall is very good. For guitar amps without reverb, this works well without having to buy a rack mounted unit.

I use it in the FX loop and do not get any tone suckage. How about those other reviews - rich, arent they? A pedal before the amp that sucks tone...WOW, thats new one...sheesh, it goes in the fx loop in high gain situations - end of story....

So far so good....only a few days of use...

not sure

Great reverb unit for the going price (about $70), beats the heck out of rack units for ease of use and rivals many of them for sound quality for the guitar. Seems to even out perform many of less than spectacular spring reverbs in many amps I have had in the past....

Only one knob. Would be better with sperate mix and dwell controls.

1959 Gibson Les Paul Junior to Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer to Dunlop Cry Baby Wah to MXR Phase 90 to Boss CE-2 Chorus to EH Holy Grail to Fender tweed Bassman.

Mine has true by-pass. Engaged effect is not noisy if set at a reasonable level (below 12:00).

I find myself only using the spring setting. I love Fender reverb but did't want to shell out big bucks on a tube reverb (a vintage Twin Reverb may be coming my way shortly). The pedal does a nice job of faking a spring reverb sound. Occasionally, the decay sounds a bit digital but you have to be listening very carefully for it. Generally, this pedal will fool most folks.

No problems yet. It's left on all the time so it hasn't seen (and won't see) a lot of stomps. I would gig without a backup. If the reverb fails, no big deal.

Never dealt with.

This is a great fake spring reverb pedal. I bought off e-bay based on these comments and was not disappointed. Happily got one with true by-pass. This'll go everywhere with my Bassman, but will be gone once a Twin Reverb is passed my way.

Doesn't get any easier than this

Well, it is not as nice sounding as the real thing ie: Fender Reverb. However, it is pretty darn close. In a gig live performance you can not tell the difference, period. If you have an amp that does not have reverb and you really like it. Like I like my Mesa SOB this is the way to go. You will not be sorry. The Spring setting is very good. However, if you turn it past 12:00 it's a litle noisy. My favorite is the Hall Setting at about 9:00 for me it is perfect, past 9:00 it is like being in coliseum. What the ??? is Flerb? It is a flagalant flange with some reverb. Worthless sound, even the real pros demo sound bites on Electro Harmonix website, sound like crap on the flerb setting. No, I take that back, it doesn't sound like crap it is something totally different tha crap. Crap actually sounds good compared to "flerb". Over all the spring and hall settings are my favorites. give it a 9

Rock, Southern rock, Rockabilly, Christian Contemporary, Vintage 60's early 70's rock.

A switch which designates either "Spring" / "Hall" / "Flerb" style Reverbs. One huge dial-in knob and a sturdy footswitch - can't be simpler than that.

I bought the Holy Grail to sit in front of my Dr. Z Route 66 (which doesn't have reverb). I compared the reverb on the Holy Grail w/ the reverb on a Rivera M60, Blues Junior, and a Laney VC30. Overall, the Holy Grail stood up VERY well. The volume of the guitar doesn't drop out when the pedal is engaged until you start dialing in extreme reverb - which at that point its useless for most. The spring reverb emulation is great and is very smooth and warm - not as bright and "boingy" as the spring reverb on the M60 or Blues Junior - but I found the decay to be very deep and pleasant. Yes, the pedal does seem to cut the brightness a tad when its on but I don't think it's that noticeable.

I found the "Hall" setting to be my favorite actually - playing clean w/ a lil bit of the hall verb gives a real rich flavor to clean tones. I really enjoyed playing clean blues with this setting.

I found the "Flerb" setting not very useful, it just seems like a gimmick to me. It basically a flanger put on the reverb - interesting but I didn't have to many uses for it.

No problems yet...

n/a

It does the job and it does it well - I think the trick to getting the right sound out of this pedal is to carefully dial in the wet/dry mix. Move it a lil bit by a lil bit and test the waters to find your perfect sound. My Route 66 kicks even mo' a$$ now!

3 distinct settings... piece of cake.

i play a gibson les paul to an ibanez tube screamer to a tremolo unit to the hg reverb to a blues junior. and the pedal has decent tone... spring reverb equates to a modern reverb tank, but not great vintage tone. but listen... this thing SUCKS YOUR TONE AND VOLUME at unacceptable levels. i don't get all these hippy skippy reviews. it plain drains your tone.

i play strait up rock and roll from the stones to the strokes. but i actually bought the holy grail to get that old country twang that is so sweet on any neko case record. alas, it isn't here, guess i gotta go get an old blackface. sigh

Very easy to use. Three setting selector switch - spring, hall, and flerb (or something like that). The knob dials in the amount of verb... but if you twist it beyond 12 or 1 on the dial it starts robbing attack and doing things I don't need a reverb pedal to do.

I play small tube amps (Supro/Gibson, etc.) that distort like mad but don't have reverb. up until I found this pedal, I used a Maxon analog delay for some echo. But this pedal put an end to that and sounds great. The reverb is convincing. (I tried the Little Lanalei (sp) and it was clanky, I tried the Boss digital delay and it was horrible. I can't believe this is the only reverb pedal I have ever found that sounds good.

These things are not built to last - at all. I have had mine for a little over a year - in a protective case where I carry all of my pedals (just a little bouncing around - nothing too rough) The reason I am writing this review is to warn others that the switch on my pedal popped out of the case but continued to work for a while. Then at a show (of course) last weekend the whole thing stopped working even thought the red light still came on. The warantee is expired. I am faced with having to buy another one - for 90 dollars.

Never tried. I blew it and didn't send in the warantee card and now it is too late.

Like I said the thing sounds fine... and did the job until it disintegrated and broke down. That of course, was a huge bummer. But before it gave up the ghost it had always bugged me that the designers of this pedal forced me to use the EH wallwart with the ac plug. Why not allow it to work on a battery, or to be linked up with a standard ac pedal jacks? If the wallwart gets bumped or unplugged, this baby kills your signal... dead. A battery would be nice. Also, why do all EH products need to be so damn huge? I really don't want to buy another one of these things - but I don't feel like I have a choice if I want reverb. Does any company make a reverb pedal that is the size of a Boss pedal (or MXR for that matter), built like a Boss pedal, powered like a Boss pedal, but that sounds like the Holy Grail? Please, somebody build one so I don't have to buy another one of these flimsy, unreliable, restrictive pedals. I would own a stereo memory man if I thought EH was building sturdy and reliable products that weren't all the size of of Rhode Island.

very easy to use

I have a guild m75 bluesbird, ernie ball volume pedal, keeley modified rat, landgraf clean boost, visual sound h20, to a silverface princeton or sovtek mig 50. It was too noisy with the power supply on my board, when I switched it on there was a unacceptable drop in volume, I a/b'd this pedal KILLED THE TONE OF MY AMP SIGNIFICANT VOLUME DROP

I think mine may have been pre broken from the factory

I play in church and trust me there is nothing holy about this pedal, the reverb sounds good,but it is a tone killer,

Couldn't be easier. Jost one knob and a three way mode switch.

I use this in the effects loop of a Peavey Wiggy. it is very musical and enjoyable to use. The spring and hall settings are really nice. The hall setting is inpirational when playing clean fingerpicked extaended chords. The spring covers the fender sound well.

I play blues, funk, reggae and roots rock. Been playing since the seventies - you do the math. What i really like about this pedal is the great sound and simplicity.

one knob, a 3 way switch. if you can't figure it out...you may need a break from living.

sounds awesome. i used to play a fender twin reverb and the spring reverb on this thing sounds just like it. the Hall reverb is perfect, a little time delay if it's on really thick but in general i feel like i'm in a church. and the flerb, some people may knock it, calling it un-usable, but all it takes is some imagination. it's not a traditional reverb sound, it's flanged, so don't treat it like a reverb. you can get some good stuff out of it if you aren't afraid to try. there are no volume cut outs, there's no click, i notice no extra noise. good pedal for the money.

i depend on it, and i wouldn't get a backup...if it crapped out, oops, it's just reverb. i have seen one that was busted up rather nicely, and it had a large volume drop when you engaged it...just don't buy one like that.

it sounds great for the money, only thing i have to say is that i'm kinda disturbed that there is no option for batteries in this pedal. but if you get it new you will be given an adapter, but still that means you need power to run it...i don't know...sounds great, reliable, cheap enough...better than a $450 tank. try it out.