Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb

This thing is idiot-proof...nuff said

I play a myriad of guitars through the worlds largest rig and into a Matchless Chieftan. I bought this pedal because the reverb on the Matchless just doesn't do it for me. I like a fairly saturated sound and tend to use a lot of delay. In an attempt to reduce my use of delay I thought the Holy Grail would fit the bill for providing the nice full sound I look for...it did. While I wish this pedal had a bit more flexibility and a wider range of sounds it definitely gave me what I was looking for. If I'd popped for the Holier Grail I guess I would have gotten more, but I didn't feel like paying for one.

This pedal stays on all the time, so I guess that sums up how well it works. It does color the sound some, but I've compensated for the change in other areas to keep my general tone sounding the way I demand.

Seems pretty tough, but I don't like the switch. It does that really hard clunk when you step on it, and every time I get a pedal with one of those on it I end up replacing it with a good Switchcraft switch.

No idea what these people are like to deal with...

I've been playing for a long time and have a ton of boutique pedals. This is one of the few "mainstream can buy it off Musicians Friend" units I own, and I feel completely comfortable with its performance.

If someone took it I'd get another one. You can't beat it for $100.

I replaced the round knob with an old chicken head knob. Its a touchy-feely thing with me.

I just use the "spring" setting. Its close enough to the real thing through my Pro Junior.

As someone else noted below, I wish I could set the tail or decay a little shorter, especially on the 12 o'clock settings. The tail end seems to get in the way of subsequent notes. However, for surf settings (3 o'clock), it doesn't seem to be an issue.

As for noise, its quieter than my Fender amps with spring reverb. I've heard others say the newer Holy Grails have eliminated the hissing and would agree. I got this new in December '05.

So far, used at home only. I might try it at a jam for playing surf.

Overall, I'd say its a decent pedal for the money.

One Toggle Switch for the 3 modes

One Knob for the Effect Level

Very Easy

Rig: Ibanez PGM301, Mesa Solo Rectifier Head, Black Shadow 1x12 Wideboy Cab. I used the Holy Grail as the first in the Effects loop followed by a Digitech Digidelay, Digitech Multichorus, Korg DT-10 Tuner and a Dunlop Zakk Wah.

To start, i used the Effect on its own on the Spring Mode. This is a very good Reverb Effect adding a Rich Sound to the Clean Channel that cant be done with a Boss or Digitech. Next i moved the the Hall Mode and that was when the great sounds started. It added a great atmosphere to the sound keeping the Tone perfect without interfering at all. I added Chorus to the Hall Mode and i couldent believe my ears. All the Tone was there with loads of Clean punch and a great 'Angel' style sound. My Clean Channel is perfect now. I still use Delay for Channel 2 on the Amp because thats just the way it is...lol but i tried the Reverb in Channel 2 anyway and got the same great Sound without losing any Tone.

A few other Reviews on here have bashed this little Pedal and said it makes horrible noise. I assure you that these people are FOOLS with dodgy Cables or a bad Sound in the first place. This unit, with a decent Effects loop and good Monster, Planet Waves or Venom cables will give you NO unwanted noise at all and when turned off, the Bypass is as clean as a whistle with not a whisper

I will add this after a couple of months

not needed

I cant give it perfect untill i know how road worthy it is but for Sound alone, this unit reaches 8

If you don't mind a constant hiss, then it is very easy to get a good sound. If you're looking for that vintage obnoxious hiss coming through your amp, then this is the pedal for you.

Except for the hiss, it was great. No wait, it was terrible - unless you want hiss... then it is great. I can't think straight with all the hissing.

As long as you don't step on it it will hold up to almost anything. No wait, it's a stomp right? I guess I have to give it a bad score then because this thing is about as daintily constructed as anything I've ever seen. But if you want to bend it into an ashtray or something you probably won't need tools - you can do it with your bare hands. A piece of junk.

Overall rating - it is great unless you care about quality.. in which case it is junk.

Seriously, I cannot believe that an organization with as much name recognition and as much "at stake" with their reputation would put out a complete piece of crap like this. Just appalling - it is the worst money I've ever spent on gear in my life.

Get a digiverb.

Easy to use.

Has a little hiss but not that bad.
It will color your sound even when turned off.
Quality of reverb is good and very natural sounding.

reliable during the 6 months I owned it.

One thing to watch out for: If you plan to use a line mixer to run this pedal 100% wet, you may not like the result. The mix knob has the dual function of increasing the size and space of the reverb as you turn the knob clockwise. At 100% the reverb is deep with lots of feedback.

Very easy to use - 1 knob simply labeled "Reverb." 1 main critique: PLEASE, WOULD ALL EFFECTS MANUFCTURERS USE THE BOSS NEGATIVE CENTER TYPE POWER ADAPTOR???? THIS ONE DOES NOT, SO IT IS A REAL PAIN WHEN ALMOST EVERYTHING ELSE DOES.

I've tried the Danelectro Spring King and Little Lanelie, but this Reverb has wider range than the Little Lanelie and overall better tone than the Danno. With this said, no pedal will EVER compare to a real tube Fender outboard (or built in Blackface style) Reverb. But, if you don't want to lug around a Fender outboard for gigs, this would be your best choice for everything from mild to surf IMO. Keep your tube outboard for recording though.

So far so good.

The best plug in and play Reverb pedal I've tried for Spring reverb. Better tone than the Danelectro, wider range than the the Little Lanelei (the Little Lanelei has good tone but very limited Reverb intensity - not suitable for surf).

one Knop for intens.
one for mode

I m not sure why people tread this littel Grail so bad.
I got mine 3 years and the sound is amazing and just simple, I dont like pedals and amps with hundred of knops... sure you can pay a tube tape echo for 1000bucks and suck yourself or you put it on "HALL" and alway at 9 - 11 Oclock for distortio - clean sounds.

I play professionell since 12 years and i earn my money with this.
So you need a good and simple reverb with a great sound..take this.
If you want sound like Hendrix, Johnson, Page or Pink Floyd, practise playing, its in youre fingers and not in your equipment.

Sometimes it does not work so i must put the ac adapter out for a second an put it in again then it works, so 5

I dont care

Like I said Im a pro, and for a good sound you dont need many things.
A reverb, a delay, one overdrive and one distortion, a fuzz and a wah. a Gibson a Fender A Marshall a twin and go on.

This pedal is very straightforward. You've read the previous reviews.

This pedal is NOT bad, like some of the naysayers would have you think. Is there some hiss? Yes - In a quiet room with no other instruments or a full mix. There is literally nothing you will notice when playing live, and I use this thing on at all my shows.

I live room, flerb can be cool, but the hall is just too much. Set the knob low, nothing at all. Turn it uo just a little too much, a booming, muddy explosion.

No problems yet.

I play jangly brit style, and use this reverb to smooth out my tone.. I works very well, and I've had no complaints, except for the limited use of the hall setting.

Would I buy another one? Probably not - not because I don't like it', I'd probably invest in a high-end reverb, or buy a Fender Twin.

The HG is totally idiot proof.One knob for the wet/dry mix, one slide switch for"spring,hall or flerb".This makes dialing in your fave verb a piece o cake.

I use this unit with a '62 strat,Blackfinger compressor,Uni-vibe,whatever OD/DIST feels good at the time and finally,the Holy Grail into a THD Bi-Valve with any of several open back 12" Jensens or a 15" JBL.The Bi-Valve offers a tonal rainbow and this set-up sounds superb!I got a quiet unit with none of the hiss that some HG's have.

This one worked perfectly for six months,then no sound whatsoever!The LED was on,but that's all.

I took my dead HG to the store I bought it from and they sent it to the E-H service dept..One month later I had my HG back,working perfectly.Now (about 5 months later),the unit is starting to die on me AGAIN!!

I have been playing GTR for 20-ish years and my style is "wanna-be jazzer" along with the three Kings,Jimi,Jeff Beck,SRV,JRV,and Robben Ford as stylistic guideposts.A WORKING Holy Grail is very a useful tool for me.I am blessed with lots of low wattage tube amps as well as a blackface Super Reverb and Concert.Silvertones,Valco's and my handwired,AB763 based 2-6V6,2-6L6 & KT66 amp built by yours truly.If my HG were stolen,the thief would experience INSTANT KARMA as it is a piece -o- crap.Electro-Harmonix should buy full page ads in the gtr mags apologizing to those of us that spent our hard earned money on inferior junk!

Easy to use.

Reverb was great. However way too much digital hissing when turned up.

Seems built well

The digital hissing made me crazy. Sounded like a cheap Zoom pedal.
That's a shame too because the verb really has great potential. But I can't put up with all the background noise. The spring reverb on my amp is far from the best but it doesn't add all the noise!
It was sealed and brand new when I got it one week ago, today it's going back.

very easy to use, only one knob and 3 settings

i'm using it with a telecaster copy and a vox amp. when effect is on there is a sort of hissing noise, but this is quite quiet. its hard to get the right tone with the knob as theres either to little effect or too much, so it can sound weak. the effect is good for producing really weird noise, especially with the flerb setting, but for normal guitar playing these can be a bit off the wall. i wanted a bluesy, fender tone, but it doesnt seem to make any really guitar tones!

very reliable, always works, solid as a rock

dunno

i've been playing for 6 years and i bought it cos my amp had no reverb and i liked the tone for recorings, but then i got a fender blues deluxe, which is so much more my style- real tone, not just for weird sounds. i would be sad if it was stolen, but only cos i want to sell it!

this pedal is a MUST HAVE for any amp without an on board reverb. it is the most musical and deep sounding digital reverb cum stomp box. very easy to use.

i use it either in the fx loop of my marshall 6101 lm 100w head like an onboard reverb or at the end of a chain starting with EHX Big muff, Micro synth, electric mistress, memory man and ending with the holy grail. friends and partners, it really sounds very very pristine and creativity enhancing and inspiring(am i getting carried away or what)

i do not depend on any fx. if they work fine if not, back to the shelf they go. but it seems less toublesome than my otherwise really vintage e hx fx, which require "servicing" every three years. it is also much less noisy than the old e hx stuff. so vintage is not always better in every aspect.

still new.dunno.

experimental guitar music. check out www.azharkamal.de.

3 selector switch, one knob. if you can't figure this out, i would like to know how you manage to tune your guitar.

wonderful, the Hall, gets a little crazy if you crank it up all the way, but right in the middle is perfect. FLERB! Oh how i love thee

This is why I am posting this, I have been through 4 Holy Grails now. in 3 years. They have this habit of dying so no real reason. I've even sent them back to EH to get repaired and they still break. They are made like lightbulbs, they just break a lot.
DO NOT BUY THIS PEDAL! I AM SO FURIOUS ABOUT THIS MATTER, I FEEL COMPELLED TO WARN PEOPLE.
I am going to try to Holier Grail with the hopes that it last longer, because we use the Flerb in one of our songs, and the reverb a lot. It sounds great, but sound means nothing if i can't rely on it. Especially when it died at a gig last weekend. NOT COOL EH!

They will fix your pedal for you, but you have to wait about 2 months for it. But you shouldn't have to deal with crap like that. I've own at least 7 Boss pedals over the 8 years I've been playing. Even a Boss GT-7, and NONE of them ever broke! NEVER!
Pedals should not break, unless you're are jerk and you stomp all over them!

Sound = good
Reliability = NONE

don't buy gear you can't trust. Because you need that gear to work at a show and at practice, and if it doesn't, don't get it. Would you buy are car that you knew was going to stop working for no reason? NO!

Very easy. It has one knob that is basically a mixer: till 12 o'clock clean sound prevails and before 12 effect rules. Has one key that selects the 3 kinds of reverb/effect.

I've read many complains about the "noise" it produces. I think that it is caused by:

1. Bad ac adaptors and/or chain switches. I use only the stock alone.

2. Radio or other interferences. I've tryed it in the store and it had no noise. At home I've had some light "shhhh" noise. It was certainly caused by radio stations or machines working near my house. At the studios where I rehearse and record I've had NO NOISE at all.

By this experience I concluded that the noise problem depends on where are you playing. It appears in places surrounded by radio, TV or celular microwaves and/or eletroeletronic machines.

The sound is great. Really Fender spring verb like. So analog like that I could hardly believe it's digital.

Has REAL BYPASS.

Effects:

1. Spring: is as it says. After 2 o'clock its muddy (as a spring verb) and effect prevails over clean sound.

2. Hall: like analog reverb (great). After 1 o'clock its muddy (as a spring verb) and effect prevails over clean sound.

3. Flerb: flanger+ analog verb, totally trippy and great for creating psychodelic and/or dark ambiences. Sounds like 60's Pink Floyd strangethings.

I use this box with a Epiphone SG-400 w/ P-90 pickups, a Yamaha OD-10, a Dunlop Cry Baby, a Danelectro Dan Echo.

Looks ok, medium reliability. Fragile than Boss tanks, harder than Danelectro plastics. Think it's good to have a backup on the stage.

Have good assistence here in Sao Paulo/Brazil. A quite rare thing 'round here where most foreighn companies sell lots but fix nothing.

The only thing I regret is the high price of the EH products in Brazil.

I bought it because my 70's tube amp has no reverb and I needed some verb to play my blues and R&R.

I play since the early 80's.

Yeah, if stolen I would need another one. Have never seen any verb like this but spring verbs.

I like the most the analog taste, the "real" springness and the psycho sounds of the HG.

plug it in and play-simple-turn the dial til u find a sound u like n play-fx are always this simpe but ppl always like to complicate stuff

ok i use this in two contexts really

1) my rig when i can be arsed shipping it round everywhere
peavey wolfgang->peavey 5150mk1[FX loop out-boss NS-2->holy grail loop in]

i have a custom footswitch which allows me to turn the FX loop and the channel change on at the same time-so i get rhythm->one switch-> lead+FX and the NS2 kills all te hiss off the lead and runs nice smooth tone into my holy grail-sounds sweet ass....no hiss or anything off the holy grail-mits always on in this case and sounds amazing to me-and i play metal.....so those surfer ppl tha say it aint for metal heads are wrong-problem being to compenstae for the pedal seemingly turning my signal into reverb to get the amout of reverb i like i have t have the lead a fair bitlouder than the rhythm with out the Holy Grail-so if i switched the HG off my lead would be hell louder but coz of the way it is when its on it sjust right boost level

2) cant be arsed luggin gear round...someones put on a show wit house gear (usually them p.o.s marshall MG100 stacks)then it goes
Peavey Wolfgang->Hughes and kettner tube factor->boss ns2->nobels preamp booster->HG-> amp i always stick the NS2 after OD t ensure i get the best signal runnin into the HG coz mine is pretty much noiseless anyways and in ths application i actually use the HG footswitch-switching seems effortless and noiseless.....prob is because of the turning of ur signal into reverb effec rather than adding it over i have to do a funny kinda full foot sideways effort to hit the nobels (whichi use as a fixed volume boost) and the HG otherwise the signal just dies really in the mix live-without a boost faciity this pedal realy sucks ass but ive found with the boost it works really well................dnot really one for caring about daisy chaning-my HK needs a supply all of its own anyways so i just use a 4/6 way extention-it doesnt make that much difference to me tbh, cant see why someone would mark it down coz they cant daisy chain it....

um spring is ace but it masks ur guitar really fookin badly-hall is way too much live (we play big venues and it makes no sense to use that muc verb) an flerb.....hahhahahaha turn it right up-get a wah and a violin bow or take the bar off ur geet and use that as a slide...leave ur amp on clean and see what u can do with that-i always play withit just aint had the balls to use it live yet......

id give it a 10 if it didnt kill your guitar sound and turn it into reverb and because of the general kinda fiddlin u have to do to get an ace sound live (i.e boost facility etc) it could e seen as too much hassle-but the spring verb is well worth it

i gig regularly and anything will go eventually so gigging without a backup is insane......as it happens i have a fender twin reverb also and so my backup for this pedal is actually a twin reverb with the HK preamp into it to give me the OD i like so much-and as the reverb is footswitchable and doesnt override ur sound (seems to boost it for solos for some reason live and i have it o verb 2.5-3 nowhere past 3 thats insane) its actually a much easier rig to work with-i just love my 5150

N/A

ok well i play metal and i always want a good powerful rhythm channel then a single switch and i want vol boost-uber gain boost and a nice chunk of verb on it-HG delivers quite nicely on the verb front-think kirk hammett at the beginning of fade to black on cunnng stunts stood on that bridge playin that first solo-THATS the sort of tone i like (but without the mesa uck....)and it delivers on that front-i couldnt stop playin the likes of fade to black and hot for teacher when i firs bought it and even malmsteen esque stuff sounds pretty awesome thru this in terms of verb-i still get up onstage during soundchecks and when i hit that magic button on my footswitch to get that solo channel and i play a solo i still cant believe that that kinda tone is coming from a little verb unit that cost me 60quid.....awesome

9 coz it hasnt broke yet and so im not sure of its reliability thus yet and i havent had to dea with customer services yet-so its a-it cant be that god sorta score

if it was lost or some little shit robbed it at a gig id def have to go out and buy another

I think this is still allowed. I didn't buy the pedal, I did spend hours with it, and others in the music store, and I went in intending to buy the HG. I just didn't walk out with it.

Ease of use: Dead easy. This was smart of them, they kept it simple. I actually wanted simple. I wanted as simple as built-in verb usually is on an amp. It is easy to get "the best sound this pedal can give" right out of the box. Verb is subjective, and this is only my opinion, but right off the bat (like MANY pedals) I liked the sound. I had done lots of research here and other places, and was prepared to go with this if it was OK. Seemed to be the best in review. Was aware of noise hissing issues with some units, so I wanted to try out the exact unit I was going to take home. For the record, THIS unit I tried was completely silent. NO noise added at all!

It is REALLY easy to dial in sound. Only thing, the actual "mix" knob...seeemed pretty unuseable anything over about 2 o'clock (which would be almost no dry and only verb)...it's always an issue though, if you have a range it has to be on the edge. I just wished they had made the range wider and kept it more in the useable area...with finer adjusting.

BAD THING: But understandable. They use a non-standard plug for DC power in. This thing draws like ~500mA (that's a LOT!!) so I am guessing they didn't want folks just adding it on a daisy chain with their little 200mA power supplies, so this was to stop them from frying they power sup. So they shouldn't be dinged for that, but it is an annoyance. Luckily (the sales guy didn't know this til I made an issue while asking about price, etc.) the power supply is included.

I tried this out for some time in a music store. I borrowed a Strat and a Fender Hot Rod DeVille to use. Also I was using this (and all verbs I tested) in the effects-loop since this is where I was intending to use whichever pedal I ended up with) Four or five times while trying out the pedal I did something (sharp attack low, high, ringing chord, etc.) closed my eyes and listened, then turned off the pedal and turned on the built-in reverb on the amp. It isn't that I thought the DeVilles reverb was the best (I don't...really) but it was a real reverb. Then quickly turned off and tried again. I did this, but also simply played a range of styles on the HG without jumping back and forth. Some pedals, and definitely reverb when it is "right", make me jam with myself...I mean I can get a real mood going, and it sort of leads me to a style of playing. Hard to describe, but it's the same with all the "natural" effects like reverb, tremolo.

At the very first, I liked the sound. This is common for us guitarists...we like ANYTHING different right away. We also are a hopeful bunch, so we tend to WANT to like it, see what we can do with THIS sound and try it out. That's why you have to play with a pedal for at least an hour before even deciding if you like it, and have to always consider if the effect will cut through and sound as good with the band or in a mix, or if the utlra-cool effect will wash out with any other instrument near it.

Here's the thing. After only a short time, the reverb tail was starting to get on my nerves. It is WAY too long for me and my style (blues, R&B, rock). The worst thing with it is, as it took forever to decay out, it sounded more and more artificial. In the end sounding a little delay-ey. I STILL would have bought this pedal if EH had included either a knob for cutting the tail short, or even a "long/short" rocker switch for picking between the default or a much shorter one. They kept it TOO simple.

This might have not mattered in a band situation. I couldn't test that. But I did know that it wasn't doing it for me. I went back up to the desk, and asked the guy for any other recommendations for reverb that was NOT a Boss rv-"anything but 2"...

He handed me an EBS Dynaverb. I knew of it, having read reviews here. I wasn't sure this was for me, but thought "why not try it?".

Stopping here, I gotta say, I've been playing since the 70's. I have always had reverb built-in on my amps, and never gave it much thought. Some were better than others, but they all were spring reverbs, and sounded okay. Just now bought a Prosonic head, no reverb. Since reverb has always been a kind of taken-for-granted thing with me, I just figured "reverb is easy...I'll just buy a pedal".

Then I started researching here and on forums. Found that verb is actually HARD to please folks with. Maybe when you get it with the amp you just accept, but when you are going to BUY it you get all critical. I don't know, but I do know there was no clear "best".
Many liked the HG, but complained of noise on some units...and some mentioned the tail...though I really wasn't looking for that problem, I figured out pretty fast it was just unuseable for me.

Anyway, I tried the EBS Dynaverb, and it was BEAUTIFUL. It was, in my opinion, WAY better than the Fenders' built.in verb. It also is super-simple to get a good sound out of, I haven't gotten a bad one out of it yet as a matter of fact. The tails can be adjusted by adjusting the room type and verb type (9 different adjsutable verbs in one small package) and the mix worked great and it has a TONE control too!

This thing made me want to play...and I didn't think it sounded artificial at all. I got the EBS home, and it sounded fantastic. Played all yesterday with it as a matter of fact.

In the end, I just did not like the HG. Again, it is possible it would sound better in a mix, but even intros and such alone, it just...the only way around was to mix it so down in the mix it was like not having verb.

Gotta go low on this one.

No idea. Seemed solid enough, thought that doesn't mean anything.
For the record, the EBS was heavy and screamed workmanship to me.

Play blues, r&b, rock...Hendrix, SRV, BB King, T-bone Walker, Freddie King, Clapton, etc.

Been playing since the 70's (and boy are my arms tired),
didn't buy the unit. If you are thinking about this one, do yourself a favor and try the EBS alongside it.

Very easy to get a good sound, as this pedal is simplicity itself. It only has one big knob to adjust the dry/wet mix and a 3 position switch to select from spring, hall and flerb. The manual is OK, nothing special. AFAIK, this unit has been upgraded some time ago, by the addition of an expensive true bypass switch, in order to preserve your tonal integrity when off.

My setup is the following: Ibanez RG 470 L with a Duncan TB-6 in the bridge position > Shure UT-14 The Guitarist wireless system > Keeley Mod Plus TS-9 > Tech 21 NYC Sans Amp TRI-A.C. > Holy Grail > Fulltone Fat-Boost > Ernie Ball VPJR 6181 (with a Boss TU-12 H slaved out) > Tech 21 NYC Power Engine 60. All pedals are velcroed on a Rockcase pedalboard and, except the Holy Grail, are powered by a Cioks Baby power supply.
As stated below, the Holy Grail has a noise problem: it can only work quiet if powered by a dedicated power supply (not necessarily the EHX that comes along with it). If you try to power it from a power supply, together with other pedals, prepare yourself for the hiss/whine city. It might be a design flaw, but, other than creating the discomfort of needing a dedicate PS, I don't see this as a real problem. I think the low ratings given by other reviewers below for noise issues are not deserved. They simply didn't power up the pedal as recommended by EHX, they tried to power it daisy chained, noticed the noise issue and looked no further.

The spring setting is just perfect. It doesn't sound metallic or sterile, as in other reverb pedals. It's very much like a real tank reverb. Very natural feeling. Before 12 o'clock, the clean tone is just slightly blended with the effect, so that you can keep the pedal on all the time. I have it set at 12 o'clock and it doesn't muddy my sound. Beyond 12 o'clock, the blend increases dramatically.

The hall setting is lush, spacious and natural, again. Some people might complain a decay time set too long here, but EHX pedals are made so that you know they're on :-). It's a matter of taste. The blend is, however, subtle only until 9-10 o'clock in this setting, after that it increases dramatically, again.

Finally, the flerb setting is...intersting, but I don't see a lot of use for it. It's a sort of a mix between spring and flanger.

If there is one thing I don't like it's the fact that all three setting have the sweet spot in different positions (spring at 12 o'clock, hall at 10 o'clock and flerb at 1 o'clock), so if I want to change the mode mid song (by an acrobatic foot action), I am forced to adjust the blend knob too, which is, definitely, too much of a hassle.

The unit seems to be dependable, although I read a lot of horror storries (switches crapping out, etc.) It's, definitely, no "bullet proof" boutique construction, the aluminium enclosure feels kinda tiny, but I baby my gear and I can't give a low rating here only for the issues I am yet to meet, nor for what other people went through.

I sent EHX a couple of e-mails, they responded quick and were helpful enough. I don't want to find anything more :-)

I play rock, since 1996, ranging from indie stuff to heavy metal. I was playing 100% dry and felt the need for something to add just a bit of ambience. I was torn between the Digiverb and the Holy Grail, but I value simplicity over versatility, so I went with this one. Glad I did. If there's something I wish it had, it is a decay time knob and a stereo output (or, at least, a dual, wet-dry output). But I'm happy with the way it is.

Very easy to use. Single switch to switch between Spring reverb, Hall reverb, and the very cool "Flerb" reverb. Single knob to turn the level of the selected reverb. Very easy to use, just step on the button and it turns on, step on it again and it turns off. Simple stuff.

My setup is pretty simple. Ibanez GRX with DiMarzio p/u's >Holy Grail Reverb>Dunlop CryBaby Wah>Line 6 Spider II. The Line 6 amp gives me a really crisp clean tone, and compounded with the fluid reverb pedal it gives it an amazing texture. The reverb sounds pretty strong if turned up high, but can be a light reverb with the knob turned lower. I've heard that this pedal has a problem with noise, but I have not experienced this on my amp or a Marshall amp I tried at Guitar Center. For a great example of the "Flerb" effect listen to the intro to the song "Reality" by Staind. Mike Mushok uses the pedal throughout the song, and it sounds really cool.

I would definitely depend on it. I would use it without a backup in a heartbeat

Not sure, haven't had to get ahold of customer support yet.

I play everything from progressive rock like Rush and Dream Theater to hardcore bands like Lamb of God and Trivium. I'll play whatever I like to hear. I've been playing for 2 and half years. I have a Line 6 Spider II 30w combo, Crybaby wah, and an Ibanez GRX (with Air Norton and D-Sonic pickups). If it were lost I would most definitely buy a new one in a heartbeat. I tried the other reverb pedals but none sounded as smooth and rich as this one.

very easy as there's just one knob to use.. but it would be useful to have another knob to adjust the decay time and flerb rate.

fender american strat with bridge emg pickup->engl tube toner preamp (with mxr 6 band eq in the fx loop)->ehx holy grail->fender pro junior amp. In my setup there's absolutely no noise coming from from this pedal. Always use it in the effects loop or with a clean amp setting, it might be noisy and it will definitely sound bad if used before distortion. The reverb trail is very realistic, but just a bit long to my taste, and there's no way to adjust it. It would be perfect if there were a room setting or decay time knob. Flerb setting sounds good but would be much more useable if there were a rate knob.. Anyway, the Holy Grail reverb is better than any reverb pedal or rack Boss has made.

I play all kinds of rock, indie and fusion. Play for 15 years. I would buy it again. I really like the sound quality and noiseless operation. My Pro junior doesn't have built-in reverb and I think this pedal sounds better than many amps' built-in reverbs, my former amp had a reverb but it always hissed and was unusable to me. I really think this is a pro quality pedal sound-wise, forget the weak boss reverb pedals, I had a Boss GX-700 rack and it had a much more artificial and weaker reverb when compared to the holy grail.

As everyone here has said, it doesnt get much easier. Just remember, less is more! (dont crank the knob all the way) The milder settings sound the best, especially at volume.

I havent owned an Electro-Harmonics pedal since the seventies...
Funny thing...I got a chance to see Albert Cummings a few weeks ago,and was blown away! (for those who have seen or heard this guy, I immagine like me, you're still picking your jaws off the ground!) I was sitting less than 3 feet from his pedal board, and got a good look at it. Very simple! Boss TU-2, Klon Centaur, HOLY GRAIL, Boss digital delay,TS-808,vox wah, straight into a Fender Vibro King. He was basically only using the KLON,the HOLY GRAIL,the TS-808 (for boost), and the wah. The Holy Grail was on all the time!
I have since put the same chain together, and have the same sound comming from my strat! (too bad I'll never play like this guy).
I asked him if the Holy Grail was important to his sound, or just an add-on, and He was very adament about it being essential! Hey, good enough for me.

Cant say as yet, havent had it long enough, but even all the rankers here seem to agree that the company is responsive concerning problems.
If you havent heard this guy yet, dont worrie, YOU WILL SOON! (I'm sure!) www.albertcummings.com (think: Stevie Ray meets Billy Gibbons meets Pat Travers meets Johnnie Winter!

see above

Put this chain through a Fender "65" Super, and both of my Marshall "59 SLP plexis (one with loop, one without)
Sounds great, minimal noise....but as stated earlier,use the lower settings.

Very easy. Three setttings and one knob to dial in the sound you want.

Totally Unusable.
When I brought the pedal back after playing it for a few hours, the effects salesguys all sounded like they had never heard about the noise problem mentioned by most people here.

I bought the pedal against my better judgement only because I had heard there were all kinds of revisions to the pedal making the noise issue a non-issue. SO I thought I would take a chance.

I ran the pedal direct from a fender strat into a reissue 59 bassman.

With the volume on the bright channel at 3, and the pedal setting at about 3 oclock, you could already hear the hiss/noice. Turning the amp up a bit to more realistic volume club settings, the pedal hissed like nothing I have ever heard.

I played it for about an hour and then returned it.

It is too bad becasue the sound at *extremely* low volumes was very nice.

See above.
I would never use this pedal and I think it's a joke that it is still being sold. Maybe there are the lucky ones that get a pedal that doesn't hiss, but count me in the long line of those that didn't. As a result, I probably won't rush out to try anything else made by EH.

I have been playing for so many years now that I have lost count. I have played with a wide variety of pedals as well and I have never heard the hissing (even my old boss rv2 never hissed as bad as this baby).

Nevr dealt with them. Returned the pedal to the store and got a store credit for the Digitech Digiverb.

I could hear some really nice sounds of reverb trying to come through all the hiss. Too bad. I would loved to have kept it.

If someone stole it I would be laughing my arse off.

Very simple to use

I thought the quality of the reverbs was very good for the price paid...however, I found this unit to be far too noisy when engaged and returned it. Great reverb destroyed by surprisingly loud hiss. Too bad.

Can't say...didn't keep it. I'd imagine it would last a while if properly cared for. Based on just the feel of it, I'd say you would have to baby it far more than, say, a Boss pedal.

Did not deal with them. I can say that Musician's Friend made it easy to return. What can I say...I live in a city without an E/H dealer.

My amp does not have reverb and I planned to just leave it in the efx loop to add some space to my sound. It added some space and too much noise. I was using properly shielded cables but this just sounded like hiss. Perhaps I had a bad unit. I think I'll try Boss or (more likely) do without reverb.

Incredibly easy to use, with spring, hall and flerb switch, and then a large knob to turn and dial in the amount of reverb.

The hall reverb is gorgeous and I use that most. Spring reverb adds a little extra twang to what I can already get on my amp. Flerb is great if you used sparingly - I like to combine it with tremolo for a lovely washing sound. On the whole the sound that comes out of this unit if glorious, warm and full.
BUT it can be a little noisy. Once you've played through it for a while it's not so bad, but there's noticeable hiss when the effect kicks in.

Only had it for a month or so, but it's built well so I can't foresee any problems.

I play atmospheric instrumental music, and this pedal has been a godsend. It's lush. Highly recommended.

One knob, a reverb type selector switch, on/off switch!

Setup: Fender Roadhouse > CryBaby > DS1 > DS2 > Vol Pedal > CE5 > DD5 > Holy Grail > Fender De Ville

It's pretty quiet and works very well with my DD5 and CE5. It help fills in the gaps in-between the delays. After using them together, I'll feel the signal is pretty dry the moment I turn off the Reverb. I'll not seperate them from now. I feel the sound produced is transparent and clean, great! But I wouldn't say it's super lush and warm, but neither thin as air as some reverb unit produces. I've heard good reports on the holiest grail that's really lush. I guess for that price, it had better be! But for what I paid, I'm very satisfied with what it gives.

I noticed when the knob is turn up beyond 2 O'clock, the overall volume drops quite a bit. Most probably due to extreme phase cancellation between the wet and dry...

Just got it today, so I wouldn't know

One knob for wet-dry mix - easy.

Very good spring simulation though it goes from too little to too much very easily. Nice spacious hall which can get pretty large feeling. If you like natural hall and spring sounds and are not too fussy then for the money it simply can't be beaten but if you're after a specific tone it may not give you what you want. Personally, despite liking it a lot I find that it just doesn't give me the edge I want for aggressive solos.

Okay here's the final word... The newer pedals are superbly built and without any problems. They use an expensive 3 way stomp-switch which gives a rgenuine hard/true bypass. Absolutely nothing in the signal path bar wires and jacks.

HOWEVER... There was a period in manufacturing not so long ago when Electroharmonix used an unreliable components manufacturer (though they don't like to admit it) and these dodgy pedals are now out there and changing hands frequently. Some are still even as yet unsold on shelves here and there!

Unfortunately there is no external cosmetic difference between the old and new ones so the best thing to do is buy one new from a high volume retailer I'm afraid!

Finally, the PSU/adapter is in fact not critical at all. The unit has it's own internal regulator which is happy with a wide range of voltages. The reason for Electroharmonix insistence on their own brand PSU is because this thing generates digital noise on the supply line so if it shares a PSU with an analog pedal you'll get awful interference, pops, clicks and whines!

In short. new = 9/10. Old = 1/10.

Depends who you speak to. Mostly pretty useless. Occasionally well informed and helpful.

Great unit for the straightforward player wanting quality natural sounds in a compact unit at a bargain price providing you go for a new one.

Simplicity may not satisfy all players though and secondhand units are sadly a bit of a gamble.

Oh and the flerb... a flanger without rate control is unlikely to be of much use to anyone and it's not extreme enough to be crazy fun.

Why trust my opinion? I have a BSc in Audio Technology, have been playing guitar professionally for 15 years, released two CD's and have worked as Engineer, Technician and all sorts of other boring music jobs for the last decade. Oh and I play only bloggy sportastic moggle guitars through frump-biscuit amplifiers using a precision 9.1045 volt 312mA PSU for maximum thrang. Not.

One knob, no explaination needed. very easy

I bought this to use with my new orange rocker 30. didn't come with any onboard reverb. I was going to buy a nice reverb tank like the soldano or a fender but instead I decided to try this because it was so much cheaper. I'm glad I did. This thing sounds lush. The great tone on the orange became inspiring. It sounds better than the reverb on my mesa rectoverb by far. this is at the end of my chain going into the front of the amp. no loop on the rocker 30. I only use the amps own distortion. going into the front of the amp still sounds killer. my setup is as follows. SG standard> boss tu-2>boss ce-2>boss bf-3>boss dd-6> using both outputs on delay, one goes right to my rectoverb the other goes into the grail then into the front of the orange. I put all my effects into the front end of the mesa too. The loop on the rectoverb sucks. but still an awesome amp. no noise at all. i hear nothing except the sweet reverb. I do power all pedals with a voodoo lab pedal power which is plugged into a furman power conditioner with the amps and everything is linked with monster cables. I find a lot of people blame pedals for noise when it's really their fault for using shitty connectors and power options.

I've only had it for a weak now, but no problems yet. I have had several other EH pedals and have never had any problems with them ever.

no idea. never needed them.

I like playing everything from nice blues to very hard agressive metal. as far as tones go I like a nice glassy clean that almost blooms and lot's of crunch. i would definitely buy this again if it were lost or stolen. as far as the other reviews on reliability, sucks to be them. I seem to get lucky with my EH pedals they have all been awesome. Keep in mind with EH if subtle effects are what you want go elsewhere. When these are on you know it. That's why i love them.

its one of the easiest pedals out there - even if you're not an effects-head

Here's where I get a dilemma.

It sounds pretty good at the store, even at semi loud levels. And it sounds OK if you run alot of gain at home or even at a loud practice/jam/gig volume. BUT if you play as naturally as possible with a guitar>pedal>tube amp setup and use a more classic setting like pure tube amp breakup for that lovable, responsive overdrive - you will notice tone loss. Enough to really make a difference. Like I said, dont worry if you play with insane amounts of distortion or play at lower volumes, it seems to sound pretty smooth in those situations. But you can really notice some unpleasant side-effects when running loud using nice thick tube breakup. It just sucks a little magic out of your rig and I cannot accept that, not when I rely on subtle nuances and classy sounds

The first one I got started working funny as soon as I got it home. It would work, then not work.....all the while the light would stay on (YIPPEEEE!!!)

So I took it back and the guitar store let me trade it in on another.

Got the 2nd one home and it worked long enough to let me get my impression of it (read above) but after a week I started getting the same problems. I dont know if the whole bunch of them are prone to this madness, or just the 2 I had but I dont care anymore.

I decided to try the digiverb when I took the 2nd one back and not only does it feel and work solidly as it should, but Ive found none of those problems I did with the Holy Grail. Even at higher volumes it sounds great. It can sound just as authentic as the HG if set correctly and Im sure it will outlive the HG.

Im giving this pedal a 6 based on how I feel about it. I would probably give it a 7 overall if it worked all the time. Theres nothing worse than getting a pedal that sounds pretty decent only to find out in real jamming situations it reacts differently or alters the tone. It would be cool if they could get it to only add reverb and not take anything away from your sound - but even then there is a better reverb pedal on the market (Digitech Digiverb) but I just did'nt give the digiverb any time at the store because I was caught up in this Holy Grail fuss. Yes it did sound OK while it worked at lower volumes but because of the sound at high volumes and the reliability problems please make sure you get a good one, give it hell at the store - just dont say I didnt warn you about what it does in real gig/playing situations

The holy grail pedal is a no-brainer for use. The brief description in the accompanying leaflet is all to get the pedal working.With only 3 settings and a rotery knob for intensity, the dimmest of axe-weilding neanderthals will be re-inventing their peter green routes in no time.

Im using two gordon smith humbucking-equiped guitars, a 50th anniversary strat and a prs custom 22-brazilian.There is a minimum of noise when switched on-nothing to upset yourself with at jam/gig levels.Im using the pedal with a vox wah only in front of a peavey bandit{latest type} and a boogie 22 plus with boogie 1x12 extenstion cab.When played in the spring reverb mode, its instant classic 60s vibe that out-guns your fender valve unit...true. Try it with a good strat. its transparent and warm as hell on a saturday night!With humbucking guitars, the black magic woman vibe smacks you around the chops and pulls you to and fro. inspiring stuff! Beware though. The effect is signal activated-switch to the dirty channel of your amp and the reverb can sound too much. I dont like the flerb setting...perhaps a room setting would have suited us most.Overall, buy one and thank E.H for giving us a true-sounding lush fx to get all excited over when you gig. its that fine.

Sure I CAN DEPEND ON IT. THE JACKS STAY IN, ITS BUILT LIKE A BRICK AND DELIVERS OODLES OF WHAT I WANT.

Never needed to contact them.Got a feeling i never will.

Im into santana, peter green and any blues at all.
Ive been flogging the dead horse that is guitar playing for thirty years.im inspired again because of the grail.if stolen, id take a contract out on them...or just go to my nearest retailer and surely buy another.
BUY IT.
Regards,
Jeff Levy

Very Easy to use one knob and one swithch to select spring, hall, or flerb.

Excellent sound quality. Simply superb. I wrote an earlier review where I complained about the hissing in the background but i have concluded that my unit is defective because many players say that thiers are silent. But the reverb is sooooo good through this thing that I am going to replace mine with another silent one. The reverb is great so If I can find a silent one I'll give EH a 9 on tyhis because I never give 10's. NOT YET ANYWAY!! For now just an 8 --- stay tuned...

The spring reverb is a good convincing spring reverb, The Hall is my favorite very lush and transparent, The Flerb is useless as far as i'm concerned.

It always works no problems yet..

This reverb is so good that I am writing a favorable review even though my unit is hissing a little bit. That should tell you something about the quality of Reverb itself. So before you buy one check it out first for noise. If it's quite then belive me you have a keeper.

I've been playing for over 25 years and play several nice guitars through fender tube amps (deville, twin, and blues junior). I run it through the FX loop of my Fenders. Other FX -- Boss Giga Delay, Boss CE5 chorus, Boss DD6 Delay, VOX Wah. Various distortion boxes--I keep it simple --- great tone --- great player --- tastefully and purposfully used FX.

Extreamly easy to use! Choose a reverb setting and turn a dial! I like simple so I give it a 10..

Here's where I could not belive my ears! I plugged this into a BF Deluxe Reverb and tuned the amps reverb down all the way and kicked on the Holy Grail, set at spring revber and the dial at about noon. It was great! Then I switched the Holy Grail off and turned the Deluxe Reverbs, reverb to about 3. I honestly couldn't tell the difference. The room reverb on the Holy Grail is great too! The Flerb (Flange / Reverb) is cool to play around with but I really won't use it during any shows.

I will use this Holy Grail all the time as I am playing smaller venues as I get older. I play nothing but strats through a 1956 Tweed Deluxe amp! We are a power blues / rock trio so I needed some verb to fill things out..

By the way, I also tried out the Holier Grail and it was NOT worth another $100.. Don't get ne wrong, it was great but not worth $100 more than the Holy Grail!

All this EH stuff is built like a S_it Brick House!

?? Never called EH

Since I A-B'ed this against a Real Tube Driven Spring Reverb unit and I really couldn't tell the difference, I bought it right then and there! I have used many amps with killer reverb on board, this thing is the real deal.. I have been playing as a pro for 25 years. I am also analog freak, I always refused to use the digital stuff, but now I am.. The holy Grail sounds awsome! The price is right too!

Super easy to use. One big fat knob, a nice 3 position slide switch, and a stomp button. Dial in the amount of reverb or "hall" effect and you're good to go. The "Flerb" setting is unique, but kind of wasted.

I use it with my Peavey Audition 20 after a Dunlop Cry Baby and it sounds fine. I have read the negatives but have experienced NONE of the problems of hiss, whine, etc. I like others, leave it on ALL the time. Set it and forget it most of the time occasionally dialing in a bit more when I want it. My guitars are a jumble of inexpensive models: a 1980's D'Agostino Strat I totally rewired and added some EMG's; a Jay Turser JT133;a Chinese "Rockster" I disassembled, rewired and stuck 2 EMG's and a Mighty Mite single coil with 5-way super switch, and a soon to be completed "Tele" clone with a double rail humbucker at the bridge, 5-way super switch and Mighty Mite at the neck.

Since it's on all the time I can't vouch for the stomp button, but I've had it for some time and zero problems. It stays on for days at a time since I forget to unplug it and/or shut it off and it works just fine.

Never had to use customer support, don't know.

I just love playing. Jazz, blues, rock, country, slide, whatever. I bought the Holy Grail to add to my small Peavey without reverb on board and I'm totally satisfied with it. I leave it on many times and forget it and it's never had a problem. Electro Harmonix seems to be a pretty good outfit from my own and others experiences.
I'd recommend it highly.

Pretty easy....one big knob and 3 settings. It was easy to get a sound out of it. what I love is that i can adjust the knob with my feet during songs and the switch as well, that's just easy and cool.

I put this at the end of an effect loop through a Fender deville. I was hissing like crazy. I tried this in my apartment (that doesn't get very good grounding) and the deville is tricky sometimes with the fx loop. I decided to put the pedal at the end of my other pedals from the guitar to amp. That stopped the problem. The spring is nice but i find that I have to turn it to 11-12 clock before I notice it bouncing a bit. The hall you can hear at 9-10 clock easy. The flerb...yeeeaaa....i think they should have given another option because flerb is kinda cheesy and I donn't hear it till I have the knob at 12 clock.

I seems well made, the instructions say only to use its adapter, that came with it. I wonder if it would short out or something if i tried something else. I doesn't take batteries, i think. I hear bad things about electro-h when it comes to reliability. I mailed the warranty in but i hope i don't have to use it.

haven't dealt with.

I play in a jazz combo. We play latin, swing, spacey jams, funk, and groove. The pedal's simplicity is great and it the selling point along with it's decent tone. I've been playing 6 1/2 years. My pedals are: Ernie Ball Jr Volume Pedal, Boss CS-3 compressor, Cry Baby whah, TS-7 ibanez tube screamer, Sans Amp GT2, Electro-Harmonix Small Stone (Russian), H2O Liquid Chorus and Echo by Visual Sound. If it were stolen Id probably get another one. I compared it to the rv-5 by boss and it came down to siplicity, uniqueness, and cost. The rv-5 cost $140 usually.

Very.

I have an Ampeg VL-502 head, which I love, but its built-in reverb tank just doesn't cut it. Hard to explain, but I just don't like it.

Enter the Holy Grail. In the effects loop. On all the time. I don't get any hiss or extra noise AT ALL. It's completely SILENT, except for the yummy reverb.

The 'Flerb' is basically useless unless you're playing in a key that suits the flange tone, but who cares about that. You're buying it for reverb, right? The reverbs sound great!

The knob is very easy to turn, feels solid, very intuitive. You can go from dry to huge rooms sounds no sweat. You could easily use this as a foot pedal for interesting reverb and echo effects, but I don't. I just turn it on and pretend it came with the amp in the first place.

I don't stomp on it. It feels pretty solid to me and has worked every time for 6+ months now.

I would definitely gig without a backup. I don't expect any trouble with this one.

Haven't dealt with them. Again, I'm not too worried about this one. I've been pretty gentle with it.

I would go into musical styles, etc., but I don't think it matters. It's reverb. If you like reverb, you will probably like this pedal. Just give it a listen before you buy it.

Piece o' cake

Very nice!

Unbelievable crap. Mine didn't work 25% of the time I powered it up; unplugging the power connector and then plugging it back in always solved the problem, but... Then one night, maybe a year and a half after I bought it, it suffered a massive stroke and died. Red power light on, no reverb, no nothing, just as it was for alllllllllll those people who reviewed this pedal before me. Understand, not only did I not abuse this thing, I babied it; I left in plugged in, in one spot, almost always turned on, halfway up, hall reverb only, never left the house once in the time I owned it, smoke-free, dampness-free, dust-free, one hour a day on average, never gigged, teamed up with quality gear... I bet I pushed the on-off switch all of 100 times over its lifespan! And despite that care, it just rolled over and died. Bad luck? Hardly; look at the other reviews below... One after another after another! What a fucking piece of crap. Result of my experience? I will never buy another E-H product again, and I will sell my E-H Deluxe Electric Mistress before it similarly self-euthanizes, as it doubtlessly will, probably sooner rather than later.

Who cares? The product is such utter garbage I personally could care less whether the support folk wish me a pleasant day and a fine life or not.

If it were stolen, I would chuckle a bit, admire the cosmos' sublime sense or irony and humor, and somehow get on with my life. If these things were $10 I'd probably buy several replacements (figuring none of them would last very long) for the dearly departed. They're not, though, they're $100. Too bad, they sound quite good... but not for long! They should put expiration dates on these things.

It's about as easy as you can get.A selector switch,one knob and stomp switch.That's it.

I use Sovtek MIG-50s,a combination of strats and 3 different dist. pedals plus chorus,digital and analog delays.I love the reverb effect that this produces but as noted in earlier comments it has kind of a jet engine compressor section whine.I found that it is kind of tolerable if you keep the knob at about 9 or 10 o'clock.It makes this noise even when "stomp" switched off.Very strange indeed.If this is a true bypass pedal then i would think that you have some D.C. voltage leak at the input/output jacks causing this noise..And i question the hanging in thin air pc board mounting.It doesn't look very sturdy to me.Make sure you have a power adaptor of 300 milliamps minimum or this will sound very weak.

Don't know, just got it.

don't know,i'll find out when and if it breaks.

I play blues based rock with an overtone of fusion.I've played now for thirty or so years.If it were stolen i would buy something else.I do like the effect but the B-52 whine makes me question my purchase.

Can't get any simpler. No manual Doesn't need it.

I played on one of these twice at local shops before i got one. All the stores in my area were charging too much for them but I found a great deal on one and I got it. I love it. It sounds so pretty to my ears. I use it with an Sg into a Whammy pedal, Crybaby wah, TS-9, DS-1, Big Muff, BF-2, DD-3, Small Stone, and a Small clone. Amp wise I'm using a Single Rectifier. This pedal along with the DD-3 are in my effects loop. It really sounds great with all of my pedals. I have heard complaints about a hissing noise but I haven't experienced any noise.

The box is solid. Hopefully all the wiring inside is too!

Never dealt with them

I play a lot of hard rock/alternative, some jazz, and classical. I really needed a reverb since my rectifier didn't have it. It sounds beautiful to me especially the hall setting. I have been playing for about 6 years. I'm a music major in college and study classical guitar in school. This is a great pedal in my opinion. I would be really upset if it was stolen or something went wrong with it.

Couldn't be easier. Selector switch for type of verb. Knob to dial it in. Footswitch to turn it off. That switch is the most important part of the unit. You will definitely want to turn it OFF!!!

This pedal has a lovely background hiss. As an added bonus, it also has a high pitched whine. I have never heard such a noisy DIGITAL effect in my life. Worthless junk. Off to eBay with it!

Don't know and don't care. It is unusable.

Emailed customer support from their web site. Never heard anything from them.

GARBAGE, JUNK, RUBBISH, CRAP [insert more synonyms here]!

Couldn't be more simple!!! A Mode selector for spring, hall or flerb, one knob for the amount of reverb and a footswitch to turn it on/off. Choose your prefered mode and dial in the amount of reverb that you want and away you go!!!

Absolutely the most important thing when using this unit is to place it last in your signal chain after every other stomper...Or, use it in your effects loop if you use your amps own overdrive. It MUST be placed after your drive source.

I leave this unit back at the amp and it is left constantly on, so it causes no hassles at all. Just set it up and forget about it. Perfect!!!

I use this unit with my Vox AC30TB and it sounds amazing. There is no reverb on the amp at all and there is no effects loop. I set this unit up on top of the amp, so it is the last thing in line before the signal reaches the amp. My pedalboard contains the rest of my effects including my different levels of overdrive.

This unit brings even more life to the jangly sound of my '72 Thinline Telecaster and Vox AC30 combination, and sounds anything but fake and digital. I use the hall setting at 9 o'clock and that is perfect to give me enough reverb to bring the whole setup to life on both clean and driven sounds. Sound is amazing!!!

The other guitar player in my band plays a lovely fender valve amp and we both agree that the reverb is no better on his amp than on mine, with the grail. Very natural. Dont do the dog with the amount of reverb and it sounds great.

I have had no problems with interferance or background noise at all. Use all good quality equipment and you should be okay...or maybe im just really lucky...either way, its not a problem for me.

Personally, i have had absolutely no problems with the Holy Grail. I look after my equipment and keep them cased or boxed as required.
I leave it turned on constantly through rehersals and gigs, so the switch gets very little use and is only ever turned on by hand, as i leave the unit on top of my amp and not on the floor.

Admittedly, the unit is my most flimsy in terms of construction. The power chord is pretty pathetic, thin and weak looking. The unit itself is cased in very thin sheet metal, but with the slightest amount of care the whole package should last a very long time.
EHX pedals have always been made like this and i have seen some very old EHX pedals knocking around so they can last alright.

I had a Big Muff before and had no problems with it either, until i realised that i never really liked the sound of it anyway and got rid of it...fuzzy bastard of a thing!!!

Never needed....touch wood!!!

For me, this unit is great...it brings my whole setup to life with a very natural touch of Hall reverb. Other reverb pedals that i've heard sound radiculous, but this does the real fender reverb very well....perfectly in fact!!!
I wouldnt consider using any other verb unit as i know now that this one can deliver and doesnt leave me wishing it did anything better. Reverb is such a subtle effect, when used properly, that some people may not bother buying a unit at all, but it does add to the overall sound of your already killer setup.

For vintage, reverbless amps...this is the unit to have!!!

Actually, just thinking back, my girlfriend bought me this pedal for my birthday...jesus, what a girl...now thats marriage material. How the f*ck did she know i needed reverb??? Was she sitting at a gig one night and thinking to herself..."Yeah, what he needs now is a touch of nice natural reverb"??? I think not!!! Maybe i was talking in my sleep or something.

1 knob - goes around. 1 footswitch - stand on it. 1 slider switches - changes things.
Can't be that hard??
Even Noel Gallagher could use it. Piece of p**s :-)

This pedal is without doubt the best reverb pedal I've ever played. I sold my Boss to buy this. GOOD MOVE! The tones available are stunning and easy to find :)
I've been using this with a Rat II and a Gibson SG standard. It sounds stunning. If you play surf guitar but can't stretch the wallet to a Fender Twin this will more than fill it's shoes.

The only use I can find for the Flerb is white noise... think Sonic Youth, Mogwai. Kind of a flange/reverb except it sounds rubbish :( Still it's great fun!! You'll get lots of funny looks from your band members if ya use it.

I would give this a 10 but the volume drops as you crank the reverb knob. Swtiching is very silent. Mines permantly ON so that ain't a problem :)

No problems at all. Mines secondhand too.
Power supply looks like it could be a problem in the future. Poor 3.5mm jack, it don't take batteries so could be a pain to replace. If your gonna get one I'd recommend mounting it on a pedal board with cable ties. I'll have to be careful! I always break PSUs

?? in the UK. No support

It's amazing the amount of usable tones from one knob is stunning. I got this at a great price. I bought it to re-sell on EBay to make some ###. I thought I'd give it a try before I cashed it in... NO CHANCE!!!! I tried it once and it's been on my board ever since.
My advice get one and turn it on, leave it on!
I play blues, surf, punk, rock, and some metal I can find tones for most of these styles (except metal, got a big muff for that!)
I've been through a loud of other reverb pedals, this beats them all.
Although this only has one knob for reverb level. You don't really miss the other knobs tone level ect. It's too good. You have to try it to know what I mean! GET ONE
IS THERE A BETTER REVERB? Haven't tried the Holier Grail yet...

Then holy grail is as easy to use as any other pedal if your read a little and experiment a little more. Thats why companies spend money on owners manuals.

The spring and hall settings are really good effects mixed with the right music. You can't expect to use this pedal if you are playing death metal or any high gain music. Find something else. I play alternative slower rock with some blues influence and it sounds great. Through a marshall avt150 head. The reverb produced is definitly different but always pleases. Metal head this ain't for you.

It is dependable and I do use it on gigs but only for certain songs. Don't ever base all your music solely one one pedal. Have some variety.

I've never dealt with this company.

This pedal fits great with any type of music except for metal and high gain music. Too much noise comes through when you play it through all that noise.

Easy enough to use...but that's not why I'm writing this review.

Sound quality?....you're kidding me, right? Noise like you couldn't believe and a real high pitch whine in the background. Through a power conditioner, plugged straight...where ever and whenever this crap pile is plugged in, it sucks. And the flerb setting? WTF is that? BUT WE'RE STILL NOT TO THE POINT OF WHY I WROTE THIS REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HERE IT IS!!! It worked (I'm sorry..."powered on" would be a better term) for 2 weeks and died....forever....dead. SO I retruned it thinking I got a bunk unit. Nope. Same horrific noise and whine and lasted EXACTLY 13 DAYS JUST LIKE THE LAST UNIT!!!!

I will never buy a product from EH ever in my life. What crap. Furthermore, I will tell every guitarist I know the same thing.

Contrats EH, you put out a crap product and now it's gonna cost you, becasue I'm going to tell everyone I know what total garbage you make. Guess you probably shouldn't have cut all of those corners to make a quick profit, because in the end, you are the one's who end up losing.

DON'T BUY THIS PRODUCT. IT IS THE WORST OF THE WORST!!!

Garbage. Noisy beyond words when it does work, which seems to be only 13 days. Don't buy this product...let me repeat....DO NOT BUY THIS REVERB. GARBAGE GARBAGE GARBAGE GARBAGE GARBAGE GARBAGE GARBAGE!!! The absolute sorst I have seen in my 25 years of playing.

The unit is very easy to use in fact it could not be simpler (it only has one knob on it) turn it up you get more reverb, turn it down you get less. If you can't figure this baby out you better go back to kindergarten.

There is also a 3 way switch for SPRING, HALL, or FLERB settings. The Spring and Hall are both useable I usually prefer the Hall setting. The FLERB to me is unusable but if you are just looking for some wierd trippy sound effects than I suppose you could find a use for it.

The reverb sounds very very good. I play guitar through several verieties of Fender tube amps and a nice Peavy (yes Peavy) tube amp. I am able to dial in nice long or short reverbs with this unit on all of the amps. I play alot of music that reqires clean guitar like Jazz or acoustic stuff but I also play satrianiesque rock. I find that for the cleaner styles it's much more important to have a really transparent reverb unit than with the higher gain music. Nice sounding reverb!!!!!!!!

ONE BIG DRAWBACK!!!!!!! NOISE!!!!!!! There is a high pitched whine that comes in evertime I switch this thing on.. The unit is still useable because the noise is much softer than the music but It's still a big drawback in my opinion. I am looking for something else to replace it.

I'm really geting into recording these days and I want silence in between the artful noise. so because of the noise I am giving the grail a 5.

Well it works but noisily.

Its under warranty i should call EH but haven't yet

Nice sounding reverb for the price. Would be nice to have more than one knob for control but I can actually get good Hall or spring reverb sounds with this thing and a decent amount of control with just the one knob.

I would love to give this thing an 8 or a 9 but I CAN'T BECAUSE OF THE NOPISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It couldn't be easier to use. Switch for the three types of reverb and a knob.

I play rock/classic rock/jam through a '70 Fender Bassman. Mostly clean sounding. This reverb pedal sounds GREAT!! I don't use the "Flerb" setting much, but the spring and hall are great sounding reverbs. Some people complain about noise, but I have no noise at all. Very rich and lush reverb sounds!

I just got it, and have used it at a gig, no problems.

I play classic rock and jam music. My amp has no reverb, so I needed a good reverb pedal, and this takes the cake! I've read some reviews, and this isn't a pedal for metal-heads and shredders with their mesa boogies and other high-gain amps. Its for players who want that classic vintage reverb sound for the price. Overall, a 10.

Very Easy to use. Plug and play, flip a switch dial it in...

Way too noisy. The one I have was ok at first, then over the course of a month or so it developed this siren like hum and was totally unusable. I sent it back to the manufacturer. It came back and was ok for a bit, but within a couple of hours of use it was unusable again. However, it's now very quiet. Unfortunately, that's because it died.

You're better off pointing your amp into a tiled bathroom for reverb than to depend on this piece of shit.

They did fix it for free once, but you get what you pay for.

Total waste of money.

Easy to set up, input-output. You have to use EHs own power-adaptor and it does not take batteries. One knob for "Reverb" (mix) and a three way switch to selesct one of the three settings.
It makes very much noise (I'll come back to this later) and the only way for me to use it was through the FX-loop.
Like one other stated in a review; If you need a manuak for this thing, you really should consider not playing at all!! Easy...

First of all... I received my Holy Grail two days ago. I tried it at home first, then i took it to a gig the same night. Only tried it twice.
On the gig I used it with my Budda Superdrive, together with 4-5 other pedals. My main problem; THIS PEDAL IS VERY VERY NOISY!! I was warned by a friend of mine that had tried the same pedal earlier, but I still wanted to try one. In front of the amp it is impossible to use this pedal, and I had to take it out of the chain after half a set. The I tried to put it in the FX-loop and it is much better, but still very noisy. I usually have delay and also chorus in the FX-loop, but nowadays I am much more comfortable with all having all my pedals in front of the amp.
I'll explain the noise to you: Imagine an old cheap Boss distortion pedal, set with volume and gain at 12 o clock. That is how much noise this little device makes.
Anyway, the reverb is great, very big. Can't belive the can make such a big sound ou of such a small pedal!! Problem is, I do not always want very big reverbs, and there's no way to change this!!

Had it for two day, then returned it.

I play quite much different music. I wanted to use this pedal for two different bands. One is a live cover band and the other is a kind of warm, country, pop kind of thing. The actual sound is gret for both (could use a "smaller" reverb though).
Have been playing for seven years and I own quite some equipment (even though music equipment is quite expensive in Nortway. Fender US strat is 1500$!!)
Today I tried the Boss RV-5, sounds good, no noise, and it has so much posibilities.

Give it a "time" knob and make the noise go away, it'll be a GREAT pedal!!!

Simple, simple, simple....select type, turn dial, on/off switch. Barney Fife might have a problem with this, but that's it....

Great in front of an amp, horrible for direct to board or any direct application. Tone sucker after you turn dial more than 50%, so it's good for about 50% of the time. Sounded good at the store, but......

...here's the problem. Guess I didn't notice it at the noisy guitar store. "Flerb" setting creeps into the "hall" reverb....almost like the switch is shot. Figures, I bought it used at a Music Go Round....I should have known better. Then after reading the multiple reviews of unreliability (after purchasing of course), I guess I really should have known better. Luckily, I can still return this heap to the junkyard known as Music Go Round.

None...but I have bought EH tubes before and they were crap too....burned out within a month (12ax7's)....rumour has it that the owner of this guitar buys inferior Sovtek leftovers, and rebrands them as EH. People are buying into an inferior name, but eventually this will catch up with them and they will go the way of the dodo. Musicians are gullible folk, but loyal to quality and spread the word fast in forums such as this....EH, get your act together and start producing something quality.

Very disappointing....back to the drawing board. YOu know...you really do get what you pay for...what a surprise eh?

dial in your tone.....easy! it's cool.....then you find out electro harmonix is pure dung!

going into a bassbreaker.......no noise, used it in the studio a few times...worked fine....................for about a month....when it broke i had it checked out...it checked out to be a piece of sh#t...i gave 'em my money and i'll never do it again......you'd be better off spending more money with analogman.com or something that is actually BUILT,,, not put together like a pile of crap....

do not depend on this thing.......lucky for me it died during a time that i did'nt really need it....in other words i was not recording or playing live. after i had this thing inspected by a professional....here is some advice....yes it sounds cool...for a while.....then it breaks....pile o sh@t....end of story....by the way the only reason i'm writing this review is b/c i've owned several of these and they all broke..i've also owned an electro-harmonix big muff...guess what.....sounded great...and IT BROKE! after losing so much money i just had to write.

they are really good at making a profit......anybody who can sell pure crap for top dollar.....gotta be doing good

very good before it broke........sounds like they are taking the fender route........sounds great......then it will break.....save your money and buy from someone else..........all in all they had a great idea....but in the end this company is bullshit and needs a new direction. if your money is important to you Don't BUY!!!

If you can exercise a decent amount of restraint and get over the amusement of adding way too much reverb it's pretty easy to get a good sound out of. There's three settings, one of which is a fairly niche setting (that would be "Flerb"; Flange and Reverb).

I didn't get a manual with it. I suspect if you need a manual for this then plugging it in would probably merit a pretty heavy challenge and thusly, actually using a computer to submit a review would be right well ouf of your intellectual capacity.

The danger is, of course, overuse.

If you need a reverb pedal you're generally in one of two camps:

-Bought a cheap amp that has no reverb and was done for the reason of keeping the costs down.
-Bought an expensive amp that's generally marketed to purists or appeals to the vintage crowd and rather than hear everyone complain about it the manufacturer didn't put a reverb in there.

This pedal will not make a cheap amp sound expensive. It will not make an expensive amp sound like a real spring reverb unit. There is no substitute for the real deal.

With that said the unit does a great job of replicating the sound. For most folks this will be more than adequate. For purists they're going to want to start hunting around for the old brown Fender reverb tanks.

I use this pedal on my Trace Elliot Velocette amp and when my stock Fender reverb tanks blow out (usually the result of an idiot move on someones part) on their respective amps (DRRI, Hot Rod Deluxe and a Blues Jr). My guitars are the typical Strats and Les Pauls. Nothing special but semi-vintage.

I've read alot of bad things about this pedal and after opening it up much of it makes sense. The main circuit board is barely held in place. The solder connections aren't especially beefy. The case is at least 4 times larger than it needs to be and almost none of it functions as a bracing area except for the jacks.

Someone would do well with a re-build kit for these things. Make it smaller, make some serious braces for the board and beef up the connections and you'd almost totally erase all the failures detailed here.

I'd be reluctant to gig without a backup. And then I'm not sure a backup would be another Holy Grail. It's a terrible design and while EH should be commended for keeping the price of such a great sounding unit down for another $20 they could have an indestructible and irreplaceable unit in alot of peoples arsenals.

The one I got had some "issues". I emailed EH and they got back to me withing 24 hours. Of course they wanted another $15 for the repair if it was out of warranty. For a $100 unit it begs alot of questions though; paying another quarter of the units retail cost more than once suddenly puts you in an area where digital units with higher reliability start to become an option and real-deal vintage units may start to show up.

But hey....they answered my email.

It's a good little unit with some very basic, simple and devastating flaws. For my Blues amps it's a perfect match of simplicity and cost. I see alot of people using them and the unit was the default answer from alot folks when I asked for a recommendation.

I'd be reluctant to buy anything from EH again after opening the unit up. While their tonal reputation is quite good the reliability isn't. I wouldn't let myself be a victim of that.

I don't debate that I got the unit for a good price. However had I paid retail for it I probably would of returned it and opted for something else.

very easy to use
single knob for reverb

impressive out of a cheap digital box!!!
very very much close to fender tube spring reverbs.

if you are using reverb 3 to 6 out of 10 in spring reverbs go for the grail. i use it 10 oclock in spring mode and it's enough reverb for me. however sound gets unnatural reverb if you go above 1 oclock on holygrail. if you use more this is not for you!!!

spring mode is best
plate is ok
forget about flerb mode (what the???)

i used to use boss RV5.
they sound totally digital, not even a comparison to holygrail.

big strong box
i opened it up and see that there is a small chipboard in it and a large space. i wish it were smaller.

it has reverse polarity DC adapter plug which causes a slight disturbing sound if you plug into different serial adaptor cable with other pedals. so you have to use its own adapter :(

no idea

been playing professionally for about 15 years
best sound for hundred bucks
good spring sound

Easy to use ,one switch and one knob , I like that , I just got mine today , there is a manuel but it's so simple the manuel is not needed , I'm not sure of the year but it is new stock .

I got this pedal to add reverb to a fender pro junior and a pignose G40-V and a original pignose practice amp , just to add some depth , it seems quiet and I use fender strats and most of the amps I own are all tube , the pedal sounds great to me and adds just what I was looking for , reverb , like any pedal if you crank it all the way up it is too much and the three settings all have their place , I prefer to play dry and direct most of the time but at home the reverb fills the room .

I have not had it long enough but it looks like it will hold up , even though it is made of sheet aluminum and not heavy cast metal like other pedals I have I still take care of all the equipment I own , if you stomp on any pedal enough times hard somethings going to give , besides it looks good and has a better switch than many case pedals with a tiny micro switch which by the way do break , it looks vintage .With reasonable care it should last a good long time .

I have'nt dealt with them so far , I only had a big muff and did not care for the sound of that fuzz or any fuzz for that matter .

I play blues guitar mainly and since I'm 54 I also go back to beatles and other groups from the sixties . I have been playing for over 40 years . I do own a TS-9 and a Boss blues driver and an old ibanez analog delay and a vox distortion and a dunlop cry baby wah and this holy grail . I first got the digitech X series , let me tell you , this pedal may be well made as a boss but there is just to much in the way of controls and six settings , after about an hour I used 2 out of the six and also if the gain on the dig is past noon the entire signal fades away , I thought there was something wrong but this is how they all are . and the people talking about the grail being poor in construction , how long do you suppose those 4 tiny knobs will hold up ? the spring had a odd blip at the end also , so I retrurned it and got the holy grail for the same price and get the sounds I need with one switch , sure the others have more control if you like to bend down and play with controls , I want to set it and play , that's all . I like the sound of the grail and any pedal will cost you a small amount of tone or volume , I also like the fact that it has the power adapter included , what good are batteries when they last less than an hour , effect pedals such as these reverbs all eat batteries in short order. The grail sounds real the others did not .I would not change a thing on this pedal . I would replace it if lost and I would get another of the same . One thing I would like to add is why do pedals need to be built like a tank , sure it's a more secure feeling but what good is a pedal built like a tank that sounds fake and digital ? This pedal does all I need it to do and it gives me a break to have reverb added to the mix when I;m in the mood for a change of pace , so it does help change the way I play certain styles of even blues and gives me the hendrix stage sound . I had my doubts reading all the reviews on this site with all the beginning issues of this pedal failing and this is why I choose the digitech first , I know I gave this product high ratings , but in all fairness it just sounds the best and is not over done like the others , last thing with a 3 position slide switch you can find the setting fast , the digitech has 6 settings on a rotory knob 1-6 and then tiny words that spell out the settings all in a row , who can see this , why not be able to bypass the ones you don't like 4 of them , if you like to play with knobs and I don't , the grail is not for you .