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.

Pretty straight forward...select hall or spring and use the big knob to set level...manual is limited but usefull. Adaptor only power might be a pain for big settups or board users (requires unique power supply) probably best alone or with one or two other pedals.

Strat and SG with silverface Princeton...decent sound, a bit washy at high settings...not quite up to a vintage tube unit but close enough for most uses. Flerb is usefull to give faux phaser, chorus, vibe, leslie effects.. a little extra bang for the buck

Usuall "tin box" EH construction.....probably hold up ok with a bit of care.

NA

I play a little bit of everything that you would use a classic Fender
amp for. I had been looking for a Fender 'Verb for my Princeton but could never find one at a good price; plus they are almost as big as my amp! I came across the HG on sale (they usually run @ 99.00) and decided to give it a try..Not bad!

Hey it's me again...just got my Holy Grail back from warranty repair from EH in 13 days ! And it's working....impressive turnaround time !

This is an addition to the review I posted (about 5 reviews down)- after sucessfully using the Holy Grail on five gigs (at the end of the effects chain) it failed on me on gig #6 - before I started playing, there was a humming, whistling noise coming from my amp.
When the HG was disconnected from the chain, the noise disappeared.
I was hoping that just maybe the place I was playing (never gigged there before)and the HG "didn't get along electrically" - but when I got home, and tried it through a different amp at home, the noise was still there.
So today (3/19)I shipped the HG back to Electro Harmonix - costing about $7 (insured it for $100), and enclosed the $5 for return shipping - hopefully this will be a pleasant experience (as far as warranty repairs can be "pleasant").
I'm curious as to how long I'll be without the pedal, and curious as to whether anything else will go wrong.

Very easy to use! Input, output, level and three way switch.(spring, hall, flerb) Doesnt include a manual but its reverb, who needs a manual?

My guitar setup is: Squire stagemaster, and a bunch of other pedals. Last at the moment, holy grail.
It has a very good reverb sound. Ive played a couple of really good fender reverb amps but cant afford any, so I bought the grail and it just plain sounds awsome. The spring setting is really good for general rythme. Hall is good for solo's. Flerb, well, is just a funny sounding phaser. But good sounding.

I would defently depend on it. I wouldnt carry a backup. Its housed in a metal case and though light, seems pretty well built.

Pretty good even though I only emailed them a question about the logo. They responded pretty quickly though.

I play rock and some r&b. It sounds great on my rig and really accents my sound. Great reverb for the price

Just "set it and forget it" just like you would with your amp reverb.Reacts the same way too, anything past 12 o clock on the level knob gets a little too indistinct so just keep it low and enjoy the lush!!

All three modes sound fantastic. The one I use mainly is the hall setting, sounds very realistic.The spring is identical to the one built into my Fender amp, maybe a little cleaner, and the "Flerb" gets used for those New Age moments.I bought this to add some much needed ambience to my '70's Hiwatt Custom 100 and they are now in love!!I use various Strats, Teles and a 335, it doesn't matter.
I bought this after reading a killer review in a UK magazine whose opinion I trust, didn't even try it in the shop, just took it to the gig, plugged it in, set the knob to around 10 o clock and didn't switch it off all night....

EH have a reputation for crapping out, but because I don't use the footswitch, I guess that's one less thing that's going wear out.

Haven't dealt with them yet!! but I'm sure this thing'll last at least 'till the warranty's expired, then I'll definitely buy another one.

I play jazz, funk, blues and rock and this is perfect.I've been playing for 30 years and I like to think I know a good thing when I hear it now.My amp hasn't got send and return so this just goes straight in the front and it still sounds glorious.
If you need reverb for your amp, there's no point looking any further, this is the one to buy.

Basically you have a 3 point selection switch (hall, spring and flerb), and a depth knob. Simple. I would have like to seen a mix or level control (be a cool option with reverb).

Strat--->Holy Grail--->60's Silvertone 2-12 Tube amp. Thats it. I am pretty serious about my reverb, I have owned a plethora of older amps with reverb so I know old spring reverb when I hear it. When my tank on the silvertone crashed on me I strolled down to the old music store. I tried everything in the 0-$150 price range: the new BOSS RV-5, Digitech X-verb, Danelectro Spring King, and the DOD verb. I have to say, if you want a real sounding reverb, especially spring verb Than this is the only way to go, period. You can dial in that over the top decay if you like as well. The Boss and Digitech were basically delays (choppy), the Dano just didn't have the depth and space. So if your looking for a great sounding and affordable spring reverb, here it is! It sound idential to most of the reverbs I have had in my older amps. Also has a Hall reverb-very natural sounding, and a crazy sounding "Flerb" verb, like a phasing reverb is my best description.

3 months old, Nice aluminum case, time will tell. It appears to be built well.

no experience with E.H. yet.

I play very mellow folk/songwriter inspired music with a band. Similar to Mayo Thompson/Red Krayola. I am recording constantly, and hope to use this pedal for years to come. I would definately replace this pedal if it were stolen or broke down. I guess I can only say to those who may be looking, go to a music store, grab every reverb pedal and find out for yourself. For myself I wanted that older spring tank reverb, and this is it.

Its got only a 3-way switch, a reverb knob, and a switch. Simple enough? Well if you can't operate this... u'll most probably be a no brainer. The manual is only a sheet of paper, i guess theres not much to say about it. Simple to get HoLy ReVerb from it, plug it in your rig, tweak it to ur liking, and there you go. 3 Settings : Spring , Hall , Flerb (Reverb with Slight Flanger). Hey hey! Plus its got TRUE BYPASS! New products from Electro-Harmonix are equiped with true bypass. Cool eh?

I am using a Marshall amp, a Gibson Les Paul, with the Electro-harmonix Small Clone together with this .Well, as i said above, though it looks simple, the holy grail sounds more complex than it seems to be, giving you a wide array of different magnificent reverb. Don't be baffled by the fact that its digital. This unit sounds fabulous and immaculate! Firstly, the spring reverb sounds 100% like an actual spring reverb, well done! I compared it with an actual Fender Spring Reverb, and guess what, me and my friends could not hear the difference. Secondly, the hall setting is lush, warm,It really feels as if i am playing in a huge arena. Cool stuff! As for the Flerb, i don't have much use for it, but it'll probably be useful for guys craving for something new, fun, groovy. I play anything thats nice to my ears, no special genre. This pedal is used by John Fruciante of RHCP in the new album "By The Way". Well, i tried playing some songs like Zephyr Song, By the Way with it, sounds authentic.Furthermore, this thing is super quiet, nice to work with, simple. I tried the BOSS RV-3, RV-5, i still chose the Holy Grail. Its the best bang for the buck, although the RV-3/5 may seem that it'll give you more control over the sound etc. I personally think that simplicity is the best. The Holy Grail is the BEST REVERB STOMPBOX EVER!

Its pretty reliable, though some ppl say it "Looks Weak" with the brushed metal sheet, but its kinda sturdy. Theres also a 1-year warrenty, so theres realli nothing to worry about. I would definately use this without backup.

Haven't got any problems.

It suits all styles of music and genre. Particularly of course the artists who use it, like John Frusciante. If u dig RHCP, u dig the Holy Grail. If it was stolen, i would go find the guy who stole it and slash him with a chainsaw or something. I love how simple it is to get good sounds out of it. For the BOSS Rv-5, i had to stay in the music shop for 1 hr and still not get anything nice from it. Furthermore, its got true bypass!! The older versions of the pedal does not. Its the best reverb at that price. Go check it out guys! Holy Reverb for ur Mere Mortals.....

No Brainer.Plug and go

I ran A SRV signature Strat though the holy grail then to a 1963 fender princeton blackface. :) It was killer.So far I can sound like Im playing at carnagie with the hall effect setting or a bit toned down with the spring setting.The flerb is kind a weird.maybe when I do a hendrix tune it will be cool

Not sure about reliability as I just set it up at home and there it stays.So far so good

???????

I play blues and its a great compliment,im 46 and Ive been playing since the age of 12.If I lost this pedal or it was stolen I would most definitly replace it

Very easy to use - three position switch (spring, hall, flerb)and one knob for dry/wet mix. The "manual", one sheet of paper, is virtually unnecessary.

I think it sounds very good - there's always something magical about a well done reverb tank (think certain Fender amps, some Ampegs), and this digital pedal, on the spring setting, comes damn close.

Just got it a few days ago - in most cases I "set and forget" reverb, so I won't be stomping on it much, and that ought to help it's longevity.
This is the first EH product I've bought since the company re-emerged a few years ago - hopefully their products are better made than they were in the 70s - the reasons Boss kicked their ass all over the market place back then ? Boss stuff was better built, and they caught on to the LED light and AC adapter sooner than the competition.

Haven't had to deal with EH, and I'm hoping I won't have to...the one year warranty is pretty standard, although if I read it right, the customer pays shipping to and from EH - too bad they wouldn't let you bring it to an authorized repair place instead.

I play classic hits, oldies, country, blues, roots-rock, etc. Reverb on guitar is common in all those styles - on some of my amps the reverb is broken or weak, and for less than the cost of repairing two amps, I've got reverb. I also bought a Boss RV3 a few years ago, and although I don't think it's as bad as some people think it is, I ended up using it as another delay pedal instead of reverb.
I didn't compare it to the Holier Grail, or the Digitech, or Danelectro units - I took a chance that the positive reviews in guitar magazines and on Harmony Central were correct - and my wife was buying it for me as a birthday present, and I was trying to keep the price under $100 - some of the previously mentioned units are higher than that.

3 reverbs, one knob, one button. Duh.

Not bad for digital! I have a early 70's silver face Super Reverb and didn't dig the spring reverb too much (too much dwell), and plus I use a non reverb amp at practice and wanted some reverb for it.

The quality is pretty good if you keep your levels reasonable. The "Hall" setting is nice and lush if you keep it at or below 12 O'clock. After that, it getts a little washy and almost turns into a delay.

The "Spring" setting is my fav. It really sounds like a spring reverb. I like it more than my original Fender tank!

The "Flerb" setting is ghey.

The only qualm I have with the effect is:

1) Volume level - I notice that around 12 on either reverb setting, you notice a little drop in volume. This drop becomes more noticeable as you add more reverb. I understand that you're washing out the dry signal when you do this, but it shouldn't lower your overall volume.

2) Decay rate. No control over the length of decay, which is really too bad, especially for the hall settings. I really like the sound, but the decay rate is about 1/3 to long in my opinion. A knob to control this would be nice. I think the "holier" grail has more control over this, but that's a much bigger and expensive pedal.

Well, it's EH, so it'll probably break within a year. Never anything too major, mostly cheap switches and such. I can't rate it though, because it's been reliable this entire 4 hours I've had it.

I emailed their support once regarding getting my Qtron serviced and they were extrememly quick and friendly. They offered to refurb it back to new specs for around 20 bucks. I guess they offer this service on all their pedals, which is pretty cool.

I dig it. Sounds better than the Alesis or other verbs out there for the same cash. Less controls, but more realistic verb. I wish it had more control, but I guess that's what the Holier Grail is for...

One more complaint... It won't run off batteries, and the power supply on the pedal is a female plug type, completely different than your standard Boss or even some of the other EH stuff. A real pain in the ass when you're using a pedalboard with onboard power, but no compatible connector.

Why can't everyone just standardize on the Boss style power supply connectors and move on?

one knob. 3 settings. couldnt be easier. BUT, it is more prominent when plugged direct, not through effects loop. that bothers me.

great sounding. sounds perfect

solid steel. very tough. never had a problem

na

great sound. easy to use. thats all reverb should be. also came in a nice package with an ac adaptor which was nice considering most pedal companies make you buy it at extra cost.

This is very easy to use. It only has 1 knob, 1 footswitch and 1 switch (for Spring, Hall and Flerb reverb settings).

The pedal comes with a sheet of paper to explain the different reverb settings.

I plugged a mid 80's Epiphone guitar into this pedal then straight into an Ampeg Superjet (SJ-12T) all tube combo amp (which the amp already has built in reverb). I bought this pedal because when I use the Ampeg out on certin gigs (that are in big carpeted rooms) I want more reverb and I keep the amp's reverb knob on 10, so I use this pedal along with the amp's reverb.

The pedal is not noisy at all (no hiss) when the pedal is off. The only hiss I noticed was when the pedal is on and when you have the knob turned up to extreme levels (3 to 5 o'clock), but the hiss is not that noticable, I only noticed it when I really paid attention to the sound the pedal was putting out.

The tone of the guitar changed slightly when the pedal is on, the tone is slightly brighter than when the pedal is off. This tone change is very subtle, and since it's a reverb pedal most people will keep the pedal on all the time so it's not really an issue.

The spring reverb sounds very close to the actual spring reverb I have in my amp. The hall reverb is great, very long trail type reverb (it turns out to be a delay when set in extreme settings). The flerb reverb is a reverb sound with a touch of flanger sound in the trail off, it's nice for guitar leads, but I don't know how it would sound using it for a rhythm guitar. My dad heard the flerb setting and he said the sound reminded him of an old tape echo unit he had. The sound the flerb was puting out he said his tape echo machine had the same sound when the tape was 'messing up'.

I did use this pedal along with a Big Muff USA reissue pedal (the Holy Grail has to go AFTER the Big Muff ... or it will sound funny), and it sounded fine with distortion / fuzz.

I use lots of guitars (2 Gibsons, 7 Fenders, 1 Epiphone and various acoustic instruments) and lots of effects pedals (even though I don't have a main pedal setup, it changes depending on what music style I'll be playing that day/night).

I would say this pedal should last for years (made with steel / aluminum plus comes in a nice wood box).

I take care of my pedals (I don't stomp on them and I usually put them back in their boxes when not in use).

The pedal has to use an AC adapter so you don't have to worry about the pedal dying on you due to batterys going out.

I have never had to contact them but they have a great website (with sound clips of alot of their pedals).

This is a really nice reverb pedal, it would be really good with amps that don't have reverb and it will be great for amps (like the one I have) that doesn't have enough reverb and you use the pedal to 'boost' your original reverb sound.

My favorite setting on this pedal (so far) is the hall setting with the knob set around 12 - 1 o'clock.

It would be better if you could use it without an AC adapter.

Lack of control of reverb length is made up for in ease of use. You get more "wet or dry" but cannot control feedback length.

Despite previous statement, sound is good. Bought it for Fender Virbro Champ that has no reverb. Have used it for recording wet signals for guitar and vocals. The three settings: Spring, Room and Flurb offer pretty good variety. The Flurb setting is kind of like a tremolo/phaser sound, I've actually used it and like it although it has limited applications

I read a review in TapeOp mag that said two out of three units tested arrived in non-working order. I bought mine new about a month ago. One day it wouldn't work, the signal continued but the reverb effect was totally absent, after unplugging ps and patch cords and replugging all back in it was revived,the next day it was totally stone cold dead, still the signal flowed but no effect. I'm taking it back to the shop to get my money back.

I think this is a good company making some pretty shitty stompboxes to be competitive, but they may be hurting their reputation with poor quality control.

Unreliable, returning to store. But if you get a working unit i think you will enjoy it's applications for traditional reverb. Good sound, bad quality.

1 switch, 1 knob. Couldn't be any easier. True Hard Bypass switching!

OK, please read this section. My comments are all in regards to the Spring setting.

I've been looking for a reverb for my Fender Pro Junior which has no effects. I'm used to listening to my father's '65 Princeton Reverb, from the golden era of fender amps. As a result I am extremely picky about reverb. I purchased 3 pedals from Guitar Center. The Digitech Digiverb, The Dano Spring King, and the Holy Grail. I liked the Holy Grail best of all, so I decided to put it to the ultimate test. I A/B-ed the Holy Grail versus my Fathers Princeton Reverb. I plug my guitar into the Holy Grail, then into the Fender Reverb amp. Alternating between the Grail, and the built in Reverb I was amazed. I could bairly tell the difference. Then, I took it a step further. I had my father stand outside the room, and alternated between the two. HE COULDN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE!

This test was done at a moderate and tasteful setting. As the settings are made extreme, there is divergence in the two sounds. But comparing the two reverbs at a solid level (3on the amp, 11 o'clock on the Grail) resulted in two very comparable sounds.

My hats off to EH for doing the impossible, capturing the best reverb sounds in a digital stompbox.

True bypass switching

Looks solid enough.

Crappy manual, but who needs one when there's only one knob?

I rate this as a must buy for anyone without built in spring reverb in their amp. Great sounding pedal.

This has all been explained before. One knob, one switch...

I consider myself very picky about effects, especially digital ones. This has to be the best non-rackmounted reverb I have ever heard. The only reverb I like better is the one in my Digitech 2120. I A/B'd this with the reverbs in my vintage deluxe and my two mesa's, a Mark IV and a Subway rocket reverb. It blew all of them, including the Fender away! That was just in the "spring" setting. The others cannot even compare to the "hall" setting. I haven't messed too much with the "flerb", but if your into Andy Summers this should do you up.
The only problem I ran into was the same as a previous post: if you have it before your distortion it sounds awful. But anyone into effects knows that reverb needs to be after the distortion, so if you don't have an effects loop and you use your amps distortion you might have to shut it off for that. It wasn't too bad unless I used the ultra-high gain boogies; the fender seemed to be okay with it. It sounded the best with my '65 Vibro-Champ; it really lets you know what you're missing with those non-reverb amps.

It's an EH. I have several original EH pedals and they all still work fine, so I imagine it will last for years. Reverb is not a necessity unless your a Surf Dude, but backups are nice.

Never dealt with them.

I play mostly blues-rock, and classic rock. This pedal suits me fine. I have been playing off and on since about 1994. I have more gear than I could mention here, including a digitech 2120, a mesa mark 4, a G&L strat, a mexi-strat w/duncan rails, etc... If it were stolen, I would definitely get another. I bought this one based on recommendations from this site. I am glad I did, because I was going to spend twice as much on the danelectro spring king, and everyone seems to hate that one. This was definitely a good buy. It's a blem too, so I got it cheap!

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

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

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

Never had to deal with them. No opinion.

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

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

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

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

n/a

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

very easy to use,see other reviews

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

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

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

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

The only good point:it is very transparent.

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

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

Only a moron couldn't operate it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I have not dealt with Electro Harmonix in the past.

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

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

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

seems ok. so far so good

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

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

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

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

I have never dealt with Electro-Harmonix.

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

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

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

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

N/A

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

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

Easy. Plug it in and whail.

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

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

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

One knob, one switch with three settings. Easy enough

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

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

No need.

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