Electro-Harmonix Holy Stain

6 knobs, 2 switches...Not easy to get a good sound. You must be patient with it and tweak it and play around with it. The manual did not have sample settings, like BOSS, does...but, those usually suck, anyway. If you are patient with this one, some cool things are possible. This is what I found...

Fender or Randall amps, Strats...classic rock, funk. The amp yields some outstanding reverb and tremolo sounds. I mean, really cool. On the other hand, the drive, fuzz, and pitch shift are just ok, in my opinion... I am still using it, though, just as a reverb and tremolo unit, those are THAT good. I get a better fuzz from my Russian Big Muff and a better OD from a TS909 or a BossBluesDriver...the pitch shifter would be better with an expression pedal for more control, just as the other reviwers stated...

It is built very rugged and sturdy.

If I played metal or prog, I would give this a 10, with the wild pitch shift and the very rough overdive and fuzz. Since I am a funky,rock,bluesy player, only the pristine trem and reverb appeal to me, yet, they appeal enough to merit a high rating, overall!

I gave this an 8 because the Pitch Shifter is not very intuitive. The rest of the effect is relatively easy to setup and use. The pedal is broken down into 2 sides. One side is the Reverb/Trem/Pitch Shifter, and the other side is the Overdrive/Fuzz. The mix and amount knobs let you dial in how much of the reverb and tremolo are added to the effect. The Overdrive/Fuzz side also has a clean setting which you can use the volume and tone knobs to adjust. There is also a 3 setting knob to adjust the color of the overdrive/fuzz effect. The pitch shifter is a different story. The adjustment for this is not so easy to use in my opinion. However, I did see a demo on Youtube where an expression pedal is used with the pitch shifter. In the demo, there was a nice bending effect. I have not tried this myself but without an expression pedal, it seems that the pitch shifter is of little value.

The room Reverb and the Hall Reverb are excellent in my opinion. You can dial in various mix and amount settings to get just the right amount of reverb added to your sound. I use this reverb almost exclusively instead of the reverb on my Marshall JCM900 because I think it sounds must better. The tremolo on this pedal is really, really good. I had only used a tremolo from a Line 6 floor POD prior to this and never really considered it much of a value. But after playing around with the tremolo on this pedal, I can say that I have definitely realized a great deal of value in using tremolo as an effect. The Clean option on the overdrive/fuzz side of the pedal is nice. If you dial in the clean side and turn the volume all the way up, you get a really nice clean overdrive effect. I set the color knob to bright on this setting and get a really decent clean boost effect. The Fuzz is OK but there is an audible hum associated with this setting which I don't really like too much. Plus the Fuzz is very muddy even with the color knob set to bright so I rarely use this effect. The OD is pretty good but again a little muddy. I found the best setting for using the reverb and trem is to just set it on clean and turn the volume all the way up and set the tone to about 1/2. Again, the pitch shifter is a whole different story. I have not found a good setting for this effect but I am going to get an expression pedal at some point and try using it that way.

It seems pretty solidly built. It's made of metal/aluminum or something similar. Not sure exactly what it is, but it's definitely a tough little box. The knobs and buttons are solid, although the little plastic knobs seem a little cheesy in comparison to some of the more expensive pedals like my Fulltone units. But for the price, I would say it is well built. Since I'm only using the tremolo and the reverb, I would not worry about a backup since my amp has built-in reverb and the tremolo is a take-it or leave-it type of effect. I also have another Overdrive pedal so I'm not worried there either. A nine for the cheesy little knobs.

Have not used them. Their website is very limited. No real valuable information there. Just some links to pdf files of the same docs that come with the pedal. The documentation is also very limited. No recommended settings or anything, you have to play around with the pedal to get what you want from it. They do have a myspace account which I added them to my friends list and they accepted right away. So for that I will give them a good rating.

I play blues and classic rock. The pedal definitely has it's value for this genre of music with the reverb the trem and the overdrive. The Fuzz and the Pitch shifter I could do nicely without. But for what I paid ($98) for the pedal, it was a worth-while investment in my opinion. It is my first Electro-Harmonix effect and as such, I would probably buy more of their stuff in the future. If this pedal died or got stolen I would probably replace it just for the reverb although I might go for the Holy Grail instead. I kind of wish it came with an expression pedal or that EHX made one that you could buy as an option because I have never purchased an expression pedal before so I'm not sure which one would give you the best compatibility. There are some suggestions for expression pedals included with the instruction sheet, but I guess I will have to take the time to go to a music store that sells EHX stuff and try it out myself.

Pretty easy to get a good sound out of, but because there are no "patches", you have to twist knobs to retreive a certain sound you want again....so it's not a good pedal for those who do 100 different sounds in a set.

It comes with a wall-wart (no battery support).

My amps are a '67 Blackface Fender Pro Reverb and a '76 Fender Vibrochamp and my main axe is an '84 Japanese Squier Strat with Fender Vintage noiseless pickups.

There are a lot of good sounds in this pedal...some you really don't expect. First there is the room reverb...this is a pretty decent reverb and sounds a bit different from the Fender Blackface spring reverb I'm used to. It's nice, though. The Hall reverb has a slight delay between when you hit the note and when the reverb kicks in. It too is nice. Both reverbs are controlled by the mix and amount knobs, which control the dry/wet signal and length of reverb tail. Very decent digital reverbs that can get very over-the-top, but nothing I'd shut off the tube reverb in my BF Pro Reverb over. Nice to have for my Vibro-Champ, though.

I've had a hard time getting my fingers around the pitch shifter. It tracks poorly, to say the least...it seems to get lost in even the slowest flurry of notes I can muster (and I'm no Yngwie, believe me). However, I did find a cool useful setting, and that is with the amount knob (which effects the pitch of the pitch shifter) set so the shifted note is the same....it's almost a pseudo-delay with a cool sound all its own. For the most part, I don't use this part of the pedal, though.

Now for the prize - the tremelo. No, it's not a Green Day "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" type of effect, nor it it a Pink Floyd "Money" type of effect. It's far more imperfect and greasier. It is very different from the typical Blackface Fender tremelo in that in imparts a bit of pitch shifting ala old Magnatone and Brownface Fender amps. This is a GREAT tremelo and will inspire you to play Texas blues. You will not believe that this thing is digital. The effect can be dialed in to sound like a rotating speaker/leslie. Very very cool. It is a little noisy, but that's to be expect with this sort of effect.

Now for some gravy...there is a fuzz tone and an Overdrive (both analog) and 3 COLOR settings that effect the character of the dirt - WARM, BRIGHT and DARK (the pedal can also add a touch of OD color in the clean setting, depending on the COLOR setting) I find fuzz annoying, but the OD is servicable...I tend to rely on my Fulltone 10th Ann. for OD, which plays nicely with the Holy Stain.

It's American made (NYC) but is of a circuit board design which has it's drawbacks...who knows how long it will last? The pedal is build like a tank though. I baby my stuff so hopefully for a long time.

Don't know yet, to be honest.

I play blues and blues based rock music. The tremelo in this pedal is right up my alley. I've been playing for almost 30 years now (ugh) and have owned a lot of gear in those years, most of which were crap. The price was certainly right ($98) and I'd buy another in a heartbeat. I'd gladly pay another $100 to get a true bypass on it, but I'll live.