Electro-Harmonix Micro Synthesizer

Let me start off by saying that you can can an immense number of sounds from this thing. The front end of it has 10 sliders. Some of them have a more obvious effect than others, but it's pretty easy to understand what they do once you start fiddling with them for 10 minutes. One thing I don't like about the pedal is that it has a power switch on the top that turns the thing on which turns the power light on. The light stays on whether you are in bypass or not. It would have been alot more intuitive to have some sort of visual indication of whether or not you're in bypass (mine was purchased about a year ago, and the pictures online now look a little different so this issue may have changed). Also, I wish there was some way to connect an expression pedal to it for some of the sliders. To really get the most out of the pedal, you'll want to manipulate a few key sliders while your hands are busy playing. If you don't mind not wearing shoes, you CAN do it with your toes, but it would be alot easier to plug in an expression pedal (or two).

This thing sounds awesome. It's not a subtle effect at all, so don't expect to keep any of your tone while engaging the effect, but who would really expect to keep their tone when the name of the effect has the word "synthesizer" in it? If your band has a keyboard player, you might be stepping on his toes a little bit with this thing. "Sub-0ctave" is sweet. I wish "Octave" didn't add as much distortion as it does. "Square wave" makes this thing scream, though at high levels, I think can be too loud (so just don't turn it up all the way). I bought the thing for "attack delay" (a fade-in effect). And the filter sweep options are really cool, though, "resonance" is sort of subtle and you can really only tell the difference if it is all the way up or down.

One thing that might be a good thing, might be a bad thing, is that the sub octave and octave functions don't handle chords very well. They do fine with some, but as soon as you introduce any dissonance, the thing doesn't know which note to track and ends up wavering between the different notes. It sounds sort of cool, but it would be nice you could COUNT on it to handle a chord or not.

There is one definite down side to the pedal: when you're in bypass, eventhough they advertise "true bypass," your tone will be ever so slightly altered when plugged in to it. And at high peaks of volume (when you strum hard) you might even get this weird sort of popping noise. It's pretty quiet, and you can adjust the input gain by turning a screw on the back, but if you turn it down (to eliminate the popping) then you'll be running an overall quieter signal to your amp. Not cool. Especially if you're a tone freak.

The coolness of the effect more than makes up for this downfall though. Especially considering that you can't really get a pedal that makes these kinds of sounds anywhere else.

This is the weakest area. Maybe I'm abusive to the thing (I do move the sliders with my toes!), but I've had the thing for almost a year now and just the other day one of the white nub ends on the sliders broke off. I haven't decided what to do about it yet. I could super glue it back on, or I could leave it. The slider itself still works perfectly and I don't really even want to bother if it's just going to break off again.

Also, junk from the ground (like pebbles tracked in on the bottom of your shoes) can get in the sliders every once in a while (it's happened twice to me) and prevent you from being able to move them all the way in one direction or the other. Luckily for me, I was able to fish that stuff out of there.

Other than that, no problems and the thing still works great.

Haven't talked to them.

Overall amazing, but it's not for everyone. It IS a synthesizer after all! But if you're into making some really spacey sounds and soundscapes, this thing is a great tool. You can get alot of different sounds from it based on if you have it set to do the filter sweep, and how quickly. From a really trippy full on synth sound to some pretty wild envelope filter type sounds to a bowed sort of fade-in. This one pedal will drastically boost your capabilities.

It's pretty pricey, but I don't know of any other pedals that do quite what this pedal does. I've become dependent on it and it has become one (or four!) of my staple sounds. If it was stolen or broken beyond repair, I would have to get another one.

Honestly, it's not that hard at all. I have only limited experience with octavers (got a PS-5) and none with synths and I was getting goods sounds out of this thing after 5 minutes. Just read the intructions, they are pretty self explantory and actually useless since just messing around with it will tell you whats going on.

Well, to say a "10" or "pristine sound quality" misses the point of this pedal. Its relative goodness will vary greatly depending on what the user is looking for, and what they are able to achieve. I have had this pedal for a few days and it sounds different everday with just a minor adjustment of the sliders.

And that sound to me is BADASS. Pure analog, chewy, velcro-y, octave-y, distorted goodness. Its just so freaking cool. Put a phaser or delay after it (or a PS-5) in front of it and good god you can get some amazing sounds. I just got the most bitching laser blaster sound from it today- too cool.

But what's that you say? When am I ever actually going to USE this pedal? I dunno. If you are in a Rolling Stones cover band, then never. If you write original stuff then you would still be wise to limit this baby to one or two songs per set. There is a reason that no famous guitarist uses the MS as their backbone like Tom and the Whammy, Edge and the MM, etc. You will have to find that out on your own.

Its EHX. I have owned many of their pedals, some vintage, some new, and had exactly one die on me, and I'm pretty sure it was my fault. Their stuff is built solid and you can absolutely depend on it.

Never dealt with them.

I love this pedal. And I don't just hand out 10's. It gets a nine because its lacking any way to recall settings, and that is a problem because it can be impossible to recapture a certain sound with so many variables to play with.
Also, its a great pedal and its fun but it is far from essential. I am buying this after exhausting my search for the right fuzz, OD, delay, phaser, flanger, etc. etc. and having collected literally dozens of pedals doing so. In short, it would not be my "desert island" pedal.

As others have noted, this isn't the easiest pedal in the world to use. I often find I have to fiddle with the sliders after I switch it on before it will behave, especially on the filter sweep. As others have also said, it's a noisy beast but if you're used to taming E-H pedals and single coil pickups you won't let that put you off.

The micro-synth isn't true bypass, it will degrade your signal more than most pedals. My strat comes out sounding significantly darker. However, I'm putting this under ease of use rather than sound quality because there's always a way to install a bypass.

The manual is an overview of what each slider does and is supplemeneted by a leaflet of suggested settings that give you a good starting point.

So the controls aren't difficult to work out but it can be tricky to get the sounds you want and will be frustrating if you're used to always getting what you want from digital effects.

It's possible to get a great variety of sounds out of this pedal. You can mix the guitar's own voice with monophonic octaves (one above, one below) and a square wave version of the input signal. It will do bowed effects and the filter will give you everything from a laser like sound effect to a sweeping auto-wah. Thanks to its warm rich analog sound It can produce a great fuzz noise that I would definitely use in place of a fuzzbox.

I'm currently playing my strat, straight into the micro-synth, then into my POD, then out to my Marshall amp. The micro-synth is the first step in my quest to replace the POD with high-end analog versions of all the effects I've found useful in the modeller.

Fortunately, I started off with analog effects, so I have the perseverance necessary to put in the extra effort required to get the best sounds out of a pedal like this.

I'd be happy to share interesting settings with people.

I haven't gigged this pedal yet. I previously owned a delux memory man by the same company and the construction is pretty similar. I did gig with the memory man and it was very reliable, however, the sliders on the micro-synth are definitely more delicate than the large knobs you get on most of E-H's pedals. But you would hope that anyone with the intelligence to put together a pedalboard also has the intelligence not to stomp in the wrong place!

I haven't dealt with support.

I play various styles of music with a couple of bands and while I haven't found a way to justify working this into the sound of either, I'm working on it and I'm confident I'll come up with something. This pedal sounds too good, and too unique, not to use.

I've been playing about 8 years, I used to have a few analog effects pedals but they were all sold to pay rent, and in due time replaced by first a Korg modeller and then a Line6 PODxt Live. This pedal renders the synth models in the POD absolutely worthless, which is great because it's one step towards replacing the unit with all analog effects. with the fuzz you can get from this pedal I also feel I don't need a distortion pedal to supplement the overdrive tones of my Marshall valves.

So far what I love about it is its versitility. Fuzz - octaves - lead synth - bowed sounds - filter sweeps - frequency adjustment - percussive synth. The only thing I dislike is that it seems to take a bit more encouragement to get going than I really think it should and I don't know if that is a quirk of my own unit or a feature of the product or if it's something that will go away with more regular use. My favourite feature right now is the filter section, that's certainly the final selling-point that convinced me to buy it.

Other than the Line6 synth built into my POD, I haven't compared this to anything. And there is no real comparison between the two. If you want analog synth sounds from your guitar without having to install a synthesizer pickup, go for this.

So far I've recorded two tracks using nothing but this pedal and my guitar and you'd beleive me if I told you they were both done with keyboards.

While I have been reading reviews saying it was not easy to use, this is not true. You cant get a great sound right out of the box. It comes with a recommended setting sheet so basically, all you need to do is read it. You also can completely customize your settings to make your own crazy envelope or synth sounds. By reading the manual, which is simple, right to the point, and short, you know what each slider does and will quickly help you.

I was looking to get the sounds of John Frusciante from RHCP. I can do that perfectly due to the fact he used one in his early days. I also wanted to get the tones of dance style of synths. This pedal does it.

It can get some nice octave tones and laser beam type sounds as well. This pedal can sound like a lead synth and bowed synth too. You can even get percussive sounds out of this thing. The settings are endless, it's fully customizable.

It sounds great with the DigiTech Space Station and DigiTech Whammy (they're both modeled in my DigiTech Expression Factory). My set-up is Washburn Idol-this-DigiTech Expression Factory-Seymour Duncan TweakFuzz-Crybaby-EHX Small Stone- DigiTech Flanger- Boss DD-6- Fender amp. It sounds great with delay, flange, wah, and phase. It doesn't great with fuzz or distortion, considering that the square wave
control is pretty much distortion control.

It's not noisy at all. The pedal overall is very strong sounding.

The thing is solid, it never fails me. I can depend on it. I would use it without a back-up at a gig (I probably couldn't afford a back-up anyway).

Never dealt with them.

I play funk, dance, electronica, new wave, and psychedelic. This pedal is a perfect match for all of them. I can make great music without this getting in the way.

I have been playing for about 3 and a half years. All the gear i mentioned above is what I've got.

If it was lost I would try and save to buy one, due to the fact that it's pricey. But it's just that good.I love how it can get the exact synth sounds I want, without dishing out the money to buy a good Korg or Moog.The only thing I don't like is that two of the sliders are monophonic, but I don't care to much because this thing fills up the sound anyway.

I would have to compare it with the Line 6 FM4. I used to own one. It sounded sort of like a synth but was very digital. Mine died quite fast so I traded it in for this. I'm glad I did. You can get much better synth tones from this. This is also much more customizable in the sounds. You can't really get much variety of synth tones from the FM4.

A lot of the reviews that I had read before I bought the EHX Micro-Synthesizer said that the controls were really hard to use. After I finally got it though I realized that they were wrong. If you spend some time on it, and jam and play through it by yourself, you can easily learn what the controls do. To learn the versatility all you've really got to do is jam with other people and you can realize how much your sound stands out from the others. The manual isn't bad but it isn't great and doesn't go to in depth as to what exactly is happening to you signal. Of course, you can't really expect the manual to tell you every single small detail.

My favorite musicians are The Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Mars Volta, The Strokes, and The Rapture. I listen to a lot of bands but as for guitar playing I'd like to sound like them. With the MicroSynth you can get a great sound, and it sounds to me a lot like the Mars Volta, of course the guitarist of TMV has many more effects this one sounds a little bit like it. Also I think John Frusciante of The RHCP has used this pedal before. The effects are pretty much all wonderful for designing your sound. This Pedal is pretty much monophonic, meaning that chords won't sound good if thats what your looking for. All the controls on this pedal are really good, and these effects will alow you to shape your sound, and discover new sonic boundaries. I'm using it with a standard Fender Strat through only this pedal and into my Line 6 Spider 3 75 watt combo amp. Its not noisy at all and cuts back a lot of the humming you hear through a dry signal from guitar straight to amp. The effects dont always sound absolutely perfect, but thats what makes this pedal good, you've got to work with it, and once you got the sound you want, it'll definately be worth it.

Unless your thrashing about on stage, beating the hell out of everybody and jumping into moshpits with this pedal, it's pretty dependably. Once the switch was a little bit broken on my box, but I managed to fix it with ease. I think I used a broken -tip actually. The screws sometimes are pretty hard to deal with, but otherwise I would absolutely use this in a gig without a backup.

I've never dealt with company so I can't say anything

I play whatever sounds good, and this pedal allows me to travel with the music I try to play, and not only that it lets me rock out on stage. I play through a Fender Stratocaster, into a Line 6 amp. If this were stolen, I'd probably buy a different pedal, like a moog freqbox or a digitech whammy, only because I've had this pedal already before. If i were really rich, I'd buy it again so fast your head would spin, and use it on stage a lot. What i love about it is the fact that I can make sounds that you can't get on any other pedal by itself. I dont hate anything about this pedal, but my least favorite thing is that i cant play chords very well on it. My favorite feature is the filter sweep section of controls. Compared to any lower priced or equal priced product, loads better. If you can afford a pedalboard full of moog pedals, you should get those instead, because theyd let you explore much deeper areas of music than this would, but I chose this one cause i could afford it, and i knew itd be my favorite pedal. I wish it could make the sound go on for much longer, and play the higher notes more loudly than it does. If it could modulate the sound it would be pretty cool. This pedal doesnt get in the way of making music at all, in fact it expands your ability to make music and lets you make music that other guitarists will be jealous of. Electro Harmonix pedals are always going to be good because they recognize the desires of the musician.

for me it was easy right out of the box, but i own a couple of moogs and have plenty of experience on analog synths. i had been interested in this pedal, and my local music store had one so i tried it there and instantly was able to get a good idea of what it could do, and of course i bought it right there and then.
now, it's incredibly easy to use. and the thing is a monster tone sculptor.

i use sg>preamp pedal>microsynth>frequency analyzer>volume>deluxe memory man (i love eh stuff)>thd univalve>poweramp>speakers

it sounds incredible for acid, metal, punk and spacey sounds. it's the filter sweep that makes alot of magic happen for my sound, but the posts below are right that this pedal can easily replace your fuzz, envelope, and or octave pedals because it has all of those built in.

i would call this a glorified distortion pedal before i called it a synth. to my ears and tweaking fingers, it's not really anything like an analog synth, but it does share a few similarites which can help to provide some nice synth like tones and effects. it is just incredibly functional, meaning you move a slider just a little and you'll notice the difference. very easy to go from ear-spear painful shriek, to muffled low-end fuzz with a simple slider adjustment. capable of blowing minds wherever you take it. well worth the bread if you like insane guitar sounds and i mean truly insane. i found out my hero helios creed uses one, so that made me even more happy i bought it.

the only problem i have with this thing is that it acts like a gate and sometimes long ringing notes will cut out before i wan them to. this is especially bad for me when i play slide. the notes will just not ring out properly unless i've played it perfectly and the strings are vibrating strongly. i've tried turning up the preamp section, but i just end up getting unwanted distortion and the problem is still there. so i ended up running into a preamp pedal befoe going into the microsynth and that helped alot and gave me even more insane tones and sustain, but i pretty much only play slide when the pedal is off now.

they do respond to emails

overall i would not be happy without this pedal. i play spacerock, blues rock, metal, punk, lots of rock. this pedal is like a powerful eq in addition to the other features. i can't say enough about how well it can color your sound. i'm thinking of using it on vocals too sometime.

like i mentioned, the thing acts like a gate which may or may not be a problem depending on what style and techniques you play. it might be more accurate to describe it as an annoyance rather than a problem, but it irks me when i have a sweet note screaming away in feedback sustaining bliss only to have it end abruptly before i want it to. i have had to work around that.

its easy to get some sounds out of this effect, but till you can really handel this pedal it takes some time!
but if you know analog synths then there should be no problem.

gibson les paul, orange or120 stack, e-h grafic fuzz, ibanez delay ad99,small stone, big muff, ibanez metall charger, homemade brantolog fuzz, dod ice box, cry-baby, noname vintage flanger, holy grail reverb, akay headrush, e-bow


it sounds great like all electro-harmonix

i use it often on gigs, but be cate full becase it needs yust one step and the faders are broken!!!

the sound of this thing is the best synth sound i`ve ever heard for a guitar!
but the price was high and you have to watch for it like a baby!

i love it, the bassplayer in my band uses one too for the bass and he likes it the same!
this pedal is great

you have to work a lot on it to find an usable tone

es335 handmade and jtm60
great sounds after days of work, but don't aspect the madness from it, it's just like an octaver, a boss sg1 and a qtron... nothing very strange like they describe it.
the 7 is for the reissue
i haven't tried out the vintage one, but i think it would have a higher rating

i'm selling it... to buy an electric mistress, if you're looking for strange sounds try the filter matrix feature of the electric mistress.

Pretty easy to use. The layout is very keyboard-like, with specific sections for voicing and filtration. The manual offers some presets, but the sounds you get on the way to the presets are a sonic trip all their own anyway.

If you're not familiar with subtractive synthesis in general, this pedal may take a while to get the hang of, but it's not hard. It's all faders, how hard can it be? Good sounds pour out of this thing endlessly, so just mess around with it.

This is where the rubber hits the road. For a long time, I was looking for a way to make a guitar a synth, through filter, octave, fuzz, and modulation pedals in combination. I could get a reasonably good sound from all of those things, but it still sounded rather guitar-like. Thn I bought the Micro Synth, and it was like going from swimming upstream to floating downstream. It was a cinch to get Moog-like sounds, fatty bows, floaty pads, squishes, splats, lazer beams, you name it. All from the guitar.

The sound generation section provides four sounds: octave, sub octave, guitar, and square wave. The sub octave and octave are pretty straight-forward, just tones generatec by the pedal that match the guitar's note and goes one octave below it. The guitar fader determines how much of the actual guitar sound gets in the mix, though it sounds like it loses some of its vitality and life to my ears. The square wave is a modifier for the other three voices, turning their pulse waveform into a more square waveform.

Now I've heard a lot of squealing and whining on here about the square wave not sounding like a square wave at all, just a fuzzed up guitar sound. However, if you hook up a fuzz box to your guitar and play it through an oscilliscope, you'll find that your pulse wave is decidedly squared off in shape. So basically, yes, the square wave does fuzz up the signal, but if it did anything but that, I would have been both surprised and disappointed. This is not a misnomer or a malfunction, it's simply the way a guitar sounds when its pulse waveform is converted to a square wave.

Anyway, on to the filter section. As far as guitar effects are concerned, this is the closest thing to an ADSR envelope I've come into contact with. It doesn't nail the ADSR effect right-on, but it's versatile, precise, thick, and meaty. The best part of it is the resonance control, which sounds like solid gold to me. That's what really sets this thing apart from most of the other filter pedals I've worked with. To me, a synth sound starts at good sound generation and stops at good filtration and enveloping, and this unit takes care of it all in spades.

Overall, it's a gritty, analog sound, and it sounds great. It seems to play nicely with modulation effects like chorus and flange, but it sounds better after the effect than before it. I've heard that these things really suck tone when the effect is disengaged, but I use it exclusively for studio work so that's never an issue for me.

The case is a bit thin, and the power plug is at a funny ange. The faders feel a little weak, and are not especially confidence-inspiring. However, half of reliability is how you take care of your gear, and since this never leaves a studio, it's not much of an issue.

One piece of advice, though: take the 'stomp' out of 'stompbox' and you should be okay. And don't be an idiot and move the faders around with your feet.

*shrugs* no EHX pedal has given me any problems...

I've been playing guitar for over 10 years, and I've been on a synth kick for the last 3. This device has abated my craving for a synth that plays like a guitar, and it's capable of an amazing array of sounds. If it were lost or stolen, I'd have to replace it. It sounds stellar.

If I had my 'druthers, I would have added more voice generation options, like something that generates sawtooth waveforms, but given how much you can do with 10 little faders, this unit is without peer.

It came down to either this pedal or the Line 6 FM-4, and I ended up going with this one based on layout alone. They both provide good sounds, but this one was very similar to my Juno 60 synth in layout, which made it appealing.

One thing to consider when emulating a synth with your guitar is that this pedal provides only the sound generation and filtration. It doesn't have an LFO or any other modulation or delay, all of which play a big part in synthesizers. However, I recommend that you use this pedal in conjunction with as many of those effects as possible, and all after the Micro Synth itself. For an LFO, use a vibrato pedal. For chorus and delay, there are plenty of pedal options out there to cover that. The main thing to remember is that playing with just the synth pedal is like playing guitar dry. Part of care and feeding of the Micro Synth is plenty of other effects to emulate the components found on keyboard software.

An update to my previous review - I want to TB this pedal and have had little help from EHX - they stated in an email to me that they "Unfortunately do not have instructions as to how to make the unit bypass from a non bypass unit. Try Analogman.com. He may be able to help."

So can anyone help with this? The unit is great otherwise. Please, email me if you have any idea how to perform the mod - someone mentioned it earlier but his email address is not there.

The sound when bypassed is awful, it is thin and scratchy. Need true bypass!

It seems reliable enough, transporting it locked up in a pedalboard is concerning though.

As I said they couldn't advise on performing a standard and non-risky mod on one of their own products.

Err I'd give it an 8/10, because it's impossible to figure out when you first get it (bought it 2nd hand, didn't get a manual but I hear there's not much point anyway) but once you know what everything does it really easy. Now I change between settings with my toes whilst i'm playing, but you gotta be careful you don't break the sliders

As said before, this works best with hot pickups. I usually use my old strat that i've customised. I ripped out all the electronics, screwed a Gibson 500T into the body and filled the space where the neck and middle pickups should be with the insides of a DS-1. If you turn the DS-1 up and then turn the synth on, it sounds really cool. Canget any sounds from it, to Corgan / Hendrix octave fuzz to a lo-fi bass to a kind of auto wah. It can add loads to solos. If you put a ton of gain on your amp, run your guitar through a distortion pedal before the synth and get loads of feedback, you can alter the frequency settings along with the rate to get really cool sweeping sounds and beeps. I love it! 9/10

It is kinda dodgy, if you stamp too hard on it it cuts out and needs some loving kicks to get it back. However, i never stomp on them hard (what's the point, and i usually play barefoot so i can adjust the settings whilst i play) so this isnt much of a problem. It does take a while to warm up, but it sounds amazing when it has. Sturdy case, even though it's started to rust on the folds, paint scratches easily and the sliders look very delicate, but they shouldn't be that hard to fix or replace. 5/10

E-mailed EH for a .pdf of the manaul. About 3 weeks later they sent me a file with the manuals for every pedal EXCEPT the micro synths. Thanks guys. Hope it never breaks, if it did i'd go to an electrician instead of sending it halfway round the world.

I play mostly loud, fuzzy stuff from the smashing pumpkins, dinosaur jr, mudhoney etc. to zeppelin and hendrix. Really usueful for some stuff, shit for others. If i lost it (don't know how, it's huge) or it was stolen i'd probaby get another but only if I could find one for the same price (new they cost nearly #200 here). True bypass doesnt bother me, I can use a screwdriver and have set up the trim pot - it's not difficult! I would like sturdier sliders but most of all a way of knowing if its on or off! Will probably get it modded soon, but it should come like this.

Not the world's easiest. WHY NO NUMBERS ON THE FADERS!!!!! It is quite easy to tell if you were between 7 and 8, but inbetween two quite far apart line markings? Difficult to us ein that respect. I found that it took a while to get usable tones.

Bypassed it sounds awful - WHY NOT TRUE BYPASS? It beggars belief that pedal makers are still not putting TB in pedals.

Using - Fender Jag into LS2 - that splits off into two circuits - MicroSynth on it's own, and all my other effects (all 10 of them) in another, and amp when bypassed.

IMPORTAAAAAANNNNNTTTTT!!!!!!

You have never lived until you have played this pedal through a blender of some kind, it makes it much more musical and usable. Simply buy a Boss LS2 and put your current effects on A. Then put the Micro on B. Set the pedal to "A+B Mix/Bypass" and set the micro for bowed sound no.4 in the manual. Ok, now put some distortion and flange on your regular effects, and let rip. Is that not the coolest sound you have ever heard? Chords! POWER CHORDS! ON A MICROSYNTH! IT CAN BE DONE!

It can also be blended clean with other tones - I get excited thinking about it.

Teh quality of the sound is well covered in other reviews.

Using it with a valve amp (Peavey Classic 30)

Apparently reliability is dodgy. I would err on caution and give a 5 - it is my first EH pedal.

As above

I play dark Noir-ish acoustic/electric rock/pop/ Think CSN being raped by Sonic Youth with a female vocalist.

I love this pedal and it is ace but YOU GOTTA TRY IT BLENDED< IT IS THE BBBBEEEEESSSSTTTT!!!!!

Anyone out there wanna swap patches or tips? Email me!

Not so easy at first, particularly as stomp boxes go, subtle changes to the controls make very unsubtle changes to the sound. The manual is pretty thin for a box with this much depth, the examples eh provides do help. I got mine in January '04 and it isn't true bypass. It has a little built in pre-amp that boosts treble a little, but it was easy to compensate for with my amp tone controls. It doesn't suck tone, but does change it a little. The pre-amp has to be calibrated for each guitar you play through it so not so great if you switch from singles to bucks, etc.

I'm using this with an SG->eh double muff->microsynth>hiwatt wah->boogie nomad. Putting it after the fuzz is a great move as it treats fuzzed tone differently than clean. I LOVE the sound quality, it's unlike anything else I've heard and the versitility is AMAZING. From crazy-assed distortion to goofy filters, this is the only signal proc I'm using. My only complaint is I'd like to see it with polyphonic octave (it's monophonic now)

So far so good. I haven't had the inconsistancy others here have reported, but I write down all my settings. This is very important as the slightest variance really changes the sound. I wouldn't back it up on a gig since I'm already travelling heavy enough and I can live without it.

I'm using this for rock, on the heavy side. I primarily use it for solos, but there are a couple songs where it's on the whole time.

the sliders are quite touchy and may take a couple of days to get used to. the labels are pretty much self explanitory and they do as they read. the manual offers little more than suggestions to get you started with (so i hear. mine was absent!)

previously to purchasing this box i highly recommend that you use YOUR guitar, or one EXACTLY like it if you are trying it out in a store/shop. i heard some demos of this machine and went ahead and bought one without ever trying it. i already knew what it was capable of. since the purchase, i have used this with 2 guitars. one (single coil) which i use more frequently (Fender Mustang) gives the Micro Synth less to work with than a humbucker (SG copy.) the results differ dramaticly! that being said, it is difficult to get much out of this effect without an extra kick when using a single coil pick-up. with the right set-up (and quick fingers) you may find your distortion/feedback/sustain pedals and octave pedals obsolete. BTW: if your guitar is "hot" enough, tracking is nearly perfect! i suggest active pick-ups.

for what i am doing this effect works very well. (noise/feedback/fuzz/sustain/long, resononant, synth swells.) also, it is really fun to be a guitarist and sound like Rick Wakeman! total fuzzed-out Moog squares! this can drip too. sounds to be speaking. wish i could emulate Mellotron with it but, you can't have everything. i chose to go with the Micro Synth instead of the Line 6 Synth thing based on looks alone (you have to admit that purple "retro" thing is ugly!!!) i have heard that some people do mods for the Micro to give it "true by-pass" and to set the light from always-on-when-the-power-is-on to only when it is stomped (recommended.) i am certain that most players are using this box for there prog/fusion acts. i am using it for more of a lo-fi space-rock. it works well.

Take it out of the wooden case, plug it in and move the switches. It comes with a manual which is very useful. But i like to experimentate so it's just a-easy-to-start-paper.

I am using a strat,tele and a jaguar, so there is not much need to turn the little screw. If you learn how the put the settings you'll have plenty of pedals! Those people who get annoyed by little sounds and cracks: DID YOU READ THE WORD "ANALOG" ???? Next time by a digi/dagi/fx/compu-hifi pedal and don't touch a Electro Harmonix again for the rest of your clean digital life !!! I love the sound this unit provides me!

I am very careful with my stuff,it is a pedal and do not need to drive my over it. It is solid but take care of the switches.

The so called stop frq. swich didn't work.So I contact info@newsensor,and I got a very friendly fast reply.I am living in Belgium so they said I could send the unit to their German repair service and they were very friendly and fast.No extra money paid. Excellent service

I play mith my musical partner our own songs with a bit improvised music in the sprit of Sonic Youth and Ash Ra Tempel with a touch of Joy Division/Kraftwerk,and I can say proudly that this is my favourite pedal. if it broke I will search for another one. Offcourse it is not a bargain,but IT IS A MASTERPIECE !!!!

quite a difficult pedal to get used to but i was synthing within the hour of it being out of the box! it takes time to set up the preamp gain with the guitar ur using but other than that its ok!

this is wher it hits the top! the swells, the bleeps, the shwooshes and the crunch, they all sound brilliant and flawless! the atack delay is brilliant for those bowed sounds!! i have a Holy grail hooked up next to it and when both of them are turned on its like HOLY SHIT!

im paranoid about scraching the paint work!!!! and the sliders seem a little delicate, i will gig without a backup becuz i take good care of my gear and make shure they work properly in advance! i go to evry length to make shure they dont fail me! but becuz its quite xpensive i woulnd be able to afford a backup!

never dealt with them!

brilliant for weird/diffirent/original guitar sounds! i bought it to sound like billy corgan on siames dream but ive noticd it does a hell of a ot more than that!!!!! all in all a brilliant pedal, its a pitty ther discontinuing it in a couple of years!

compared to the navigation of a digital processor, this thing is simple to use, just exeperiment and use your ears. the manual for this thing is o.k. it doesnt really tell you much.

I can get a real fat synth sound with this thing. I use this thing with a true bypass Looper, cause the thing messes with your dry signal and often shuts on and off, a disaster for live performances. there is a little screw on the back to adjust the level I could never find a balance between when the unit was off and when the unit on. This unit has some really good sounds, I just wish they could come out with a digital version of this so I could toggle between sounds.

I had to send mine back to the company because I could not get it to turn back on. They fix these units for free if you pay the shipping. they fixed the problem but the unit still turns on and off so thats why I use it with the loooper.

They were very helpful and fixed the unit for free with no warranty

You can get some great sounds with the pedal but the reliabitly factor is sad. Mine is used not abused. I suppose if you baby this thing it might not develop any problems. When I get the money I am going to buy a roland gr-20 synth. I will still use my micro synth but I will never buy another one if it breaks.

You have to fiddle around with this a lot to know what the sliders do. The very basic setting (which I use quite a bit) is to have all sliders except for the Trig and Attack Delay all the way up, and those two all the way down. From there, experiment and see what all the sliders do. It's a matter of personal preference as to what sounds you like, there are a lot of good ones.
Minus a point for the adaptor. What the hell? If it breaks, you can replace it unlike the AC cord on my Memory Man. But you can only replace it with another EH adaptor.

Epiphone Wildkat + Hagstom I -> Microsynth -> EH Big Muff (vintage) -> Boss TU-2 -> EH Small Clone (reissue) -> EH Small Stone (Russian) -> EH Memory Man (vintage) -> Ernie Ball Volume -> Line 6 DL-4 -> Gibson Discoverer and Fender Ultimate Stereo Chorus. This box plays very nicely with all my other EH effects, even when they're all turned on at once.
Watch out how you use the octave-up and square wave sliders. With both all the way up and the amp cranked, it can hurt my ears. I usually back off the volume if I'm using both up.
Don't think you'll suddenly be playing a synthesizer if you've got one of these. It's basically a distortion with octave up and down, an attack delay, and a filter section. You can get synthesizer-LIKE sounds, but no one's going to mistake it for a Moog. That said, I love the sound anyway. I use it like a sophisticated distortion. With all the voice sliders up, you get a fat and amazing sound. I also use this as a bass imitator when I'm doing loops (just putting the octave down and filter ones all the way up, the rest all down) and blend in various voices with the distortion to get good tones. It does get a bit muddy with chords, but if you leave the filter section alone you can definitely play fifths and octaves. My favorite uses for it were above the 12th fret, which made me wish my guitars had more than 22 frets. If you turn down the start frequency and turn the attack delay up, you can get some more synth-y sounds. But I've had this for a few months and am just now starting to get a hang on the filter section.

It does take a minute or two to "warm up", but so do tube amps so that's ok. Still, it's an EH product, and although mine have been good to me, I've heard a few horror stories. So although mine hasn't quit yet, I wouldn't be surprised if it did.

Never had to contact them, I've always been able to fix any minor problems I've had with EH myself.

I'm going to give this an 8 because I really love this pedal. The only ones I stomp on more are my Big Muff and my DL-4. It's got a nice fat sound, and I usually kick it on during solos and such. Still, it's complicated, and I didn't get a manual with mine so I had no idea what anything did until I started playing around with it.
I'm considering getting a second one, if I can get a deal, so I can use one for synth-y stuff and one as a straight distortion. But I also might just get a Whammy pedal, because that also does octave up and down (in fact, 2 octaves up or down).
Overall verdict: good, but you shouldn't expect more from this pedal than it's capable of.

Not hard to use after a a month or two. You need to know its limitations. It won't give you those metal sounds, unless you chose to slap the strings. It will give you fat, warm, and bewow tones for most applications. Lots of cheesy, fuzzy, spacey tones that you might not want. You have to find about two or three settings, because the unit hates to be adjusted. Great noise gate that does too good of a job, I will collaborate.

Once you have found your two or three favorite tones, you will rate it a nine or ten. The built in noise gate will eliminate noise from an active bass that has treble noise issues. The problem seems to be with the unit adding its own fuzzy noises, when its not warmed up. It is almost as if it needs 15 minutes or so to wake-up out of its slumber. You will have to be careful with your settings, and limit them to four or less so that you can zero them in. The problem is that you can get too much crap in between the real deal.

I would think that this will last for ten to twenty years, based on the past reviews that I have read. Lets hope so, because I now cannot play without it. I would have to search for a digital unit, or maybe two to replace this one.

I would not try to contact customer support. I have learned that the company has stopped making this unit, because they no longer have the transistors to make or repair them. Don't waste your time, throw it away and buy a used one.

I like this box for the two or three effects that I can get out of it. It has lots of distorton, fuzzy, or twangy sounds that are useless. The built in noise gate could probably quite the worst amplifier or screwed-up bass eq. I need it for the phat and that's that.

It doesn't take long to get *a* sound out of it. As far as good sounds that usually takes a bit of tweaking with the filters and voice mix. The most difficult thing to set properly is the trigger or "trig". The grading next to the sliders is nice and it's nice that they are linear, not circular.
The tracking is okay for single notes. Definitely the most difficult aspect of this pedal. You have to really play clean, but there's nothing wrong with that.
5ths and octaves track fairly well. Other intervals are sort of useless harmonically speaking, but can create some weird noises.
You have to memorize your patches and get good at changing them swiftly. To do this you pretty much have to stop playing.

Worked better with my strat on the neck pickup with the tone rolled all the way off.
The octave is pretty much useless. I can't figure out why they put distortion on the octave instead of just letting you distort it yourself.
The square wave is not a square wave at all, but just saturation distortion. Your guitar's harmonics are still present. Don't expect it to sound like a square wave. I wish it really was a square wave. Rolling off your tone knob will help here.
The filter is pretty good. Bandpass/stop would be nice. Of course, that would make the qtron obsolete.
If the filter responded smoothly to playing dynamics it would be infinitely better. Instead it just has a threshold and the filter envelope is full on or off depending on how hard you play.
I used this in an electro band and it could make some really nice bloops and zaps.
Our keyboard player had a couple of synths so unfortunately this really paled in comparison.
The thing about it that I don't like is that whenever you use bends of vibrato it just sounds like you're playing a guitar and trying to sound like a synth. I would almost inveriably rather hear a guitar or a real synth.
Using it for voice has produced some interesting effects.
Using it on bass guitar has produced one of the funkiest plunk bass I have ever heard.
Using it on electronic beats can be very good.
Other effects obviously expand it's possibilities immensely.
While I personally find it rather limited, for the things that it can do, I give it a 9.

I could depend on it for about 6 months after I bought it new.
It's now so finnicky I can't even be bothered trying most of the time.

Never dealt with them.

For the price I paid I was expecting it to be a lot better. I was too quick to buy this pedal. For $400+ CDN, they could have packed a lot more into this- I bought a JX-8P synth for $500 CDN and they are not even in the same league.
I suppose I wish I had tried an Octavia.

I have had this unit for a few years now and its grow with me so to speak. I play a Gibson SG with a couple soapbar pickups and a Les that is really my choice guitar, I had to tinker a bit with it to clean up the initial buzz. It's pretty straight forward although the amp I used didn't care for it too much so I compressed it and now they get along just fine.

My setup runs a bit like this:
Les Paul ES>DunlopWah>MetalZone>MICROSYNTH>DynaComp>Rotovibe>MonoVol>
ABY>>Champ30 and FenderAcousticsonicSFX
It was a bit harsh on my amp(which isn't really made for it but whatever itll take it) but like i said i compressed it.
I mostly use it for its funk bass quality. I'll trip it out sometimes with a slow sweep. But i like to work up a good bubbly bass filter. The Octave sucks. And I don't usually use its crunch although if things get heavy and I throw on the crunchie it plays nicely off the rez.

Some other guy hear mentioned that you have to give it alittle time to warm up and i think thats about right. Some times when i get set for a jam itll crap out and ill have to make love to it a bit, this low buzzing sound kicks in and my signal falls off the deep end. But a few minutes later it would give me shit at all. Ill rate that a 6 because i play live thats what i love and if it can't be johnny on the spot than its a 6

I don't know im sure they are nice people

Its a solid flavor in my line up. Its hard to adjust mid thought you know to a different sound while the grooves going but its a solid sound. Go to your local music store and bug the guy so you can check it out. If you live in the boonies go online EH has a whole bunch of sound files thatll give you a taste.

Read the manual if you have one. It just takes time to figure out the features of your synth. It's not very hard to use. My unit is an original and not a reissue.

I've used this unit with several amps, including a Yamaha G100, Peavey Renown, and a Acoustic 150 6x10. I have a variety of guitars to use with this, these are some of them. Charvel strat, Gibson Les Paul deluxe, SG deluxe w/Bigsby, Gibson RD Artist, and a Bradley Epiphone Broadway copy. The effects sound good when it working properly.

I would like to say I could depend on it but unfortunatly I cant. All EH units that I know of sound very well but are built poorly with very week metal housing for a foot controled effect. If you use these things a lot they tend to fall apart and bend up. My unit no longer works properly now, probably because of poor construction. One day I was using it and out of knowhere a loud low frequency buzz and hum came from the unit. I'm afraid to try and use it anywhere live now.

I like the sound and tried to get it fixed. But EH was not much help. They told me they only repair new (reissue) units. I did e-mail them. What am I to do with this synth now. Very expensive stomp box not to be using. I bought mine original when they where first introduced.

I play Contemporary Christian, but the synth can be used in many settings. I've been playing 30 plus years and have used many EH products. I dont think I would buy another one. I wish you could play chords with this unit. It's fun to use when it's working right. EH really needs to build a more sturdy package in their products.

Newbies won't get it, but if you know what you're doing, it's not that hard. The manual helps, though

I have a PRS standard, old Fender Mustang, and new Strat with silver, red, red (from neck to bridge) Lace Sensors. I use a mid Eighties JCM 800. It sounds best with single coils, if you use humbuckers you'll have to tinker with screws. Overall, it sounds great. It's all analog baby, no new-age, sci-fi, GIT geek digital. Very warm, never flat. I wish it sounded better with chords and the octave effect is really nonexistant, but overall it's great.

It hasn't broke down, and I don't know of many people who have a backup analog synth anyways.

no problems here, either.

It sounds great for getting whacked out tone for solos. It's also nice with my Small Stone, Fender Blender, or Electric Mistress. The possiblities are really endless. It's no good for rhythm players, but more for the experimental lead guitarist. I wish it had more of an octave effect, but that's what my Blender is for, hehe. All in all, a very spiffy pedal from the gurus of effects. EH RULES!!!!!!!!

This is a pretty easy box to figure out, even if you are not familiar with the terms, but the manual helps with that. Even without the manual, it's cake.

I've found this to be pretty quiet in all the applications i've used it in, including guitar and using it with a mic and trumpet.

You can get some very koo little sounds out of this, but it's not a be-all end-all synth/filter box, and no one should look to it to be that. If you want that, get a Sherman Filter Bank. But you can and will get some very useful sounds out of it if that is what you want. It can also just be a great distortion unit.

No problems so far.

Never needed cust supp from e-h.

I play music, and hopefully enjoyable music. If you are looking to make forward sounding sounds, well then anything that you use can help you. And this can help you if it fallows your sound. This is one of the most fun boxes I've ever owned, and for what it is, I love it. Some people do not like this pedal among others because they can not get the sound of someone else on it. To you, do not play music. Ok?

If you can't get a good sound out of it then you are a retard. It's pretty easy to get a good sound out of it because there's limitless amounts of sound you can get from it. Havn't got the manual yet guitar center is ordering it for me. I am sure it will open up even more possibilities.

I play this throgh a tripple rectifier and either a Ibanez S7420 or my PRS. The pedal is not a bit noisey and always sounds great it actually sounds gated when you aren't playing it. I can make this sound like a lot of other artists but I aminly baught it to create my own sound which is what this pedal is amazing for.

So far it works fine but I've heard EH pedals can sometimes be unreliable but I am taking good care of it.

havn't delt with them yet...

I play expiramental heavy/alternative rock, and am very influenced by Michael Einzinger and it fits that very well. If i lost it i'd prolly buy it again. I don't really dislike anything about it except I kinda wish it had an expression pedel with it. It's very usefull if you are creative but if you aren't creative and still like effects just get some digital stuff that's aleady been preset but if you like to be the creator then by all means this is a good pedal for you.