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.

Right when i saw it, i liked its looks, even when i bought it i thought it was awsome, but one thing, i didnt get a manual with it, i emailed electro harmonix, but they havent replyed yet, but i was experimenting for about 20 minutes, and the sounds this box can give are amazing, i really really like it.

the sounds are crazy, i really like the noise it makes sometimes too.

just bought it, hope it works forever.

i love it!

It took me about a month before I got down to understanding the pedal, I also had some help from analog synth publications, since it is a whole different language.

I had to use mine directly into my amp. I am a guitarist not a mule, so I have a Tech 21 which is a decent amp. It sounds great once it is appropriately set up.

Nothing in front and nothing behind this thing, it will distort at the slightest current increase and the dial in the back is not very helpful for speedy gain adjustments, so basically no ax switching on the stage. However, all conditions optimum, it will sound great almost anywhere,once I got with the program I was almost always able to control it.

N/A

I played just about anything from tropical music (the choppy percussive sounds you get with this device are specially useful) to fast,furious, trash music mooooooooogggg. It was good for just about anything once I learned how to use the dials. I got away a few times simulating a bass line with this thing.

its take some time to figure it out, not out of the box into the arena type of thing...
manual help alot.

this thing kicks ass!

the sliders r fregile

i didnt have the manual.contarct brian in eh and he send it right away.really cool

Not to easy at first but once you've got the hang of what each slider does you wonder why all other pedals don't use this approach to change filters, volumes, pitches, octaves it gives it a visual representation and looks really cool to.

analogue heaven, exactly how it should sound. all the crackles and bubbly sparkley warmness that makes you smile. really cool reverse sounds not to clear but thats not what its about. Warning do not listen to the midijunkie fool somewhere on this page if you are musically minded then this is a neccessary purchase unless you have a moog synth

hasn't broken yet

change your sound!!!

Pulling it out of its wooden habitat I could already create some cool tones, But because my guitar uses humbuckers i had to adjust a screw on the back of the synthesizer to make it sound clear and crisp. If you do this right you shouldn't get any noise like a lot of people were complaning about. After reading th manual I could identify what each controll did and make even cooler sounds. But at first you have to wing it

I am currently using a B.C. Rich Bich into a peavey 15 watt and it sounds awesome. I can create water drop like sounds and long drawn out filter sweeps. Once in a while if you listen real closely you can hear a radio station coming through when the filter sweep is engaged but it is barely noticable. My only gripe is that the octave control doues little but add harmonic overtones (Not a bad thing) but I was hopping for it to create a octave effect like it is supose to do. The filter sweep some times stops cutting off the sound when you let the note ring out, especially on the higher notes (high B and E). Otherwise I like the sounds that you can create with it.It alsow hase trouble trackin chords so i would use it mainly for lead.

As long as you let it warm up for about 7 minutes before use and you don't stomp and kick it around you could use it in a gig without andy trouble.

don't no,hope I won't have to.

I play rock/metal/industrial and this thing is a perfect match, even more so if you run it into a distortion pedal. I use a DOD Deathmetal Distortion and together they make a metal synth sound (powerman 5000) sound. If it was stolen I would hunt down the person who stole it and force them to play country music for the rest of there lives( I would buy a new one if it were stolen). I really wish it tracken chords better (especially power chords because I use them almost primaraly).

This unit is fairly easy to use out of the box, The controls are well layed out and self explanitory. I plugged it in turned it on and in a matter of minutes I was able to make my guitar sound like a moog. Since this a purely analog device, there are no tricky buttons or menus to deal with. There are 10 faders, a power switch and a bypass button. The 10 faders are layed out like a graphic equalizer. The first fader is 'Trig' trigger for short, it acts like a threshold adjustment. The next group of faders is your voice mix: Sub-octave, guitar (unprocessed signal), octave and square wave. Next is the attack delay fader, this is handy when you want to produce an 'e-bow' like sound. The last group is the filter section consisting of resonance, start frequency, stop frequency and rate. The filter section in conjunction with the trig adjustment allows you to make those cool sweeping filter effects. I am going to give the ease of use a 9 because the average joe might not know what that silver button on the lower right does, because it doesn't tell you on the unit itself.

I used a Fender Stratocaster with single coil pickups and didn't have to delve into the process of gain adjustment which requires a tiny screwdriver and an ear for distortion, not my bag. First I plugged it into my Fender twin reverb amp, the sound was warm and lush, I didn't really notice any coloration of the guitar's sound when the unit was in bypass mode. Next I plugged the output of the unit into a Millenia STT-1 origin mic pre/DI. I noticed a tiny bit of idle noise out of the unit, again it is an analog device and i did have compression enabled. Without compression the noise is barely noticable. There is some sort of gating circuit built in that helps keep the noise down. As far as the sound quality going direct, it is more harsh sounding but that analog fatness is still there even when I had my STT-1 in FET (solid state) mode. The sweeping filter sounds great from a quick wet slap to a long swell. It is a good idea to learn to play one note at a time especially when sub-octave or octave voices are being used, they don't track multiple notes too well. Although, drop D power chords do sound pretty fat and the octave voices were able track them. The only quirk I found that this box has is if you turn the filter rate all the way down and sub octave voice is being used, there is sort of a 'popping' noise that is made when the sweep filter is triggered. That problem can be remedied by either turning the filter rate up a little more or just turn the sub-octave voice down. Another funky issue is the trig adjustment, if it's set too high, the filters trigger and keep triggering yeilding a sci-fi space war sound. All quirks aside, the variety of sounds that this box is able to produce is pretty amazing. I was able to get a nine inch nails thrash distortion to a pink floyd synth swell and all points in between. I am going to give the sound quality a rating of 8, this is due to the popping noise, and the dynamics are a bit tricky to master, one must have dynamic control of his or her guitar playing. Or one could just use a compressor.

I mostly use this unit in my studio, I will take it with me to jam sessions every now and then. No matter where I use this thing, it turns on every time, it has never failed on me. I don't want to put too much stock into that because I only had this unit for about six months. I have a freind who has had his micro synth for about eight years and it still works. Being the backup freak I am, I would take a backup. No matter how reliable I think a peice of equipment is, I always have a backup of some sort. I going to give a perfect 10 for reliability for I have heard nothing about the unit failing.

Never needed it. A good thing?, yes

I write and record my own music, electronica. I have been playing for about 11 years. I like keeping up with the latest and greatest technology along with the oldest and funkiest vintage tube equipment. I like using vintage equipment, It keeps my style of music a little more honest sounding. I am not saying electronica is not an honest form of music, I am saying that electronica doesn't have to be 100% sythesized and sequenced. Therefore the Electro-Harmonix micro synth is a very useful unit to have in the studio. It allows me to put some expressiveness in my music. I mainly have it going direct via a Millenia STT-1 origin DI directly into my digidesign digi001. I use that configuration because the STT-1 has a built in compressor and parametric EQ. It never hurts to put a little bit of flange or chorus in the chain, it sounds good for lead synth sounds. I do wish it had the ability to save and recall presets, but that's just me, I don't expect Electro-Harmonix to add that ability to there line of products, after all thats what makes them who they are, purely analog. Other than the few quirks that can be worked around with out a lot of fuss, I have three complaints: 1) I HATE WALLWARTS!!!, again, thats me talking. The unit doesn't run on batteries, you need to use the wallwart power supply. 2) There is no visible indication of whether the effect is bypassed or not. 3) The manual isn't really detailed, although it does contain some templates for getting to know the unit a little better. That I thought was useful.
Overall the micro synthesizer is a powerful guitar synth that can find its niche in any studio or live rig and its not too expensive. I am going to give an overall rating of 9.

Once you understand the function of each control element, the thing is quite obvious to control. The manual is very helpful on this task. If you're not a technical person, you might need some exercising at the beginning.

In my opinion, the sound quality is good. Of course there are some difficulties in tracking the signal for producing the lower octave, triggering off the sweep and so on. But this is mainly a matter of adjustments. In general the sounds are of a good quality and the noise is low.
The thing I really missed on this box was a true bypass! The bypass signal is quite weak and cuts off some higher frequencies. But since I'm an electronics and the built- in switch is an DPDT already, the modification was done within a few minutes. After that, the problem was the weak synth signal compared to the bypass signal. I had to replace a resistor in order to be able to get the synthesizer signal as strong as the bypass signal. At the end it is fine now, but this is not a job, a user of this box should have to do.

The case is made of steel and the ciruit boards are mounted in a solid way. I've owned the thing for a few weeks now, so I can't really tell, but I guess the reliability should be quite good.

No experience yet, sorry.

This little box is really amazing! Without having to bother about mounting a hex- pickup into your guitar, you're able to produce quite weird sounds. With my two mods (see above) I'm also able to bypass it without it affecting the signal and in addition can adjust the output signal level to my needs. I'd definitly buy it again! :-))

A lot of experiementation is needed. If you don't have much patience,
then this thing is not for you.

This thing is wicked awesome. If you like space-aged trippy sounds, this pedal is a must. If you watch the Pink Floyd's Live at Pompeii
concert, one of the scenes in the studio shows David Guilmor tinkering
around with one of these. They are fun little gadjets.

This pedal is cool. Buy it. You will like it unless you're a digital
freak.

Right out of the box (nice wood box I might add) I was already getting some cool sounds from it. I bought it to try to get some analog Moog synth sounds. The controls take some getting used to, but with any pedal, you gotta just sit on the floor with it and mess with all the settings till you find what you like.

I just ditched my Zoom3030 so I could build an analog effects rig. Right now I'm just running it by itself. I think it would sound great with a phase or flange over it (Small Stone perhaps). I'm just playing a Fender Toronado and a Crate GFX-212 and it sounds great. You can't match a Moog 100% but it sure does bring the word Moog to mind. By only problems have been getting the filter sweep to sound perfect and the notes don't sustain as long as the guitar does. You can get some notes to hold but then it just stops as though you had muted the strings.

I just got it a few months ago, it's made out of a very thin sheet metal (I think). Like any other pedal, don't abuse it and it should last. It's definatley not a Danelectro (I've heard stories of tumbles down steps without so much as a dent).

I haven't had it bust on me yet, the manual lays out the controls but you really just have to experiment to understand how it works.

I use it for those moments in songs where you would like a nice synthy keyboard riff without the hassle of adding a keyboardist to your band. I've been playing for 6 years and it's the most unique pedal that still has practical applications. I bought it to get a Moog synth sound, and I've got something close enough. My only real problem with it is the lack of sustain. But it lasts long enough to play a riff. You couldn't hold a note like a keyboardist could. All in all I think it serves my purpose. New gear is always inspiring.

See below.

This is an update of my 4/28/00 review. First, I've tried the Micro Synth with my acoustic set up and it rules. Who would have thought. I like it because I can get a good low octave and some distortion to do leads and bass lines, not to mention the other whacked out tones that live within this box. See below for the rest.

This is the third E-H pedal I've owned that has developed a problem when engaging the damned on/off switch. (The unit will not completely turn on once in a while and create static). The other two were a long since traded Electric Mistress and a Q-Tron that I currently have. The MicroSynth and the Q-Tron are only about four months old and I do not mistreat my gear, so I wonder about the quality control aspect of the E-H production facility. Anyone else find this to be a problem? Please put it print.

When I first hooked it up in Sam Ash, I got some cool effects. enough to buy it any how. But when I took it home and tried one of the pre-set lead synth sounds WOW! Sounded a little "gimicky" , but it was still an awesome sound. You can get that Dr. Who theme music sound from it. After using the pre-sets I went from there and made some cool sounds myself. You can get flute like sounds out of it at high frets if set right. very nice pedal. Isn't very good at tracking cords usualy. My other guitar player in my band got another cool sound out of it that we call an "under water cove sound". Overall great pedal, But it isn't actually as diverse as electrp- harmonix makes it out to be. Still it's a great pedal and i would recomend it to anyone who is doing any kind of experimental music. Very trippy sounding.

its a little noisy, but then again it is an analog effect. Effects usaully sound great, although it depends on what your looking for. I'm not using a great amp. I have a Crate grx65. But my other guitar player runs it through a Marshall stack, sounds fucking amazing. I listen to all types of music I'm not a huge Smashing Pumpkins fan but you can definately get Siamese Dream era sound out of it.

Ive personally never had a problem w/any electro- harmonix stuff. I also own a big muff and a small stone, but I heard they can be a problem sometimes.

Overall great pedal.

The manual for the reissue model gets you on a good start, giving a quick description of each slider and also includes settings for you to try out and modify. They are extremely helpful when you first start playing around with it. You might be a little confused at first, but after trying out some of the settings in the manual and changing them around to achieve more useful sounds, you will soon figure out what each slider does. You'll be a pro before you know it.

I run My Gibson SG straight into the micro synth, then if desired through another effect or two (such as my MXR flanger) then into my Marshall JCM2000 40 watt tube combo. The clarity of the tone depends on how high you set the filter resonance and frequency pair, if you set them too low you will get a muddy mess. Attack delay gets a nice reverse effect. I wish this thing had an master output slider though, because the volume can change radically based on how you mix the 4 voices (sub octave, guitar, ocave, fuzz). Not noisy at all, only if you leave the filter open on a high frequency, which you usually won't do. You can get a wide variety of tones with this thing, like percussive 80's synth tones, organs, funky sweeps, and some slight ring modulation when you start playing multiple notes high on the neck, depending on how its set. You can get even more when you add more effects into the signal. Tube overdrive can do some great things along with the micro synth; it can emphasize the octaving effect or make it sound like an old synth horn. Or it can take the character of the micro synth, and sort of "guitarize" or less synth-like and make a completely different sound. Try a flanger too. The bypassed tone is very flat and I highly suggest a true-bypass mod or put it in a true-bypass chain. It completely kills your clean sound. This thing isn't exactly hi-fi.

I can't really say much here, I don't gig and I baby my gear. It seems good enough if you watch out for it, but I don't think you could stomp on it or dump cheap beer all over it, like what an MXR could take.

Havn't had problems, heard EH is great.

I'm willing to try new and weird stuff and this is a very cool box. Nothing like it, in its price range at least. I'm into a variety of stuff including Luna, Superchunk, led Zep and Smashing Pumpkins, so I guess the micro synth could at least fit in with the Pumpkins. I think Billy uses one actually. I don't listen to that Creed garbage they play on the teen-rock stations. I've been playing for 5 years and I own a crybaby wah (essential to my "songwriting", if you wanna call it that), original EH small stone phaser (my favorite! Also essential), original MXR flanger, ProCo Rat (cool when all I had was a transy amp, but once I got a tube amp it stopped sounding so cool and is now only used for extremely high gains that my marshall cannot reach), DOD TEC4 (first effects unit, crap), and a Boss Flanger (pretty much crap too). Since I don't have my eyes set on anything else I'd probably buy the synth again if it were lost or stolen. I love its uniqueness and versatility. Wish it had a master output control though. Overall a fine kick-ass box. Check out my Micro synth site and submit some settings!
http://robzerker.tripod.com/microsynth

I just got it today and have already figured out at least three totally tripped out and usable settings that I can say I'll come back to, so that's easier to use than I was expecting. The manual helps get you into a ballpark but I began adjusting from there to get more what I prefer. If my opinion changes after a while, I'll revise my review.

Gibson Nighthawk > Micro Synth > Q-Tron > Z. Vex Seek Wah > front end of Flextone XL and Line 6 Modulation and Delay Modelers > to the loop. The Micro Synth doesn't seem to be all that noisy, not even close to what I was anticipating. It seems to depend on how much Square Wave is added and there is a slight tracking noise (no more than with any octaver I've used) which is acceptable. I found the Garcia tone from 1978 when old Jer played the Close Encounters theme (for you Deadheads out there, if you're not, watch the movie) when you kick on the Q-Tron. It seems that most of the reviews I've read are from Smashing Pumpkins type players and since I'm not really into them, I can't relate to those descriptions, but the Micro Synth seems to be a pretty versatile pedal. Anyone who's into adventurous tonal wanderings could probably make it work for them. Again, I'm just learning with this but already get a good vibe from it.

One day and it's still working, whoop-dee-doo! I'm going to be an optimist even though I've had a problem with an E-H Electric Mistress. It seems to be pretty well built but I'll be more careful with it than other pedals from other manufacturers.

Hope I don't ever need 'em.

I'm the folkadelic, jam-based guy who also plays the Dead, Floyd, classic '60's/'70's rock and anything else that inspires me and while I doubt I'll use this in my acoustic set up, I feel pretty sure that I'll get a lot of good use from this pedal. After 20+ years of jamming I've probably sent many pedal manufacturers on vacation with all the gear I've bought and traded. I already LIKE the Micro Synth a lot for its variety to tonal options and trippy sounds. I don't believe there's anything out there to compare this thing with as far as pedals go (the MXR Blue Box doesn't even come close) and I chose the Micro Synth for no other reason than I wanted to add strange, octave-type, otherworldly, mindbending, eyelid movie creating tones to my set up. Why else would anyone want this thing?

It's not for idiots. But it's a guitar pedal---play with it for a while and it can do some fresh stuff.

I have 12 analog effects patched in a series and don't have any problems with noise. the electro harmonix reissues are very nice. the effects on the micro synth can be very harsh---this is a good thing. Don't be a copycat---this pedal can help you get something unique.

No backup. Just don't dump beer on it or jump on it. the EH stuff is great and reliable.

Man, this thing is simple, 10 sliders that are all labeled and everything. Those who have experience in analog instruments will have no problem figuring this thing out.

This thing is noisy, but that's precisely why I love it! You can get some pretty mean filter sweeps, fuzzed-out low-register synth sounds, an auto-wah sound, etc. It's packed with electronic fuzz! The sliders are all responsive and sensitive to the slightest tweak. Occasionally, a note will be sliced or sound choppy, but that's prolly cuz I tune down to hell.

I can without a doubt depend on it. Hello, sheet metal...

Haven't had to deal with them and, with this pedal, it doesn't look like I'll have to.

In case, you haven't figured it out already, this is my favorite pedal of all time. I'll never give this up. I play industrialtrancegoth (heh) so this thing is perfect. It would be cool if it had even a couple user patches to store some sounds, but that's nothing. Prop this up on a table and play with the sliders in real time. The microsynth is heaven. If it was per-chance stolen, I would condemn the stealer to hell, cry, cry some more, stare at my electro-harmonix sticker for solace, jump off a skyscraper, then buy another one...

You know the deal with this pedal- separate pitch transposer/fuzzbox/mixer, attack delay, and filter sections. This pedal is not the easiest to use. Like any other analog synth product, you have to experiment with it to get really useful sounds out of it. Of course, you can get gimmicky sounds out of right out of the box, especially with their presets. But for really USEFUL sounds, be prepared to spend some time, and frustration, to get some sounds that are really rewarding.

Problems- very noisy, noisegate that can be very annoying and obvious,sound quality is only soso, can definitely be temperamental, and definitely keep it out of your signal path. When I first got it I tried to return it, but decided after trying the moogerfooger lowpass filter to hang on to it. This box definitely ha some good things going for it. First off is the ADSR properties. The attack delay is really useful at about 1.5 for taking off the telltale pick noise of the guitar signal. And the filter, when set for fast decay, and zero for the cutoff freq acts can really change the decay fo your sound. The octave up and fuzz sounds combined can get a really good timbre, and when you use the attack delay and set the Q control of the filter to around 5-7, you get rid of the obnoxious harshness of the fuzz, and just get a really unguitarlike warm round sound.
So what am I really saying here? There are some real possibilities here for cool sounds. But keep your mind open. Theres a lot more here than porno synth sounds. in combination with flanging, ring modulation, delay, and other effects, there is a lot of possibilities. Having said all that, though, the sound quality of this unit will never be as good as a pro-level filter. Sounds like a love/hate relationship, eh? It is- short of going full midi, there is no sub for the microsynth that I know of, but damn, I wish there were.

Very finnicky machine. The real problem with it is the sensitivity of the input. With an uncompressed guitar, it can be hard to play at consistently the right volume level to make chords trigger the filters, etc. And, it is shoddily enough built that I would expect it to break down on me at any time. But, it hasn't done so yet, which I guess is pretty good. Until I can afford a sherman filterbank or a mutator, the microsynth will be right next to me.

Never dealt with em. *Hope* I don't have to.

I play acid jazz/ drum'n'bass stuff, and in a lot of ways the microsynth is really useful. The filter is pretty decent, not real high-end, but still useful. Some of the lead sounds I've gotten have really kicked ass too. As long as I have it and it works, I will use it. But as I upgrade, I plan to use it less and less. If you are a guitarist interested in electronic sounds, you owe it to yourself to try one out.

This effect definitely is not real easy to use. The 10 controls are very interactive as one slider will often effect how another reacts. But once you figure out what each control does, (which becomes obvious after awhile of fooling around with it and from looking at what the controls are called) the unit becomes fairly easy to use. It just has a bit of a learning curve. For me one of around a few hours but for some it may take a few days. Still even so it's pretty easy to come up with something very cool sounding by just randomly moving around the sliders. Mine was used so it didn't come with a manual, but come to think of it, I don't think they come with a manual new either. However I hear that the Sovtek customer support is quite good.

Mine is one of the reissues and I must say that the sound quality is OUTSTANDING. I tried a MXR Blue Box which was recommended to me as a good guitar synth pedal, but I found it to sound horrible with very little control or use for more conventional forms of music. The MXR Blue Box sounded more like the DOD Buzz Box I used to own. What I've been looking for years for was a device that would allow me to play fast, hard hitting analog synth sounds on a guitar for techno and industrial type music. NOT something for just making noise like the Blue Box and Buzz box seem to be made for. I bought a Roland GR-1 but the tracking just sucked way too bad on the synth sounds (though the tracking was alright on some sounds like the flute and trumpet patches). I spent months fooling around with different settings on the GR-1 as well as trying different guitars but I just couldn't seem to improve the tracking.
So I sold it. Then about a month ago I stumbled upon a EH Microsynth at a guitar shop in Austin TX. I had heard good things about it, but had never seen one played or tried one out before. So I tried it. WOW!!! I fell in love with it right there. That was the processor I've been searching for. The tracking is fantastic. No long delays between the time you hit a note and the time you hear it. You hear the note right away. Thus it allows me to play big fat analog synth sounds along to fast paced rhythms very nicely. You have to set the attack and other settings properly for that type of sound of coarse. The beauty of this pedal is that it's capable of more then just fat analog synth-bass sounds. You can get all kinds of other useful analog synth sounds as well and the sound changes a lot depending on the pickup you use and if you palm mute your notes. If you turn the trigger slider all the way down and raise the square wave, sub-octave, octave, and stop freq. controls all the way up, you get a massive fuzz from hell that will put a smile on any Smashing Pumpkins fan's face.
Also what amazes me is that the unit is dead quiet and there is no pops when you hit the bypass switch. Ok a few negative comments. The bypassed sound sounds kinda dull so it's probably not a true bypass.
But it's not too bad and probably not noticeable if you're not doing any ,major clean guitar stuff during gigs. My other gripe is that this thing is delicate. (see below)

I bought it used and two of the slider tips were broken (which the seller told me about) They still work and all but their top half is gone. They really should have made metal sliders or something a little sturdier. Aside from that it seems fairly robust and many of the originals are still out there working just fine. As far as a backup...well I can't afford another one and no one makes anything like this pedal in it's price range or cheaper. But if I could afford a backup I would have one just because it's good to have a backup of any essential item during a gig.

I haven't needed it though I will contact them soon regarding future possibilities for an improved Microsynth pedal. I've heard that Sovtech is a very responsive company

If you're into Techno, Industrial, or Industrial/Metal type music, this pedal is a must have. Seriously. Once you hear it I almost guarantee you'll fall in love with it. The charm of EH products is that they not only sound good, they just feel good. They have a very organic sound to them. It's been described as "a high quality cheezy sound".
I sold my original EH Small Stone Phaser pedal awhile back and have been regretting it ever since. But I am extremely happy with this pedal. I also have an original '83 Big Muff pedal that I wouldn't trade for the world.
Overall the Microsyth is really an outstanding product if you like analog synth sounds but want to play them on a guitar. It just feels absolutely incredible slamming out viscous analog synth-bass lines on my low slung Flying V guitar through a cranked bass amp. I play keyboard as well and my Ensoniq SQ-80 has great analog type synth sounds but I much prefer to play my guitar through this pedal. Plus during gigs it'll make guitarists in the audience wonder what in the hell you are using to get those bitchin' synth sounds.
So if you want to add a new dimension to your sound on stage, or if you want to spice up your recordings then definitely check this pedal out. Just try one out, play around with the sliders and you'll hear what I am talking about.

If you want to hear some MP3 sample recordings that I recorded of the EH Microsynth in action, check out my Microsynth web page at:
http://www.onlinerock.com/musicians/chrisg/EHmicrosynthMP3samples.html

If you check out the samples try to play them through some decent speakers because they have alot of juicy bass frequencies on them.
Let me know what you think of them.
Thanks!

Chris G.

This is a review for the reissue model. I've not touched or seen an original.

I consider myself pretty savvy with stuff like this, getting down to the nitty-gritty of sound generation and whatnot (i learned to program on a yamaha 4-op synth, so analog stuff is normally cake). So my perception of ease of use may be different than a guy who just plays guitar and owns a few stompboxes... Nonetheless, I have to admit that I had difficulty getting the filter to work right initially. Once I figured out what was going on with the trigger threshold, no problems.

This box really isn't as complicated as it looks, so once you have a basic concept of how to set your trigger level, what the filter controls do, and what sound comes out of each voice in the mix section, you should be set. I would guess you're looking at a couple or three hours playing with the thing, it's not a plug-it-in-and-go kind of setup. You'll need to fiddle with sliders for a while before it will make you go "hmmmm."

The Micro Synth sounds pretty damned good. Since it is an analog device, and it's being driven with a pitch signal only, you can expect a bit of breathy grunge at times as the gate opens and closes on a signal. But it sounds way more hi-fi than my MXR Blue Box (not necessarily a good thing).

Triggering of the waveforms and filter is pretty fast, if not 100% accurate, but again, what do you expect? A lot of people WANT this thing for the unpredictability... but I find it disappointing in the random-music arena. You can expect a little bit of low-end FWOOHOFOFHWOOO and wacky filter retriggering if you slam down a full A chord and hold it, but this thing really isn't as much of a "synth" as it asserts, so the "what the hell is it doing?" factor is lower than some might assume.

What do I mean, it's not as much of a synth...? As best I can tell, only the sub octave wave is truly generated, and that's not very useful by itself-- the filter has very little effect on it. The "octave" voice seems to be the guitar signal through some sort of bandpass filter, and the octave doesn't really kick in until you're up fairly high on the B or E string. The "square wave" is really just a highly compressed fuzz (sounds good, though). The other voice is, well, straight guitar, and I don't find that to be terribly affected by the filter either. Manual claims that the three "generated" voices can only track monophonic lines, which is as it should be. But this is an outright lie. You can play chords through just the octave or square wave sections and hear multiple notes instead of the mono-analog indecisiveness that my Blue Box exhibits when you try such mean tricks. This tells me that there's not much true synth action going on here.

One thing that should be mentioned: I'm getting a lot of pops and clicks on initial attacks with the sub octave wave. Not sure why, adjusting technique hasn't helped it any. But it does track REALLY fast.

I find two other niggles with the basic controls: the attack delay ("swell," if you like; even at max settings it doesn't slow the envelope down as much as i might need at times), and the filter rate (good range but doesn't allow quite as slow a "turnover" as i would like). I also wish that the retriggering of the attack delay was adjustable time-wise-- you have to leave a pretty significant gap in between each fingering if you want a long string of swelling chords; otherwise it just leaves the envelope, and your natural right-hand attack, hanging wide open for perusal. Oh, and maybe the filter could be more sickeningly resonant and wide-sweeping, at risk of taking out a few speakers here and there.

Ok, blah. What kind of sounds can you get out of this thing? It really is more limited than EH wants you to think, but the sounds you get are dope and pretty much unavailable on any other stompbox in current production. You can, as I mentioned before, run straight guitar through attack delay for swell sounds, or through the filter for auto-wah effects. You can factor in the sub-octave for, well, an octave effect. Take out the guitar and put in the square wave and it sounds a lot more like an analog synth. Run this through the filter and adjust to your liking; this gives you a range of sounds running from "BONK BONK BONK" synth bass sounds and "ZAP ZAP ZAP" leads to "EEEEOW" on up to "EEEEEEEEEEEEEOW," and the other way around: "OOOOOOOOOOOWEEEEEE." You can put those sounds through the attack delay and get "ooooooOOOOOEEE." You can take out the lower octave, turn "octave" up, play high on the neck, and make things a lot more harsh and grating: "sQUEEEY!@#" And so on and so forth. (I hope you like onomatopoeia as much as I do.) All this stuff sounds great.

What's missing? True analog synth functionality (it's just not very flexible, let's face it), multiple oscillators with tunability, global pitch shifting, ADSR, a VCO to control the filter... but I guess you can't ask for too much at this price (or can you?). Experi

I keep hearing that these are built more solidly than the originals. But I absolutely HATE the wallwart-- 24V? Come on, guys. If that tiny little 26AWG wire breaks, and you've gone out of business for a SECOND time...

EH is great.

OK, soapbox time: EH is reissuing these old boxes at premium prices when they could be making something REALLY innovative a la their golden era. Why no one is presently making a synth-stompbox with more flexibility is beyond me. My only other options, if I really want to do this "right," are old Korg boxes like the X911 and the MS20, both of which are presently waaaaay out of my price range for this application, or dropping even more money, putting an ugly-ass hex pickup on my prize Hamer, and running it through a MIDI brain and a reasonable fascimile of an analog synth (or an analog synth connected through a MIDI-to-CV converter, which adds even more dough to an already greens-rich recipe).

Right now, the Microsynth RI is the winner in the "affordable analog guitar synth" arena, but, jesus, this is the 90's. So much more could be done for $300. Even something digitally based! Anything so that I don't have to carry a rack full of gear and/or an expensive outboard synth to the gig just for a few "DEAR GOD" sounds. Somebody stand up and take responsibility for making these things. I know that EH reissued this for the profit potential, seeing people willing to pay $$$ for the originals... but just THINK what they'd do for a box that would do TRULY weird things with TRULY configurable behavior, "vintage" or no.

Off the soapbox. This thing is a lot of fun and it's (sadly enough) unique on the present-day MI market. Check it out.

Ya know the funny thing is I got the perfect sound out of this thing the first time I used it. Moved six sliders, played, and it was perfect. I haven't been able to get a better sound since!
On the down side it took a while to get this thing working on my unit at least. The manual recommends a guitar with single coil pickups and all I have are hums. So you have to adjust this little screw at the bottom of the unit.
THEN I was having problems getting the thing to come on, but I found out it needs a load up time like a television or something when you turn it on after a long period of time. Really weird but like I said it was probably just my unit. Still and all it was a pain in the ass.

...But like I said once I got the unit working: POW! I got *my* tone on the first try. A really lush/envelopey thing that would be impossible to describe other than to say: "It sounds like Rock and Roll." And really phenomenal with distortion.
Therein lies the beauty of this pedal. EVERYTHING sounds great with distortion.
I bought this pedal on recommendation of fellow musician and Chicagoan Billy Corgan. (Who I've recently discovered we have a lot more in common than I would've imagined.) And everything he said was right. You really can get a "BIG" sound with this thing. But one.
(And welcome back Jimmy.)

Since I made the adjustments it's been working fine. But like I said I was really freaked out before I got it working. If everything is as I explained it above, then I don't anticipate any problems. Although the people at New Sensor tell me it's 50/50. Still and all mine is the first complaint I've ever heard about this product and reliability. So I won't give it a low score.
It is still working after all.

These guys are great. Sent them an email wednesday night and they got back to me Thursday morning. (At eight AM!!!) They got my vote whenever they need one.
11!

This thing is great. If you play rock guitar: Get it. If you rock: Get it. If you suck, or if you like Third Eye Blind: Then don't get it. (And drop dead at your earliest convenience.)
I play Rock. Not alternative. Not alt-corporate. Not... Well you get the idea. And this is the rock pedal. There are so many different settings to chose from it may take some time, but you WILL find yourself somewhere in this pedal. I know I did.
Look out Billy...

Well, as most of the other reviews pointed out, this is not a simple effect pedal. But, after you know what each slider does, it's easy. From right to left: Trig (sets the sensitivity requires to start the non-voice mix effects), Sub Octave (-1), Guitar, Octave (+1), Square Wave (fuzz)-controls teh volume of each voice, so they are completely mixable, attack delay (swell effect, like in the Experience pedal, cuts attack to simulate a type of reverse effect)--how long of a delay, resonance (depth-like?), start freq, stop freq, rate-selects 2 freq points and sweeps between them at the rate selected with the resonance you selected.
Bascially, it just takes time.

The sound quality is really good. It sounds like many effects depending on how you use it. Has Ocatve/swell/fuzz/envelope filtering/sliding tone sounds and more. If you get a bad sound out of it, your sliders in one section are probably either set at a muffling point of quaking area.
The ocatves are great, you just have to balance them out with guitar volume. The fuzz is nice. I don't really use the attack delay much, but it is nice to have. The filter section is great, nice slides and bleeps. Just a fun pedal!

Has worked graet so far. I don't expect it to die on me. Of all the EH reissue stuff I own, only the Small Stone had to be sent back because of a problem with the rate nob that I discovered after I moved.

They are great, always answered my emails.

This is a great pedal. It really has some great sounds in it. All I wish it could do more is a decent ring modulator tone, but i might be able to with some more fiddling around!
If any other MicroSynth users would like to trade slider positions, I will love to hear from you, maybe even start up a MicroSynth page!

I'll save the good stuff til later, and mention this first: This effect isn't as simple to use as most pedals. But, then again, this "pedal" (if you want to call it that!) is unbelievably different than any other pedal I've ever played. The difficulty comes from this- in addition to your usual on/off effect in/out switches, there are 10 sliders, each coloring the mix of "effect" into the sound. As its name implies, its more of a guitar "synth" (I dare you to try it with drums, voice or keyboard.. wow! nice sounds!). In this age of button pressing, screen scrolling and an impatient need to "dial in" a sound, the sliders on this effect make it quite intuitive as well as interactive. As a clarification, it is easy to use, but hard to master, if you know what I mean. The patches diagrammed in the manual get you off to a good start, though.

Nothing sounds like this effect. Not to sound to glowing or enammored, but I have to be honest- this pedal sounds wonderful. Have you ever heard a song or some unbelievably expressive guitar passage and wondered "WHAT in the WORLD was used on THAT?". Well, chances are good you can recreate it with the microsynth, if you spend enough time with it. This pedal is that good. Trust me. As far as noisy, theres a slight click when the pedal of the unit is clicked on, and thats it. The filters in the filter bank are pristine, and the voice mix is also clean. The sound can get muddy if you twiddle with the sliders while youre playing (i,e: while the signal is going through the effect) but this can actually be cool. My unit looks pretty rough from use, but remains remarkably in "tune" and un-noisy.

I keep reading on here things like "this baby's built like a tank", etc. This simply isnt the case with this effect. It is by no means fragile, but it does require some care. Its rather large (8x6x2") and its sliders seem like they could break if you stepped on them accidentally... but then again, who really carelessly stomps on a vintage Electro Harmonix pedal? Finally, though, the parts of the effect seem sound and well-working. I anticipate absolutely no trouble from this effect, nor have I had any to date.

Electro-Harmonix is actually very helpful. I've spoken withy the company at their NY address, and they are not only friendly but actually interested in helping you. They even offered me very fair rates iof I ever needed future help or repair. Nice. (If you're wondering, they can be reached at E-H, care of New Sensor Corporation, 20 Cooper Square, NY NY, 10003).

Overall, this pedal IS my sound. Yes, I got lucky and was able to purchase it cheap from someone who thought they were unloading some antique, useless electronic device on some sucker for a good price... well, call me a sucker. This pedal is amazing. Try it out if you can get your hands on one!

This is basically an analog synth type effect for guitar, and is therefore much harder to use than a standard guitar pedal. It has ten controls, which are divided into two main sections with four slide pots each and then two addition controls. the first is the trig, which sets the volume where the envelope effect cuts in. next is the voice mix section, with sliders for sub octave, guitar, octave, and square wave. next is a control for attack delay. then finally there is the filter sweep section which consists of resonance, start frequency, stop frequency, and rate sliders. there are also two internal trim pots, one for the threshold of the built in noise gate and one that sets the overall gain of the unit. I have about 15 guitar effects, and this one was definetely the hardest learn how to work it. it comes with an AC adapter, no batteries. The manual is short but gets to the point and helps a lot in learning how to use this. It goes over the functions of all the controls, and has 12 sample settings to get to know how the controls work. this is the reissue model.

I am using this with fender guitars into a marshall amp, with about 5 other pedals usually. This has got to be one of the greatest guitar effects ever made. It can do anything from bass similations to percussive sounds, to lead synthesizer tones to just being a standard fuzz pedal, plus much more. The octave have probably the best tracking for any analog effect pedal. The square wave is pure square wave fuzz, unlike regular fuzz pedals which are mixed with the sine wave. This means that chords dont come all that great. it also means that it only gets really fuzzy in the treble range. chords cannot be played when the octaves are in use either, but this is more of a lead type pedal anyway. The attack delay is hard to use well to create reverse guitar type sounds, because you have to mute the strings between notes. It is good for softening out the attack to give it more of a synth sound. The filter is the greatest part of this pedal, and creates sounds unlike anything else that I have heard on a guitar. Also this unit is totally quiet when not playing notes, which I think was a problem on the originals.

Very well built like all electro harmonix products. have heard that the sliders broke off easily on the originals, but havent had any problems with that yet, hopefully they fixed that on these reissues.

contacted them a few times by e-mail, and they responded within a day or two. 1 year warranty. shouldnt have a problem with them.

Great pedal for many different types of sound, and one of a kind too dont know of any other company making a comparable product. If it were stolen or lost I would definetely get a new one, but would probably look for a used reissue, since they are kinda expensive new, and ever more for a vintage one. My favorite feature is the filter section, though it works best using some of everything at the same time. Nothing else sounds comparable. It helps me make music. it is a very unique sound and sounds almost like a different instrument on many settings, so I have written synth type parts for a few of my songs. One last thing, dont buy this pedal if you are looking for just a good octave effect or an an envelope filter. It does all of these thigns great but it works best making its own sounds, away from the standard envelope or octave type effects. If you want a new great sound different different from everyone elses, or if you want to get an analog synth type sound out of a guitar, then you need to give one of these a try. If anyone else has this that is reading this review and would like to trade patches for it, e-mail me.

I bought it used without manual but I had been taught by a friend how to use it before.If I hadn't I'm sure i would have had problems figuring out how it was working.It's neither a conventional pedal nor a conventional effect.

I'm using it with Marshall 2203 head,an original Big Muff and a US std Strat and it sounds like the end of the world.Be sure to put it before the distorsion unit and you will have an apocalyptic filter sound!I use it ponctually when the song starts loosing dynamic(a la Billy Corgan in Siamese Dream)and it sure wakes up the audience! Of course it's noisy,even if it has a built-in gate(what if it hadn't!). A friend of mine uses it with some old Roland synth(TB 303,TR 808 etc...)and keeps asking me to sell it to him.

Mine is in excellent condition so it's very dependable but if you find an old looking one,try it carefully before buying it.Nevertheless as I use it ponctually,I gig with it without back up.

I've e-mailed EH a few times and Mike was always very friendly.Nevertheless,I don't know if they could repair old stuff.As they are reissuing the Micro synth,I think they can but not for all the old EH units

I play a Korn/Smashing Pumpkins crossover and it produces the weirdest sounds I've ever heard.I've been playing for 5 years and tried a lot of weird old stuff and this unit beats them all.The sound quality is amazing and it's a lot less noisy i tought it would be(but it's nearly in mint condition).I wish it also had a 1 octave up feature but it's not necessary and you can always buy an Octavia if you're into analogic octaving.Really helps me creating weird atmosphere. Also really really good for gig-end noise.

Once you get used to it its pretty straight forward

Although the quality is pretty poor the soung you gan get from it are amazing, I am constantly finding new sounds that sound wicked

For a really old pedal it is pretty reliable, however it sometimes needs a little kick to ensure its intended setting occurs

Never tried to get any, wouldn't know where to find any anyway

Quite simply the most amazing thing I have ever used

For who knows about analog synth, it's easy. For conventional guitar player, ???....

If you are looking for some techno rock sounding effect, this is it. Chemical Bros. use this pedal a lot. (actually, they use a BASS MICROSYNTH, and I have this one, too. The difference is that the microsynth has good filter for high note and bassmicrosynth has one for low note)

My one has never broken electronically....But the sliders is so easy to break that you gonna miss some sliders after a gig.

I hope they could repair my sliders...

I have a ton of keyboard analog vintage synthsizers and NOTHING sounds like microsynthsizer. I just love it. Maybe the street price is too expensive though...