Visual Sound H2O Liquid Chorus & Echo

This is such a simple unit to use. Just 3 knobs (Speed, Width, and Delay) on the chorus side, and 3 knobs on the delay side (Echo, Repeats, Delay Time). There is also a short/long echo setting that is in a rocker switch. Just tweak and play! It really couldn't be any simpler. The manual has some suggested settings, and these seemed useful.

To try these out (I just got them), I just ran it into a Peavey Envoy amplifier. My guitar was a Parker Fly Deluxe. The unit is not noisy at all. This is an awesome chorus box, producing everything from subtle chorusing to warbly to Leslie-type spinning sounds. The echo side is great, too, offering up everything from rockabilly slap to Queen layering.

Built like a tank, and with a return rate of 1/2 of 1% (according to Bob Weil), I feel very confident using this pedal with no backup. The steel (yes, steel!) housing is very thick. Switches seem rock solid.

I emailed the company and received a reply in less than 24 hours. I then exchanged a few emails with Bob Weil, the owner. We then talked by phone. This is the best company I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with.

I do contemporary Christian music. I was introduced to these pedals by Phil Keaggy at a recording session. He sounded so great through them that I had to get some myself! I have been playing for 27 years. I am selling most of my other pedals, since Visual Sound has everything I need! I would replace it if lost or stolen. It is a great pedal (actually, it is two pedals in one, remember?!) and a great value by a great company. I highly recommend it to anyone.

Pretty easy to use. Using the basic settings in the manual, you can get it working pretty well.

I play this through a Zinky Superfly (all tube channel switching...too much to explain) in the effects loop.

Hmm. Where do I set this?

I want to place a usable review here, so I'll be honest. I have to review it on the basis of my effects loop (where it's supposed to go) and straight into the amp (suggested by cust support).

Looped delay:
The delay is very good. Nice delay that does not interfere with your sound. It sounds great here.
Looped Chorus:
I have not been able to get a good chorus sound out of this based on my effects loop. My sound goes from what I have dialed in, to muddy and unusable.

Unlooped Delay:
Somehow the tone of my amp is more brittle. The delay suddenly sounds more like a straight echo unit than a delay. Decay is more of a repeat than anything else...I couldn't dial it out. Much better in the effects loop.
Unlooped Chorus:
Finally I see that this works. Nice subtle harmonics, and great watery sounds. Very nice unit here.

I am reluctant, but I have to give it a 5, since either effect is worthless when I use the other to it's strenghs (i.e. delay in the loop, chorus in the front of the amp.)

Seems very sturdy and reliable. I am only a month in, but willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Very responsive. They really couldn't help me, but they did answer email very quickly.

The response to my questions were to place it in front of the amp, use an AC adapter (more wallwarts), and/or change the battery. None of which worked for my Zinky superfly.

They get good marks here.

The delay fit my style very well. Nice and subtle once I had it set up. The chorus did not do so well.

I would say that the problems I (and clearly many others on this board) have is based on the amp's effects loop. If it is designed for the particular level that your amp is well attuned to, then you are in good company, otherwise, take it back. This is not the unit's fault, but still, it's lack of flexibility makes me not appreciate it's use.

I, for one, will probably unload this thing on Ebay. I had hoped for a good combo unit to reduce the amount of warts in my rig, but did not find what I was looking for. Delay-great, chorus-iffy. Like I said, not the h2o's complete fault, but in the contest of amp vs. pedal, the pedal loses.

Considering that this pedal is really two pedals it is really very easy to use and to get good sounds out of it. The chorus side has three knobs; Speed, Width and Delay Time which gives you almost as much control over the effect as you need. I say almost because there should be an effect level adjustment but even without it this chorus effect is a solid sounding analaog chorus and might be worth the retail price all by itself to some. The echo side has 3 knobs as well; Echo Time, Repeats and Effect Level plus a rocker switch that selects the range of the other knobs between "short" and "long". Obviously this doesn't lend itself to exactitudes but the upside is that all the sounds this thing makes are musical and useable. It is easy enough to use, but could be easier by adding one more knob (choruse effect level) and marking the range values for the echo controls somehow.

The sound quality of this pedal is superb -- both sides. The chorus goes from barely there to underwater leslie and all points in between. It could use an effect level knob IMHO, but is just fine without it too. The echo side is a really good analog echo box which provides everything from gentle trail offs to rockabilly echo to convincing slapback echo and on into pretty good quality space echos. There is no other coloration of your guitar signal and it is a very quiet pedal to use. In a mix, this pedal sits very well I think, not being overbearing and yet maintaining the effect(s) at a level that is desirable and effective. Iuse my H2O with a pair of amps; 65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue on the left and a cleaned up Blues Junior on the right. The H2O has two outputs, but is not a true stereo effect. What it does is output the effected signal through the left channel and the uneffected signal out the right. The result? A dramatically widened soundstage and a nice blend of you guitar's unprocessed signal with the processed tone. There are instructions included with the unit when purchased new that detail how to make the effected sound come out both output jacks if you wish to do that. I didn't and I wouldn't personally, but you can do it. I am giving the unit a composite score in sound quality of 9.5. 9 for the chorus and 10 for the echo effect. Oh, and you can and should play these effetcs together for something really special and easy to dial up on stage mid-son because the design is well thought out and allows for both effects to be switched simultaneously.

I have had mine for nearly three years without a hitch. Granted, I don't gig often with it but I use it nearly every day. This thing is built like a tank!

Bob Weil, the Visual sound founder and president is a really friendly and helpful guy. I talked to him at length about the pedal before I bought it and he did not mind answering my questions in the least and was very informative. I can't imagine that he would stiff anybody on customer support. Benefit of the doubt based on his stellar attitude.

What can I say -- I love this pedal. I am not really a chorus freak or anything but this chrous seems to me to sound more like they used to in the seventies when I first encountered. When I use it, it really adds something special to my sound and yeat is not overbearing. Don't get me wrong, it can be made to be overbearing if you want it too though. The echo side is everything from classic slapback through spacey repeats and has that groovy analog quality that many of us geezers really dig. I don't have anything against digital delays mind you, but this echo is very warm by comparison and will suit anyone searching for such thing. When both effects are engaged simulateously, this pedal can be something special indeed. Sure you can engage seprate chorus and delay stomps and achieve nearly the same thing, but I think this pedal is setup to push the echo into the chorus which is slightly different than many folks might set up separates on a pedalboard. As always, YMMV but my experiences with this pedal have been very favorable of the nearly three years I've had it and I consider it an indespensable piece of my tonal pallet.

3 knobs for chorus,3 knobs for delay,very easy to use

awsome sound,extremely quiet ,infact i dont even carry my pedal board much anymore,a little delay,a little chorus and some overdrive from my tube amp and i really dont need the other pedals that often, in fact i sold my dano chorus and dano echo,my DOD flanger and am going to ditch my Boss EQ because it is noisy...just leaves my a Dano overdrive,(when not using amp but DI),Boss compressor,Budda Wah and H2O

built like tank and no problems,not owned extensively

Bob W. is a great guy,i talked to him on phone extensively prior to purchase and was assured that i would like or he would make it right. We have a mutual friend and that person gave him a big thumbs up.

highly recommend,2great pedals in 1 small package. my son has been playing about 2.5 yrs church,local college jazz ensemble,garage band,i'm his "tech" ,financial purse, and chauffer.i'm a bass player. we own Carvin guitars and bass,Carvin tube amp,Carvin 600 watt bass amp,Kustom guitar amp,Washburn 7 string,Walden acoustic electric,Kay acoustic,Kingston short scale bass and the above mentioned effects.

Very easy to use and lots of different sound settings..

This thing is the absolute best chorus I've ever used and added to my arsenal of effects..The echo is an added bonus and has replaced both of my BOSS pedals that I've been using for quite awhile..It's very rich and full sounding and can be dialed in to suit just about everyone's taste..I'm using it right after the BOSS tuner and after my FULLTONE overdrive in the chain on my pedal board and then directly to my 71 Silverface Super Reverb and the sounds I get are just amazing..I use it in combination with my 3 classic Strats and Line 6 modeling guitar..It's perfect for me..

Built like a tank and in my opinion ,well made..A little on the large size,but hey,all good things don't always come in small packages

Had e-mail contact to make sure mine had the latest upgrade and Steve Mikesell was extremely helpfull and very courtious to me in a quick and timly manner with requards to my inquiry..

I've been at this thing for 40 years and play all types of music..At the present time ,I have a Classic Rock band that suits me to a "TEE"and this unit fills the bill for me and the group..Try one and I bet you'll be on the purchasing end also..

This pedal is very straightforward, and simple to use. Basically a single input with an effects out and another for an unaffected sound (which can be modified to another effects out). On the Echo side you have Echo Time, Repeats and Effect Level. The Chorus side offers Speed, Width and Delay Time. Each effect is footswitchable on the unit.

This is where it gets good, and I mean REALLY good! Visual Sound utilizes something called "Pure Bypass", and being that I use many true bypass pedals, I'm extremely impressed with the true tonality of this pedal. I spent quite a while doing some sound quality determination, and noticed nothing less than "true bypass quality" in using the H2O. I've been playing for 25 years and deal with Nic at Catalinbread and Brad at Tone Factor (both of which are at the top of the game in the effects pedals) and I also use George L cables to get the best signal possible.
Let's start with the Echo. I'm using this pedal on a Splawn Quick Rod 100 rig with a Splawn 4x12 cab. The Echo fills just the right frequencies to get the Ol' Van Halen sound. Other similar analog delays that I've used that would approach this sound would cost over $250.00, considering tone, and variability. (The H2O is not an analog delay BTW, it just has the same, if not better analog quality and sounds as good as many of the top ones out there.)
Onto the Chorus, again, sounding like a much more expensive analog chorus, with a wide range of uses. Everything from a nice thick chorus (which is what I primarily use it for) to sounds more toward a leslie or even a chorused phasing effect.
To have either one or the other in a single pedal at the price is an abolute steal, never mind both in one!

Being that I just received it a week ago, I can't make any ratings remarks here. Only that it seems very well constructed, and haven't had any "popping" issues that some of the old reviews of this pedal mentioned. The current version of the H2O has apparently been upgraded in many ways, and this might be part of that. (I see a "10" here in the future!)

I've had some conversations with Dave and Bob at Visual sounds about using the H2O in some different applications. They've both been great on the phone and via email, ready to help, and answer any questions.

Well, I have a hard time giving perfect ratings accross the board to manufacturer, I tend to be pretty (or maybe overly) critical toward most sometimes. But in this case, great ratings are warranted. Excellent product, great price, and awesome customer support. What else can you ask for?

This pedal is extremely easy to use. It really is two pedals in one, but just a few minutes spent fiddling with the knobs will allow you to hone in on some very usable sounds - both on the echo side and the chorus side. The capability of this pedal to create a Leslie-like sound is very cool and easy to achieve.

I'm using a Tele and a Strat into a Fender Blues Deluxe with this pedal and it's very nice. The chorus works well - all the way from a nice gentle shimmer, to to a nice Leslie-like sound, to a very wide and wacky sound (but it's still good). Don't know if I'll ever use it on the most extreme settings, but it's very cool nonetheless. The echo also works well - sounds great and it's very easy to dial up what you're looking for - although changing delay times during performance is a bit dicey. You've just got to memorize your settings. But hey, that's what you expect from this type of effect. I'm not noticing any added noise or tone-sucking.

Visual Sound seems to build very nice, reliable pedals - feels very solid. Not enough experience with the H2O to know for sure how durable it will be, but I've owned a Route 66 for a while now with no problems whatsoever.

Seem to be very committed to customer satisfaction - by providing a customer service number on the back of the pedal. Based on Visual Sound's reputation I have no worries in this area, although to be honest I have yet to deal with them directly myself

Play country, rock, and pop for 25 years. Gigging on electric about 8 or 10 nights a month and another 8 or 10 on acoustic as a solo. I'm taking the H2O to ALL my gigs. I may only use it a couple times a night, but that leslie effect is so cool I have to have it available. I dial up some gentler chorus sounds and use them a little more frequently througout the night. Sounds great on both electric and acoustic. Sure TC Electronic and Fulltone make some great chorus pedals, but for about half the price you're getting a pedal with very competitive chorus sounds AND an echo pedal. I'm happy with mine and would replace it with another if it was stolen, lost, or if a drunk person fell on it and crushed it during a show.

A pedal is a pedal. Nonetheless, I believe it lacks very critical "effect control" on the chorus channel. Before I bought the pedal off ebay w/o actually trying it (couldn't find one locally), I wondered how one could adjust the intensity of the chorus effect. Well.. you can't!...bummer...

Good:
1. Relatively cheap: you can get a used one off eBay around $120.
2. Has decent chorus and delay effects in one.
3. Looks cool (some may disagree).

Bad:
1. No effect level control: Without it, it's kind of hard to dial into the very sutble chorus effect w/o coloring the tone too much. Also, in my opinion, the chorus channel has too much of the flanging/phasing tone quality (shhhweeeeshhhhhhweeee). Again, this problem is amplified by the fact that it doesn't have the effect control.
2. No true bypass: I actually hear the difference in the tone. But this is nothing new and true for all other pedals w/o true bypass in the market.
3. Weird distortion (not confirmed with the manufacturer yet): The pedal that I got (it was said to be/looks new) distorts the tone noticeably when you really dig in and play hard clean rythms. This is very annoying and a big turn-off. None of the review below seemed to have that same problem. Either I'm not lucky with mine or they weren't paying attention. I'm yet to find out on this.

Just got it today. Not able to say.

Sent an email today regarding the distortion problem explained above. Will update shortly.

My rating is aside from the distortion problem discussed above. There are better chorus pedals in the market (by far, TC Electronics is the best in this format; I haven't tried Choralflange by Fulltone but read some good reviews on them). However, for the money (~ $120), it's a good value. Just make sure to check for the problem that I'm having before you buy one.

The manual offers some setting suggestions for both the chorus and the delay that are ideal for getting you started. With a slight tweak you are able to create your own unique sounds.

Incredible, amazing, sweet, fat, tonal quality.

I use an Ibanez guitar with Semour Duncan Pickups, a Fender Hotrod Deluxe amp, and a Hughes & Kettner Tube Factor. There are so many inmportant links in finding a quality sound and tone that you are happy with. My setup is ideal for my style (Rock / Alternative),

I was surprised to read reviews from people disappointed in the quality of the chorus...I'm not sure if they had it turned on when they played it because it is superb. Hey, each to their own...but if you play classical music then NO, this chorus probably won't appeal to you. I've read that 'The Edge' from U2 has one in his setup...are you telling me that he would settle for anything less than the best?? And this is coming from someone who isn't a big U2 fan!

Haven't had it long long enough

Never had to deal with them - but heard good things!

Don't wait - just go get one NOW!

Pretty easy to use. Three knobs for the chours, three knobs for the echo, a long / short rocker switch for the echo, and separate on/off buttons for the chorus or echo effect. Not rocket science. The manual has some good suggested starting settings, although you just fiddle with the three knobs if you want something else.

Overall, pretty good here too. I don't find the unit to add significant noise or color to my sound. I run a Wolfgang guitar into a 5150 head and cabinet and run the liquid chorus / echo in the effects loop. I use an attenuator to keep the volume at a reasonable level so I can heat up the power tubes a bit.

I don't really like the chorus. I prefer the chorus from my MXR chorus pedal. The settings just don't sound right to me, although this is a very personal, subjective deal. I think the manual gives some good suggested uses, and you can get a pretty heavy underwater leslie type sound. The chorus does not lack for strength of effect, but the actual chorus sounds it made were simply not to my taste. Your mileage may vary. I should also mention that I have not tried the chorus through any other amp or a clean channel setting. Who knows, it might sound great in those settings.

The echo, on the other hand, I find to be great with my fairly simple rig. I set the delay on long, and each of the knobs are set at about 10 o'clock. With this setup, I get VERY close to the sound from Van Halen's "Fair Warning" album. I do recommend this pedal for the echo if for no other reason.

The echo is digital, but voiced to sound analog. Certainly, it is a different sound than say, my Boss DD-3. The DD-3 is a bit more metallic or perhaps treble-y but more precise. I have a hard time telling that the echo on the Liquid chorus / echo is NOT analog.

For comparison, I have a Fulltone Tube Tape Echo. This is a sweet unit, but it is tape and has maintenance requirements. Also, I find it somewhat difficult to find just the right amount of echo. In short, it is very high end, but it is also a pain in the ass. This pedal doesn't suffer from any of those problems. In fact, I prefer using the Liquid Echo over the Fulltone for the sound! Again, a very subjective opinion here.

The echo on this thing is not as precise as say a digital echo. If you want pristine, sparkling delay, you need to go for something holding itself out as a digital delay. I don't think one is necessarily better than the other, it is just what type of sound you are looking for.

The best example I can give is that this pedal does a good job for me of doing the old Van Halen type echo whereas a Boss Digital Delay or rack mount digital delay would be better for the newer, more processed Van Halen sound.

Overall, I am pretty pleased with this echo. I don't have any plans to use anything else at this time. I think it is very versatile too and allows you to get a number of echos, slapback, longer and shorter delays. I could not, however, find a reverb like setting. That is a different pedal, obviously. I'll give her a 9, but deduct a point for lack of good sounding chorus, at least to my ears. I wonder if these effects on this pedal simply don't sound good together?

I don't think any of us have had this long long enough to really know -- I think it is a failry new product.

No clue.

Been playing since the 80s. My main style is Van Halen type tunes. If this pedal were stolen, I would replace it again. As stated earlier, I use this pedal only for the echo.

It is a bit pricey, but I think for a good echo, you are going to need to spend a little cash. There seems to be a real gap between the Boss and Digitech pedal type echo / delays on one extreme and on the other lies the rack units, the Fulltone and Hughes and Kettner products. Very little middle ground as far as I was concerned. It seemed I was either going to spend about $100 dollars or more like $500. I think the Liquid Echo is a nice compormise.

In the past, I had always been a reverb man. But reverb tends to place your sound in the distance, you loose that in your face type tone. I needed something to flesh out my distortion, give it some air. I have never been very happy with any echo or delay device I had purchased -- these were the Boss and Digitech products and the Fulltone Tape Echo.

The Liquid echo is a nice solution. It gives me a somewhat compressed, fairly precise echo. It is lo-fi or at least sounds lo-fi. But it took me a long time to realize that was actually the sound I wanted. It is a relatively inexpensive Echoplex type pedal. It does the lo-fi sound well without sounding like a cheap, crappy pedal. I think the echo is versatile enough on this echo to give you short slapback or really long delay times with the twist of a few knobs.

For my application, this pedal only does one thing: sits on top of my amp and give me reliable, fairly inexpensive, digital reproduction of an Echoplex type sound. This was enough for me. It did not degrade the sweet, sweet crunch coming out of my 5150. In fact, I think it enhanced the sound, compressed it a bit, and gave it some mono echo expansion. THis may or may not be your cup of tea. Again, although this pedal is digital, it does not sound digitial to my ears. Some people are looking for that sound, others aren't. In any event, I suggest you check this pedal out, it might be for you too.