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wwhhhaatt « good when you get a good one »
Published on 06/22/11 at 08:59This is just a plain and simple reverb pedal.
1/4" input and output
9v power jack
one stomp switch
one knob
one switch to change between spring, hall, and flerb settings
UTILIZATION
Getting a great sound out of the holy grail is very simple. In typical old school EH style you get a simple layout that's meant to just get good sound. No frills. Plug in your cables, get some power to it, twiddle the knobs and you are good to go. I suggest using the supplied adapter since this pedal takes quite a bit of juice to run properly.
SOUND QUALITY
The sound of this reverb is excellent and very natural sounding. It is not thin and over processed sounding like some of the others out there and does not muffle or bury your sound unless you want it to. I have never owned a nice spring reverb but this emulation seems to work for people who have owned them. All I know is that it sounds better that my experience with cheaper spring reverb units. The hall sound is what I mainly used because it seems a bit deeper sounding and works better for that huge ambient sound that I like in a reverb. It fills out the sound nicely without that digital sound you get in the boss stomps or other digital emulations. The flerb sound is nice to have too for when you want something a little more wild sounding although it would be hard to work it into a lot of songs because it stands out quite a bit. I think they were going for a flange sound hence the "FL"erb whatever it is I like it and it's very unique.
Another welcome thing is the bypass. No preamps or buffers in this pedal just a nice big true bypass stomp switch. I am not of the crowd that thinks your whole signal chain should be true bypass but I definitely prefer time based effects that might be in your amp's effects loop to be either true bypass or have a very high quality buffer. Electro Harmonix is not exactly known for quality buffers so I think it was a good call going for a true bypass on this box.
OVERALL OPINION
For me the sound of a pedal is always the number one priority. I can usually work around any design hangups if the end sound is worth it. I would say the Holy grail is great for most reverb requirements. It is not very tweakable but the one knob design provides a pretty wide variety of tones. The knob is also big enough to move with your foot during live performances. That is something I love about the huge boxes Electro harmonix likes to use.
The one downside to this pedal is there seems to be a bit of quality control problem and an intermittent noise issue. I have owned three of these and one had a high pitch whining that was always there while the others it was intermittent or not there at all. The pedal also seems to be picky about power supplies and placement. I had mixed results using a pedal power II so I usually just used the supplied wall wart and never ran any boosts/od/etc.. after it.
If you get one that does not have noise issues you will love the sound.
1/4" input and output
9v power jack
one stomp switch
one knob
one switch to change between spring, hall, and flerb settings
UTILIZATION
Getting a great sound out of the holy grail is very simple. In typical old school EH style you get a simple layout that's meant to just get good sound. No frills. Plug in your cables, get some power to it, twiddle the knobs and you are good to go. I suggest using the supplied adapter since this pedal takes quite a bit of juice to run properly.
SOUND QUALITY
The sound of this reverb is excellent and very natural sounding. It is not thin and over processed sounding like some of the others out there and does not muffle or bury your sound unless you want it to. I have never owned a nice spring reverb but this emulation seems to work for people who have owned them. All I know is that it sounds better that my experience with cheaper spring reverb units. The hall sound is what I mainly used because it seems a bit deeper sounding and works better for that huge ambient sound that I like in a reverb. It fills out the sound nicely without that digital sound you get in the boss stomps or other digital emulations. The flerb sound is nice to have too for when you want something a little more wild sounding although it would be hard to work it into a lot of songs because it stands out quite a bit. I think they were going for a flange sound hence the "FL"erb whatever it is I like it and it's very unique.
Another welcome thing is the bypass. No preamps or buffers in this pedal just a nice big true bypass stomp switch. I am not of the crowd that thinks your whole signal chain should be true bypass but I definitely prefer time based effects that might be in your amp's effects loop to be either true bypass or have a very high quality buffer. Electro Harmonix is not exactly known for quality buffers so I think it was a good call going for a true bypass on this box.
OVERALL OPINION
For me the sound of a pedal is always the number one priority. I can usually work around any design hangups if the end sound is worth it. I would say the Holy grail is great for most reverb requirements. It is not very tweakable but the one knob design provides a pretty wide variety of tones. The knob is also big enough to move with your foot during live performances. That is something I love about the huge boxes Electro harmonix likes to use.
The one downside to this pedal is there seems to be a bit of quality control problem and an intermittent noise issue. I have owned three of these and one had a high pitch whining that was always there while the others it was intermittent or not there at all. The pedal also seems to be picky about power supplies and placement. I had mixed results using a pedal power II so I usually just used the supplied wall wart and never ran any boosts/od/etc.. after it.
If you get one that does not have noise issues you will love the sound.