All user reviews of 4/5 for the Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail

This is a digital reverb, of course: we have the choice between 3 modulations, spring, hall or a mixture of reverb and flanger (flanger which acts only on the sound of the reverb, not the guitar signal ).
Otherwise, only one knob for assaying the presence of the effect, which acts as a balance between the effect and its gross.
It takes a standard mini jack power supply that is provided
It is not true bypass, but I do that is in effect which is dedicated loop, so it does not bother me.

UTILIZATION

Matter of principle, I do not waste time reading the manual a pédal not have one knob adjustment!
Not complicated to use in my view, from the moment we know what we want and what we do not want more the knob is turned clockwise, the more raw sound of the guitar will be low, and its effect envahisant, so "dirty". In my case, set to 13h, it gives enough presence to the effect without removing the raw signal, regardless of the modulation, it suits me

SOUND QUALITY

Reverb simulation is very convincing I find it does not sound cheap for a sub (haha)!
The Hall effect is also very good, but too typical for me to use than lead or its claira my opinion.
But my favorite is the sound "Flerb" with a flanger applied to the sound of the reverb, it gives a small side "space-psyche" that I love. Obviously, the sound of the flange itself is not adjustable, and it is a pity. But since this is un'un element that color the main effect is going very well this additional adjustment.

OVERALL OPINION

So I use it for years, to the low abbord, guitar now, mainly for solos.
I do not remember that she exuded blast or special coloring, but again, it's been over a year that it is only in an effects loop. Anyway, the sound of the effect itself, whatever the mode is excellent, very realistic.
I do not know what is the equivalent in today's Nano series, since my model no longer produced, but if you find this pedal OCCAZ at a reasonable price (it's not vintage either huh), I think it's worth it!

I paid roughly 100 USD from a guy who'd sold his amp and didn't need it anymore.


It is very easy to use. In addition to that, the design of the unit is very nice and makes you wanna try it out. But of course the best thing about it is the "Reverb" and the "Flerb" effect which is a mix of flanger and reverb that you can get out of it.

The only thing that made me a bit reluctant at the prospect of buying it was the fact that the unit only works with an adapter and no batteries which I think is a shame but the quality of the effect makes you forget about that quite quickly.

The pedal is very light in itself so it is hard to say whether it could withstand a truck driving over it. However, apart from that the construction looks reliable.

Great effect sound. I've been trying out and buying a few reverb pedals before I bought this one and kept always returning them to the store because it wasn't this organic pure sound reverb sound that I was looking for. Everytime I was buying one, the guy at the store told me "See you tomorrow when you return it". Finally, I returned the last one and bought this one which I can promise I am not going to return to anyone anytime soon.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Electro harmonics is one of those companies that buillds some of the best effects pedals in the world. The most common and highly recognizable pedal that they may have has to be a big muff distortion. They do create a lot of cool delay pedals and effects pedals and this is one of them. This is the holy Grail reverb pedal which comes in a pretty decent size box and has only one knob of operation. It doesn't have a small little control on the west side of the changes in the modes but there's not a whole lot of figuring out with this unit.

UTILIZATION

You basically have one control knob that turns the reverb effect the loudest it can go. There is a mode switch that changes the setting of the unit if you want a different voicing. it has a input and an output and that is about it as far as features go.

SOUND QUALITY


The sound of this pedal is a nice sounding reverb tone that will sound good in pretty much any amplifier for guitar rig is a classic vintage style pedal that doesn't have any new or modern features that you see on many newer pedals today. So it doesn't have any USB or midi capabilities but what it does is give you a classical old reverb style that has a single control knob to give you a nice sounding room filling tone.

OVERALL OPINION


I'm not sure if Electra harmonics is making these pedals anymore because they really have been pushing their newer digital reverb pedal that comes in a compact small nano box. If you're looking for a newer pedal then I'll probably go with that one but if you're an old-school type of person then you want the vintage electro-harmonics style then this would be the only way to go.

The HolyGrail is a digital pedal. It has a slider for choosing the type of reverb, and an effect level knob.

Question connectivity, it is powered by a mini jack 3.5 (no battery). All outlets are located on the rear panel. This is a good metal case, not too big and pretty.

UTILIZATION

Super easy to use. Nothing to say.

SOUND QUALITY

The Flerb is a reverb / flanger a little kitsch for my taste, I never use it. The other two reverbs are fine. The reverb is quickly "sticky" when the knob passes the halfway point. The sound is very nice, not chemical. on the other hand, it quickly loses much momentum.

I use a Hamer Special and a Crate VC-5115. She has a beautiful sound, very vintage.

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for 8 months. I really like reverb Hall, and not at all the Flerb. I do not use the Room, but only because I do not need it.

I tried different reverbs, and finds that it's really a very nice, not digital. It really breaks the momentum on the other hand.

Finally, I find it worth the price (bought new, just over 90 euro power supply).

Nothing to add ...

UTILIZATION

Just simple, we chose the reverb and turning the knob to adjust the intensity of the effect is simple.

SOUND QUALITY

I'm not a big fan of reverb, so I do not play su'avec spring reverb knob with a large max 11h ... I find the reverb quality good, the sound is natural, not abused against the knob, otherwise the sound quickly becomes disgusting. regarding the two other effects I do not use them, sometimes the Hall but it is very rare, so I can not really judge that two effects ...

OVERALL OPINION

I use this pedal for a little over a mine, and as far as I'm happy she totalement.pas need a reverb plug for a lil blues, spring reverb is ample ...

I is not tried another model before buying it so I can not compare.

what I love most: the reverb and spring, and the simplicity of the beast and it is very light ...
what I like least: the flangereverb

level value, it seems to me good, but not exeptional.

I would have liked that instead of flangreverb there is a room reverb, but hey tanpis.

I think I would do this choice, I chose this pedal for a spring reverb quality, and to have some more possibilities with Hall reverb.pour those who want a simple spring reverb, it is better to turn to the King of Danelectro spring is a simple spring reverb (a real, not digital)

The holy grail is a small very nice reverb pedal for someone who does not want to piss off with 15reverb different, 4potard to set the effects ... for a people like me who need a little reverb nice.

big fan of the psychedelic reverb, it is not for you, you turned instead to the pedal line 6 ptite "Verbzilla" to be more suitable I think.

This 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.