electro harmonix holiest grail

by 44ofjuly

Frankly speaking, naming a pedal is not really as easy as it seems. If only all distortion pedals are just distortion pedals and delay, well, just delay pedals. And so for this month’s Gear Gawk, what do we have? Holiest Grail? What an arrogant name that is. Does it serve tea, massage your back when you are tired or double up as your darling when you are in need of one? Of course not. Seriously, if it's able to do that, I swear I'll be the first to give away to anyone who is in need of an effects pedal that can do all that.

One of the latest offering from Electro-Harmonix, the Holiest Grail reverb pedal is unlike other reverb effects available in a pedal format. It's one of the most powerful reverb pedals (yeah, pedal I mean, no rack reverb processor involved here) available up to date. As usual, the Holiest Grail come in the big size enclosure which is similar to other E-H pedals (Deluxe MemoryMan, Electric Mistress, etc). Although it can be a hassle to have few of these large pedals on the board, but I am certainly willing to compromise just for the wonderful amount of "space" that this pedal can give me. Without further ado, let's go into more details about this pedal.

On the surface of the pedal, there are 10 slider controls altogether which are listed as below:

From left to right:

1) Input gain - Controls the volume of the guitar signal when the pedal is "on".

2) Pre delay controls -

a) Time slider - Controls the length of time between striking a note on the guitar and the start of the reverb.

b) Feedback slider - Controls the amount of feedback that is re-circulated in the pre delay before the reverb. At the maximum setting, an infinite loop will be created and sounding similar to a delay effect that goes on and on. At minimum setting, the pre delay simply delays the sound of the reverb without any special effects. When this feedback slider is somewhere in between, the original note will be mixed together with the reverberation. In short, the time slider and the feedback slider are similar to the speed and repeat function commonly found in delay pedals.

3) Reverb controls -

a) Decay slider - Controls the length of the reverb time. This will affect the width of the reverberation. At maximum setting, an infinite reverb may occur, depending on the settings of the time and feedback sliders. The infinite reverb is similar to a delay pedal going into self-oscillation, thus achieving a wall of sound.

b) Damping slider - Affects the frequency response of the reverb over time. At minimum setting, the damping effect will be more, thus the reverb is muted. As the slider is pushed up, the reverb sounds more bright and "open". At higher settings, the reverb time will be longer.

c) Diffusion slider - Works in conjunction with other parameters to provide a density control to make subtle differences in the quality of the reverb
sound. At minimum, the reverb has a "grainer" quality while at the maximum setting, the reverb is at its most lush.

4) Output mixer controls -

a) Dry output level slider - Controls the amount of dry (original) guitar signal being processed to give the reverb sound. It’s similar to the mix knob on other reverb pedals.

b) Spring output level slider - Controls the amount of spring simulation effect to the overall reverb sound. A higher setting make the reverb sounds more "spring-ier".

c) Reverb output level slider - Controls the amount of stereo reverb signal being sent to output. Higher setting yields more reverb (wet) signal.

5) Preset bank slider - This slider will select 4 banks of reverb setting where each bank can be called upon using the preset A and preset B footswitches.

On the topside of the pedal, the 7 items are namely:

1) Main input - Instrument/guitar in

2) Main output - To amplifier

3) Stereo output - To another amplifier for stereo reverb setup

4) Expression pedal input - With a expression pedal in, this will control the level of instrument signal into the reverb. It can be used for volume/ reverb swell and other effects which I will touch on later

5) Midi input - To connect other midi devices into the pedal

6) Midi output - to control other midi devices

7) Preset/free mode slider - To choose between using the presets reverb setting or user setting

For footswitches, there are 3, namely the preset A, preset B and bypass.

One special feature of the Holiest Grail is that there are 8 preset available which can be called upon using the preset bank slider and the preset A and B footswitch at any time and if the player prefers, it can be set to his/her own configuration into either preset A or B, of bank 1 to 4

The 4 banks of factory preset contain the following:

Preset 1A - Short spring – A spring reverb with a short decay time

Preset 1B - Long spring – A spring reverb with a long decay time

Preset 2A - Short hall – A clean reverb with a short decay

Preset 2B - Long hall – A huge reverb with a very long decay

Preset 3A - Short room – A short decay reverb with a good amount of damping

Preset 3B - Long room – A long decay reverb with some damping

Preset 4A - Echo reverb – An echo’ish(delay) sounding reverb. The pre delay time and feedback slider are pushed up with the reverb decay turned down

Preset 4B - Resonator – With the feedback slider pushed up to maximum and the time slider close to minimum, playing certain notes on the guitar will make the reverb resonate, making it sounding slight sitar-ish or mad oscillation going on and on until the amp speaker feels like blowing apart.

Till here, I guess some might already get impatient. Ok, let's go into the main issue. Actually, how does it sound? I find that this reverb pedal is close to perfection (but just not quite...). For normal reverb needs, this pedal offers much more than what normal players will use. The factory presets are pretty good and natural sounding.

Of course, if anyone wanna ask in comparison to that amp reverb or rack reverb processor, how this reverb pedal holds out. I really can’t make the comparison as I don't have much experience with those other than a Digiverb pedal from Digitech. By comparison, the Digiverb is much more milder sounding than the Holiest Grail, even at maximum setting. Personally for me, what I am looking for in a reverb pedal is one that can really mush up the dry signal, pushing it into oscillation or near oscillation to get the wall of sound thing going on in the back ground. At the same time, I'm able to get the guitar tone to cut thru all the chaos.

Not to sound like I'm putting down the Digiverb. The reverse reverb is worth the price alone. After combining the reverse reverb with the Holiest Grail with long decay setting and a delay pedal, all I can say is these 3 pedals are the perfect members to satisfy my needs for some droning moods.

Back to the Holiest Grail, by using with an expression pedal, I can control the amount of reverb that I want from totally dry signal to a fully wet signal. With certain settings where the reverb decay is long and the feedback slider set to your taste, any notes played will go into oscillation. Using the expression pedal to control it without letting it go over the top, you can play some chords or plucking the strings at the same time. It's like in heaven!! Haha, it may sound a bit exaggerated, but if you are into ambient sounds or shoegazer music, you will love it. Basically, what you have is the long reverb sound going round and round in the background and the guitar soaring over it. You want a wall of sound? There you have it, right down in a pedal format!!

Besides providing reverb, the Holiest Grail is actually capable of making frequency adjustable white noise. At certain settings, playing a note on the guitar will make the reverb go over the top. Adjusting the various sliders, I've gotten some pulsating beats which actually sounds like a storm brewing in the amp. Adjusting the speed and other parameters, it will make the white noise go faster or slower, from really fat to really hollow to sounding like sharpening a knife. Fascinating? You bet!! Especially, if you are into getting whacked out sounds from your effect pedals.

To summarize, the Holiest Grail is:

Pros:
– From normal gentle sounding reverb to over the top speaker blowing up

– Adjustable level of reverb using expression pedal

– Wide range of reverb

– Wide range of controls and parameters

– True bypass. That's what they say in the manual.
I am not too particular bout this as long as it’s not too obvious in tone difference

– Quiet

– White noise manipulator. It's definitely more than just a reverb making machine. Definitely a plus point for me

– Funky looking slider cap!! Ok, this has nothing to do with reverb. Forget about this.

Cons:
– Cost. It's not cheap for a pedal but for what
it is capable, it's worth it in my opinion.

– Stereo output!! Seriously, using this pedal through a dual amp setup is amazing, especially when the whole wall of sound surrounds you. But when I step on the bypass footswitch, sadly, all that I got was only the
sound from one amp! This stereo output
only applys when the effect is "on".

– When I'm changing from preset A to B or vice versa while playing, there might be a sudden "zzzzwwwaaannnnnggg" sound which can be rather irritating. But I guess it's not too big a problem as I don't really toggle
between 2 settings so often.

To conclude, the Holiest Grail is one hell of a reverb pedal that gives me more ideas in guitar playing and noise making. It will be one pedal that I won't want to play without. And even thought I might not be using all the settings. There's one thing which I always believe in:

"Less is more, but more is still MORE!!!"*

*Credit to Lounge Lizard for this quote.