ELECTRO HARMONIX MICRO POG

Hello everyone, today I'm going to talk about Micro POG. It's a very unique pedal that can generates octave up and octave down sound and mix it the way you want. It's made by Electro Harmonix and it stands for Polyphonic Octave Generator.

Electro Harmonix
As you already know, EHX created tons of innovations that revolutionize the way guitar pedal sounds. Micro POG is one of the evidence of that. Although the basic idea that it enables you to play your guitar with added octave up and down sounds pretty dull, the reality is very far from dull because you can replicate some interesting tones that sound un-guitar-like. This pedal can make you sound like you play through a 12 string guitar and even like a Hammond organ.

This pedal features a true bypass switch, a dry knob,  an octave down knob, an octave up knob and a stereo output. The way you get the sound is by mixing the knobs until you get the desired tone that you are looking for. It's powered by a 9v adapter and that's already included in the box.

The sound
As I mentioned before, it sounds pretty un-guitar but it's quite fun actually. This is not the type of pedal that you turn on all the time all day long on any song; this is the one that requires the perfect timing to turn it on. Try to turn it on when you play harmonics with all knobs cranked, and you'll get a pretty sweet sounding harmonics. Turn it on with a Tube Screamer during a very mellow slow rhythm part with octave up and dry knobs cranked, you'll get a very cool and rich tone that'll add a certain air to the overall song.

Is it worth the price? 
Comes pretty expensive at around $200, the chip inside is pretty pricey. I don't say it's not worth it because it is worth the price, but I don't say that it truly is. Whatever type of music that you play, this pedal will not be used more than 40% of the time. For me, although it sounds good, it doesn't justify the price vs amount of time spent with this pedal. But hey, this pedal makes playing guitar more fun.

From 0 to 10
I'll give this pedal 9. If it comes cheaper, I'll give 10 for sure.

CLICK HERE FOR AUDIO CLIP

I hope you found this post useful, thanks for reading. Cheers and God Bless :)

MEMORY MAN VERSUS MEMORY BOY

I just got a chance yesterday morning to mess around in my local Guitar Center and compare side by side a Deluxe Memory Man and a Memory Boy. Man, this is the greatest delay pedals comparison that I've ever done. Sorry, there will be no audio clip available for this comparison since I don't have a chance to have the Memory Man in my home for recording.

Let's start with the Man

It has extra Level knob to adjust the output of the pedal which is great. It also has two options of output: one for direct output, one for FX out. This is great since you can use both output for stereo kind of effect to get the dry vs wet signal to whatever configuration you like.

The sound that I'm getting is actually pretty subtle, nothing too dramatic or surprising. The knobs aren't as sensitive as the Boy, but this one is fine tuned for perfection. I can see why the price range is pretty high, this pedal is meant to last forever and there is indeed some feeling that the pedal naturally adds warmness to your signal.

That's the best 10 minutes I've ever had while testing this pedal. I didn't use anything fantastic: just a cheap Ibanez Artcore guitar plugged straight here onto the amp. The delay sound is very very classic, you can easily nail anything with this pedal. Furthermore, the chorus effect offers a very subtle slightly out-of-tune repeats that don't get too far; that's good since you don't want people to think that you're out of tune. This pedal also has slightly longer delay time compared to the Memory Boy.

I don't really have anything to complain from this pedal except that it's BIG, almost the size of a Memory Boy combined with a Memory Toy. Price range around $320.00. From 0 to 10, I give this one a 10 ! It's worth every penny you spent

How does the Boy compare to the Man?

To be honest with you all, after I compared this baby to the Man, I have to say that this is actually VERY CLOSE to the Memory Man. Really, if you're looking for something more basic that has the same power as the Man, this is what you're looking for. What are lacking from this pedal:

- Output Level adjustment

- Multi output option

- Overly sensitive knobs(especially the chorus depth knob...compared to the Man)

- Not so natural added warmness(I'll explain more)

What I mean by not-so-natural warmness

The pedal doesn't have output level adjustment, so it adds the most amount of warmness that you can get without the ability to reduce it at all. This is good enough for me, but keep in mind that when you turn on the pedal, there's gonna be a slight increase of volume(that doesn't necessarily alter your tone besides added warmth). It's not artificial though, the internal construction of the pedal is based on full analog circuitry.

Therefore, I can surely says that the Memory Boy now gets a 10 out of 10 for it's ability to almost match the Memory Man. Well, actually if I may add, the price of the Memory Boy is a bit "steal" for something this good, but if you want something more between the Boy and the Man, there's a Deluxe Memory Boy with Tap Tempo adjustment, just in case you want more flexibility of setting the delay time.

Good job EHX for making this great pedal at a very cheap price. Surely this one beats everything on its price range!!

Cheers and God bless :)

ELECTRO HARMONIX EHX HOLY GRAIL NANO REVERB

I decided to do a review today before continuing the Part II of the "Guitar Artists with Great Tone". Today we will be reviewing another great Electro Harmonix pedal called Holy Grail Nano.

Reverb pedal around the world

There are tons of good reverb pedal on the market, some come with a very expensive price tag and claimed to have some boutique qualities not found in other reverb pedals. But some reverb pedals actually come pretty cheap to the market and they sound just unbelievable! This one is one of those good cheap pedals. With a price tag of less than $130.00, this one blows the competition away!

What makes it so special?

First of all, EHX is known for its good quality pedals that ranges from overdrive unit to even fully functional power amp in a form of a stomp box. EHX makes the Deluxe Memory Man, the only worthy rival of the real tape echo. The Holy Grail reverb, not surprisingly, is also a very high quality pedal with exceptional sound.

It has three options to choose: Spring, Hall and Flerb. It also has one knob that basically controls dry vs wet. Furthermore, with the nano version of the Holy Grail, it takes only a very small space on your pedalboard. I tried all the three options of the Spring, Hall and Flerb.

The Spring option gives me that short slap type of reverb, very good for acoustic sounding tone and it doesn't over-boost the slap or pick frequencies thus making the overall sound not too harsh.

The Hall option gives me that classic concert hall reverb sound. I prefer the signal to be not too wet, maybe around 9ish, so that I can still get definition of my notes. But you can make it sound totally wet and roomy and try to experiment with it a little bit.

The only mode that I don't enjoy is the Flerb which is basically a flanger combined with reverb, sort of like chorus and delay of the Memory Man series. It doesn't quite attract me since I prefer a more traditional sound out of a reverb pedal. But you might find it useful for something that I haven't catch yet. Who knows :)..?

Inconsistencies?

Yes, I heard that the Holy Grail Nano pedal is famous for its frequent defect units. Some of them sound bad, some of them hiss when being used, even some of them won't turn on or even possess bad switching system. I am pretty lucky I didn't get any of those, but I've seen people in a guitar forum got pissed because they got the defect ones. So by any chance, test the pedal first if you can before you buy it.

How does this one compare to any other reverb pedal?

If we're talking best for its price, this one definitely wins the game totally. But yes, some other reverb pedals actually sound a bit nicer than this. They come with higher price tag of course as I mentioned before. The original Holy Grail and the Holy Grail Plus actually sound almost the same with this one, people confirmed this, and they're more expensive for sure; they offer more knobs for controlling various stuffs though, so maybe if you need to tweak your sound more, you should check them out. EHX also comes with the Cathedral stereo reverb if you want stereo reverb with tons of options and knobs, but of course it's even more pricey!

This thing is totally worth!

For around $120.00, it's totally worth every penny you spend. If you're looking for a basic reverb with decent sound and great price, look no further. For this price, I would call it a steal.

Anything you dislike?

Digital? No I'm just joking, the word digital doesn't really scare me because lots of reverb pedals are digital. If you want the sound of a true analog reverb, it will only come in the form of spring and it won't replicate the big Hall sound. I like this pedal so much, it gave me the reverb tone I'm looking for.

From 0 to 10

10, or maybe 11 if I may add. Haha !

Here's the sound clip: HOLY GRAIL

Cheers and God bless !

p.s. stay tuned for the next "Guitar Artists with Great Tone" post.

ELECTRO HARMONIX EXH MEMORY BOY

Analog Delay Pedal

Almost everyone who plays lead guitar can't live without delay pedals or racks on his or her rig. If you are a tone chaser, you would not want to settle for just any kind of delay FX, you'll either use an Echoplex tape echo that costs you as much as a brand new American Strat or an expensive digital rack that eats a lot of space and hard to carry around.

Hence, the analog delay pedals were created. Popular one is the EHX Deluxe Memory Man, used by Eric Johnson, Andy Timmons(YES, him again) and possibly some other cool players out there. That pedal is still pretty expensive by the way, thus EHX creates cheaper delay pedals that still carry the same basic function of a DMM but in a more affordable price. This is one of those.

Basic Sound

To start, analog delays are usually famous for their warmth and added 3D quality on the repeats. This sounds very different from the usual digital delay that just copy and paste your signal without adding anything. The EHX DMM is famous for it's ability to replicate a tape echo that has slightly out of tune repeats that makes the chorus-like effect on the repeats. Hence, it's usually called analog delay pedal with modulation/chorus.

This pedal here is basically doing that analog delay with added chorus effect. I don't know how it will compare to a DMM since I don't have one and the stores near me don't have them in stock since it's pretty rare. But this one, I kind of like it. When you turn it on, the entire signal will get more warmth and 3D-ness.

Chorus, Vibrato, Expression Pedal

I never tried the Expression Pedal mode. I enjoyed the Chorus modulation but only when it is engaged on triangular waveform with only tiny amount of blend. When you use the blend knob above 8am, it will sound very out of tune. Some people might be able to use that to create some weird layered sound but I personally don't aim for that sound. The vibrato is also nice to have around since it straightly makes the note bent on the repeats, unlike the chorus that uses layering to get that effect.

Boy vs Man, Boy vs other Boys

I really wish to compare this with a DMM and see how much compromisation is happening. I am able to find some youtube videos that compares between the two, but the sound quality is not really detailed(audio are recorded using the same device to take the video, not from recording).

Compared to other delay pedals out there, this one is still one of the warmest on its price range. It's not overly expensive and it does not have too much options. But this basic package already contributes a lot in my signal chain. Everytime I have my lead time, I just turn on this pedal and the hairs on my back rise haha !

Worth?

For only $120.00, this one is not too expensive. It surely beats the Carbon Copy from MXR for sure, I've seen it happening. Also I prefer this to a standard Boss Digital Delay since this adds more touches to your entire signal rather than just copy paste and make the repeats. Basic functions, great sound, great price, it is surely worth the price.

Dislikes?

Well, we all know there's a debate about price vs quality. Better quality needs greater price sometimes; this pedal is great, but maybe a real DMM will sound better, who knows, and that will surely change how you view the Memory Boy once you can compare it with the real deal. But I don't find any flaw on this pedal, I got compliment from using this pedal.

From 0 to 10

I say 9.5 for now, wait until I can compare with a DMM and maybe it'll get lower or higher. Hopefully the apple doesn't fall far from the tree haha !

Edit: I compared it with a DMM, here's the link to that post: CLICK HERE

Here's the audio clip: CLICK HERE

Cheers and God bless ! :D