Home › Forums › Review Your EHX Gear › Longtime EHX user reviewing pedals – EHX staff should read

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  • September 6, 2012 at 6:53 am #82561
    InstituteforIommicResearchBK
    Member

    I’ve been using EHX pedals since I started playing guitar around fifteen years ago. I currently play in a few bands as both a bassist and guitarist. I have a certain love-hate relationship with EHX gear. Nothing else sounds like it or can do what it does, but at the same time most of it has critical design defects that keeps me from being able to depend on it anywhere except at home or in a studio. I live a few blocks away from new sensor so I can’t hate them, I just wish they did things a little differently. I’ve owned a variety units over the years. Here’s my rundown. I put suggestions for future products/reissues in Itallics. If you guys don’t fix these problems, I’ll mod/re-build it myself for myself eventually.

    BIG MUFF PI nyc reissue in the big folded metal box:
    This was my first pedal. Acquired when I was 13 years old.
    WTF is up with the input jack? back when I used to actually use this pedal, It was a nightmare keeping it powered as those 1/4″ dc plugs were hard to find. Now they are not, but in the late 90’s before internet superstores, things were different. One of my biggest complaints about this pedal is the lack of midrange. It sounds cool in my bedroom fuzzy-fying an amp turned down way too low for natural distortion, but that’s about it. Put it in a live situation and it just drops out of the mix for anything except for gilmour-style solos.

    BIG MUFF PI w tone bypass / wicker
    At last, the tonality defects in the original along with the jack were addressed. If i flip the tone bypass, I get an awesome stoner rock tone. Nice and beefy. At this point it’s just a one-trick pony, and all further tone adjustments must come from elsewhere. Tone wicker helps too. Unfortunately, when I hit the switch, everything drops out while the pedal sorta “powers up”. This glitch keeps me from being able to use it in a live or jam situation. A further issue is the style and placement of those switches. I can’t stomp on this stomp box. I must touch it delicately. like a ballerina……or I might hit the tone bypass with my toe and loose all my mids.

    metal muff
    This thing is aweful. A guitarist in one of the bands I once played in used to use it. We voted to ban it. This thing sounds horrible. it’s too big too.

    suggestions for muff line
    I Need a big muff with true bypass on a standard DC plug with easy acess to the battery compartment. It should be built with a tone bypass, but the switch should be located INSIDE the box under the battery access panel. Perhaps a third mode can be included on that switch, which retains the function of the tone knob but without loss of mids / with a mid boost. The power up issue must be addressed

    BLACK FINGER
    I love the sound and diverse range of settings. I can’t rely on it, but wish it could be a permanent part of my bass rig. 50% of the time it doesnt work when I plug it in. I wait ten minutes, try again, and it works.The plug is weird and prone to shorting and sparking, difficult to plug in dark conditions, is in an awkward spot, and comes out very easily. The tubes don’t seem to be easily replaceable, I tried swapping for a new set and the pedal sounded like crap. Seems like it’s going to fall apart any day now.
    Suggestions: QUALITY CONTROL! I hear I’m lucky having a unit thats stayed relatively functional 2+ years. Put it in a more durable box. The compression sounds amazing on a variety of applications. Perhaps consider introducing a rackmount unit with balanced in/outputs at a similar price point. If it’s durable, it can compete with much of DBX’s low-end stuff putting you in a new market without much work. This will eliminate all the inherent problems of putting a tube comp in a pedal and most of the people using these things have racks anyway. at least the ones i’ve met. Also, some of the other “pedal” units should be made into rack mount versions…the tube pre, eq, and whitefinger. Some info on retubing should help too. I’m pretty sure the tubes in mine are nearing the end of their life.

    POG 2
    I love it, but it’s starting to get tacky. I recognize it down to the exact settings blind whenever I hear it used raw. Works wonders in combination with other effects. The attack function just by itself is worth half the price of the pedal to me. Apparently EHX pedals have so much personality they go through an occasional identity crisis. Sometimes it goes haywire and thinks it’s a drum machine. Then I unplug it, replug it, and it works again for ten minutes until it goes again. It’s temperamental, it can go months without doing it then it starts back up again for a few weeks before it calms down.
    What I really need is a micro pog that has an attack knob. and take care of the personality crisis

    FREEZE
    Cool idea, bad execution. The way I use it, I like to hit a note, freeze it, then play over it. Unfortunately there are too many design defects. First of all, the power supply is prone to ground noise and it can’t take a battery. Second, everything sums to the same output so I can only use it with a clean amp. I can split signals with a splitter, but that’s too much tap-dancing just to change the root note of a progression as i’m trying to solo over it. Using two amps with the freeze anywhere in the chain increases noise dramatically.

    Apparently, the superego has adressed these issues and I just gleefully ordered it. Hopefully it will allow me to do some nifty things but I don’t expect to be able to use it live with two amps like I’ve been dreaming of. I’m guessing without trasformer balanced outputs with a ground lift switch (like radial tonebone) I won’t get a very transparent noise-free sound with it going into two amps.

    I also just ordered a bassballs and bass muff. Reviews of those coming soon.

    How about a bass DI unit, a la Sansamp but with some compression and a dose of muffy fuzz?! i’d love it.

    September 6, 2012 at 7:14 am #118116
    InstituteforIommicResearchBK
    Member

    TUBES
    I really dislike EHX tubes. I’ve been through a dozen sets of ehx 6l6 tubes and at least 50% go microphonic in the first few weeks of use. They don’t sound that great either. The 12ax7’s are nothing special either. Definitely better than groove tubes (damn do those suck…), but I use JJ’s in most of my amps now. The only ehx tubes i’m ok with are the 12au, t, and y7’s, which don’t seem to be half bad.

    I’m still waiting for a US-based company revive domestic manufacturing and put stuff out on par with vintage british-made tubes. It seems like most guitar amps are running at a fraction of their tonal capacity simply because the tubes suck and nothing better is available unless they are willing to gamble a fortune on NOS tubes. It’s a shame, everyone could sound so much better.

    September 6, 2012 at 11:35 pm #118121
    Post-Script
    Member

    Elo,
    Thank you for review, it was insightful and thorough. I bought my first EHX pedal I think about two years ago. I’m a hobbyist, but if you don’t mind, I’d like to share my thoughts too. So far I have a Germanium 4 Muff Pie, Stereo Electric Mistress, Memory Boy and a White Finger.

    I don’t think I have a problem with the White Finger. I haven’t had any problems so far.

    The Stereo Electric Mistress gives a considerable background noise when it’s on.

    The Memory Boy gives some sort of an overdriven signal. Not overdrive in the proper sense, but there’s a noisy boost in the volume. If you want to hear it, turn the Blend knob clockwise.

    And as much as I love the EHX sturdy construction, but I really don’t want to keep unscrewing to change the battery.

    October 13, 2012 at 2:46 pm #118239
    flennertz
    Member

    adding my 2c here, about the pog2, i dont have this drum machine problem in mine, but what i do think is a big problem is the overall output. its really hard to tweak it live, sometimes combining it with other effects the volume goes way loud or irritatingly quiet. i think the pog should have a master volume, so you can keep your settings and just increase volume (like a booster) or decrease it, without the hassle of checking each one of the settings so that everything stays the same but louder/quieter. this would make me a happier person

    October 15, 2012 at 3:03 pm #118248
    InstituteforIommicResearchBK
    Member

    I run into the same problem with the POG. I find that I have to tweak all the settings when I change rigs/playing environments because different amps respond to the ultra high and lows differently. I run the POG half of my signal chain into a bass amp, with a splitter before it going into a separate chain into a guitar amp. If I switch chains, the settings have to change too. This is kindof obvious though…

    I doubt a master volume would work well because the “too loud” is often not the pedal overall, but just one of the octave sliders that becomes overpowering – usually the +2, sometimes the -1. Either of those can become exaggerated when using distortion or fuzz, or flangers in particular with the +2. It’s usually not the POG itself that exaggerates certain harmonics (making it too loud/quiet) but the way the amp or following pedal processes the information. If you add more bass in the input signal on certain amps, they will get bassier, on others, it will get distorted or woofy and obscure the highs. On some amp or pedals if you add treble you get more definition or harmonics, on others you will get more ice picks. Flangers (phasers too, but not as much) make it too loud because it’s essentially a sweeping EQ that works by combining two signals slightly out of phase. Since (due to the POG) the harmonics are not naturally balanced as they would in a normal guitar sound, the imbalance can become exaggerated. Combine that imbalance with the already existing aforementioned dynamic response of amplifiers and distortion boxes, and you end up with occasionally [seemingly, to the uninitiated] unpredictable results.

    THere are some solutions to that problem….
    1. preset your presets to how you would want them live when you are practicing, then don’t change them. When I practice with my band, we run though the set at stage volume. Nothing changes when we go live except for the addition of mics on the cabs and drums, and we don’t use monitors on stage for anything except vocals – for that we have a PA in the practice space so there really is no difference between live vs. practice. Our stage sound is almost identical to our practice space sound, so we don’t have to do any tweaking save for some minor eq adjustments on the amp heads for the change in room.

    2. Don’t use a distortion or flanger after the POG unless you either A. have a compressor after or B. the distortion/fuzz is brick-wall buffered (e.g BOSS pedal). I’d ideally advise against either. An alternate solution without A nor B is to just tweak the settings so that you have a specific setting to function with the pedals that you want on, and a different setting for when the other pedals are off.

    an easy band aid for you would be a compressor after the pog. That can function as your master volume, and you’ll be able to tweak the response better than if you stuck some other type of buffer in front to level things out.

    October 15, 2012 at 3:34 pm #118249
    InstituteforIommicResearchBK
    Member

    SUPEREGO, BASSBALLS, BASSMUFF FOLLOWUP:

    So i got my three new EHX pedals, and spent about a month playing around with them. Here’s my take…

    SUPEREGO:

    I LOVE thing thing. it’s great. It’s everything the freeze was missing…which was bassically just the dry/wet mix. I don’t care about the gliss or speed knob, although they are kinda fun when playing solo. In a band situation unless they are set just right, it will throw off the rest of the band. I hate the auto function, but i’m sure it has it’s uses. I run my guitar into a splitter, chan A going into superego then bassamp, chan B into a guitar amp. I have the dry all the way down, effect up at unity, gliss and speed at 0. This way I can play a bass note, freeze it in the bass amp while playing a distorted guitar line over it through the other amp. when I don’t need the bass, I hit the splitter and the entire chain is bypassed….there’s a delay at the end of that chain so when It gets bypassed, it’s a gradual echo-out.

    my only gripe is the damn flip switch. WHAT THE FUCK IS EHX THINKING PUTTING THESE ON ALL THEIR PEDALS????? SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!
    I have to tip toe around the damn thing like a ballerina trying to not make the switch go from “latch” to “momentary” to “auto”. You know what I did? I clipped that fucking switch with a pair of sheetmetal scissors and now it won’t go anywhere unless I take a sharp object and move the switch that way. Of all the dumb shit EHX has done before, these flippy switches an inch from the on/off are by far the dumbest possible thing any effects company has ever done, period. There are a dozen other types of switches and places you could have put them, but you chose the single worst type of switch and put them in the absolute worst possible location.
    This, along with a few other products you’ve put out recently make me think that you are moving away from stuff for musicians, and making stuff for bedroom wankers. You guys are not ZOOM. EHX has a long symbiotic history with musicians and when you guys start acting like guitar center patsies, it severs that symbiosis. Like that new freestanding wah you put out. WTF? do you seriously think I would use something like that, where it can rock back and forth and get kicked around on stage? Wahs have basses for a reason, it’s because we guitarists like to lay into them, and because we like to use pedalboards. This thing is a liability on a pedalboard, and a liability off of one. for bedrooms only. gah.

    BASS MUFF.
    Well. Awesome. everything I was looking for in a bass distortion pedal. Sounds cool on a guitar too, with some other stuff before/after..
    EXcept.
    THAT FUCKING FLIPPY SWITCH! AGAIN!

    BASSBALLS.
    Well. bassballs are bassballs. it is what it is, which is awesome balls. EXCEPT…..you guessed it……….THE FLIPPY SWITCH!!!!!

    October 15, 2012 at 5:25 pm #118252
    flennertz
    Member
    Quote:
    I run into the same problem with the POG. I find that I have to tweak all the settings when I change rigs/playing environments because different amps respond to the ultra high and lows differently. I run the POG half of my signal chain into a bass amp, with a splitter before it going into a separate chain into a guitar amp. If I switch chains, the settings have to change too. This is kindof obvious though…

    I doubt a master volume would work well because the “too loud” is often not the pedal overall, but just one of the octave sliders that becomes overpowering – usually the +2, sometimes the -1. Either of those can become exaggerated when using distortion or fuzz, or flangers in particular with the +2. It’s usually not the POG itself that exaggerates certain harmonics (making it too loud/quiet) but the way the amp or following pedal processes the information. If you add more bass in the input signal on certain amps, they will get bassier, on others, it will get distorted or woofy and obscure the highs. On some amp or pedals if you add treble you get more definition or harmonics, on others you will get more ice picks. Flangers (phasers too, but not as much) make it too loud because it’s essentially a sweeping EQ that works by combining two signals slightly out of phase. Since (due to the POG) the harmonics are not naturally balanced as they would in a normal guitar sound, the imbalance can become exaggerated. Combine that imbalance with the already existing aforementioned dynamic response of amplifiers and distortion boxes, and you end up with occasionally [seemingly, to the uninitiated] unpredictable results.

    THere are some solutions to that problem….
    1. preset your presets to how you would want them live when you are practicing, then don’t change them. When I practice with my band, we run though the set at stage volume. Nothing changes when we go live except for the addition of mics on the cabs and drums, and we don’t use monitors on stage for anything except vocals – for that we have a PA in the practice space so there really is no difference between live vs. practice. Our stage sound is almost identical to our practice space sound, so we don’t have to do any tweaking save for some minor eq adjustments on the amp heads for the change in room.

    2. Don’t use a distortion or flanger after the POG unless you either A. have a compressor after or B. the distortion/fuzz is brick-wall buffered (e.g BOSS pedal). I’d ideally advise against either. An alternate solution without A nor B is to just tweak the settings so that you have a specific setting to function with the pedals that you want on, and a different setting for when the other pedals are off.

    an easy band aid for you would be a compressor after the pog. That can function as your master volume, and you’ll be able to tweak the response better than if you stuck some other type of buffer in front to level things out

    youre a bass player, right? maybe the pog2 has different issues for guitar and bass. what youre saying about the amps colloring things up is absolutely true, but also, like you said, very predictable. my main issue is that the overall volume is too loud/quiet (not a specific octave), and i think here bass player might have a different look at this. what i mean is that while using it with a guitar and, eg, a distortion, some harmonics will definitely be very high, but thats ok, my only problem is that it responds quite differently than other pedals. not only those harmonics will be high (wich is something desirable if you turned the distortion on), the pog2 will be entirely very high or low, and thats not only because its very difficult to predict the pog2 behaviour when combined with other pedals, but also because of the way its settings works. you need to stabilish each setting for the octave, in a way that should you want to keep that setting but at a different volume (for example, -2:60% / -1:30% / +1:80% / +2:50% ; if you want this setting a bit quieter (say 10%), the only way is turning the amp down, which involves much running back and forth, or turning each of the levels 10% down, an impossible task playing live). my problems with the pog2 arent just a +2 or -1 that got off hand, but taming the whole volume of the beast.

    as for solutions, the only one i find is to program everything i will use a little bit quieter (and pumping the volume up if needed with some sort of boost), but this sucks cause youre limited to the 7 (8?) presets and cause itd be so much more simple to have a booster integrated so you could turn the whole volume up or down with a ‘master’ leveler. and this is cheap, im making myself a booster with a pot exactly for this purpose, like an active volume pedal. thats why i think ehx should provide for this, cause its simple, possible and would make the pog2 much much more user friendly – as a matter of fact, all reviews i read rating down the pog2 were due to its uncontrollability.

    currently im using the second solution you mentioned, putting a compressor right after the pog2 and controlling the sound there, but this isnt very good because im using a compressor just for the pog2 (not for myself) and because i didnt want to compress the sound (i hate compressors, the squashing sound, i dont even have one, im using the zvex ILFJ that by chance (sort of) has a compressing setting but not dedicated). i think even with buffered bypass (boss) after the pog, wich would totally kill the tone, the volume would still be high. btw, i gave up a long time ago of using fuzz before the pog2, its completely unpredictable. ive got 2 big muffs after it and what ocurred to me now is maybe using one of them without sustain and w/ max tone to try to control the volume through its knob. or maybe ill finally get myself a compressor to use as a limiter, problem is i didnt wnat to spend the dough just for this.. gotta think..
    cheers

    October 15, 2012 at 6:28 pm #118253
    InstituteforIommicResearchBK
    Member

    I actually play both guitar and bass (and drums!). I fill different roles in different projects, and have another where I play guitar through both a bass and guitar amp.

    I have my pedalboard set up with two channels. First pedal is the blackfinger, followed by an active splitter which splits into A/B.
    Chan A is “bass” with POG>bassballs>superego>bassmuff>mxr delay>orange terrorbass/8×10 and chan B is “guitar” which is Rat>mxr 10 band EQ>mxr delay> custom built 180 watt guitar head (4xkt88)/two x 4×12.

    The board works with either bass or guitar, and can make either sound like the other….or both…so I have one board for all my projects. I play Doom metal mega-loud. I think part of our difference in understanding of the pedal is that I’m guessing you probably belong to the more traditional combo+dirtboxes school of guitar playing. I’m from the full stack cranked to 11 school of playing, so I use my pedals very differently.

    I see what you are saying, but I really have not run into problems with the overall volume of the pog. Usually it’s just one ocatve that’s throwing something off, and once that’s adjusted the proper volume comes back. Then again….I use it in a very limited sense. I only use three settings, none of which employ the Q, detune, or LP filter functions.
    You should not have any issues as long as you dial in the right settings and stick with them.

    October 15, 2012 at 8:07 pm #118256
    flennertz
    Member

    youre right about the combo+dirtboxes, my setup is much more limited (although ive got my share of modulation effects). and also about how we use our pedals, i use a lot the q (usually at least at 1) and detune (just a bit of), and all the time the lp filter. the problem of sticking to the settings is that it only has 8 presets, and for example i use one setting at 2 songs. the problem is that in one song the volume is going way high (im using the comp to counter it), but if i was to record a new preset just for this song, soon enoguh id run out of slots. and its so simple to fix this, i think ehx would add a lot of value to the pog putting a simple slider (could be horizontally, beetween the footswitches to allow easier live tweakability), just a log pot, that went along with a booster/boosted signal to control the master volume. but its just my opinion.

    you got me curious about your setup, do you have any recordings? i never thought of using a bass amp together with a guitar amp, with so many effects it made me even more interested. im not that much into doom metal, but it would be cool to see what youre doing, that sounds pretty wild to me

    September 1, 2016 at 12:31 am #121938
    CJVD
    Participant

    This thread makes me very happy for many reasons. Mainly, I love that EHX hosts negative reviews (like this one) on their own website. Why? Because they embody the spirit of rock & roll. They invite novice criticism (and prob ignore it with a beer in hand) and sit back with their geeky, audiophile friends and make some of the most versatile pedals on the planet.

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