Home › Forums › Help/Technical Questions › re-issuing true to original vintage EHX pedals?

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  • June 3, 2015 at 5:50 pm #83973
    dandood
    Participant

    Hey EHX,

    Im a big fan and user of your vintage pedals, and am wondering if you’ve ever considered re-releasing some of the amazing sounding classic pedals such as the big box polychorus, polyphase or memory man. Not as an XO or nano pedal, but the real deal… with the big full organic amazing sound that they used to have.

    In the last few years I’ve spent sooooo much money on current modern pedals….. reissues, clones, boutique pedals, and found myself constantly trying to convince myself that I like playing through them. I mean, they sound pretty good…. not horrible, but for the most part, I find myself tweaking and convincing rather than playing and enjoying.

    Recently I was fortunate enough to pick up an old Memory man with the mn3005 chip, and it was like “there it is”….. why the heck do I have to buy a 30 – 40 year old pedal to get something that sounds this good? I just don’t get why companies wouldn’t still make stuff like this.
    I had the same experience with the vintage polychorus. It’s just amazing how much better it sounds compared to pretty much any modern pedal. warm, lush, organic……INSPIRING. an absolute joy to play through. It makes me want to play all day.

    What I find with the new pedals such as the XO pedals, is that while the effect itself is quite nice, the actual guitar tone is diminished, or shrunken. Like it’s missing frequencies or something. With my memory man XO, which does have the mn3005 chip, I find that I have to separate the original signal with the delay so I can get a full guitar tone. The delay (repeats) itself is very nice.

    I understand trends, and the business of staying “up to date” or whatever, but shirley there has to be a market for the big tone pedals of the past. There has to be plenty of guys still alive that remember playing through that stuff, that would jump at a chance to buy something brand new that sounds that amazing.

    I appreciate you reading my post, and would like to end with this question.

    why can’t we get stuff like that today?

    thanks!

    June 3, 2015 at 9:51 pm #120730
    The EH Man
    Moderator

    That’s a good question. Sometimes they have to redesign the circuit because of the unavailability of key parts. This is what happened with the Polychorus since the original delay IC is no longer available. The Pulsar, despite having no hard to find parts, is completely different from the original. The 16 Second Digital Delay reissue was also a whole different beast from the original because a lot of that early digital circuitry is also unavailable. People told me that one of the things they didn’t like about the reissue is that it was too clean. It sounded nothing like the original.
    I don’t know why they can’t accurately reproduce even the original Big Muff circuit. I can do it and have for years. In a Memory Man, if they have the correct delay ICs then they should be able to reproduce the rest of the circuit easily.

    June 3, 2015 at 10:50 pm #120731
    dandood
    Participant

    Thanks for your answer, I really appreciate it ! I knew about the scarcity of the mn3005 chips. I guess what I don’t get is why someone doesn’t just make more of them ? Is it a patent issue? or is just so costly that the pedal companies wouldn’t be able to profit as much?

    It’s really a shame to see such an important part of an electric guitarists palette fade away like this.

    I will say though that the Flanger Hoax is a great sounding pedal and lots of fun to play through. The big box Electric Mistress is great too, as is the Small Clone (old style one) When I play through those I still get that full warm classic tone. Most other pedals leave me disappointed or in a state of trying to convince myself I like it. The really good pedals you just know from the first note.

    thanks again,

    Dan

    June 3, 2015 at 10:52 pm #120732
    The EH Man
    Moderator

    Other companies own the rights to the MN3005 chips. You would have to order a huge quantity to make it economically feasible.

    June 3, 2015 at 10:56 pm #120733
    dandood
    Participant

    I would just like to emphatically suggest that……you guys should do that!!!!!

    =)

    thanks again

    February 1, 2016 at 4:41 pm #121249
    Tarmogoyf
    Member

    Yeah. I’ve yet to find a modern EH pedal that sounds anywhere near as good, let alone even comparable, to it’s original vintage counterpart. The newer pedals are a lot smaller and more consistent, but the sound and mojo just isn’t there anymore.

    February 1, 2016 at 5:41 pm #121252
    dandood
    Participant
    Quote:
    Yeah. I’ve yet to find a modern EH pedal that sounds anywhere near as good, let alone even comparable, to it’s original vintage counterpart. The newer pedals are a lot smaller and more consistent, but the sound and mojo just isn’t there anymore.

    Yeah, that’s been my experience. There are some pretty cool novelty pedals like the B9 , C9… ect, but I’d really like to see some real deal reissues of the classic pedals. I just don’t get why they can’t do both.

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