If you are looking to purchase music gear please contact Joe Schafer at sweetwater. Joe is awesome and has helped me out a lot when researching gear and making my purchase decisions. Please let him know that I (Jeff Starr) sent you his way. www.sweetwater.com/joe_schafer
When I had been playing guitar for a couple of years (I was 13-14 years old), my dad sold diodes to Electro Harmonix. When my dad told Mike Matthews he has a son who just started playing, Mike gave me my first pedals. He gave me a memory man, small stone phaser, treble booster and distortion. I used these pedals for years, then eventually used them for parts for other pedals I made. I wish I still had those, because they would be worth a pretty penny. I had no idea how cool it was back then to get pedals directly from Mike Matthews.
That is pretty amazing, man. I'd be over the moon if Mike himself gave me pedals! Also, there's a lot to be said for modding pedals these days too. Look at JHS throwing in with a lot of companies(EHX being one of them with the new OP AMP Muff).
Hey, I sold a 1976 Gibson Sg, a 1978 Memory Man Deluxe, and a 1978 or 9 Marshall half stack back in 1980. ow bought a Marshall JCM2000, An original Memory man deluxe fromBoy do I wish I hadn't done that. Still play a little today. And n 78 although it's been modded and doesn't sound that great. Paid a pretty penny for that one. Still no Gibson but have my 1988 USA made BC Rich, original owner. And a Epiphone 2008 Les Paul.
Isn’t it amazing that a company like EHX could have a top 5 that doesn’t include the Canyon, Small Stone, Small Clone, Pitch Fork, Pulsar, the bloody Holy Grail!! I could go on... What a great company EHX is..!
yeah, I made this video before the Canyon was released and I would likely include it now. It's definitely one of the most popular pedals mentioned in the comments. I had a hard time choosing between the Small stone and the Electric Mistress. I still go back and forth between those two all the time. The Holy Grail is another pedal I would include if this list kept going. So many great pedals! Thank you for watching and leaving a comment.
Yes, the Canyon was released either right before or shortly after I made this video. Since then The Canyon has really grown in popularity and it is one of the most common pedals that people mention I should have included. Maybe it's time for an update! Thanks for watching!
The EHX Epitome has 3 of your five built into one pedal. Electric mistress, Pog and Holy Grail. Most of the EHX pedals I have are combinations of two of their devices.
My 5 are oceans 11, hot wax, od glove, germanium od, and opamp nano big muff reissue. Mike has made a lot of unreal pedals over the years, and while always priced fairly, many of them climb dramatically after they are discontinued. This was a great video, I really enjoyed how you explained differences between the various incarnations of the lines over time. The Centaur was not produced from 1990-94, I think that was when it was developed. The Germanium 4 Big Muff isn't a fuzz at all, it is a 2 in 1 od and a distortion pedal that to my ears has not enough gain in the od side and too much gain in the distortion side, it also has the od going into the distortion which I think is backwards, as I would want to set my tone with the distortion and then add a volume boost after it for solos. Mooer made a killer clone of the pog called the tender octaver v1, it is so tiny. EHX sued Mooer and made them change a bunch of their pedals because they were exact copies in smaller enclosures and often had similar names as well, like the elec lady, instead of electric mistress. Hope you're well. Cheers!
Great suggestions - personally, I love the pedals from Electro Harmonix. Fantastic variety, sounds amazing AND they dont cost a fortune. More stomps to the players!! 😎❤👍
I suggest you recommend the Pitch Fork instead of the Micro POG. You get many more harmonies and octaves from the Pitch Fork with great tracking AND you save $55. Plus, I've read the Pitch Fork contains the newest improved harmony generator from EHX. See Bill Ruppert's demo found on the Pitch Fork product page at EHX.
Pitchfork!!!!!! Favorite ehx pedal. I gotta admit tho.. I ran the big muff for years and love that pedal. But the new dod carcosa absolutely kills!,. And my big muff is now in a box.
I have many EHX pedals none of which are leather-bound, and sadly, my apartment does not smell of rich mahogany. But that is the point, EHX makes pedals for the everyday player . I own three of them for the same cost of one "boutique" pedal. Thanks you EHX for keeping the everyday player in mind!
They have some amazing ears in the sound design depart. I had a marvelous little effect device - made for earbud practice, and over 90% of the adjustable effects were perfectly usable. Synths? Ha, dont get me going.
I bought the tone wicker prior to this video, and it wasn't too bad but I found it to be "lacking fuzz" for my context. Many people, like me, already got plenty of saturation from a tube amp, an overdrive(cranks the tubes) , and a Boss GE 7 (which can be used as a boost) so when using a fuzz you have to tell the difference between the usual distortion and the fuzz easily, otherwise there's barely change in the sound but you're expending 100 bucks! That's why I don't recomend the tone wicker if you play rock or anything with very saturated guitar tones. I'd recommend the big muff deluxe, which lets you dial pretty much any fuzz ever created and offers an extreme range of saturation an attack, so you can actually hear the fuzz in your sound both when playing live or when recording in the context of distorted background music. You can add some delay to the fuzz and play Pink floyd solos, while you can still play jimmi hendrix or baroness crazy saturated sounds without getting any noise, cause it's got a noisegate, it's probably one of the best fuzz pedal's ever created.
The Mel 9 is really worth every penny! I have the Canyon Looper but can only fine 1 or 2 real uses for it before it really is just repetitive. The Attack Decay is great as a reverse pedal but the built-in distortion is WAY over the top! It's so loud it ruins your sound, like a bucket of ice water on a campfire...its a blast of noise. I've just picked up the 'Blurst', but again its something you can only use sparingly (although I knew this before buying it). In COMBINATION with other pedals & effects, you can get some crazy stuff out of it, ala Frank Zappa. 'Combination' is the key here. Otherwise using it alone will give you a series of sounds like a tremolo/phaser/stereo flanger/reverb type stuff deal. EHX makes some really cool stuff though somewhat expensive, you can get just about any sound you can dream up! EHX...GREAT STUFF!!!
As along time EHX fan and user let us never forget the amazing small stone phaser ! with the rate at zero and colour on effectively your sound vanishes and returns somewhere else in the slow cycle in a live situation
+vicki jones yes! This is a great pedal that I nearly included on this list. Perhaps I should have! Thanks for leaving a comment so others can learn about it too. Rock on!
I would include the Holy Grail too. Just a fantastic sounding reverb. Honorable mention to the cathedral too, just a bit expensive though. I have the Germanium Pi, I run a pair of amps in stereo. The muff sits infront of my fender princeton and sees an obscene amount of up time if I am to be entirely honest :) it's a bit unruly with both channels on at high volume but such is life. The electric mistress is just pure gold. Just go try one out, The Bad stone phase is also superb. Great at its job and much loved. Not the same as boss or Mxr. Try one out folks. Not for everyone but I have the Lester G. It's a leslie speaker emulator that is a bit bat s#%t crazy to get set up but sounds fantastic. I've never played with a real leslie so I can't attest to how it compares to the real thing. All I can say is that I love it and went with the full fat version that has a built in overdrive too. I run a stereo rig as I mentioned earlier, I have a Rivera K-tre and a Princeton with a mad switching unit to keep things sane. I have another clean tube amp that i sometimes swap out with the Princeton. Still, the stereo sounds super cool on the Lester G. Not for everyone I suspect. When I tried it out at a music store a guy walked up to me and asked if I wanted to join his band, lol. It really happened. I think that says more about the pedal than my playing though :) EHX is one of those makers you eventually arrive at. They have a distinct tonality to them, almost a colour. Definitely go and check them out as they are very special pedals. Great company and glad that they are as different as they are. No disrespect to Boss but after a while you just want something else, something that doesn't sound like a boss pedal. With that said, you should do a Boss top 5 too. Nobody will ever agree with you no matter what you choose but good fun to watch I'm sure :)
I have POG2, Big Muff w/ Wicker, Analogizer, Cathedral, Stereo Memory Man w/ Hazarai, Mel9, C9, Big Muff Germanium 4 and Voice Box. Am I happy? Yes, but I want more!!! :D
I like them all, a lot. They're my sonic crayons. :D Still learning to use the POG2 (my favorite one, maybe). You can tweak it for hours and get some really experimental sounds out of it (plus a very nice shimmer when combined with Stereo Memory Man). And as everyone knows Germanium 4 is not a fuzz, but a distortion/overdrive, but a very good one. I use it for some hairy lo-fi guitar sounds. What comes to Analogizer I mainly use it as a preamp. It sounds really nice clean/crunchy when pushed, yet still very warm. EHX pedals are just what Doctor Snuggles ordered. :D
I have the Memory Man with Hazarai- it has some of the weirdest modulation I have ever used- and is definitely practical as a looper/echo/delay/modulation. Also for those concerned, the hazarai is "click and save" feature that you can use to salvage a whole arrangement of settings once you have found the best sound and access it at a later date just by pressing it ;)
Cool! Thanks for sharing some of your real world use with this pedal. It's fallen out of favor recently as so many new digital delays have been released over the years. Thanks for watching!
My favorite EHX pedal is the Lester G. I have always loved the Leslie sound, especially the ramp up and down. The Lester G nails it, but the bonus is that the overdrive is fantastic! It also includes a compressor. Highly recommended.
Dude, your videos are simply awesome. I particularly affectionate some Ehx pedals. I myself use East River Drive and Holy Grail Reverb (nano edition) from that factory, and to be honest, they're not that expensive at all. I also used the Metal Muff (with top boost) in the past but swapped it to get the Blackstar HT dual in back. And like u, I also like pedals... Simple, once I enter in a shop which is not that far from where I live, I would listen to myself I would buy all of them cuz I'm VERY curious about them. Anyways, I simply find your videos completely original man, I appreciate them a lot. Keep it up, u're simply amazing man ;)
Wow, I really appreciate you taking the time to write such a nice comment. EHX makes some great stuff and the East River Drive is a great example of a low cost - and fantastic - drive pedal. Thanks for watching!
Thanks for breaking down the nuances. I never understood clearly what so many of the versions of the original offered and now I do. Good job. Thank you.
Bass player warning - Bass Soul Food is an amazing semi-clean drive with a funky thump. That and the Nano Bass Battalion are still my favorite drive pedals and cheaper than any other drive pedals I own.
The Canyon is just bloody amazing!!!! I've had one since around Thanksgiving, and it is usually paired with my Big muff ( My two fave pedals on my board). If you're looking for a certain delay sound, I'd almost guarantee you'll find it with a Canyon. Also, as for the Russian big muff, the reissue is much smaller (nano size) and sounds amazing. The new Op amp is a great choice too. It sounds almost identical to the Russian.
I still have The Holiest Grail Reverb and it is going strong.I also love the Tone Corset, The OD Glove and The Ring Thing.EHX rock.I hope to get a Deluxe Memory Man.
I honestly love the way Electro-Harmonix pedals look. The artwork on their pedals are frigging awesome in my book. I Definitely want to add some to my collection
@@JeffStarr not in particular, but I am a metal head, so the Metal Muff always has my eye. The hellmelter is a maybe, but I'm more interested in Thrash Metal tones than the Swedish Chainsaw Death Metal tone As for their other stuff, I'll have to see what i find need for as my abilities continue to grow
+edwarddlp thanks for watching! Guitar gear is so much fun but sometimes only the guitarist for the other band, who is in the audience waiting to play next, really cares what on your board. :)
A couple pedals that were released after this vid I feel are a must have is either and/or both the green Russian reissue big muff/op amp big muff that Billy Corgan was known for. The other being the Canyon delay/looper. This pedal is insane with loads of great mods, including a version of deluxe memory man. If you're a delay fan, then this is definitely the pedal for you.
Yeah, it's crazy how - in classic EHX fashion - there have been so many new releases that my video about rounding up all the major versions is now missing information! There is too much cool gear!
Exactly! After I got a Big muff classic, I was hooked. It snowballed from there with the addition of the Canyon, Crayon, Tone corset, Silencer, Stereo Electric Mistress, and Pocket metal muff. Now, I find myself wanting to 'upgrade' my Big muff with either the green Russian reissue, or the new Op Amp. This is all coming from a guy that used to be GUITAR AND AMP ONLY. lol
An update to my above is I ended up going OP AMP muff, and pairing it with a Soul food to tighten it up. I get GREAT tone that way. I'm hearing great things about the new Flatiron fuzz too. I guess Mike loosely modeled it after a PROCO RAT. To me, it sounds like PROCO and Big muff had a bastard child and it turn out to be the Flatiron.
You forgot the Micro Synth. That's a must song a guitarist or anyone with a sound signal can go any direction and beyond to wow anybody. It's a fail safe pedal to go to for any emergency if the crowd isn't WOWed yet. Never fails. Ever!
My two cents as comment to your very fine video - EHX update on their iconic "Freeze", the incredible SuperEgo - amazing and very original pedal. You can spend hours on end with this thing - and depending what goes before or after it (an nasty distortion or bitcrusher can do wonders - in my case, a WMD Geiger Counter after the SuperEgo - its like Kevin Shields in a box!), an entire dimension opens up before you - and there's even a dedicated loop to add to the mix - a strike of genius from EHX! Bravissimo!!!
All very true! I really like my EHX freeze and the Super Ego is a great update to that pedal. I also really like when EHX add a loop to their pedals. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. Rock on!
Great video (albeit 5years old) dude, you clearly and fluidly explain everything. Bravo Also interesting to see this type of camera angle: I actually prefer it over the typical one we usually see covering everything over hips
I'd have thrown in one of their reverbs as well, as those Cathedrals and Holy Grails are just utterly amazing, and still my "go to"-'verb after all these years (and all these pedals), but other than that I gotta agree to your list. And thanks for clarifying a bit about the Memory Men/Boys/Toys and Muffs!
Thanks for the nice comment. Since I made this video EHX introduced another Big Muff, the Op Amp Big Muff! The Op Amp Big Muff is a re-release of a popular late 70s version. It uses op-amps rather than transistors and three gain stages (the normal Muff uses 4). It was made super popular by Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins. It's very heavy, dark and rich. Great for grungy powerchords!
That was interesting to read. I gotta say though that after having seen your video last night, I started looking at some RUclips reviews to hear the difference of tone between the different Big Muffseses, and I figured the Little Big Muff was closest to what I could recall enjoying about the regular big old Big Muff I used to have (but could no longer fit on my pedal board, and therefore switched in a Mooer Triangle Buff, which does its thing, but isn't nearly as exciting and doesn't give me the same inspiration as the original Big Muff did). But I did specifically look into the one with the tone wicker which you held a button for, and - though intriguing - found it to be just not quite the right Muff for me.
Great Video on the 5 must-haves. I would include a 720 looper by them. It's not all the loopers they make but it's a must-have for sure. If you have the 5 you mentioned, with a looper you can really make all the pedals work, jam, practice, and record if you choose to.
I feel I'm pretty well set up, pedal-wise. I went thru a lot, traded a lot, had a lot of fun figuring stuff out but all in search of a perfect and versatile pedal board set-up. But then EHX comes out with a pedal that combines stuff I've never thought of before or a wholly new genre like the 9 series of keyboard emulators... and I just realize there is no hope for me.
@@JeffStarr Yep; I'll run some more 'modern' distorto (Radial PlexiTube, RAT, Riot clone) for a while, but then I A/B it with a Triangle Muff+5-band EQ, and it's like coming home.....
Yeah, I was looking to do something different with my middle pickup. The output is actually hotter and fatter (something I didn't expect) compared the vintage voiced single coil previously installed. It's great when I want some overdriven thick tones for rhythm playing. Plus I think it looks cool. :)
I just love how they have their fairly standard stuff and off the wall crazy stuff, and then it's priced for everyday people. And Mike Mathews is a hoot!
You missed my favorite, although it doesn't sound like you were considering the "combo boxes". No mention of the Epitome, yet it's 2 of your 5 must haves (POG, Elec Mistress) plus the Holy Grail reverb. Fun tool. Great review, good info.
This is actually a really good comment. The only reason I didn't include this is because I find the trio in the Epitome sort of an odd mix, but it is a great option for some players and I should have given it a quick mention. Thanks for watching!
Definitely missed my two favorites- The Small Stone phaser pedal (super unique organic sound) and their Microsynth pedal (amazing analog synth sounds). Also, when covering the Big Muff variants, you skipped the "Metal Muff". Granted it's an entirely different sounding pedal (it's distortion rather than fuzz) but still it should have been mentioned as it also is a fantastic pedal for those who are into metal. It is in fact the only pedal that EHX makes that is designed specifically for metal genres of music. As with all their pedals, they did a wonderful job with it.
Did I really not mention the Metal Muff? Thank you for pointing that out. The Small Stone has been one of the most mentioned pedals in the comments. It was really hard trying to narrow the list down to 5 pedals and I kept going back and forth between the Small Stone or Mistress. Thank you for watching. I appreciate that you took the time to leave me a comment and to point out that I had missed one of the Muff Pedals. Since I made this video EHX has come out with at least 2 more versions (The Op Amp Muff re-release and a remake of the Green Russian circuit). So many pedals! Ha!
@@JeffStarr Yup....and they're almost all great pedals. I am definitely a "muff" addict. I'll probably be buying both of those new ones you mentioned. I'm also glad you didn't poo poo on the digital version of the Memory Man. I have one of those and while it's not quite as organic sounding as the Deluxe Memory Man, it's indeed a fantastic pedal in it's own right with lots of clever features. I absolutely love mine! But still sad that the Microsynth pedal was not in there. That was the first guitar synth pedal that I ever used that actually had decent tracking on single notes so as to allow me to play hard-hitting industrial music without any delay between the time I hit the string and the time I heard the note. I had a Roland GR-1 guitar synth before that which was fun, but I sold it as the picking delay was just too annoying. The EHX Microsynth was like nirvana to me when I discovered it. At any rate, at the end of the day, what EHX gets right are two things- What you mentioned which is their crazy wacky factor, but also, at least with their analog pedals, they always have a certain lushness and richness to them that makes them sound alive and unpredictable (in a good way). It's often very hard to get that kind of magic in other brands of pedals. BTW here are a couple of old recordings that I did with the EHX Microsynth. The first is a short little gothic music demo of both this pedal and a Digitech Vocalist Workstation that I had that came out rather nice: www.thelostbrothers.com/Nightfall_in_the_Woods.mp3 The second was a wacky recording that me and a friend did where it's used very much as a synth: www.thelostbrothers.com/SignYourSoulAway.mp3
Good call! I think I recorded this video before that pedal was released or very close to it. EHX keeps releasing so much stuff that I need to make an updated version.
Awesome..am becoming a bigger and bigger ehx owner as we speak..lol..got a couple t-shirts too..the bass 9 is wicked..have a 70's big muff and 70's lil big muff..gotta have the ocean 11 yeah you did well there is a lot of cool pedals by ehx you covered these well.thanks
Great video with some really good choices. At this point in time I don't think I could play live music the way I want without the EHX Freeze. It's simple, small, and gives me something akin to a synth pad sustain which I can play on top of (and it's only $99). Another EHX pedal I feel the need to get is the Tuning Fork... same size and price as the Freeze. I also would enjoy The Ravi and a few others, but in no way are they essential. Thanks for the review! BTW my 1st EHX was the Big Muff pi back in the mid 70's; and I still have a Queen Triggered Wah. Great company.
+Glenn Michael Thompson I love the freeze! That's one of my favorites. I would also like to get the ravish. I play the sitar (see vids on my channel) and I'd love to run a real sitar into that pedal and see what happens.
Great video- how many videos of info about pedals where there's no demo of them whatsoever have I watched the whole way through? Can't remember one. Yours though- very knowledgeable, informative, and concise- covered a lot in that. Fantastic video. One to remember. Watched it all :D
Yes Electro Harmonix is a pedal company that makes unique sounds . They were basically the very first pedal co. I can attest since I am old as dirt !!! 😎Although I find them somewhat cheap in quality...still very cool because they are unique! I had the Electric Mistress ..hated it . Sold it I kept the Poly Chorus . And long ago had a big Muff (all hype) now I just got a Mel 9 so far it sounds pretty cool . I believe that will be a keeper. Lol this video lists about 30 pedals I thought it was the best 5 lol. Way back in the day (early 70’s ) I thought their Y-Trigger pedal sounded cool
Interesting little bit of history in your video too, I had some of their early stuff, the LPB-1 actually sounded pretty good plugged into a decent amp, mine plugged into the input on the amp and had a thumb switch on the unit I think it was $30 in 1975 I bought it in Puerto Rico.
In Yiddish, there's the word Chazari (n.) That's pronounced haz' ar rye. It means anything bad or rotten; junk: as in That TV show is total chazari. I think Mike Matthews meant to say that "Here's a lot of extra junk I'm gonna throw into the signal."
EHX Makes great stuff and most importantly they sell that great stuff at sensible prices. I'm a big fan. Just bought a Deluxe Big Muff, cuz yeah I do like to turn knobs. Its going to be my main tone in a recording project thats coming up soon. Love it. Thanks
Will do! Its gonna be a long process. 1st one for me that's a "serious" effort. Multi-tracks of guitar. Maybe some re-amping, etc... Since it will be an all non-pro project, we are thinking through every step in detail. Start to finish will be 6+ months on a 16 track, and he may add 16 more...just to cover drums better. Alt/indie/rock with a punk undertone. Should be cool. We'll see : )
I own like 10 or 12 EHX pedals, and I agree most of them sound good with a few exceptions. However some are really hard to control because the knobs are very sensitive, so there are none on my current pedalboard -- which seems to be more dominated by MXR stuff. I think you nailed the top five for sure, though I disagree that the Stereo Electric Mistress variant is a good pedal, more of a tone sucker and not a very good flanger. I wound up getting a Hartman Flanger (clone of 70s Electric Mistress with a flaw removed) and I also have an MXR Flanger on my current board -- and you are right, most flangers other than these suck. Little Big Muff, ya rock on. POG -- no doubt -- I have the POG 2. For delay, I had to remove my Memory Boy from my pedal board because EHX effects can be hard to control on stage because their controls some times go from zero to crazy too quickly -- I have an MXR Carbon Copy in place of it now for analog delay. I think you missed the Small Clone. I have the Neo Clone variant, which in my mind is up there with the MXR Phase 90 (my fav all time pedal) if you want to make your guitar sound absolutely crazy, plus I love any effect with only one knob on it. I have not had it on my pedal board in a long time though -- there is a ModTone Aqua Chorus on there now, and before that a Boss CE.
This is a great comment. Thanks for sharing! Yes, some pedals in the EHX line can be very sensitive and hard to dial in. My RingThing is like that and I find that I have to pull out the manual far to often. Good recommendation on the small clone. I debated including this instead of the Electric Mistress. I went with the Mistress because of the unique ability to freeze the flange as that concept felt very EHX to me. Thanks for watching!
I have a Ring Thing too...I think the EH pedals with the 5 knobs are the toughest to control -- like the Ring Thing & the Ravish Sitar... The Cathedral Reverb was a disappointment... I liked how you spelled out the keyboard background. Good vid!
Thanks! These videos take a lot of effort to put together - I really want to make sure I pick the right pedals - so your comment means a lot. The Ravish Sitar pedal is something I want to add to my collection. I play the sitar (videos of that are on my channel if you want to check it out) and that pedal is so... unique. I want to find a cheap one used, buy it, and then make a video of me playing a real sitar into the pedal. Ha!
I have a Ravish Sitar and some of the other five-knob EHX pedals (Ring Thing, Cathedral among them, I would have to go through my bin to see what else is in there). In general, I find these five-knob EHX things to be very complicated to use -- I wouldn't likely use them onstage at a gig for fear of something going wrong. One reason I love the Phase 90 & Neo-Clone -- only one knob so very easy to control (and you can add one of those knob covers that enable you to turn the dial with your foot). On top of the lack of controllability, the five-knob effects just don;t sound as good as some of the others. In my mind, simpler is better -- you can add nuances by combining a bunch of simple, easy-to-control effects pedals in something like a "MIDI patch" to create a special sound.
I went on an EHX binge a few months ago. I bought a bunch of EHX pedals and a few from other brands. I have one version of all on your list except the Memory Man/Boy/Toy. Nano Big Muff Pi, Soul Food, Nano Pog and Neo Mistress but my delay is a Seymour Duncan Vapor Trail.
Every pedal that I use for both bass and guitar are EHX pedals except 2 (Boss EQ and Boss Bass EQ). For my guitar I use the Soul Food, the Memory Man, the Electric Mistress, the Lumberjack, the Holy Grail and the Crying Tone. For by Bass I use the Little Big Muff Pi (not the bass one, the guitar one), the Bass Blogger, the Bass Clone and the Crying Bass.
The one and only Pulsar is what you forgot...It is a Kempher rig chopped down....and will give you another bullet to your weaponry... Also the FX Synth...Along with POG and POG 2...But there is only so much time on a GoPRO too !!!
I dont know 5 pedal but I have 4 EHX pedal. Lester G is my favorite, no 2 is Soul Food. Other two will come on midweek, Big Muff Nano and Satisfaction.
Good video. I'd say the freeze is also a pretty revolutionary pedal. I have it in the form of the superego. Also have a few different versions of the memory man, a ring thing and a Rams head big muff. All great pedals really an extraordinary company.
It's not a must have pedal but I really like the Super Pulsar. A tremolo with the typical EHX craziness twist. There are other tweakable tremolo pedals but I don't see this kind of control elsewhere. Very fun to use.
+cyrfung yes, this pedal is a really good "honorable mention." EHX sometimes walks a fine line between lots of control and too much control. But it's always fun!
I'll be honest - the Strymon TimeLine is godlike. The current standard for delay pedals IMO. The only thing I've played recently that wowed me as much as that was the Boss DD-500. If you get chance to try it, you'll be blown away. I think EHX will need to up its game big time with the next digital Memory Man!
I love the EHX RingThing ring modular. I’ve made a bunch of videos about it. You might like this video I made with a crazy hack you can do with the pedal: Octave Fuzz Hack! EHX Ring Thing Vs Octavia. Crazy sounds! ruclips.net/video/Mdj1YHNkKJs/видео.html
Yep, if you have any extra money and want to sound different, then EH has just the stomp box for you. I remember their Little Muff Fuzz boxes from the 70's with a 9v. They've really up'd their game over the years as far as quality goes. I've been looking and listening to the many RUclips demo's for EH lately, some of these boxes are simply incredible. Enjoyed your video but I'd have needed at least 10 slots instead of your 5.
Really?! I still have my original LPB-1 "MuffFuzz" (tiny, one knob, came with a little 1/4" male-to-male for putting it right at your guitar's output)...and the box it came in. I think I bought it in 1971; I was 11 and couldn't afford a 'triangle BigMuff Pi'. 48 years later, and it's velcro-ed to the lower fin of my Flying Vee Jr (dedicated Stun Guitar lol).... There was so much to pick amongst for your list, but I was floored that it didn't include the iconic Q-Tron envelope filter (at least one of its various iterations)! That said, here's my 5 'must have' EHX effects (the five that ~I~ 'must have' on a Complete board): >Triangle Big Muff (preferably with the JHS 'Illuminati' mod) >Q-Tron envelope filter (the biggest; the chewiest!) >Screaming Bird treble boost (in ~front~ of the Muff) >Grand Canyon mega-delay (since it carries a Deluxe MemoryMan and a Holy Grail reverb among its modes) >Small Stone phase shifter (you can get some rotary, and some light flange-tones, out of a SS; that makes it the more versatile mod-unit of the three, for me). I love everything about my B9, have 2 other Muffs (a 'DoubleMuff' and a LittleBigMuff), but those 5 are my pedal-board Musts. In 1987, the cab driver that took me to a gig in NYC had an original MemoryMan in his trunk; he let me have it for another $5 over the fare(!).....it would use up half of a p-board these days (and was hard-wired for AC only), but that unit has the smoothest, organic-sounding repeat-decay I've ever played over. They barely caught that on the one in the GrandCanyon, but it's there. I know somebody else's list will have POGs, loopers, and a RavishSitar, but that's mine.....EHX has the best replacement tubes, BTW, as well ('Tung-Sol'). Thanks, Mike M.; you've ~sustained~ countless guitarists over the years!
Agree. This seems to be the consensus for most viewers. Or, I could have included the small stone and made the Electric Mistress a bonus 6th pedal. Thanks for watching!
Just bought an op amp big muff, there great. Definitely recommend getting this version, it sounds better with the tone switch on. Its what Billy Corgan uses a lot of, there's a cool video on here of a review he does on them.
Yes! This is a super cool option that wasn't around when I made this video (or at least not around in a new form). Thanks for commenting to make sure people know about it.
Any thoughts on the Double Muff? I bought it a couple of years ago and was very disappointed mostly because it's INCREDIBLY LOUD and just overwhelming on the treble end with no onboard control to tweak it. It has kept me away from buying a Big Muff and I'm wondering if the Double is just a black-eye on the brand.
The Big Muff is a really hard pedal to control. It is really... Muffled! It always sounds great by itself but once you get into a band or recording mix it just fades away as a big blur. This is why I like the version with the Tone Wicker because you can help it pop out a bit more.
Thank you for the feedback. Others have mentioned that they wished I would have demoed the pedals so I'll try to do that in future videos whenever I can. Thanks for watching!
If you are looking to purchase music gear please contact Joe Schafer at sweetwater. Joe is awesome and has helped me out a lot when researching gear and making my purchase decisions. Please let him know that I (Jeff Starr) sent you his way. www.sweetwater.com/joe_schafer
When I had been playing guitar for a couple of years (I was 13-14 years old), my dad sold diodes to Electro Harmonix. When my dad told Mike Matthews he has a son who just started playing, Mike gave me my first pedals. He gave me a memory man, small stone phaser, treble booster and distortion. I used these pedals for years, then eventually used them for parts for other pedals I made. I wish I still had those, because they would be worth a pretty penny. I had no idea how cool it was back then to get pedals directly from Mike Matthews.
This might be the best comment ever! Thanks for watching and sharing. So cool!
wow cool story! Lucky guy!
That sucks, i sold my old roland space echo for rent money. Shit happens.
That is pretty amazing, man. I'd be over the moon if Mike himself gave me pedals! Also, there's a lot to be said for modding pedals these days too. Look at JHS throwing in with a lot of companies(EHX being one of them with the new OP AMP Muff).
Hey, I sold a 1976 Gibson Sg, a 1978 Memory Man Deluxe, and a 1978 or 9 Marshall half stack back in 1980. ow bought a Marshall JCM2000, An original Memory man deluxe fromBoy do I wish I hadn't done that. Still play a little today. And n 78 although it's been modded and doesn't sound that great. Paid a pretty penny for that one. Still no Gibson but have my 1988 USA made BC Rich, original owner. And a Epiphone 2008 Les Paul.
Isn’t it amazing that a company like EHX could have a top 5 that doesn’t include the Canyon, Small Stone, Small Clone, Pitch Fork, Pulsar, the bloody Holy Grail!! I could go on... What a great company EHX is..!
yeah, I made this video before the Canyon was released and I would likely include it now. It's definitely one of the most popular pedals mentioned in the comments. I had a hard time choosing between the Small stone and the Electric Mistress. I still go back and forth between those two all the time. The Holy Grail is another pedal I would include if this list kept going. So many great pedals! Thank you for watching and leaving a comment.
Sitting here looking at my Soul Preacher and East River Drive that I use every day. Really cool company.
You should include the EHX Canyon pedal which has a looper and delay in one small pedal
Yes, the Canyon was released either right before or shortly after I made this video. Since then The Canyon has really grown in popularity and it is one of the most common pedals that people mention I should have included. Maybe it's time for an update! Thanks for watching!
The EHX Epitome has 3 of your five built into one pedal. Electric mistress, Pog and Holy Grail. Most of the EHX pedals I have are combinations of two of their devices.
My 5 are oceans 11, hot wax, od glove, germanium od, and opamp nano big muff reissue. Mike has made a lot of unreal pedals over the years, and while always priced fairly, many of them climb dramatically after they are discontinued.
This was a great video, I really enjoyed how you explained differences between the various incarnations of the lines over time.
The Centaur was not produced from 1990-94, I think that was when it was developed. The Germanium 4 Big Muff isn't a fuzz at all, it is a 2 in 1 od and a distortion pedal that to my ears has not enough gain in the od side and too much gain in the distortion side, it also has the od going into the distortion which I think is backwards, as I would want to set my tone with the distortion and then add a volume boost after it for solos. Mooer made a killer clone of the pog called the tender octaver v1, it is so tiny. EHX sued Mooer and made them change a bunch of their pedals because they were exact copies in smaller enclosures and often had similar names as well, like the elec lady, instead of electric mistress. Hope you're well. Cheers!
Cool breakdwon of the pedals and they're counter-parts in the EHX World. I have used EHX from the Beginning and I still love them!
Great suggestions - personally, I love the pedals from Electro Harmonix. Fantastic variety, sounds amazing AND they dont cost a fortune. More stomps to the players!! 😎❤👍
I suggest you recommend the Pitch Fork instead of the Micro POG. You get many more harmonies and octaves from the Pitch Fork with great tracking AND you save $55. Plus, I've read the Pitch Fork contains the newest improved harmony generator from EHX. See Bill Ruppert's demo found on the Pitch Fork product page at EHX.
Pitchfork!!!!!! Favorite ehx pedal.
I gotta admit tho.. I ran the big muff for years and love that pedal. But the new dod carcosa absolutely kills!,. And my big muff is now in a box.
I have many EHX pedals none of which are leather-bound, and sadly, my apartment does not smell of rich mahogany. But that is the point, EHX makes pedals for the everyday player . I own three of them for the same cost of one "boutique" pedal. Thanks you EHX for keeping the everyday player in mind!
Spot on! Thanks for watching.
"There can be only one" must have pedal, the Korg Miku.
Obviously! For anyone who doesn’t know the Miku, go order one now. Don’t even bother with reviews. Find it, buy it, and use as an “always on” buffer.
@@JeffStarr Yes, just yes.
Hahaha...
@@jsullivan2112 yea
They have some amazing ears in the sound design depart. I had a marvelous little effect device - made for earbud practice, and over 90% of the adjustable effects were perfectly usable. Synths? Ha, dont get me going.
I bought the tone wicker prior to this video, and it wasn't too bad but I found it to be "lacking fuzz" for my context. Many people, like me, already got plenty of saturation from a tube amp, an overdrive(cranks the tubes) , and a Boss GE 7 (which can be used as a boost) so when using a fuzz you have to tell the difference between the usual distortion and the fuzz easily, otherwise there's barely change in the sound but you're expending 100 bucks!
That's why I don't recomend the tone wicker if you play rock or anything with very saturated guitar tones. I'd recommend the big muff deluxe, which lets you dial pretty much any fuzz ever created and offers an extreme range of saturation an attack, so you can actually hear the fuzz in your sound both when playing live or when recording in the context of distorted background music. You can add some delay to the fuzz and play Pink floyd solos, while you can still play jimmi hendrix or baroness crazy saturated sounds without getting any noise, cause it's got a noisegate, it's probably one of the best fuzz pedal's ever created.
The Mel 9 is really worth every penny! I have the Canyon Looper but can only fine 1 or 2 real uses for it before it really is just repetitive. The Attack Decay is great as a reverse pedal but the built-in distortion is WAY over the top! It's so loud it ruins your sound, like a bucket of ice water on a campfire...its a blast of noise. I've just picked up the 'Blurst', but again its something you can only use sparingly (although I knew this before buying it). In COMBINATION with other pedals & effects, you can get some crazy stuff out of it, ala Frank Zappa. 'Combination' is the key here. Otherwise using it alone will give you a series of sounds like a tremolo/phaser/stereo flanger/reverb type stuff deal. EHX makes some really cool stuff though somewhat expensive, you can get just about any sound you can dream up! EHX...GREAT STUFF!!!
Must say I'm loving my Small Clone. So simple. Really gives my tone some tank. Helps to separate all the individual notes in chords post overdrive.
Yes, the Small Clone is a really classic pedal used on a lot of great recordings.
As along time EHX fan and user let us never forget the amazing small stone phaser ! with the rate at zero and colour on effectively your sound vanishes and returns somewhere else in the slow cycle in a live situation
+vicki jones yes! This is a great pedal that I nearly included on this list. Perhaps I should have! Thanks for leaving a comment so others can learn about it too. Rock on!
I was using vintage Polychorus last days and now I can say this is the best pedal I ever had. Range of possibilities is awesome, beautiful sound.
Thanks for sharing!
Talk about pedals, but doesn't show one even single tune sample from them. Ok, I can search, but the video could be more complete.
silverfr3ak exactly smh
nah what this video needs need more close ups 'squatch staring into space with that stupid look on his face 2:42
Off with his head! Lol
Talks about the big muff and doesn't mention billy corgan as well. That man is the living selling point of that pedal.
I would include the Holy Grail too. Just a fantastic sounding reverb. Honorable mention to the cathedral too, just a bit expensive though.
I have the Germanium Pi, I run a pair of amps in stereo. The muff sits infront of my fender princeton and sees an obscene amount of up time if I am to be entirely honest :) it's a bit unruly with both channels on at high volume but such is life.
The electric mistress is just pure gold. Just go try one out,
The Bad stone phase is also superb. Great at its job and much loved. Not the same as boss or Mxr. Try one out folks.
Not for everyone but I have the Lester G. It's a leslie speaker emulator that is a bit bat s#%t crazy to get set up but sounds fantastic. I've never played with a real leslie so I can't attest to how it compares to the real thing. All I can say is that I love it and went with the full fat version that has a built in overdrive too. I run a stereo rig as I mentioned earlier, I have a Rivera K-tre and a Princeton with a mad switching unit to keep things sane. I have another clean tube amp that i sometimes swap out with the Princeton. Still, the stereo sounds super cool on the Lester G. Not for everyone I suspect. When I tried it out at a music store a guy walked up to me and asked if I wanted to join his band, lol. It really happened. I think that says more about the pedal than my playing though :)
EHX is one of those makers you eventually arrive at. They have a distinct tonality to them, almost a colour. Definitely go and check them out as they are very special pedals. Great company and glad that they are as different as they are. No disrespect to Boss but after a while you just want something else, something that doesn't sound like a boss pedal. With that said, you should do a Boss top 5 too. Nobody will ever agree with you no matter what you choose but good fun to watch I'm sure :)
Dude. Whole video awesome but just the part about the memory men summed up what 20 hrs on RUclips could not. So thank you.
You're welcome
I have POG2, Big Muff w/ Wicker, Analogizer, Cathedral, Stereo Memory Man w/ Hazarai, Mel9, C9, Big Muff Germanium 4 and Voice Box. Am I happy? Yes, but I want more!!! :D
Sweet! Do you have a favorite? Least favorite? How is the Analogizer? Do you feel like it makes a difference?
I like them all, a lot. They're my sonic crayons. :D Still learning to use the POG2 (my favorite one, maybe). You can tweak it for hours and get some really experimental sounds out of it (plus a very nice shimmer when combined with Stereo Memory Man). And as everyone knows Germanium 4 is not a fuzz, but a distortion/overdrive, but a very good one. I use it for some hairy lo-fi guitar sounds. What comes to Analogizer I mainly use it as a preamp. It sounds really nice clean/crunchy when pushed, yet still very warm. EHX pedals are just what Doctor Snuggles ordered. :D
Bought Synth9. :D
YES! Please post some videos of your current rig and demo some sounds. Rock on!
I have the Memory Man with Hazarai- it has some of the weirdest modulation I have ever used- and is definitely practical as a looper/echo/delay/modulation. Also for those concerned, the hazarai is "click and save" feature that you can use to salvage a whole arrangement of settings once you have found the best sound and access it at a later date just by pressing it ;)
Cool! Thanks for sharing some of your real world use with this pedal. It's fallen out of favor recently as so many new digital delays have been released over the years. Thanks for watching!
My favorite EHX pedal is the Lester G. I have always loved the Leslie sound, especially the ramp up and down. The Lester G nails it, but the bonus is that the overdrive is fantastic! It also includes a compressor. Highly recommended.
Good choice!
Dude, your videos are simply awesome. I particularly affectionate some Ehx pedals. I myself use East River Drive and Holy Grail Reverb (nano edition) from that factory, and to be honest, they're not that expensive at all. I also used the Metal Muff (with top boost) in the past but swapped it to get the Blackstar HT dual in back. And like u, I also like pedals... Simple, once I enter in a shop which is not that far from where I live, I would listen to myself I would buy all of them cuz I'm VERY curious about them. Anyways, I simply find your videos completely original man, I appreciate them a lot. Keep it up, u're simply amazing man ;)
Wow, I really appreciate you taking the time to write such a nice comment. EHX makes some great stuff and the East River Drive is a great example of a low cost - and fantastic - drive pedal. Thanks for watching!
And as I often say, we don't meet people as matter or "random". Ur name's Jeff, mine too but into french version. Cheers dude, keep it up ;)
Rock on Geoffrey!
Thanks for breaking down the nuances. I never understood clearly what so many of the versions of the original offered and now I do. Good job. Thank you.
Thanks! That means a lot! If there are any topics you would like me to discuss in the future, please let me know. Thanks for watching.
Bass player warning - Bass Soul Food is an amazing semi-clean drive with a funky thump. That and the Nano Bass Battalion are still my favorite drive pedals and cheaper than any other drive pedals I own.
I'm digging the Canyon Delay. Gonna pick up a Synth 9 and a mel9! I've also had a Russian Big muff for years. It's too big for my board now though.
+Steve Holt sweet! I keep hearing good things about the Canyon. I've yet to try one. Thanks for leaving a comment.
The Canyon is just bloody amazing!!!! I've had one since around Thanksgiving, and it is usually paired with my Big muff ( My two fave pedals on my board). If you're looking for a certain delay sound, I'd almost guarantee you'll find it with a Canyon. Also, as for the Russian big muff, the reissue is much smaller (nano size) and sounds amazing. The new Op amp is a great choice too. It sounds almost identical to the Russian.
The canyon is awesome and it has a memory man function built in.
I still have The Holiest Grail Reverb and it is going strong.I also love the Tone Corset, The OD Glove and The Ring Thing.EHX rock.I hope to get a Deluxe Memory Man.
The glove is a terrific pedal
I can testify to the Soul Food 🥘. It's awesome and I'm a pedal nerd. I have tried and owned many from Boss,Keely, Wampler, etc...etc....
Rock on! Do you have a favorite pedal out of everything you own or have tried?
I honestly love the way Electro-Harmonix pedals look. The artwork on their pedals are frigging awesome in my book. I Definitely want to add some to my collection
Yes, they are very iconic. Do you have a favorite?
@@JeffStarr not in particular, but I am a metal head, so the Metal Muff always has my eye. The hellmelter is a maybe, but I'm more interested in Thrash Metal tones than the Swedish Chainsaw Death Metal tone
As for their other stuff, I'll have to see what i find need for as my abilities continue to grow
Hard to beat a big muff for dark heavy metal tones! I use mine for drone metal stuff.
Love how you added
Expression level input
At 8'23" in the video
... Very smooth 😂
"And if you're playing live, no one's even going to notice." So much truth to that statement. Great video!
+edwarddlp thanks for watching! Guitar gear is so much fun but sometimes only the guitarist for the other band, who is in the audience waiting to play next, really cares what on your board. :)
A couple pedals that were released after this vid I feel are a must have is either and/or both the green Russian reissue big muff/op amp big muff that Billy Corgan was known for. The other being the Canyon delay/looper. This pedal is insane with loads of great mods, including a version of deluxe memory man. If you're a delay fan, then this is definitely the pedal for you.
Yeah, it's crazy how - in classic EHX fashion - there have been so many new releases that my video about rounding up all the major versions is now missing information! There is too much cool gear!
Exactly! After I got a Big muff classic, I was hooked. It snowballed from there with the addition of the Canyon, Crayon, Tone corset, Silencer, Stereo Electric Mistress, and Pocket metal muff. Now, I find myself wanting to 'upgrade' my Big muff with either the green Russian reissue, or the new Op Amp. This is all coming from a guy that used to be GUITAR AND AMP ONLY. lol
An update to my above is I ended up going OP AMP muff, and pairing it with a Soul food to tighten it up. I get GREAT tone that way. I'm hearing great things about the new Flatiron fuzz too. I guess Mike loosely modeled it after a PROCO RAT. To me, it sounds like PROCO and Big muff had a bastard child and it turn out to be the Flatiron.
You forgot the Micro Synth. That's a must song a guitarist or anyone with a sound signal can go any direction and beyond to wow anybody. It's a fail safe pedal to go to for any emergency if the crowd isn't WOWed yet. Never fails. Ever!
One of my favorites I own is the Hot Wax. Absolutely LOVE it!
My two cents as comment to your very fine video - EHX update on their iconic "Freeze", the incredible SuperEgo - amazing and very original pedal. You can spend hours on end with this thing - and depending what goes before or after it (an nasty distortion or bitcrusher can do wonders - in my case, a WMD Geiger Counter after the SuperEgo - its like Kevin Shields in a box!), an entire dimension opens up before you - and there's even a dedicated loop to add to the mix - a strike of genius from EHX! Bravissimo!!!
All very true! I really like my EHX freeze and the Super Ego is a great update to that pedal. I also really like when EHX add a loop to their pedals. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. Rock on!
Great video (albeit 5years old) dude, you clearly and fluidly explain everything. Bravo
Also interesting to see this type of camera angle: I actually prefer it over the typical one we usually see covering everything over hips
Glad it was helpful!
Great vid, I would also bring the metal muff with top boost. I known it’s a bit intense, but it will bring a smile in your face thats for sure .
I'd have thrown in one of their reverbs as well, as those Cathedrals and Holy Grails are just utterly amazing, and still my "go to"-'verb after all these years (and all these pedals), but other than that I gotta agree to your list. And thanks for clarifying a bit about the Memory Men/Boys/Toys and Muffs!
Thanks for the nice comment. Since I made this video EHX introduced another Big Muff, the Op Amp Big Muff! The Op Amp Big Muff is a re-release of a popular late 70s version. It uses op-amps rather than transistors and three gain stages (the normal Muff uses 4). It was made super popular by Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins. It's very heavy, dark and rich. Great for grungy powerchords!
That was interesting to read.
I gotta say though that after having seen your video last night, I started looking at some RUclips reviews to hear the difference of tone between the different Big Muffseses, and I figured the Little Big Muff was closest to what I could recall enjoying about the regular big old Big Muff I used to have (but could no longer fit on my pedal board, and therefore switched in a Mooer Triangle Buff, which does its thing, but isn't nearly as exciting and doesn't give me the same inspiration as the original Big Muff did). But I did specifically look into the one with the tone wicker which you held a button for, and - though intriguing - found it to be just not quite the right Muff for me.
Pitchfork is my favourite. Pog, Digi whammy, chorus, power chorder, plus other less useful intervals in nano size format.
The nano size is great. I'm always trying to fit more pedals on my board. ha ha!
Great Video on the 5 must-haves. I would include a 720 looper by them. It's not all the loopers they make but it's a must-have for sure. If you have the 5 you mentioned, with a looper you can
really make all the pedals work, jam, practice, and record if you choose to.
I feel I'm pretty well set up, pedal-wise. I went thru a lot, traded a lot, had a lot of fun figuring stuff out but all in search of a perfect and versatile pedal board set-up. But then EHX comes out with a pedal that combines stuff I've never thought of before or a wholly new genre like the 9 series of keyboard emulators... and I just realize there is no hope for me.
Big Muff Pi is my favourite pedal! 🕶🎶✌🏻
Yeah, it’s really great. I always find myself bringing mine back out. So heavy and rich!
@@JeffStarr Yep; I'll run some more 'modern' distorto (Radial PlexiTube, RAT, Riot clone) for a while, but then I A/B it with a Triangle Muff+5-band EQ, and it's like coming home.....
I love that you've added a Danelectro type lipstick pickup to your strat. I've never seen that.
Yeah, I was looking to do something different with my middle pickup. The output is actually hotter and fatter (something I didn't expect) compared the vintage voiced single coil previously installed. It's great when I want some overdriven thick tones for rhythm playing. Plus I think it looks cool. :)
Well done. Have always been curious about all the iterations of the DMM.
I'm pretty obsessed with EHX pedals, I currently have around 25 of their pedals with more on my want list.
As someone who owns a lot of their pedals, what are your top 5?
Hmmmm.........
NYC Big Muff Pi
Soul Food
Stereo Pulsar
Small Stone
& the Octave Multiplexer
I just love how they have their fairly standard stuff and off the wall crazy stuff, and then it's priced for everyday people. And Mike Mathews is a hoot!
Thanks for sharing. In retrospect I wish I had included the small stone in my list. Rock on!
notbadfilms I love the Small Stone. I have the Nano one and am on the look out for the old school style one.
You forgot the best one of all, the EHX Worm! But not sure if anyone sells it as it is hard to find new.
You missed my favorite, although it doesn't sound like you were considering the "combo boxes". No mention of the Epitome, yet it's 2 of your 5 must haves (POG, Elec Mistress) plus the Holy Grail reverb. Fun tool. Great review, good info.
This is actually a really good comment. The only reason I didn't include this is because I find the trio in the Epitome sort of an odd mix, but it is a great option for some players and I should have given it a quick mention. Thanks for watching!
Definitely missed my two favorites- The Small Stone phaser pedal (super unique organic sound) and their Microsynth pedal (amazing analog synth sounds). Also, when covering the Big Muff variants, you skipped the "Metal Muff". Granted it's an entirely different sounding pedal (it's distortion rather than fuzz) but still it should have been mentioned as it also is a fantastic pedal for those who are into metal. It is in fact the only pedal that EHX makes that is designed specifically for metal genres of music. As with all their pedals, they did a wonderful job with it.
Did I really not mention the Metal Muff? Thank you for pointing that out. The Small Stone has been one of the most mentioned pedals in the comments. It was really hard trying to narrow the list down to 5 pedals and I kept going back and forth between the Small Stone or Mistress. Thank you for watching. I appreciate that you took the time to leave me a comment and to point out that I had missed one of the Muff Pedals. Since I made this video EHX has come out with at least 2 more versions (The Op Amp Muff re-release and a remake of the Green Russian circuit). So many pedals! Ha!
@@JeffStarr Yup....and they're almost all great pedals. I am definitely a "muff" addict. I'll probably be buying both of those new ones you mentioned. I'm also glad you didn't poo poo on the digital version of the Memory Man. I have one of those and while it's not quite as organic sounding as the Deluxe Memory Man, it's indeed a fantastic pedal in it's own right with lots of clever features. I absolutely love mine!
But still sad that the Microsynth pedal was not in there. That was the first guitar synth pedal that I ever used that actually had decent tracking on single notes so as to allow me to play hard-hitting industrial music without any delay between the time I hit the string and the time I heard the note. I had a Roland GR-1 guitar synth before that which was fun, but I sold it as the picking delay was just too annoying. The EHX Microsynth was like nirvana to me when I discovered it.
At any rate, at the end of the day, what EHX gets right are two things- What you mentioned which is their crazy wacky factor, but also, at least with their analog pedals, they always have a certain lushness and richness to them that makes them sound alive and unpredictable (in a good way). It's often very hard to get that kind of magic in other brands of pedals.
BTW here are a couple of old recordings that I did with the EHX Microsynth. The first is a short little gothic music demo of both this pedal and a Digitech Vocalist Workstation that I had that came out rather nice:
www.thelostbrothers.com/Nightfall_in_the_Woods.mp3
The second was a wacky recording that me and a friend did where it's used very much as a synth:
www.thelostbrothers.com/SignYourSoulAway.mp3
My picks would be the
1. EHX Worm
2. EHX Memory Man
3. EHX Big Muff
4. EHX Electric Mistress
5. EHX POG
That would do what I need for the most part.
Thanks for this video. I love EHX. Mike Matthews is the man!
Nigel in Canada 🇨🇦
based on your video I bought the Lpb1 and Soul Food
thanks 😊
Enjoy! I’d love to know what you think after you have used them for a while.
I've always wanted to have the Original Q Tron big box pedal. Just amazing look and sound
Totally. That's a HUGE pedal though. :)
Yes , that very nice and good, but you forgot Grand Canyon delay pedal from electro Hamonix.
Good call! I think I recorded this video before that pedal was released or very close to it. EHX keeps releasing so much stuff that I need to make an updated version.
Awesome..am becoming a bigger and bigger ehx owner as we speak..lol..got a couple t-shirts too..the bass 9 is wicked..have a 70's big muff and 70's lil big muff..gotta have the ocean 11 yeah you did well there is a lot of cool pedals by ehx you covered these well.thanks
Great video with some really good choices. At this point in time I don't think I could play live music the way I want without the EHX Freeze. It's simple, small, and gives me something akin to a synth pad sustain which I can play on top of (and it's only $99). Another EHX pedal I feel the need to get is the Tuning Fork... same size and price as the Freeze. I also would enjoy The Ravi and a few others, but in no way are they essential. Thanks for the review! BTW my 1st EHX was the Big Muff pi back in the mid 70's; and I still have a Queen Triggered Wah. Great company.
+Glenn Michael Thompson I love the freeze! That's one of my favorites. I would also like to get the ravish. I play the sitar (see vids on my channel) and I'd love to run a real sitar into that pedal and see what happens.
Great video! Really informative but also succinct and concise. Thanks for putting this together! Excellent!
Glad it was helpful!
dude holy grail reverb. just as important as the muff and memory man
Also a great pedal! EHX has a bunch of great reverbs... perhaps it’s time for a video about those!
Somehow I own zero EHX pedals... But when I do buy a pitch pedal it'll definitely be by them for sure and their fuzzes! So many great pedals from them
Agree!
@@JeffStarr Merry Christmas man, love your channel. Hope you got some new gear (if you wanted some that is! 😊) cheers
Great video- how many videos of info about pedals where there's no demo of them whatsoever have I watched the whole way through? Can't remember one. Yours though- very knowledgeable, informative, and concise- covered a lot in that. Fantastic video. One to remember. Watched it all :D
Wow! Thank you very much for the nice praise!
Yes Electro Harmonix is a pedal company that makes unique sounds . They were basically the very first pedal co. I can attest since I am old as dirt !!! 😎Although I find them somewhat cheap in quality...still very cool because they are unique! I had the Electric Mistress ..hated it . Sold it I kept the Poly Chorus . And long ago had a big Muff (all hype) now I just got a Mel 9 so far it sounds pretty cool . I believe that will be a keeper. Lol this video lists about 30 pedals I thought it was the best 5 lol. Way back in the day (early 70’s ) I thought their Y-Trigger pedal sounded cool
Canyon should also be an honorable mention in your Memory Man section, it does have a DMM setting, plus LOADS of other really great sounds
Yes! I believe the Canyon was released after this video was made but it has been super popular.
Interesting little bit of history in your video too, I had some of their early stuff, the LPB-1 actually sounded pretty good plugged into a decent amp, mine plugged into the input on the amp and had a thumb switch on the unit I think it was $30 in 1975 I bought it in Puerto Rico.
Super cool! I wonder how much that $30 pedal might sell for now. Thanks for sharing and leaving a comment.
In Yiddish, there's the word Chazari (n.) That's pronounced haz' ar rye. It means
anything bad or rotten; junk: as in That TV show is total chazari. I think Mike Matthews
meant to say that "Here's a lot of extra junk I'm gonna throw into the signal."
EHX Makes great stuff and most importantly they sell that great stuff at sensible prices.
I'm a big fan.
Just bought a Deluxe Big Muff, cuz yeah I do like to turn knobs. Its going to be my main tone in a recording project thats coming up soon.
Love it.
Thanks
SWEET! Let me know how it goes.
Will do! Its gonna be a long process. 1st one for me that's a "serious" effort. Multi-tracks of guitar. Maybe some re-amping, etc...
Since it will be an all non-pro project, we are thinking through every step in detail. Start to finish will be 6+ months on a 16 track, and he may add 16 more...just to cover drums better.
Alt/indie/rock with a punk undertone. Should be cool. We'll see : )
I own like 10 or 12 EHX pedals, and I agree most of them sound good with a few exceptions. However some are really hard to control because the knobs are very sensitive, so there are none on my current pedalboard -- which seems to be more dominated by MXR stuff.
I think you nailed the top five for sure, though I disagree that the Stereo Electric Mistress variant is a good pedal, more of a tone sucker and not a very good flanger. I wound up getting a Hartman Flanger (clone of 70s Electric Mistress with a flaw removed) and I also have an MXR Flanger on my current board -- and you are right, most flangers other than these suck. Little Big Muff, ya rock on. POG -- no doubt -- I have the POG 2. For delay, I had to remove my Memory Boy from my pedal board because EHX effects can be hard to control on stage because their controls some times go from zero to crazy too quickly -- I have an MXR Carbon Copy in place of it now for analog delay.
I think you missed the Small Clone. I have the Neo Clone variant, which in my mind is up there with the MXR Phase 90 (my fav all time pedal) if you want to make your guitar sound absolutely crazy, plus I love any effect with only one knob on it. I have not had it on my pedal board in a long time though -- there is a ModTone Aqua Chorus on there now, and before that a Boss CE.
This is a great comment. Thanks for sharing! Yes, some pedals in the EHX line can be very sensitive and hard to dial in. My RingThing is like that and I find that I have to pull out the manual far to often. Good recommendation on the small clone. I debated including this instead of the Electric Mistress. I went with the Mistress because of the unique ability to freeze the flange as that concept felt very EHX to me. Thanks for watching!
I have a Ring Thing too...I think the EH pedals with the 5 knobs are the toughest to control -- like the Ring Thing & the Ravish Sitar... The Cathedral Reverb was a disappointment... I liked how you spelled out the keyboard background. Good vid!
Thanks! These videos take a lot of effort to put together - I really want to make sure I pick the right pedals - so your comment means a lot. The Ravish Sitar pedal is something I want to add to my collection. I play the sitar (videos of that are on my channel if you want to check it out) and that pedal is so... unique. I want to find a cheap one used, buy it, and then make a video of me playing a real sitar into the pedal. Ha!
That's what it is about...making crazy sounds. :)
I have a Ravish Sitar and some of the other five-knob EHX pedals (Ring Thing, Cathedral among them, I would have to go through my bin to see what else is in there). In general, I find these five-knob EHX things to be very complicated to use -- I wouldn't likely use them onstage at a gig for fear of something going wrong. One reason I love the Phase 90 & Neo-Clone -- only one knob so very easy to control (and you can add one of those knob covers that enable you to turn the dial with your foot). On top of the lack of controllability, the five-knob effects just don;t sound as good as some of the others. In my mind, simpler is better -- you can add nuances by combining a bunch of simple, easy-to-control effects pedals in something like a "MIDI patch" to create a special sound.
I went on an EHX binge a few months ago. I bought a bunch of EHX pedals and a few from other brands. I have one version of all on your list except the Memory Man/Boy/Toy. Nano Big Muff Pi, Soul Food, Nano Pog and Neo Mistress but my delay is a Seymour Duncan Vapor Trail.
Awesome! Now you need to get the EHX Small Stone phaser. It would have been the 6th pedal on my list. :) Rock on!
notbadfilms I was going to but ended up getting a great deal on a Maxon PT999.
Every pedal that I use for both bass and guitar are EHX pedals except 2 (Boss EQ and Boss Bass EQ). For my guitar I use the Soul Food, the Memory Man, the Electric Mistress, the Lumberjack, the Holy Grail and the Crying Tone. For by Bass I use the Little Big Muff Pi (not the bass one, the guitar one), the Bass Blogger, the Bass Clone and the Crying Bass.
What made you choose the Lumberjack? It's not a super popular pedal. It's very unique and simple at the same time.
You should re-do this list. Or see it if needs to be expanded. I highly recommend the hot wax pedal.
Yes! I have been thinking about updating this list for 2019. So many new and great pedals have been released since I made this video.
The one and only Pulsar is what you forgot...It is a Kempher rig chopped down....and will give you another bullet to your weaponry... Also the FX Synth...Along with POG and POG 2...But there is only so much time on a GoPRO too !!!
I dont know 5 pedal but I have 4 EHX pedal. Lester G is my favorite, no 2 is Soul Food. Other two will come on midweek, Big Muff Nano and Satisfaction.
Actually, it a misconception that the Klon is a transparent overdrive - it colours your tone by boosting the mids
My wife won't let me have a mistress, i pleaded with her to no avail. As i get older she say's I should get the Memory man.
Good video. I'd say the freeze is also a pretty revolutionary pedal. I have it in the form of the superego. Also have a few different versions of the memory man, a ring thing and a Rams head big muff. All great pedals really an extraordinary company.
Yeah, I love my freeze pedal! I study Indian music too so the Freeze is a fun tool to blend those drone elements into a modern guitar sound.
@@JeffStarr You should get the Raish Sitar pedal by Ehx. Best Sitar emulator on the market. Would work wonderfully over a freeze drone!
One cannot have just 5 EHX pedals. My favorites list could go on and on and on...
It's not a must have pedal but I really like the Super Pulsar. A tremolo with the typical EHX craziness twist. There are other tweakable tremolo pedals but I don't see this kind of control elsewhere. Very fun to use.
+cyrfung yes, this pedal is a really good "honorable mention." EHX sometimes walks a fine line between lots of control and too much control. But it's always fun!
I love my Hazarai, have owned it for about 7 years and it's never left my board.
+Joseph Pickard that's great to know! Have you been tempted to try out any of the newer digital delays by strymon or eventide?
I'll be honest - the Strymon TimeLine is godlike. The current standard for delay pedals IMO. The only thing I've played recently that wowed me as much as that was the Boss DD-500. If you get chance to try it, you'll be blown away. I think EHX will need to up its game big time with the next digital Memory Man!
imo
One of my EHX must-haves is the EHX Ring Modulator.
I figure 1,000 different guitarists would come up with at least 2,000 top 5s.
imo
I love the EHX RingThing ring modular. I’ve made a bunch of videos about it. You might like this video I made with a crazy hack you can do with the pedal: Octave Fuzz Hack! EHX Ring Thing Vs Octavia. Crazy sounds! ruclips.net/video/Mdj1YHNkKJs/видео.html
Should have a short demo of the pedals.
“5 electro harmonix pedals you want but don’t have the money for because ur broke af”
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha so true
Yep, if you have any extra money and want to sound different, then EH has just the stomp box for you. I remember their Little Muff Fuzz boxes from the 70's with a 9v. They've really up'd their game over the years as far as quality goes. I've been looking and listening to the many RUclips demo's for EH lately, some of these boxes are simply incredible.
Enjoyed your video but I'd have needed at least 10 slots instead of your 5.
Yeah, it was hard to narrow this down to 5. I would have liked to include the Small Stone and like.... everything else. :) Thanks for watching!
Got that Analogizer! Glad I decided to try it.
Really?! I still have my original LPB-1 "MuffFuzz" (tiny, one knob, came with a little 1/4" male-to-male for putting it right at your guitar's output)...and the box it came in. I think I bought it in 1971; I was 11 and couldn't afford a 'triangle BigMuff Pi'. 48 years later, and it's velcro-ed to the lower fin of my Flying Vee Jr (dedicated Stun Guitar lol)....
There was so much to pick amongst for your list, but I was floored that it didn't include the iconic Q-Tron envelope filter (at least one of its various iterations)! That said, here's my 5 'must have' EHX effects (the five that ~I~ 'must have' on a Complete board):
>Triangle Big Muff (preferably with the JHS 'Illuminati' mod)
>Q-Tron envelope filter (the biggest; the chewiest!)
>Screaming Bird treble boost (in ~front~ of the Muff)
>Grand Canyon mega-delay (since it carries a Deluxe MemoryMan and a Holy Grail reverb among its modes)
>Small Stone phase shifter (you can get some rotary, and some light flange-tones, out of a SS; that makes it the more versatile mod-unit of the three, for me).
I love everything about my B9, have 2 other Muffs (a 'DoubleMuff' and a LittleBigMuff), but those 5 are my pedal-board Musts.
In 1987, the cab driver that took me to a gig in NYC had an original MemoryMan in his trunk; he let me have it for another $5 over the fare(!).....it would use up half of a p-board these days (and was hard-wired for AC only), but that unit has the smoothest, organic-sounding repeat-decay I've ever played over. They barely caught that on the one in the GrandCanyon, but it's there.
I know somebody else's list will have POGs, loopers, and a RavishSitar, but that's mine.....EHX has the best replacement tubes, BTW, as well ('Tung-Sol').
Thanks, Mike M.; you've ~sustained~ countless guitarists over the years!
Your list of pedals are all excellent. EHX makes so much good stuff! Thanks for watching and sharing your own list.
Regarding the POG line what about the Pitch Fork? It does more than the POG for a cheap price!
please do a video on best EH pedals for harmonica
Must have pedal for me is Clone chorus.
Great if you like nirvana or Metallica’s Load stuff. I use it for my songs too. Clone + Tube amp = 😎🎸
Yeah, an EHX Chorus is key to getting that Nirvana sound.
This a great video but it’s missing a short sound byte of each unit.
i should have nothing But EHX. Great Pedals at great Price bang 4 buck$.
Great video. Great depth. You got my subscription.
Awesome, thank you!
A new addition to consider for this list is the Canyon, it's awesome.
Yes, that pedal has become SUPER popular! Thanks for leaving a comment to help spread gear knowledge. Rock on!
EHX Soul Preacher did a good job as well. Top Comp for less than 100 bucks. A must have IMHO :)
+Pio Great recommendation!
Just bought a stereo Walrus Mako high fidelity series delay D1 but my next pedal will be the Electro Harmonix stereo overdrive The Overlord.
If I add a number 6 for me would have to be a small Stone phaser.
Agree. This seems to be the consensus for most viewers. Or, I could have included the small stone and made the Electric Mistress a bonus 6th pedal. Thanks for watching!
The Nano POG has a few fewer features? Name one. Might have to double check your research.
Yes, I misspoke. Thanks for catching the error! I was thinking that the Micro POG could run off a battery, but it can't. Thanks for watching! Cheers.
Just bought an op amp big muff, there great. Definitely recommend getting this version, it sounds better with the tone switch on. Its what Billy Corgan uses a lot of, there's a cool video on here of a review he does on them.
Yes! This is a super cool option that wasn't around when I made this video (or at least not around in a new form). Thanks for commenting to make sure people know about it.
Enjoyed your video, pedal differences well explained. Some sound samples would be nice.
Noted! Thanks for your feedback.
The Turnip Greens pedal is a favorite of mine. Combines the Soul Food with the Holy Grail Max reverb much like the Soul Pog.
+bufferkiller yes! Great recommendation!!
great great video man the big muff wicker got me into ehx, how do you like the Bad Stone?
+jonathan alec the bad stone is a classic phaser! Kurt Cobain was a big user. If you like phasers I also suggest checking out the new MXR phase 95.
notbadfilms I'll check it out! I'm not a super huge fan of the phase 9 but maybe the 95 will redeem it for me, great video mate!
Any thoughts on the Double Muff? I bought it a couple of years ago and was very disappointed mostly because it's INCREDIBLY LOUD and just overwhelming on the treble end with no onboard control to tweak it. It has kept me away from buying a Big Muff and I'm wondering if the Double is just a black-eye on the brand.
The Big Muff is a really hard pedal to control. It is really... Muffled! It always sounds great by itself but once you get into a band or recording mix it just fades away as a big blur. This is why I like the version with the Tone Wicker because you can help it pop out a bit more.
I own 4 out of your list. Great video. Wish you would of demoed them
Thank you for the feedback. Others have mentioned that they wished I would have demoed the pedals so I'll try to do that in future videos whenever I can. Thanks for watching!