What is it?

Electro-Harmonix has been doing a grand job of reissuing the different versions of its Big Muff Pi fuzz pedal, with all of the major circuit revisions now represented in the brand’s roster.

The Big Muff Pi 2 is the latest to hit the stores, but there’s a twist with this one in that it was never available in the first place.

This pedal is a dual op-amp version by designer Bob Myers that dates from the late 1970s.

Its existence, as a hand-drawn schematic, only came to light when Josh Scott of JHS Pedals was interviewing Bob for a book, Made On Earth For Rising Stars: The Electro-Harmonix Story.

While EHX did produce an op-amp-based Big Muff in 1978 (also known as the IC or V4 Big Muff), celebrated for its use by Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins, this new one has a different clipping arrangement and an extra gain stage.

Specs

• PRICE: $122 | £125 | €119
• ORIGIN: USA
• TYPE: Fuzz/distortion pedal
• FEATURES: True bypass, latching/momentary footswitching
• CONTROLS: Volume, Tone, Sustain, bypass footswitch 
• CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output
• POWER: 9V battery (supplied) or 9V DC adaptor 15mA
• DIMENSIONS: 65 (w) x 111 (d) x 47mm (h) 
• CONTACT: Electro-Harmonix

Usability and sounds

A Nano-sized pedal that will fit snugly on any pedalboard, the Big Muff Pi 2 features the familiar triumvirate of Volume, Tone and Sustain knobs, but, brilliantly, comes with a dual-action footswitch that – besides standard latching operation – can also be used momentarily for a burst of dirt for as long as you press and hold.

Plugging in, there’s no doubt that this is part of the Big Muff family, but the differences from the usual four-transistor models are immediately apparent.

There’s a fuller midrange in place of the regular scooped sound and that fullness extends to the low frequencies with a bigger bottom-end grunt.

There’s plenty of variation via the Tone knob, with the sludgier stuff to the left, but we found our sweet spot at around the two o’clock mark and beyond where the upper mid presence makes itself apparent.

There’s also a nice clarity to the top-end, which, incidentally, doesn’t get as fizzy as a standard Muff when the Tone knob is maxed.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

With a gritty textured edge to its fuzz/distortion, this is a pedal for big riffs and endless sustain.

MusicRadar verdict: This dual op-amp version was never released back in the day as EHX boss Mike Matthews felt that it strayed from the traditional Big Muff voicing. But these days we positively embrace fuzz varieties across the board and the Big Muff Pi 2 is a valid choice, particularly for players who value something heavier and more aggressive.

Hands-on videos

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• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save

Electro-Harmonix has expanded its Pico Series with Shimmer, a “cosmic” reverb pedal that promises otherworldly ambience from three distinct sounds.

The Pico Series is the storied NYC-based guitar effects pedal brand’s super-compact digital mini pedals range, and all that DSP power under the hood of these pedalboard-friendly enclosures allows it to offer something a little bit weird, off-piste options for less ordinary electric guitar tones.

It has given us the Intelligent Harmony Machine, the two or three-part harmonizer you can stick in your pocket. The Pico Atomic Cluster presented us with a glitch-cum-synth pedal that takes the signal from your electric guitar and deconstructs it. The Swello launched the POG2’s polyphonic attack filter as a standalone effect. Now this, the Shimmer.

Like the Swello, the Shimmer is a pedal that draws inspiration from the EHX back catalogue. EHX’s superlative Oceans Reverb plants the seed, and the three variations on the Shimmer theme descend from this. For such a small pedal there are plenty of controls to get acquainted with.

There is a Scene button at the top of the pedal that cycles through Intergalactic, Off-World, and Etherdust modes.

The latter is your “glitchy” option in which a randomised delay time is applied to the reverb tails, “ creating stutters ranging from short granular sparkles to distinct glitch echoes”.

Intergalactic is what we’d recognise as a shimmer reverb, although by the sounds of it this one will be a little more sci-fi, your tone cheerfully ferried to the outer reaches of the galaxy and all that, carried forth upon “polyphonic octaves, reverb, modulated delay and compression” – and a string synthesis engine because why not? Let’s go nuts.

Rounding out the trio is the Off-World shimmer, described as a more mellow option with delay modulation, vintage synth vibes, and as the name might suggest this might be more chilled out, bliss at the touch of a footswitch, and so on, but still astral and weird.

There are four knobs, all of which pull double shifts. Primary functions include Blend, Time, Voice and Depth. Press and hold the Scene button and the Secondary functions come online, and the aforementioned controls now adjust Reverb Mix, Delay, Depth and Rate.

And there is more. Press and hold that footswitch and you access Infinite Reverb Mode. The Pico Shimmer has digital, analogue and hybrid buffered bypass modes. It ships with its own power adapter and is priced $149.

For more details, head over to Electro-Harmonix.

Electro-Harmonix has teamed up with MixWave to present six of its most-loved classic guitar effects pedals as guitar plugins.

Available now for the introductory price of $109, the EHX Classics Bundle comprises three versions of the ubiquitous Big Muff fuzz pedal, plus the Andy Summers-approved Electric Mistress Flanger/Filter/Matrix, the Deluxe Memory Man Echo/Chorus/Vibrato, and the warbling Come As Your Are electric guitar tones of the EH4800 Small Clone chorus pedal.

You can, of course, buy each of the four plugins (the Muffs are all in one) separately. These are presently being offered at a discount rate of $39 each, regular price $79 for the Muffs, $69 for the rest.

For many players, these sounds will need little introduction. They have been pedalboard staples for decades. But if you’re approaching Electro-Harmonix sounds from the DAW side rather than the hardware side, they might be a unfamiliar, so here’s what you are getting.

The Big Muff plugin bundle features the original Big Muff Pi, the Ram’s Head Big Muff, and the Russian variant. The latter is what you want for “darker, heavier” tones, which is to say that it has a more aggressive character, more low-end oomph.

The Ram’s Head is the Muff many Pink Floyd fans would hear and instantly think of David Gilmour, with its smoother fuzz sound a more gentile proposition. The Big Muff Pi? It’s the Big Muff Pi, so it’ll give you that dreamy saturation, the sustain that has this weird violin quality on single note melodies.

The Deluxe Memory Man plugin keeps the 500ms delay time of the original unit. It is one of the most iconic analogue delay pedals of all time, a BBD-driven unit used by a who’s who of players but notably the Edge, Robert Smith, Ed O’Brien, and so on.

MixWave says this digital version was created using “component-level modeling, faithfully recreating the behaviour of its bucket-brigade delay line, modulation circuitry, and analogue signal path”.

Where the Deluxe Memory Man was, there was often an Electric Mistress, too, providing movement to your tone, that could be subtle, or like a jet, or by using the Filter Matrix you can turn it into a static comb filter and use it to tease out all kinds of captivating textures that can make a single chord something transcendent.

Finally, the Small Clone presents you with the most simple take on chorusing you will find. There is a switch for Depth, and a Rate knob, and yet that is all you need to get going. The circuit does the rest. Simple, but then, in the hands of Kurt Cobain, it helped change popular music for good.

The Electro-Harmonix Classics Bundle is available now, see Electro-Harmonix or MixWave for more.

NAMM 2026: As recording technology has become cheaper and more accessible, the line between guitarists and producers has become increasingly blurred. With its new Effects Interface Hardware Plugin, Electro-Harmonix is aiming to make bridging that gap easier than ever.

The Effects Interface is a stompbox-style hardware device that operates as a 2-in, 2-out USB-C audio interface, specifically designed for incorporating a DAW into a traditional stompbox effects chain.

This can be done in one of two ways. In its Hardware Plugin mode, the Effects Interface acts as an external effect loop, routed via its associate plugin that sits in a DAW’s insert chain.

Alternatively, in Pedalboard mode the Effects Interface can be used to incorporate software effects into a hardware chain. Here audio is sent into a DAW through the input plugin, processed using any software effects, and then sent back out to an amp or pedalboard.

The inputs and outputs are designed to operate at pedalboard-friendly levels, allowing audio to travel to and from a chain of effects pedals without the need for additional converters or DI boxes.

According to EHX, “Effects Interface handles your signal and delivers it with care between your hardware and software via a simple USB-C connection.”

In either mode, the device’s foot switch can be used to bypass the effect like a traditional stompbox.

The Effects Interface has stereo inputs and outputs, but can also operate in dual-mono mode, allowing users to set up two different effects routings simultaneously.

The level of its inputs and outputs can be controlled via both the hardware and software UI. The device also has a headphone output with its own volume control allowing for direct monitoring.

As well as being used as part of a stompbox effects chain, the Effects Interface can also function as a traditional audio interface for recording and monitoring via its ins and outs.

While the device is primarily aimed at guitarists, it’s not hard to imagine how it might also appeal to synthesists and bedroom producers looking for an easy way to take sounds out-of-the-box for a little hardware processing.

The Electro-Harmonix Effects Interface is out now, with a US street price of $359. Head to the EHX site for more information.

Guitar effects pedal heavyweights Electro-Harmonix and JHS Pedals have joined forces for an all-new Big Muff fuzz pedal based on a long-lost circuit that had been lying around “buried in dust and time” for nearly 50 years.

All things considered, the Big Muff 2, so-called because it features not one but two op-amps, is something of a miracle. Josh Scott, JHS Supremo, chanced upon this lost schematic in 2021 when researching for a book he is co-writing with his friend and EHX über collector Daniel Danger, alongside writer/historian Dan Epstein.

Made On Earth for Rising Stars: The Electro-Harmonix Story will be published on 12 May 2026, through Jack White's Third Man Books, perhaps just enough time for an addendum to document this latest find – because this Big Muff 2 circuit is a part of the brand's history.

It takes the story of the Big Muff back to the start; this schematic was hand-drawn by the inventor of the Big Muff himself, the late Bob Myer.

Myer's blueprint read, “BIG MUFF USING (2 DUAL OP AMPS)”. Of course EHX and JHS had to put it into work.

“We breadboarded the circuit exactly as Bob drew it, and immediately knew we had something worth making,” says JHS. “We found that Bob’s design is unique when compared to the now famous late ‘70s Op-Amp Big Muff designed by Michael Abrams. Different clipping arrangement, an extra gain stage and various other elements that made this lost version extremely special.”

This isn’t one of your polite, sweet-sounding Big Muffs. This is different to the Op-Amp Big Muff that Billy Corgan famously used circa Siamese Dream.

This Big Muff 2 Dual Op-Amp is a little gnarlier, more aggro, louder, with what JHS describes as “the most pronounced low-end and midrange of any EHX Big Muff ever”.

In other words, this was an iconoclastic take on the classic fuzzbox by the man who invented it in the first place.

That said, it’s the same old, same old when it comes to dialling in your electric guitar tone. You have a Volume knob to control the overall output, Sustain to control the amount of fuzz, and Tone for your EQ'ing desires. Easy.

And given that this is a nigh-on 50-year-old circuit they are presenting, JHS and EHX have gone traditional, housing it in the traditional big-box wedge enclosure, and they are only making 5,700 of them.

Priced $249, the Big Muff 2 is available now. See JHS Pedals for more.

Made On Earth for Rising Stars: The Electro-Harmonix Story is available to pre-order from Third Man Books.

Electro-Harmonix has just dropped a new solid-state guitar amp that packs 100-watts into a super-portable head that weighs little more than a couple of bags of granulated sugar.

Named for a tank, built like a tank? This compact EHX powerhouse (it weighs just 2.5lbs) is called the ABRAMS100, and it’s a simple, single-channel amp that the NYC guitar effects pedal brand’s supremo, Mike Matthews, promises makes a superb platform for your pedalboard – or indeed the amp modeller in your life.

“The ABRAMS100 packs a whallop and it’s perfect for pedals!” says Matthews.

Headroom is the order of the day. The ABRAMS100 is clean and mean, though you will get a hint of warm low-gain breakup when the gain is turned up high. Just add whatever gain you need from the overdrive, distortion or fuzz pedal on your ‘board.

The front panel is gloriously uncomplicated. There are dials for Gain, Bass, Middle, Treble, Reverb, and Volume, plus a Bright switch for extra presence and trebly sparkle, i.e. the button you press when you have an electric guitar with a muddy humbucker, or a particularly difficult mix to fight through.

The reverb is a digital spring reverb that judging by the demo videos has an unseemly degree of splash at extreme settings. It’ll do just nicely. Was this algorithm exported from EHX’s Holy Grail reverb pedal? The website does not say, but it kinda sounds like it.

Around the back of the amplifier you will find an effects loop plus a speaker output for 4-16ohms, plus the on/off switch and AC input. And that’s that.

For $299, you have a fuss-free solid-state 100-watter that you can throw into a backpack and take to a gig.

In other recent Electro-Harmonix news, the brand expanded its Pico series of guitar mini pedals with something really kind of strange, the Atomic Cluster – a stompbox described as a “spectral decomposer” that was engineered with soundscapists in mind.

EHX said it was dipping its toe into “the cosmic pool of glitchy synth pedals” with an algorithm programmed to reduce the frequency resolution of your instrument, and thus creating a “wide range of unique effects from rhythmic lo-fi glitch and auto-arpeggio tones to ambient synth pads and more!” Quite. It sounds pretty nuts, and you can read more about the Atomic Cluster here.

You can find out more about the ABRAMS100 at Electro-Harmonix. It’s priced $299. UK price TBC.

What do you get for the pedalboard that has everything? It’s an evergreen quandary. Another modulated delay pedal? Too passé. A tremolo and fuzz pedal twofer? That could work. But what about a [coughs] ‘spectral decomposer’? Does such a thing even exist?

It does now. It’s called the Atomic Cluster, and it has been developed by Electro-Harmonix, whose R&D spend has been generously rewarded with a mini-pedal of cosmic consequence for your electric guitar sound.

As part of the NYC guitar effects pedal brand’s Pico series, it will not bogart space on your pedalboard. It will, however, transform your sound, applying glitchy, synth pedal to your playing – sounds are hard to put into words. “Dipping our toe into the cosmic pool of glitchy synth pedals with this one,” was how EHX put it.

And here are some more words from the company on what the Atomic Cluster actually does: “This compact glitch and synth pedal breaks down your signal and interpolates it into a variety of musical and whimsical sounds. Using a unique algorithm to reduce the frequency resolution of your instrument, it creates a wide range of unique effects from rhythmic lo-fi glitch and auto-arpeggio tones to ambient synth pads and more!”

Okay, we’re sold. Especially seeing as all this weirdness does not come at the price of confusion. This looks easy enough to use. There are dials for Volume and Blend, the latter particularly welcome on an effect like this; often a subtle mix is what you’re looking for, a little magic dust on those clean guitar parts, and other times you want to max it out and go 90 per cent plus on the wet/dry mix.

The Atoms and Speed dials require some explanation. Atoms is controls the number of “simultaneous resonant oscillations” sounds at any one time, while Speed adjusts how quickly these oscillations are refreshed.

With the Atoms dial fully clockwise, the sound might not actually be that pronounced. Remember, this is a pedal that deconstructs your sound, so the more you reduce those oscillations, turning the Atom dial counterclockwise, the glitchier your sound gets.

As for the Speed dial, set it slow and it’ll sound like a rhythmic step filter. Set it fast and chaos and chance takes an interest in your sound. There is also a Mode button that toggles between Sharp and Smooth transitions between oscillations, the former being more rhythmically aligned, the latter more lush. You can also control the Speed with tap tempo.

Where things get really interesting is when you perform all this deconstruction on your guitar tone and then pair it with another pedal, such as the Pico Rerun tape delay.

As with the other Pico series pedals, don’t let the size fool you. This is packing some serious DSP firepower under the hood. It’s one of the good algorithms. And you can add it to your ‘board for just $129. The Atomic Cluster Spectral Decomposer is available now, see Electro-Harmonix for more details.

Electro-Harmonix has served up a hot take on a stone-cold classic with the Bender Royale presenting us with a souped-up modernised version of a vintage Tone Bender fuzz pedal.

This is a second (or third?) generation Tone Bender-style fuzz with heaps of features on a compact enclosure. For a start, there are Treble and Bass knobs for fine-tuning the EQ, always helpful with a fuzz, especially when there is so much range on that passive Bass control. The Treble control is an active shelving filter that can take out some of that top-end sizzle to taste.

Secondly, there’s EQ quick-fix by way of a Fat switch, which adds serious heft in the low-end and low-mid frequency – a boost that EHX describes as “the perfect thickening agent tonal stew”. Just the thing your single-coil electric needs? Could be.

“If you’re into big, fat saturated tones, the Bender Royale will get you there!” promises EHX supremo, Mike Matthews.

There are also two switchable clipping options, with the choice between germanium and LED clipping allowing players to go from that smooth vintage warmth to something more gnarly and aggressive.

Speaking of gnarly, feral sounds, the Bender Royal has a Bias control allowing you to run it wide open, or to choke the voltage for that gated Velcro splutter.

This might not be the fuzz that does it all, but it might be close. It sure does a lot, and promises to be a hard-working addition to any pedalboard.

We haven’t even gotten to the Blend dial, which is arguably the least exciting but most practical control on the entire pedal, allowing you to preserve your electric guitar’s (or bass guitar's) dry signal and keep some attack definition in there when you need it – especially if the Bender Royale is not the only dirt pedal in action.

Finally, Volume controls the output from the pedal, while Fuzz controls input gain, and just when you were thinking there wasn’t any more to be getting on with here, the good people at the NYC-based guitar effects pedal company has given us a soft-touch footswitch can be set up to run with a momentary or latching action (hold it down to toggle between settings).

Run it from a battery or 9V DC from a pedalboard power supply. The Bender Royale will draw 12mA, it’s true bypass, and is available now priced $149. And that’s that. Phew! Find out more at Electro-Harmonix.

What is it?

Representing the second model in a seemingly new dawn of Electro-Harmonix pedals, the EHX Oceans Abyss looks very much the modern digital stompbox, heavy on features, connectivity, and packing a massive array of tones designed to make your guitar sound, well, massive.

It follows largely the same format as the POG3 in terms of chassis design and the use of sliders, but takes the OLED screen and puts it at the forefront of the unit with a multi-directional encoder for navigation. Each reverb engine has its own dedicated controls which allow you to blend, pan, adjust EQ, and set pre-delay and time functions using physical knobs and sliders.

It features 10 reverb algorithms with dual paths that allow you to blend and swap to your heart's content, and it’s all presented in glorious stereo. It’s not just reverbs that are available though - you can harness the power of delay, tremolo, chorus, flanger, phaser, saturation, and a bit crusher to supplement your soundscapes, all customisable to any part of the signal chain or stereo field. You can even use these on their own, making the Oceans Abyss much more of a multi-effect than just a pure reverb pedal.

It’s clearly designed to compete with feature-heavy units from Strymon and Boss for space on the modern guitarist’s pedalboard, and it’s priced similarly to Strymon’s Big Sky and the Boss RV-500, which means it has some serious competition. It’s been a while since the EHX Oceans 12 and Grand Canyon launched, so it’s about time we got something a little more contemporary from an extremely popular brand.

Specs

• Launch price: $495 / £475 / €499
• Type: Reverb/multi-effects pedal
• Controls: Pan, pre-delay, time, blend, low, high, edit, moment, tails, preset, home, settings
• Connectivity: 2 x 1/4" in, 2 x 1/4” send/return, 2 x 1/4" out, 1x 1/4” footswitch, 1x 1/4” expression, MIDI in/out, USB-C
• Bypass: Buffered
• Power: 9V DC power supply (included)
• Dimensions: 57.15 x 180.97 x 146.05mm
• Weight: 800g (1.76lbs)
• Contact: Electro-Harmonix

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

Having recently reviewed the POG3, from my inspection, the chassis is exactly the same in terms of its shape, size, and weight. It’s not too heavy, and it feels solidly built. The footswitches are angled towards the player and are of the soft click variety, giving quiet switching under the press of my finger.

The front panel is very different from the POG, though. Here, the screen takes full focus with the encoder knob forming part of the maritime-inspired logo emblazoned on the center of the gunmetal green exterior. The encoder knob feels solidly applied, and its shape means it should stay out of the way of any mistimed stomps during a show.

It’s a similar story with the knobs that control various functions across the top of the pedal, but I do worry about those sliders. A fairly insignificant push with my finger to the side of the slider doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence, and I worry about them when placing the pedal in a soft pedalboard case or chucking it in a backpack. They’re attached well, and I love the fact that they light up, but it’s the nature of the design that they’re not the most robust feeling, and having part of the chassis open could also lead to things getting lodged in there over time.

Usability

Usability rating: ★★★☆☆

As is usual when I review gear, I like to just sit down (or stand up) at first and have at it without diving into the manual. Despite using the POG3 already, which shares a similar UI, I still find the Oceans Abyss confusing initially to get into. Moving the encoder in different directions presents me with different screens, and I can’t find a way to switch presets initially. I hit the ‘home’ button, which gets me a view of the preset signal path, and it’s only once I press the preset button that I’m able to start switching using the encoder.

As I find out, you can also switch presets by pressing either two of the three footswitches in combination with the center switch, but that isn’t all that convenient while I sit at my desk with the pedal plugged into my audio interface. With this initial hurdle overcome, I’m able to start navigating the pedal through its presets and diving into the signal path to make changes, which all-in-all feels pretty intuitive.

Certain controls are changed using the encoder and others require me to tweak the physical knobs or sliders depending on the particular parameters. There are pages and pages for each part of the signal chain, meaning plenty of opportunity for sound sculpting.

Now, you might be thinking ‘just read the manual’, and eventually I have to succumb to doing that, because I cannot for the life of me work out how to save my preset now I’ve finished tweaking it. Scrolling through the menus gives me nothing, trying various button presses results in more of the same, with a menu popping up asking me if I want to default the preset, but no option to save that I can see.

Even a quick Google search draws a blank. Defeated, I head to the EHX website and download the manual in order to find out how to save my carefully curated patch - which it turns out requires a one-second hold and press of the preset knob.

Once I spend a little time with the pedal, I find myself able to customise patches at will, but to be honest, it always feels a little bit fiddly with the encoder. Although nice as an endlessly rotating knob, the stubby button makes for uneasy directional pressing at my fingertips, resulting in miscues that change settings I didn’t want, or it taking me to a completely different menu I wasn’t anticipating. You would get used to it with time, but it’s definitely not a seamless experience getting acquainted with it.

I consider myself pretty clued up on digital pedals, being a gear reviewer and all, so it’s seldom the case I come across something where I can’t work out the basics for myself. Consider me humbled and slightly disappointed, then, that this pedal isn’t easier to use.

There’s a further annoyance too, because there’s still no EHX Port app for Mac users, which is something I criticised the POG3 for months ago. With a large portion of musicians using the Apple ecosystem, it seems like a bit of an oversight not to have an app ready for the launch of such an in-depth pedal, especially as the POG3 has been out for over half a year at the time of writing.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Now that I’ve got to grips with the functionality of the pedal, it’s time to move on to the rub - the sounds. My testing begins with a Gretsch semi-hollow, a Universal Audio interface with the pedal going into inputs one and two, and two UA plugins based on the Fender Twin and Vox AC30. The idea is to get a scope of the stereo possibilities free from any phasing or ground loops potentially caused by using two guitar amps.

With my headphones on, the stereo spread is fantastic. The ability to pan each of the reverbs to my liking makes for some super soundscapes, blending multiple reverbs together with various modulation effects to create some truly wacky - and some might say - unusable sounds. It’s glorious though, and the ability to add in additional effects to then shape the base reverb algorithms is mana for the experimentally minded.

Of course, not everyone’s interested in colossal reverbs that give you the feeling you’re going through the process of spaghettification, so thankfully Oceans Abyss is more than capable of producing more traditional reverb sounds. The spring setting is delightfully metallic, giving you those tinny pings of steel when you clamp down on a note that rings on beyond before cutting off dramatically.

It’s got EHX’s Holy Grail sound built into it, as well as a 6G15 mode named for the tube-driven spring unit in Fender amps, which ends up being a staple of my sonic exploration as I customise my own settings. The plate offers a beautifully bright tonality that’s great for accentuating my lead licks, while realistic-sounding room algorithms and a hall sound offer plenty of flexibility for more reined-in tones.

Taking the Oceans Abyss to my rehearsal space, I wire it up into the effects loop of my Orange tube amp to see how it interacts with the rest of the band. It receives many plaudits from my bandmates for the inventiveness of the presets, and there are a couple that we find fit perfectly into our sound without much need to edit.

The presets overall are fantastic, and I get a lot of fun and playtime messing around with them. With 125 to choose from, I’m not shy of options either, with sounds ranging from cosmic spirals of rack and ruin through to more normal tones like tape echo, and studio-style chorus.

One criticism I do find with the sounds is that they’re very heavy on the mix knob, and I end up feeling like they need a lot of taming in the low end in particular as things get pretty dense with my full band going. It’s something I can edit out on the unit itself, but once again, I find myself cursing the lack of an app for my MacBook to make it easier to whizz through them all, so I can bring it back to the next rehearsal with a more mix-ready sound.

Verdict

The Oceans Abyss is a real paradox of a pedal. The usability is not as good as I was hoping, thanks to a dense menu system and a fiddly encoder that’s prone to wandering where you don’t expect it to. Having to look up in the manual how to save a preset explains perfectly how the usability of the pedal doesn’t appear to have been at the forefront of the design.

Despite that, it offers some incredible sounds, and once you get your head around how to use it, the ability to combine them in ways that will allow you to sculpt some truly unique soundscapes. As well as the more esoteric, it also has plenty of traditional sounds in it too, and at times it can really feel like more of a multi-effects pedal rather than just a straight reverb pedal.

MusicRadar verdict: Although let down somewhat by the usability and lack of a companion app for Mac, the Electro-Harmonix Oceans Abyss is a really rewarding reverb pedal if you’re willing to stick with it. Its ability to carve your reverb sounds and season them with modulation effects makes for some really impressive tones, especially when you start experimenting with the stereo field and two guitar amps or sound sources.

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Hands-on videos

Chords Of Orion

John Nathan Cordy

In this life there are reverb pedals and there are reverb pedals. You know the kind, multiple modes, full stereo operation, maybe some presets, too. But if you are a heavy user of one of electric guitar’s oldest effects, then maybe it’s time you sought out an Advanced Reverb Laboratory.

That’s how Electro-Harmonix describes the Oceans Abyss, and it is not so much a guitar effects pedal as it is a workstation for the hopelessly addicted to reverb. Oceans Abyss is as feature-packed a reverb unit as you could find.

At its heart are a pair of reverb engines, each independently programmable, each with 10 different reverb algorithms – presented in mono or stereo – and a host of effects to add to your sound.

The core reverbs include the essentials such Room, Hall, Spring and Plate, but we also have some more exotic flavours of ambience, with Reverse, Dynamic, Auto-Infinite, Shimmer, Polyphonic and Resonant modes, too.

You can engineer some truly complex signal chains. Oceans Abyss allows you to run up eight effects blocks together, with two blocks for reverb (double reverb!?), plus six for the effects. Those effects include various forms of modulation.

Add tremolo, chorus, phaser, and flanger to taste, giving your sound some extra movement, voluminous depth. There is also a graphic EQ, Saturation and Bit Crusher for adding textures, volume effects, and if that is not enough there is an external effects loop so you can integrate some choice cuts from your pedalboard.

EHX says you have complete control over “nearly every” parameter and has the connections to prove it. You’ve got MIDI, expression/CV inputs, dual-action footswitches, and there’s an OLED screen to help with on-unit editing. Of course you can take it to the EHXport app, which will no doubt be essential when managing the 128 user defined presets.

The reverbs are presented as A and B channels on either side of the unit, each with identical controls that include a sliders for Blend, Low and High, knobs for Pan, Pre Delay and Time, plus buttons for Edit, Moment and Tails.

At the centre of the unit you’ll find the NaveCoder knob, which cycles through menus, parameters and presets. It is appropriately nested in a compass graphic. Under the OLED display, there are buttons for Preset, Home and Settings.

All of this functionality probably requires a read of the manual to get the most out of it but there’s something about EHX design, and how this is laid out, that makes us suspect you could just dive right in and start experimenting.

For those who have plateaued out on common or garden variety reverbs, have maxed out the big digital beasts, what else is there out there? Well, what else but the Ocean Abyss.

Find out more over at Electro-Harmonix. At $495 it is not cheap. But it’s a lot of ‘verb.

What is it?

The POG line from Electro-Harmonix has become such a staple of guitar that it’s surprising that it was only launched in 2005. Providing a less error-prone octave tone versus the DigiTech Whammy - which is not a bad-sounding pedal by any means - the POG quickly became a regular on the ‘boards of professional players. It provided polyphonic octave shifting, excellent note tracking, and probably most importantly, a natural-sounding pitch-shifted tone.

It’s been twenty years since the original POG launched, and we’ve seen many iterations arrive since then, from the scaled-down Nano POG to the more involved POG 2, right through to today's futuristic offering in the Electro-Harmonix POG 3. Billing itself as the most "powerful POG ever", it’s got six different voices to play with, an expanded effects section with adjustable Q for the multi-mode filter, a better detune setting, and plenty of options to route your dry signal.

Across the front face there are ten sliders, each of which has its own LED attached that glows a brighter red depending on how far it’s engaged. The input gain slider on the far left has the master volume knob above it, while the six voice sliders each have a panning knob for creating interesting stereo sounds. The effects section meanwhile features Q, Envelope, and Spread knobs for further sculpting your sounds.

Another brand-new addition is the OLED graphical display, which gives you more visual insight into your settings and routing, as well as a way to manipulate deeper settings with ease. It makes the POG 3 look very Strymon-esque and brings it firmly into the future versus the more retro aesthetic you typically find on EHX pedals.

Preset switching comes via two up-and-down footswitches, and you can save up to 100 different tones for instant recall. There’s also an encoder in the top right of the pedal which helps you navigate presets, and deep dive into menus for fine-tuning. It can be pushed left, right, up, and down, as well as used as a button to confirm selections displayed on the display.

On the back panel, you’ve got a single 1/4-inch input, and separate left and right outputs for connecting to your rig. There’s also a dry-out if you’re sending your signals to multiple amps or, as came in handy when I was using it, you need a DI guitar signal. There’s an expression pedal input for controlling parameters on the fly, and you’ve got MIDI in and out for getting into the real nitty-gritty with controlling the sounds. It also features a USB-C connector for updating the pedal and using the accompanying app.

Specs

• Launch price: $645/£558/€599
• Type: Polyphonic Octave Generator
• Controls: Master Volume, Input Gain slider, Dry slider, -2 slider, -1 slider, +5th slider, +1 slider, +2 slider, Q knob, Spread knob, Envelope knob, Attack slider, Filter slider, Detune slider, Encoder
• Connectivity: 1 x 1/4" (input), 2 x 1/4" (L, R), 1 x 1/4" (DI out), 2 x 5-pin DIN (In, Out), 1 x 1/4" (Expression, CV out), 1 x USB-C
• Bypass: Buffered
• Power: 9V 500mA
• Dimensions: 181 x 57 x 146mm
• Contact: Electro-Harmonix

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

Unboxing the POG 3 gave me a slight sense of awe. It’s an amazing-looking pedal with a huge array of knobs and sliders that appeal massively to the experimentalist in me, and I was super excited to get to make some sounds with it. On first inspection, the overall feel is rugged, with a shiny red chassis that’s surprisingly lightweight considering the amount of controls on its fascia.

The knobs all feel nice and solid with smooth travel on each of them. The tiny knobs for panning each of the voices are especially stiff, which could be a plus or minus depending on your dexterity. There’s a nice little recess for these smaller knobs too, which allows you to ensure they’re centered if you want to return your voices to the middle.

The footswitches are similarly solid, and overall the quality feel that you’d expect from a brand as large as EHX is present and accounted for. I like that the footswitches are angled slightly away from the rest of the chassis, making it a little easier to stomp on when it's nestled amongst a bunch of pedals on a pedalboard.

The sliders on the POG 3 however didn’t give me that same sense of security. They feel fairly robust moving up and down, but there’s a lot of side-to-side movement that doesn’t give much confidence they’ll withstand a mistimed stomp when you’re playing on a dark stage.

Broken sliders are nothing new from those who owned earlier editions of the pedal, and I won’t get started on all the crud that can accumulate in the recesses over the years. While it’s nice that EHX is honouring the classic design, I couldn’t help but feel they’d be better served being knobs when it comes to the longevity of the pedal.

Usability

Usability rating: ★★★★☆

As with all the pedals I review, I got started just plugging it in to see what sort of sounds I could come up with. There’s no indication which of the outputs is for mono, but I quickly realised it doesn’t matter which one you plug into your amp, so long as the correct Left or Right buttons are lit up on the front of the unit.

I began by cycling through the presets which can be done by either using the preset footswitches or the the encoder at the top left of the pedal. While the encoder can get you through the presets pretty quickly, handily you can also long press on the preset footswitches to move up and down the 100 preset slots at a rapid pace.

The encoder is rotary for preset selection, but you can also push it in different directions to access deeper options on the pedal. Pushing the encoder up gives you the general menu setting, but it doesn’t do anything moving in the opposite direction from the home screen. The left and right motions give you access to different views of your preset selection with a simplified and more complex version, as well as allowing you to view the positions of the sliders from the loaded preset and the same information in numerical form.

Once you start messing with the sliders on the POG 3, anytime you make a move the corresponding LED will begin flashing, letting you know that you’re in the process of making a change. Moving the sliders around to make changes to your sound is simple enough, and I didn’t have any issues experimenting with creating my own tones off the bat. To save your preset you just hold down the encoder and you’re greeted with the options to cancel, save, or save as new.

It’s very intuitive to get started playing, but there is also a lot of depth available in this pedal that will be difficult to get your head around without diving into the manual. It’s packed with loads of information including a lot of helpful hints for honing in the sound and utilising the pedal to the maximum. Definitely something I recommend perusing once you’ve had a little mess with it to really get the most out of the POG 3.

Disappointingly there’s still no app for Mac users, which meant I was unable to test the companion software. From the manual, it looks as though there are a lot of options to curate presets, and potentially even import 3rd party ones, but from the looks of the website there are still issues with the Windows build, and no news on when one will arrive for Mac OS.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

I began my tone testing with the presets, armed with a Fender Player II Jaguar and my trusty HX Stomp multi-effects pedal. I was a little disappointed to find there were only 10 factory presets though. At first, I thought I’d done something wrong and needed to factory reset it, but that’s just how it ships.

The factory sounds are good, ranging from a classic organ impersonation to iconic octave lead sounds and sub bass tones perfect for heavy riffing. They’re great sounding presets to get you started but realistically they only cover a small amount of what the pedal’s capable of, leaving you to experiment with those sliders to get the most out of it. For some this will be perfectly fine, but there may be those hoping for more in the way of presets to get started.

Once I’d had some fun laying down groovy blues riffs and creepy eastern leads using the presets, I began crafting my own sounds. To start with I had no sound at all despite putting all of the seemingly relevant sliders, so referring back to the manual I found you have to have the filter slider engaged in order for the pedal to make a sound.

That hurdle overcome I began dialing in a blend of the -2 and -1 octaves to create a seriously heavy tone perfect for riffing on the low E string. Messing with the attack slider delays the time it takes for the effected tone to come in, with higher settings giving a swell effect while lower settings let the transient of your dry guitar through just slightly before that lovely glut of low-end hits.

Next up I started messing with the +5th slider, which is instant Tom Morello territory. It’s great fun for playing chromatic licks and when you start combining it with the attack slider you can dial in some creepy-sounding tones that pair nicely with more esoteric scale runs.

The +1 and +2 octave voices sound similarly fantastic, with the more reigned-in sound of a single octave perfect for those Jack White-inspired lead licks. The +2 setting got very shrill very quickly with the bright single coil pickups of the Fender Jaguar, but if you like that high-pitched, digital warble of a DigiTech Whammy you’ll feel right at home with it.

The effects sliders on the right-hand side can have a dramatic impact on the tone, from squelchy funk bass to the slow swell of organ sounds, and various combinations of the sliders and knobs deliver a frankly insane amount of tones. Needless to say, there’s way too much that’s possible I could dive into within the constraints of this review, but take my word for it, there are thousands of possibilities.

Manipulating these is what takes you beyond a classic octave effect and starts getting you into synthesizer territory. If you already use synths you'll have a headstart here, but as a guitarist, I had to experiment a lot to get usable sounds out of it. They're fantastic quality though, and the tracking, even with chords, is unbelievably accurate.

The Input Gain slider surprised me with how much it affected my guitar tone, with no added gain on the minimum and a heavily distorted sound at the maximum setting. It sounds phenomenal too, and you could use it as an effect in its own right although on its own at higher settings it starts to sound a little digital. It works well in smaller amounts to just add a bit of extra saturation to the octave voices though, instantly propelling my tone to the front of the mix when I was playing with my band.

Although I criticised the sliders earlier for their lack of durability, when actually using the pedal there’s something inherently satisfying about moving them into just the perfect position. In hindsight, it’s actually easier to manipulate versus turning a knob, and the markers that line the trench the slider sits in means you can quickly get a 50% mix of sounds without much faff.

Final verdict

I’ve purposefully not referenced the cost of the Electro-Harmonix POG 3 throughout this review as I wanted to judge the pedal purely for its sounds. Unfortunately with a price tag well above the $/£500 mark, I think many guitarists will be torn on whether or not it’s actually worth such a huge price, especially as you can pick up a used POG 2 for a lot less, which does many of the same things the POG 3 does.

You can do a lot with this pedal, which will go some way to justifying its price tag for some, and that superb selection of sounds takes it far beyond being just another octave pedal. For all intents and purposes, this is a full-on synth pedal, which definitely helps justify some of that huge price point. It’s also surprisingly easy to use considering its complexity, which is another huge plus point for me.

MusicRadar verdict: The Electro-Harmonix POG 3 is a frankly ludicrous pedal that stakes its claim as the ultimate octave funhouse and is capable of so much more. With an endless array of sounds to craft and huge flexibility in signal routing, despite a few small flaws, it’s a creative powerhouse - if you’ve got the cash to drop on it.

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• A beginner's guide to guitar synth pedals

A year is a long time in guitar effects. It was around this time last year when Electro-Harmonix unveiled the Pico POG, the most compact version of its much-loved polyoctave generator pedal yet. It couldn’t get any smaller, so where the design go next? Well, we have the answer – it’s the POG3, possibly the most ambitious pedal the NYC company has ever made.

You could call the POG3 a POG on steroids, or at least a very high-protein diet. But once you read through the spec sheet, it’s clear that this is not just an expansion of the concept; it’s like the original POG was bitten by a radioactive Pico POG and this is the result.

At the heart of the POG3’s functions are the sounds themselves, and this time around we have six different voices to play with: DRY, -2 OCT, -1 OCT, +5TH, +1 OCT, +2OCT. Each of these voices has its own slider control and individual L/R pan dial so you can control how you want to present these sounds across the stereo spread. 

Once again, EHX promises lightning-fast tracking these effects – which is why the POG has become the choice of pros such as Joe Satriani and Jack White when it comes time to send their electric guitar muscling in on the bass guitar’s low-end real estate, or, indeed, for sending it the other way, making it sound like horn or keys.

You can apply Attack, Filter and Detune controls to these sounds. Again, all three modification effects have slider controls. Attack allows you to increase the attack time of the octave voicing, creating a volume swell effect.

Filter applies a resonant filter with a Q dial to adjust the resonance – and make it more pronounced – and an Envelope knob to adjust the depth of the filter’s sweep in either direction, up or down, while noon turns the filter off. The filter’s slider control sets the centre/cutoff frequency of the filter.

Detune is interesting. This adjusts the amount of chorus/doubling applied to the octave up effects. A Spread dial, meanwhile, adds a short delay line, with 150ms applied to the right channel, 50ms to the left, making for a wider stereo spread. This should interact nicely with those pan knobs you have for each of the effect voicings.

There is a slider controlling input gain control, just like the original, a dial for master volume out. Once you have dialled in your sounds, POG3 allows you to save them, with 100 preset slots available.

We also have a bright OLED display, two dedicated footswitches and a Navcoder knob for adjusting, saving and browsing presets on the device, but you can also hook it up to USB or MIDI for deep edits and preset management. You can control every parameter via MIDI, or indeed via an expression pedal.

The third-generation flagship POG offers Freeze, Glissando, Volume, Filter, X-Fade, and Warp performance effects, with the Focus buttons toggling the algorithm for the octave effects between the original POG sound and the Pitch Fork.

A third footswitch turns the effect on and off. There are a trio of 1/4” instrument outputs, each activated by a push-button, so you can get really creative with how your signal is split and what sounds you want to hear. 

No guitar? No problem. You can hook the POG3 up to a MIDI keyboard and use it as an organ/synthesizer. At $645, the POG3 is not cheap but it does not want for features or sounds. This is a serious piece of kit for your pedalboard. For more details, see Electro-Harmonix.

What is chorus and what is flange? The confusion over whether Andy Summers used a chorus pedal or a flanger effect on Message In A Bottle and Walking On The Moon has raged politely and quietly for years. 

Well, he used an Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress flanger on the songs. There: settled. Except Summers himself calls the effect a chorus, and in a new interview with Johnny Beane seemed surprised to find out his new Walking On The Moon signature pedal with Electro-Harmonix based on the Electric Mistress was called a flanger at all.

"What do they call it, a flanger?" asks Summers as Beade holds up the new signature pedal during the video interview. "Who calls it a flanger? I would have called it a chorus," adds The Police icon. 

"I met him in New York," Summers says of collaborating with Electro Harmonix's Mike Matthews on his first ever signature pedal at the age of 80 (no we can't believe he's 80 either). "But I think it came out good because I worked on it. They were just going to make a straight silver-topped black pedal – it could have been anybody's. But I got them to call it the Walking On The Moon pedal and put my name [on it] blah blah blah," continues Summers. 

"I always liked Mike Matthews because he's always pushed the edge with electronics and I've used his stuff over the years," praised Summers of the company's charismatic founder. "And he's a great guy – a really nice man. He came and we had a nice breakfast in a posh hotel in New York and we discussed the pedal. "So I hope he's done well with it."

So anyway, back to the opening question: what is the difference between a flanger and chorus effect anyway? Both modulate the signal but it's all in the delay times.

A flanger splits the signal in two; one part is delayed at around 15ms (but this can be controlled with the rate knob) and then layered back on the other.

A chorus splits the signal too but it slightly detunes and delays one of the two parts. And here the delay times are usually slightly longer at 20-50ms. 

And if Andy wants to call his flanger a chorus, who are we to argue with a Police man? 

• The recording of The Police's Walking On The Moon: "That guitar chord Andy came up with was just mind-blowing”

Electro-Harmonix String9 String Ensemble: What is it?

The String9 String Ensemble is a guitar synth pedal that, as part of Electro-Harmonix’s 9 Series, assumes a form that should by now be familiar. As the name suggests, it packs nine different modes onto one pedal, each selected via rotary dial, and presents a reasonably compact and affordable way of turning your electric guitar sound into something else entirely – principally, strings and orchestration – without the need for any modding.

All this makes is a dramatic change of pace for those of us with more vanilla pedalboard tastes, but others might find that it will scratch that itch to pick up that vintage keytar you’ve been keeping a look out for on Reverb.com. 

The sounds comprise a Symphonic mode, which has an octave-down effect to the guitar as it extends the whole range of what you are playing into a quasi-symphonic orchestra – one for the Beethoven heads. You get no prizes for guessing what the June-O setting emulates, knowing that it’s available at the turn of a dial is its own reward. 

Elsewhere, you can play around with sounds based on a small-string section sampled by PCM electronic keyboard, an Orchestron playback sample with warble, ARP Solina and Crumar Performer-style modes, and a trio of freeze modes – Orchestra, Synth and Vox, the latter taking the Mellotron choir and strings sounds from Electro-Harmonix’s Mel9 Tape Relay Machine.

There are two control knobs for adjusting parameters on each of the nine core sounds, and Dry and Effect volume dials so you can set the mix of your guitar’s effected and dry signals. This is fed through the Effect output, while the Dry output sends your guitar’s signal through at unity gain. It’s very practical.

Electro-Harmonix String9 String Ensemble: Performance and verdict

Those routing options and the control afforded over your wet/dry mix is a very practical consideration and one that makes the String9 a less intimidating proposition when you’re figuring out what you want it to do and where it can sit in the mix. Where the String9 will max out your grey matter’s RAM is in deciding how you want it to sound, and what music you will invariably want to create with those sounds.

You could, of course, go 100 per cent strings. To hell with your guitar; as with its siblings in the 9 Series, the tracking is impressive and allows for maximalist settings. Alternatively, much joy can be found in the mix of wet and dry.

The sound options might boggle the mind at first but there’s a little overlap, with the sustaining sweep of strings as the recurring theme. Those control dials can dramatically alter the sound in each setting. Control 1 is often deployed as a tone control, which as utilitarian as that sounds really does come in handy for brightening or darkening to taste. Sometimes those strings need some of that sheen taken off ‘em. 

The Juno setting could see us getting carried away a little in two directions, both evoking the ‘80s. One of those could see us draining the hairspray to go full new wave, or else channelling Charles Bernstein’s work on A Nightmare On Elm Street to bulk out the portfolio with a handful of horror movie score scratch tracks. It’s a lot of fun, especially with the Control 2 dial acting as an octave switch.

With all this synthesized processing capability at your feet, it is only right that you should be able to create self-sustaining synth pads, and that’s where the freeze function comes in. 

You can set it up in Auto Freeze mode relatively easily, and if it is triggered too easily rolling back the volume control on your guitar should help. Clicking on the bypass switch turns disengages it, but another quick way of muting the freeze mode is muting with your fretting hand and tapping the strings with your picking hand. Manual Freeze takes a little more getting used to but presents options such as cranking up the dry volume to play over the pads. 

Other things to consider include the String9’s preference for being first in the signal chain – thereby uncomplicating the wet/dry mix – and using a pickup with decent output. 

EHX suggests running a boost in front of it if your pickups are low-output single-coils, but we never had that problem. EXH also says fingerstyle techniques yield more realistic results but that is a matter of taste, however, some of these sounds are so realistic you might want to wear a tux to nail that first violinist vibe.

MusicRadar verdict: The String9 sounds so good you might consider whether you need the keyboard player after all. It offers cool string sounds, presents them practically, and while it won't be an everyday pedal for many players, it is an inspiring tool for seeking out new sounds. 

Electro-Harmonix String9 String Ensemble: The web says

“As with the other ‘9 Series’ pedals in the range, there are no problems with tracking here – there’s no need to have to have dry guitar sound mixed in to disguise any shortcomings, so you can have pure string sounds if you want. However, blending strings with guitar offers a lovely range of textures combining a sharp attack with lingering sustained body.”
Guitarist 

Electro-Harmonix String9 String Ensemble: Hands-on demos

EHX

Electro-Harmonix String9 String Ensemble: Specifications

• ORIGIN: USA
• FEATURES: Buffered Bypass,9x patches (Symphonic, June-O, PCM, Floppy, AARP, Crewman, Orch Freeze, Synth Freeze, Vox Freeze)
• CONTROLS: Dry volume, Effect volume, Ctrl 1, Ctrl 2, Patch selector knob, internal bypass mute dipswitch (for the Effect jack), Bypass footswitch
• CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard Dry output, standard Effect output
• POWER: Included 9V DC adaptor 100mA current draw
• DIMENSIONS: 97 (w) x 119 (d) x 52mm (h)
• CONTACT: Electro-Harmonix

Electro-Harmonix Ripped Speaker: What is it?

Once upon a time, pedalboards were not really a thing, fuzz and overdrive pedals were bleeding-edge tech beyond the reach of the world’s guitar players, and some adventurists had to seek out workarounds.

Players looking for a dirt in their electric guitar tone could undertake drastic, irreversible procedures on their guitar amp setup, taking an HB pencil or razor blade to their speaker cone to create a similar effect. 

Link Wray was one player who subscribed to that ethos. You would have been unwise to lend him your amp. Ray Davies of the Kinks was another speaker ripper, his weapon of choice a razor blade. 

But this is 2022, and we have come full circle, whereupon some of guitar effects pedals’ leading lights are recreating this damaged speaker cone vibe with drive and fuzz pedals that ensure your rig retains its value and you don’t have to explain in your Reverb listing how, honestly, this ‘50s Premier tube amp combo you are selling is in great shape just so long as you swap out the speaker.

The Electro-Harmonix Ripped Speaker is here to help, and it is helpfully helpful in that it arrives in a nano-sized enclosure and is surprisingly versatile for a pedal inspired by the ultimate set-and-forget tone procedure.

It is all about lo-fi distortion and rough-housing fuzz tones but offers you plenty of control over those sounds, with dials for Volume, Tone, Fuzz and, wait for it, Rip. Volume is self-explanatory, as is Tone. 

Though as we will soon discover, the active Tone control does a lot of heavy lifting here. Fuzz dials in the amount of gain in the signal while Rip acts as a bias control, dramatically controlling the clipping waveform. And at its extremes, it does not hold back.

Electro-Harmonix Ripped Speaker: Performance and verdict

The Ripped Speaker is respectful of pedalboard real estate and is powered by a 9V battery or a standard 9V pedalboard power supply. All that is well and good but what we are here for is a sense of misbehaviour, a sense of anarchy in our sound. The Ripped Speaker provides all that and more.

Set the Fuzz low and it its sounds are old-school distortion, a little scratchy with your single-coils, a little bit of skronk for garage rock.

The Rip and Tone controls are key here. The Tone behaves as an active tilt control, and is flat at noon. Turn it counterclockwise and the high-end drops out of the signal and the lows are given some oomph. Very handy for fattening single-coils, or for adding some wool and a side of beef on humbuckers. Clockwise and the reverse occurs, adding some teeth and claws and sparkle to the fuzz sound and leavening the bottom end.

Rip behaves similarly, and is neutral at noon. Turn it counterclockwise for more open and smooth fuzz sounds, and turn it clockwise for more gated splutter. Fuzz is one of the most subjective effects on the ‘board so it pays to spend a little time experimenting with the Rip control until you find the response that you like, then adjust Tone and Fuzz to taste.

Be warned, the Ripped Speaker is not for the faint-hearted. You can choke the life out of the fuzz, dial in a riotously OTT sound, and find tones that hollow out your guitar and make it sound… Just alien, in the best way, adjusting the harmonic response. You’ll find sweet spots for sure, and so too some crazy sounds that are just too much. But those are easily corrected with a turn of the Rip dial, or pulling back on the gain. You could not to that to the speaker you’d just slashed, or punctured.

MusicRadar verdict: Leave that speaker alone. The Ripped Speaker offers a safe and fun way to dial in time-capsule distortion and fuzz tones, and it’s got a wild side that’s capable of ripping more than just the speaker. It is a lot of fun.

Electro-Harmonix Ripped Speaker: The web says

"Across the arc of the Rip knob you’ll find there’s plenty you can exploit with playing dynamics: tightly wound chords, spitty note clusters and sitar stylings. To the left, the gating is smoother and less hooligan, and while it can do extreme spluttery, there are subtle musical variations just left of centre." 
Guitarist

"We can get close to that You Really Got Me scuzziness by turning the gain right down. But the real fun, as is so often the case, lies in the opposite direction, where maxing out the fuzz brings a hint of the velvety sustain associated with EHX’s Big Muff family of muck-generators."
Guitar

Electro-Harmonix Ripped Speaker: Hands-on demos

EHX

The Guitar Geek

PMTVUK

Guitar Bonedo

Thomann

Electro-Harmonix Ripped Speaker: Specifications

• ORIGIN: USA
• TYPE: Fuzz pedal
• FEATURES: True bypass
• CONTROLS: Volume, Rip, Tone, Fuzz, Bypass footswitch
• CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output
• POWER: 9V battery (included) or 9V DC adaptor (not supplied) 10mA
• DIMENSIONS: 70 (w) x 111 (d) x 50mm (h)
• CONTACT: Electro-Harmonix

Electro-Harmonix is aiming to deliver the ultimate Big Muff for recording and pedalboard with its new Hardware Plugin. 

Players can connect the Muff Pi Hardware Plugin fuzz pedal to their computer via USB and run recorded tracks and virtual instruments through its circuit 'to add signature warmth and distortion with the same ease as using a digital plugin'. 

In addition the Hardware Plugin can also be used as a 2-in/2-out audio interface and of course a standalone Big Muff Pi pedal, with the added advantage of 10 programmable presets. 

It's certainly a weighty investment at $328.90 but it's aiming to be the most advanced Big Muff to date. Taking the circuit design is straight from the classic 1973 Violet Ram’s Head Big Muff and updating it with true stereo, a Tone Wicker switch for the option of three high frequency filters for added bite when desired. 

In addition, a Tone Bypass button completely removes the tone control for a heady character some players prefer and then there's those handy presets. It can also be powered via its USB 2.0 Type B port for studio use.

For more information visit Electro-Harmonix

If ever a guitarist was worthy of putting his name to the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi it would be J Mascis.

The Dinosaur Jr. frontman is already synonymous with these silicon dirtboxes and is given a huge amount of credit for helping repopularise the classic EHX fuzz during the pre-grunge era and beyond.

"That's my sound. The Muff is always on," explains Mascis. "All distorted sounds begin with the Muff.

“That's what I grew up playing so it's kind of amazing to have my own signature one."

Commonly referred to as a fuzz pedal, Electro-Harmonix describes the Big Muff Pi as a “fuzz/distortion/sustainer”.

Transistorized fuzz pedals first hit the market in 1962 with the Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone and rapidly gained popularity in the mid-‘60s.

In ‘67, Hendrix released his fuzz-laden debut, Are You Experienced, and Mosrite rebranded their Fuzzrite pedal made for Guild as the Foxey Lady (after the song Foxy Lady). 

By the following year, Mike Matthews had taken over Foxey Lady production for Guild and formed Electro-Harmonix.

In ’69, EHX brought out the two-transistor Muff Fuzz, followed by the four-transistor Big Muff Pi. 

Appearing in a metallic finish with black graphics, these early iterations are referred to as ‘triangle’ Big Muffs on account of their triangular knob layout.

“Jimi Hendrix used a Big Muff in 1969,” Matthews told Guitarist. “Manny’s [of New York] was the first store I sold Big Muffs to and he bought one of the first ones from there.”

The ‘rams head’ Big Muffs appeared in ’73 and feature red, blue, purple or black graphics (including the so-called ram's head in the bottom-right corner). The new J Mascis signature Big Muff Pi is based on this version.

The more common red/black graphics appeared in ’76 (as per the current production standard units).

Head on over to the EHX website for more information.

Electro-Harmonix’s 9 Series of instrument modelling stompboxes has been expanded again, this time with a unit designed to recreate the sounds of orchestral and synthesizer strings.

The new STRING9 String Ensemble bolsters EHX’s celebrated 9 Series launched in 2014 with the B9 Organ Machine. The C9 Organ Machine appeared shortly afterwards.

The KEY9 Electric Piano Machine then appeared in 2015 followed by the MEL9 Tape Replay Machine in 2016, the SYNTH9 Synthesizer Machine in 2017, and the BASS9 Bass Machine in 2019.

As a keys player himself, Electro-Harmonix founder Mike Matthews is all too familiar with the struggles involved with transporting large synthesizers and organs. Suffice to say, the ability to recreate those sounds on your pedalboard makes life a hell of a lot easier.

Transforming your guitar signal without the need for any special pickup or modifications, the STRING9 String Ensemble’s nine modes include Symphonic, June-O, PCM, Floppy, AARP, Crewman, Orch Freeze, Synth Freeze and Vox Freeze.

While Dry and Effect signal volume knobs control the balance separately, each of the unit’s nine modes/presets/patches (selectable via a rotary switch) are bestowed with two controllable parameters (adjustable via the Ctrl 1 and Ctrl 2 knobs).

Here’s a brief rundown of each of the Electro-Harmonix STRING9 String Ensemble’s modes:

• Symphonic:  Designed to replicate the sound of orchestral strings. Ctrl 1 acts as a tone control. Ctrl 2 adjusts sustain and release (fade out).
• June-O: Recreates early ‘80s Roland Juno synth string sounds. Ctrl 1 provides tone control. Ctrl 2 allows selection of five octaves.
• PCM: Pulse Code Modulation à la vintage digital synths such as the late ‘80s Roland D-50 and Korg M1. Ctrl 1 and Ctrl 2 adjust tone and vibrato, respectively.
• Floppy: Mimics pre-recorded samples of ‘70s Vako Orchestron units. Ctrl 1 adjusts tone. Ctrl 2 adjusts sustain and release.
• AARP: Approximates ‘70s ARP/Solina String Ensemble polyphonic synth tones. Ctrl 1 toggles Small Stone phaser on/off and adjusts rate. Ctrl 2 adjusts sustain and release.
• Crewman: Recreates string sounds of late ‘70s Crumar Performer. Ctrl 1 adjusts filter sweep. Ctrl 2 adjusts sustain and release.

The last three modes feature Electro-Harmonix’s HOG/Superego Freeze algorithm which can be set to either automatic or manual using Ctrl 2. 

They are as follows:

• Orch Freeze: Orchestral-style string sound
• Synth Freeze: Synth string patch
• Vox Freeze: Mellotron-style blend of strings and choir tape samples

Visit EHX for more information.

Electro-Harmonix has confirmed that the export ban on Russian-made vacuum tubes has been lifted, with the New York firm now accepting new wholesale orders.

In a statement released by EHX founder Mike Matthews, the company were prioritising existing orders, and hope to resume shipping in April. But Matthews warned of price rises, tariffs on exports, and inevitable tube shortages further down the line. 

“Considering various economic pressures, we must raise our wholesale prices,” wrote Matthews. “This price increase will apply to all back and new orders. Also, the EU, Japan, UK and other countries are expected to implement heightened tariffs against Russian goods, akin to the 35 per cent tariff rate imposed by Canada.”

The guitar amp industry has been facing a supply crisis for some time now, and the export ban placed on Russian-made tubes following the invasion of Ukraine brought the future of the tube amp into question. 

Over the weekend, Matthews revealed that seven brands of tube made at his New Sensor factory in Saratov, Russia, were affected by the export ban, temporarily taking Tung-Sol, Electro-Harmonix, EH Gold, Genalex Gold Lion, Mullard, Svetlana and Sovtek tubes off the market.

While the export ban looks to be resolved for now, Matthews cautions against cancelling any wholesale orders because the underlying supply problems affecting the industry have not gone away, and could be further complicated by inflation and an unpredictable legal landscape.

“You can cancel any backorder, but we do not recommend this,” he wrote. “There is a tremendous shortage of tubes.”

See EHX for a full list of Electro-Harmonix vacuum tubes.

Electro-Harmonix has added its Pulsar Variable Shape Stereo Tremolo to its Nano range of compact guitar effects pedals. Boasting an expanded set of controls, the Nano Pulsar offers guitar players a choice of waveshapes and mono or stereo operation.

In a regular mono guitar rig, the Pulsar Nano operates as a regular tremolo pedal, but a full-spectrum panning effect can be achieved in stereo. 

The Nano Pulsar controls are simple. There are dials for Volume, Rate, Depth and Shape, with a toggle switch for alternating between Triangle and Square modes. 

The Volume knob sets the pedal’s output level. Rate adjusts the speed of the tremolo or panning effect and is helpfully indicated by an LED that flashes in time with the waveform. Depth controls how much of the effect you have in your signal, allowing for subtle throb to more full-on chop and beyond. 

Finally, the Shape control does a lot of the heavy lifting, cycling through a series of tremolo waveforms, including falling and rising sawtooth, narrow and wide pulse width, triangle and square waves. And you can dial in some off-the-wall asymmetric styles of tremolo.

The Nano Pulsar Variable Shape Stereo Tremolo is housed in a die-cast aluminium enclosure, and is powered by a 9V DC power supply. Priced $99, it is available now. See Electro-Harmonix for more details.

Electro-Harmonix has refreshed one of the most iconic pedals in its lineup, the Deluxe Memory Man, rehousing the ground-breaking analogue delay pedal with modulation in a Nano-sized enclosure to save space on crowded pedalboards.

Furthermore, EHX has added Rate and Depth controls to give you more control over its chorus and vibrato modes, and extended its maximum delay time to 550ms.

If it might take a little getting used to this new look, Deluxe Memory Man Nano’s tones should be instantly familiar; the effect can be heard on scores of classic records. It has been used by the likes of Robert Smith, Chris Cornell and the Edge, who famously used it on U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday, and you will most certainly find it one on Ed O’Brien's pedalboard.

While the original units were a little cumbersome, that can't be said of the Nano version. Electro-Harmonix do not waste an inch of this compact little enclosure. It’s a single-footswitch design with a complement of six control knobs adjusting Blend, Feedback, Delay, Level, and the aforementioned Rate and Depth.

Level controls the input gain. Blend adjusts the wet/dry mix. When set at 100 per cent wet, the pedal produces a vibrato effect; at 50/50 it is chorus. 

Feedback controls the number of repeats, and at extreme positions will put the unit into self-oscillation mode for ambient, ever-sustaining squeals – a sound guaranteed to cause the family dog to howl in protest/approval (it’s hard to say which). You can also dial in some pseudo-reverb effects by setting feedback high and keeping delay times short.

The Delay control adjusts the delay time, with your range now extending from 30ms for super-short slapback to 550ms, which is quite a considerable upgrade on previous versions which had a maximum delay time of 300ms. 

Rate and Depth replace the original Chorus/Vibrato control., while under the hood you’ll find a Tails Switch that can activate a tails mode – ie allowing the delay to continue and its repeats fade of its own accord after switching the effect off – or true bypass operation.

Introduced in 1980, the Deluxe Memory Man became an instant hit with guitar players. Its bucket-brigade-driven repeats were warm and musical, while the modulation extended its appeal, making it a hugely versatile option for vanilla or off-the-wall tones. You could operate the Nano Deluxe Memory Man as a simple chorus pedal, or take the modulation out of its signal. 

The original units had a switch that selected between chorus and vibrato and while the Blend control sorts out the type of effect you will hear, to mimic the original sounds of the first-wave DMMs, set the Rate control at 9 o’clock for chorus, and at 2 o’clock for vibrato.

Finally, there is red LED to let you know when the delayed signal starts to clip, and another to let you know when the effect is on or off.

The Nano Deluxe Memory Man is out now priced $203. See Electro-Harmonix for more details.

Today in easy solutions to everyday problems, we have a new isolated power supply from Electro-Harmonix, with the MOP-D10 offering an affordable way to keep your ever-expanding pedalboard's lights on.

The MOP-D10 has ten isolated 9VDC center-negative outputs – plenty for that special overdrive, delay or modulated octave reverb in your life. There are a variety of maximum current ratings, with one 100mA to 400mA output, four at 100mA, and two apiece for 250mA, 300mA, and 400mA respectively. 

In the box you'll find 10 straight-to-right-angle DC power cables, a detachable power cord and everything you need to mount it safely on your pedalboard. 

The MOP-D10 is designed around a custom-wound toroidal transformer, which to paraphrase EHX's marketing sizzle will deliver power as clean as the driven snow. Other nice features include the on/off switch on the rear panel, plus an AC Voltage Selector to make it work wherever you've got your rig.

It looks substantial and it is out now, priced $151. See Electro-Harmonix for more info.

What is it?

If we were to poll fuzz heads as to the one Big Muff that they'd want reissued and on their pedalboard, the chances are it's the Ram's Head Big Muff.

Made in 1973, this version two of the Big Muff is so-called for the ovine head on the enclosure, was made famous by tone-conscious patrons such as David Gilmour, and is now reissued as part of Electro-Harmonix's nano range of Big Muffs. That range includes the V1 Triangle Muff, Op-Amp Big Muff and Green Russian, but the Ram's Head offers something a little bit different.

Here, EHX has fine-tuned the circuit, referencing vintage models and when we compared and contrast with an original '73 unit the result is uncanny. 

Performance and verdict

It is immediately apparent that this 2019 Ram's Head has "the stuff." The sustain knob might start out peddling a sweet mid-gain overdrive crunch, harmonically juicy, but it soon shows its true colours with an effervescent, sustain-rich fuzz tone that might lack some of the low-end fortitude of other Big Muffs yet delivers excellent articulation to chords. Amid the hard-clipping chaos there is a musicality that is hard to beat.

We could say that of any number of Big Muffs, and what it comes down to is how you like it. The subtle variances in break-up and harmonic overtones make all the difference. With this you're talking Comfortably Numb tones or loose-leaf grunge and alt-rock, but you could nail a lot of early '70s fuzz tones when you hold back a little on that sustain control.

It's good to have the Ram's Head back, and at a price that suggests the act of sourcing an original for obscene prices on Reverb is truly the first sign of madness. 

MusicRadar verdict: A classic Big Muff is back in stock and sounding just as good as it did back in the '70s.

Hands-on demos

Electro-Harmonix

Premier Guitar

The web says

"To the extent the Ram’s head does lower-gain distortion tones, it excels. Placing the Ram’s Head’s gain control at noon yields some of the smoothest high/mid-gain fuzz you’ll hear from the Muff family.
Premier Guitar

Specifications

• ORIGIN: USA
• TYPE: Fuzz pedal
• FEATURES: True bypass
• CONTROLS: Volume, Sustain, Tone, Bypass footswitch
• CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output
• POWER: 9V battery or 9V DC adaptor (not supplied) 30mA
• DIMENSIONS: 68 (w) x 111 (d) x 50mm (h)
• Electro-Harmonix