New Electro Harmonix Pedals and Rumours
Electro Harmonix have released three new pedals in the XO and Nano line. This line has seen old designs revisited with some of their negatives addressed; the addition of a 2.1mm DC input rendering the EHX adapter obsolete, and drastically reducing the footprint of the pedal's chassis. Gone are the huge Pulsars and Big Muffs. These pedals bring the same quality designs (with true-bypass) for a fraction of the size.
NANO SOUL PREACHER
"Three selectable attacks coupled with silky, long sustains blend in perfect harmony..."
The newcomer on the Nano line is the reissued Soul Preacher - a compressor originally released in the 70s. The original pedal had a Gain and Threshold knob with a Treble switch useful for boosts. The new Nano Soul Preacher has one knob to control the Volume and one for Sustain. The treble switch has been replaced with a three-way switch to control the Attack of the compression - either fast, medium or slow.
XO GERMANIUM OD"Classic 60's Germanium transistor overdrive and more"
A fuzz pedal fueled by the popular Germanium transistors from the early 'Rock and Roll' era. A nod to the vintage fuzz stompboxes of the 60s with an EHX unique twist. Three knobs on the pedal control the Gain, Bias (fine tonal adjustment) and Volts. The Volts knob will aim to replicate the sound of a dying battery or to find that sweet spot found when a battery's voltage dips. All this control to achieve the famous "torn speaker" sound. Think of the Stones', Satisfaction.
XO #1 ECHO"...analog flavoured decay"
A lot of the pedal modifiers, like Keeley and Analogman, offer mods to the current digital delay pedals to provide an analog-like tone to the repeats. Even multi-preset delays like the Boss DD-20 and Line 6 DL4 offer this desired sound as a setting. Here's a new digital delay that boasts two seconds of decay. A knob to control wet/dry signal Blend, Delay Time and Feedback (number of repeats). If this pedal can give a warm self-oscillation, it will intrigue many of the 'bucket brigade' fans and delay lovers alike.
XO OCTAVE MULTIPLEXER"create effects ranging from a clear double note in harmony sound to subtle heavily undertoned notes"
The Octave Multiplexer works by generating deep, phat bass tones one octave below the notes you play into it. However this reissue two separate smoothing filters (high and bass), and a sub-octave on/off switch, enable you to tailor your sub-octave signal to the exact bass sound you desire.
There are a number of rumours around as to what classic EHX pedal is next in line to be offered the Nano/XO reissue. Here are a few that are circulating the forums. Please take these with a grain of salt as a few of these have been around for awhile, but exciting if just one of these comes to fruition...
XO Micro POG
A trim down of the popular POG (Polyphonic Octave Generator). Three Knobs said to control Dry Volume, Octave Up Volume and Sub-Octave Volume.
Holy Stain
A multi-effect pedal that will do reverb, tremolo, pitch shift and distortion in any combination.
Knockout
Pick-up emulator. Converts Gibson to Strat, or Strat to Telecaster.
Stereo Memory Man
A digital emulation to provide reverse echo, 30 sec looping with ability to overdub different delay settings or reverse(loop can play back the last 7 seconds reverse), tap tempo delay and tape echo filter (3 seconds, high and low pass filter).
Holy Grail Plus
The popular reverb pedal to be downsized. Three-way switch to select reverb settings. Now with Room reverb.
Stereo Electric Mistress
A reissue of the popular flange/chorus pedal.
If any of these rumours become fact, I will create a similar update. Hopefully with some sound clips too.
C.
