Holy Grail Review

Divine reverb for mere mortals Down from the heavens comes the Holy Grail, a compact digital reverb guitar pedal. Priced so low thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's reverb tank any longer. The Holy Grail will make you a believer with its emulation of classic Spring reverb so faithful that even Dick Dale couldn't tell the difference.

Ease of Use:	9.7
Sound:	9.3
Reliability:	10
Impression:	9.3
Overall rating:	8.8
Reviewer rating:	9.6
Users rating:	8.1
Votes:	19

overall: 10

Reviewed by: jcs5234, on september 29, 2006

Price paid: $ 100

Purchased from: Guitar Center

Ease of Use: This thing is really simple. One knob to change the amount of reverb, and a switch to choose between the three types of reverb: spring, hall, and flerb. there really isn't anything else for me to write in this section but I have to take up space so that the website will take my review. // 10

Sound: Use this with a Gibson SG Standard and a Fender American Standard Strat pumped into a couple of Fender Pro Juniors. Does not really create any extraneous noise. The effects that it produces are awesome. you can go from a very subtle echo to a sound that is as if you were standing in the middle of Notre Dame's football stadium to a very haunting sound on the flerb setting. Flerb is basically the hall reverb with an added Kiss of flange, hall reverb sounds like you're playing in a hall with a lot of echo and spring sounds like classic reverb from an old Fender or Vox amp. Although the controls are really simple, the tone produced by this thing can sound like any artist you wish to emulate. // 10

Reliability & Durability: All Electro-Harmonix pedals are very durable, and I never go with a back up on any pedal in my rig. it's a really cool pedal and I need to fill space again. I don't really know what else to write here this is stupid that there's a word limit. // 10

Impression: This thing is sweet. the reason that I bought it was that I loved the sound of the Fender Pro Junior (highly recommended) but it didn't have reverb. I play blues, blues rock, classic rock, reggae, and dabble a little bit in some folk. This covers all of them, but is not meant for every style of music. I have been playing for about 7 years and this is my first reverb pedal, and I don't think I'll ever need another one. By the way I highly recommend Electro-Harmonix pedals. I own/have owned quite a few of them such as the worm and the double muff. All of them are great. If it were stolen or lost I would probably replace it unless I got another amp that already had reverb. I love this pedal, and my favorite feature is the simplicity of the controls. My favorite setting is spring with the reverb knob at about 12 o'clock along with a phaser turned on as well. Looked at a couple other reverbs like a Boss and a DigiTech but this one was the best. It's perfect because of it simplicity, but EHX makes the holier grail and the holiest grail that have more knobs and switches to play with if that's your thing. // 10

overall: 9.5

Reviewed by: thsrayas, on june 12, 2008

Price paid: $ 90

Purchased from: eBay

Ease of Use: This pedal is incredibly easy to use, it only has an on-off Switch, an amount knob and a Switch to choose between the three types of reverb (spring, hall and flerb). There's an LED to tell you if the pedal is on or off. The Holy Grail is very straightforward, just plug in the cables, turn it on and it works. Since it only has three different types of reverb and an amount knob, it's easy to get the sound you want out of it. The only reason I'm not giving this a ten is because you have to use the included power adapter, which could be a problem for some people. // 9

Sound: The sound is great, it's different types of reverb give it some diversity. Granted "flerb", which is reverb mixed with flange, probably isn't very useful unless you use a lot of effects in your music, but spring and hall both give an excellent sound. Spring gives you an excellent Surf sound, perfect if you don't want to spend hundreds on a reverb tank. Hall has a perfect sound that really makes it sound like you're playing in a large room. It also sounds good with other effects, I haven't found any it doesn't sound good with. // 10

Reliability & Durability: This pedal is durable, I don't gig or anything, but I haven't had a problem with it in the four months that I've had it. I've dropped it a couple times and there isn't even a scratch on it. All of the jacks are solid and I don't see any reliability problems. // 10

Impression: Overall I love this pedal. I play mostly classic rock, modern alternative and metal, and this pedal sounds fantastic for all of them. It handles other effects and distortion very well, but also has a great clean sound. I only have four other pedals but I wish I had purchased this one first, it's the one that's really made my sound better. It's incredibly easy to use and get a good sound out of since you don't have to mess with a lot of knobs or switches just to get a basic reverb out of it. I would recommend this pedal to anyone looking for a reverb pedal as long as they don't have a problem having a dedicated power supply. // 9

overall: 9.8

Reviewed by: PFerrari, on july 05, 2007

Purchased from: Sam Ash

Ease of Use: This pedal is extremely simple to use. One knob controls the reverb. Next to it is a Switch that selects the type of reverb: spring, hall, or flerb (reverb w/ flanger). The only downside to it is that it requires a different type of adapter than most pedals do. But it's a small price to pay considering the sound you get from it. // 9

Sound: The sound of this pedal is great. I've used all three types of reverb depending on what I'm looking for and they are all awesome. The spring gives you that old reverb feel of classic tube amps. The hall reverb makes it sound like you're playing in a giant room. And the flerb effect is a cool toy to play around with. I really enjoy using this pedal when I play some clean parts to give it a nice warm feel. I also use it when I want some crazy feedback sounds. You can really hear the difference between this pedal and some newer digital reverbs. // 10

Reliability & Durability: This pedal is very durable. It's essential that I have it with me anytime I play Live. I'm always extremely careful when I transport it cause it isn't as dense as some other pedals. But I've been using this pedal for close to two years and haven't had any problems at all with it. // 10

Impression: I play rock music for the most part though I also play some jazz and blues too. My musical tastes have changed drastically since I've owned this pedal but I've always had a use for this pedal no matter what I was playing. This pedal is great and I recommend it to everyone. // 10

overall: 9.3

Reviewed by: mikmat13, on august 24, 2011

Price paid: $ 118

Purchased from: guitar center

Ease of Use: This pedal is remarkable it is very easy to use only having 2 controls a 3 way slector and a rotary reverb knob. Thoe simple it has a wide verity of easy to find sounds form a 60's Fender spring reverb to a shimmering harp like sound. This unit has 3 settings spring, hall, and flerb thoe spring and hall are very use full I do not use flerb very often and I think it is a feature that could be left out of the product. // 10

Sound: I am going to review each option of the effect seperatly first the spring setting. The spring setting reminds me of old 60's super reverb amps and the unmistakable surf based sound that Fender reverbs can produce however this setting can get noisy when cranked all the way up on the other hand, the hall setting is a very shimmering sound that when kept low can nicely complement a soulfull solo or make a distorted guitar scream but again if turned up to far you begin to loose any sence of individual notes however if coupled with a delay such as a DD3 you can produce a very nice harp sound.and finally the flerb setting. To me this is a bit unusefull due to the unusal combination of flanger and reverb but I find it nice in small doses. // 8

Reliability & Durability: This pedal is a f***ing rock! It has been dropped and kicked across the room by my careless bandmate and I simply turned it over and there wasent a scratch on it. I would use this with no fear in a gig. // 10

Impression: Overall the pedals very usefull for recreating a maulitude of effects and sounds thoe it has no battery power it is still an indensepable part of my pedal board if it was stolen I would draw and quarter the theif afterwitch he would be diped in boling oil. // 9

Reviewed by: unregistered, on january 13, 2009

Price paid: € 75

Purchased from: A dude

Ease of Use: The pedal features a simple control knob that adjusts the level of reverb. It has three modes - spring, hall and "flerb" (a combination of reverb and flanger). It's versy easy to get a great tone out of it. I just wanted a simple spring reverb, but I got three different types, so I'll rate it 10. // 10

Sound: My rig = Ibanez Jet King 2 -> Rocktron Rampage -> EHX Holy Grail -> Behringer UT100 pedal tuner -> Peavey ValveKing Royal 8. That's all I need. On the clean channel, without any other pedals, it's not noisy. It has a full, warm tone on all three modes. With the Rocktron distortion on, it becomes just a little noisy, but that really doesn't matter. On the normal Drive channel of the amp (with the gain on 10), it's not noisy at all and it gives a nice depth to the sound. I can get a nice "Steve Vai - For the love of God" tone out of it. On the spring setting, it has a nice Fender-ish reverb tone, but with more depth and quality. Sounds like a Hot Rod DeVille amp reverb, but with more warmth. The hall mode is really nice and powerful, and the "flerb" mode sounds pretty unique. I use "flerb" mostly with the Rocktron distortion. Overall, the sound of this pedal is warm, full, deep and strong. // 10

Reliability & Durability: It's a pedal, they don't break often and it really looks like it could last. I would always rely on it and I can't really imagine playing without it. // 10

Impression: I play Instrumental rock with Neo-Classical and Classical influences, but I also like playing Blues and Hard rock. I've been playing for a year and a half. I have never heard a better reverb. This pedal is really something you should buy. If it were stolen or lost, I would probably buy a new one if I had the money. I love it's beautiful sound and I hate nothing. A great pedal! // 10

overall: 9

Reviewed by: TW909, on january 13, 2009

Price paid: $ 100

Purchased from: SAMASH

Ease of Use: The Holy Grail Reverb comes equipped with a Switch and a knob. The Switch changes between the three types of reverb:Spring, Hall and Flerb. The knob controls the amount of effect that gets added to the dry signal. The on/off LED is very bright and the on/off button is stiff. The Holy Grail is made in U.S.A. and I purchased it roughly 18 months ago. // 10

Sound: I have the Holy Grail in line with an MT-2 distortion, CS-2 compreesion and the BBE Sonic Stomp. The reverb effect usually comes out best when it's last in line directly before amp. If you put it first the reverb gets passed through other pedals and will distort horribly. The Spring reverb setting is a softer sounding reverb with a little mor of a 'fake' sound. The effect gets really blurry when turned up and the played note becomes almost inaudible as you approach 3:00.

The hall is very full and replicates a hall very naturally. It too can quickly become muddy but can create great sound at lower settings. The flerb is a sort of wierd rotary or tremolo with reverb that has an alien like sound and might inspire some unique tones. // 8

Reliability & Durability: The case is very strong and the effect is nice and heavy. It comes with a 9v adapter and CANNOT be run off a battery. I havn't had any problems with it but i don't gig and it doesn't move around much.
ElectroHarmonix is a reputable company and Im sure they would handle any problems that arose quickly and efficiently. The inputs seem to grab onto the cables and are sometimes hard to pull out, but they are sturdy and havn't been damaged in the 18 months that i've hd it. // 10

Impression: I play mostly metal and by adding a little bit of this effect you can create a more natural sound even out of substandard equipment. I would recommend the Holy Grail for any style but Reverb doesn't cure a bad tone or sound and doesn't make you a better guitarist. I've been playing guitar for about 9 years and I have tried many reverbs. I would say this one stands up to any. What I like least about the Holy Grail is the limited controls. Some knobs for tone, decay, etc. would be an improvement but it is still a great pedal effect. Also this pedal blows my amps reverb out of the water. // 8

Comments

[delaqua]

but is not meant for every style of music

...any style of music can handle reverb...you cant dictate an artist's freedom of expression, dont be an idiot...reverb pedals, too, are just simulated sounds of something that could naturally occur with your guitar-its just made into a signal that can assure that that naturally occurring sound is constant and user variable...

[3l3phant]

very true

i create my own reverb... i play my acoustic in this abandoned gym... amaazing. you can't ever put restrictions on music, jcs

[jcs5234]

i just meant that i didnt think it sounded that good when i played things with heavy distortion. usually sounds better from the amp than this stompbox when you are playing metal or something like that.

[inignought]

you do get a nasty buzz when used w/heavy dist.

[GitterMan]

Love it on clean or slightly broken tone but any thing heavy You must dial the thing way back, it will just echo ,in a bad way. Ive tried it the loop that dosnt help either. Still its one of my pedals Ill never sell.

[guy_tebache]

inignought :
you do get a nasty buzz when used w/heavy dist.

try switching the order in your fx chain. that might make a difference.

This is my dream reverb pedal. I'm gonna buy one next time I splurge on guitar effects.

[Chrome Wave]

I bought a Holy Grail 2 years ago and am very satisfied. The effect sounds very good, there's no background noise, it is quick to set, and gives as much range of effect as I ever need. The bypass is very useful, too.

[ripjoestrummer]

I love it at the end of my chain on spring at 12 oclock. It gives my distortion a nice after taste, if that makes any sense. Its part of my "default" tone (equalizer, distortion, compression at times).

[sheriff_nein]

3l3phant wrote:

very true

i create my own reverb... i play my acoustic in this abandoned gym... amaazing. you can't ever put restrictions on music, jcs

i envy you, sir.

[T Max]

My Holy Grail is emitting a constant high pitch squeal at a very low volume. If I turn the amp up the squeal also gets louder. Any help on this? [e-mail]