Members HeartfeltDawn Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 {censored} the postal strike. My Holy Stain arrived this morning courtesy of the ever-chatty postman who's used to carrying bits of guitar stuff to me. One feverishly unwrapped pedal later and an hour's playing time later... Good points -The room and hall reverbs sound {censored}ing great. I changed all the strings on all of my electrics the other day so I'm still in 'These new strings sound {censored}' Land. I can't stand new strings. Months go past without me changing strings but I had some repairs to do so did them all. Irrespective of this, the reverbs are fabulous. -The pitch shifter element is a lot of fun and I am positive that someone will score a big record hit with a big riff using the Holy Stain. Set Mix to 12 o'clock, Amount to Full and I can see it in some hippy pop pastiche that'll be used for a mobile phone advert. -Excellent build quality and the graphics are good. Not so good points -I hate the fuzz and drive sound. In fact, remove this bit of the pedal for me, leave the modulations and it'd be a lot better. -The trem's a bit weak really. -it's not got enough to tinker with. It's an attempt to slot four different pedals into one. I can see why but it doesn't give me enough control of the sound. I like being able to control every parameter. Overall.. it's a decent pedal but it's not for me. If I could dump the drive and fuzz or have more control over those elements, it'd be a whole lot better. The reverbs I'm happy to use on their own but that's what a reverb pedal is for. It's quirky and I suspect it'll make some people very, very happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members melx Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 cheers for that.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tomf Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 i just typed out a review as well, then went straight back to the effects forum without hitting post reply. oh well i pretty much agree. the verbs are great.the dirt is a bit clumsy, not too tweakable.trems a bit wishy washy.pitch shifter sounds good, but its not my cup of tea. will give it a while, see if i can shape the dirt a bit by running something else into it. might just use it for verb alongside the rv3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HeartfeltDawn Posted October 16, 2007 Author Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 The instruction manual says it's set up for a high maximum gain. i wonder if there's a way of modding it to reduce the gain. fair enough, i could stick it on clean and use another dirt pedal going into it but... hmmm. Unsure. The drive feels too much and the fuzz needs to be tweaked down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members melx Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 The instruction manual says it's set up for a high maximum gain. i wonder if there's a way of modding it to reduce the gain. fair enough, i could stick it on clean and use another dirt pedal going into it but... hmmm. Unsure. The drive feels too much and the fuzz needs to be tweaked down. so the drive/fuzz is pretty full on? that might be a good thing for me!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HeartfeltDawn Posted October 16, 2007 Author Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 It feels full on to me. I'm not a full-on player generally but I do like a bit of germanium fuzz and this fuzz feels a bit harsh to me, even on the warm setting. I feel this pedal will be one of those you either love or hate. It's the EHX Marmite Stain! It'll rock your world or you'll be left thinking 'And... so?' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SUPER VELCROBOY Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 that's a good review. Honest and to the point Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HeartfeltDawn Posted October 16, 2007 Author Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 Time for more details... Normally I play an Epi Dot with a Bareknuckle Stormy Monday PAF at the bridge position going into a Cornell Romany Plus amp. backup guitar now is a Yamaha SA2200 The amp is always set very treble-happy. Even the valves I refer to be trbly. I did buy some Mullard 12AX7s and a Mullard 12AT7 recently to revalve it with but I prfer the mish-mash in there before. The Mullards took away some top-end. usually I'd run the Cornell with a Vox AC15 as a warmer dirty amp so I get the best of both words but the Vox is ill, probably terminally I fear. I set the Cornell for a trebly sound so I can always back off from that using the guitar tone controls and the pedal tone controls. I have a feeling that the Holy Stain would take well to an amp set more in the midrange. I can't get that with the Cornell, it's not that type of amp and it's not the sound I usually play with. I am a treble man, so much so I can get a more than passable Tom Verlaine/Television sound from the Dot using a Tim overdrive set with treble right up and the bass cut. The Holy Stain just doesn't connect that well with my amp and guitars. I prefer the fuzz of something like the MOAF I'm selling or the fuzz-distortion of the Diamond Fireburst. I reckon there's a few guys on the amp forum who would team this with some brootal gainz ampz and probably cum in their strides when they heard the Holy Stain gong through their wall to wall derduhdduh riffing. I'm definitely spunk-free though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HeartfeltDawn Posted October 16, 2007 Author Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 And more... I took out all the valves from the Cornell and put the Mullards back in. The fuzz and drive on the Holy Stain do sound better now. The Cornell's got a ceramic Jensen speaker. Hmm. I shall reiterate that the pitch-shifter is a {censored}load of fun and it will become a quirk-pop classic sound. The trem is {censored}ty. Reverbs good. Annoyances: -No footswitch to turn the modulation/ereverbs off. You can turn them off by turning the mix right down to 100% dry but that's a rather stupid way of doing things in a gig situation. Most people will use an overdrive pedal at the front of the chain and you can do that with this pedal but to not have an easy method of flicking the modulation options on and off severely hampers the pedal in my opinion. You can of course set the dirt option to Clean but that means you needing another pedal up front, running your signal through the dirt circuitry and then into the modulation area. This is why I think the Holy Stain is a pedal that wants to be a jack of all trades yet pisses me off in most of them. One more footswitch is all it needs. One switch for the dirt on/off. The second switch for the modulation on/off. the third switch switches between modulation types. Unscrew the bottom though and you see why they can't have a third footswitch. Dig the bits of boards attatched to the footswitches... I'm not keeping the pedal. The pitch-shifter is tons of fun and that sound will end up on an Apples in Stereo track in the future. The reverbs are good if you want that sound. But on the whole the pedal doesn't make a claim to end up on my board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members melx Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 i'm confused...so what do the 2 footswitches do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tomf Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 theres a bypass switch (whole thing on/off) then the mode switch (which flicks through room/hall/pitch shift/trem) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members melx Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 theres a bypass switch (whole thing on/off) then the mode switch (which flicks through room/hall/pitch shift/trem) oh I see.... but you cant turn the pitch shift off and leave the fuzz on, you'd have to change it to verb for example.... I imagined it would be the other way, knob to select the PS, trem..etc, then the footswitch to turn it on and off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tomf Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 yeah, and the settings are the same for each mod effect, so if you had it shifting up a third, when you switched to trem the speed would be at the highest setting/the verb would be the biggest etc etc. also there is quite a noticeable delay on the pitch shift setting, which could be irksome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HeartfeltDawn Posted October 16, 2007 Author Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 Anyone want to buy mine before we totally slag it off? :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members melx Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 yeah, and the settings are the same for each mod effect, so if you had it shifting up a third, when you switched to trem the speed would be at the highest setting/the verb would be the biggest etc etc.also there is quite a noticeable delay on the pitch shift setting, which could be irksome. mmm....it doesn't seem practical at all in a live situation. so it's impossible to have a song where you use the fuzz all the way through and use the pitch shift in the chorus for example? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tomf Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 it is actually an amazing pedal! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tomf Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 yeah, that is impossible. the expression pedal should control the mix knob, that would be way more useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members melx Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 Anyone want to buy mine before we totally slag it off? :D I'd have it for a bit of fun, but as you know I don't have a bean at the mo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members melx Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 yeah, that is impossible.the expression pedal should control the mix knob, that would be way more useful. damn, sounds pretty useless then really......why didn't they have the other footswitch to turn the effects on and off, I wouldn't mind bending down to change between PS and trem between songs. why would you want to change effects with the footswitch when they share the same controls, that's so dumb...makes no sense to me at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HeartfeltDawn Posted October 16, 2007 Author Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 ^^^ Yep. To have just the fuzz on, you've got to turn the Mix down fully counterclockwise so it's 100% dry (just the Dirt bit working). If you then wanted the pitch shift in the chorus, you'd have to bend down and change the Mix control by hand by turning it counterclockwise. The footswitch control controls a vairable with the effect. In the case of the trem, it controls the trem speed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members melx Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 ^^^ Yep. To have just the fuzz on, you've got to turn the Mix down fully counterclockwise so it's 100% dry (just the Dirt bit working). If you then wanted the pitch shift in the chorus, you'd have to bend down and change the Mix control by hand by turning it counterclockwise. The footswitch control controls a vairable with the effect. In the case of the trem, it controls the trem speed. hahahaha, what were they thinking? I don't get it at all....I feel very let down EHX!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fender&EHX4ever Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 hahahaha, what were they thinking? I don't get it at all....I feel very let down EHX!! It would be cool if there were an expression mod so you can switch between the amount knob or the mix knob. I wonder how tough that would be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpectralJulian Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 yeah, that is impossible.the expression pedal should control the mix knob, that would be way more useful. The mix knob is furthest left though, making it the most foot tweakable one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1DZReverendDavidLee Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 ^^^ The footswitch control controls a vairable with the effect. In the case of the trem, it controls the trem speed. Yes it does. Really, you should spend some more time with an expression pedal on this thing before you rule out using it live. I tapped into the jack last night for about 15 minutes and I think the expression pedal doubles the fun with this pedal - as it should Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpectralJulian Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 Expression pedals really do open up pedals a lot. If the expression controlled mix then you wouldn't be able to do pitch bends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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