best pedals – Guitar Effects World https://guitareffectsworld.com Comprehensive Guitar Effects Pedals Help Guides, Reviews, and Tutorials. Mon, 06 Mar 2023 08:10:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://guitareffectsworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/intheblues_ico.ico best pedals – Guitar Effects World https://guitareffectsworld.com 32 32 The Top 10 BEST Electro-Harmonix Pedals https://guitareffectsworld.com/10-best-electro-harmonix-pedals/ Thu, 16 May 2019 12:18:10 +0000 https://guitareffectsworld.com/?p=99 Read more]]> The Top 10 BEST Electro-Harmonix Pedals

This is a list of the top 10 best Electro-Harmonix pedals in my experience.  This top 10 list features pedals based on tone, uniqueness or influence.

Electro-Harmonix (or EHX) are very popular effects pedals for guitarists because of their price point or uniqueness.  This Top 10 best Electro-Harmonix pedal list is in no particular order.

1. The Electro-Harmonix POG2 Polyphonic Octave Generator

Buy it on Sweetwater | Thomann

The Pog2 was one of the most sought-after effects pedals of the mid-2000s.  With the release of John Mayers Coninnium album a new sound was presented to the masses on a track called “In Repair”.

This track featured a “church-like” organ tone that put the EHX POG2 into the mainstream.  These pedals are not cheap but what they do, they do really well.

If you are looking for the ultimate octave pedal that can handle single notes as well as chords, check out the POG2.

EHX POG2 Features

  • Attack control, two sub-octaves, 2-pole resonant low-pass filter
  • Enhanced detune, enhanced algorithm
  • Saves your favorite settings with a click
  • Rugged, pedalboard-friendly die-cast chassis

2. The Electro-Harmonix Soul Food

Buy it on Sweetwater | Thomann

The EHX Soul Food has to be one of the most hyped overdrive pedals of all time and guess what? It’s a clone of the beyond-famous KLON Centaur.

The Soul Food has two things going for it that the KLON Centaur does not.

  1. It’s readily available
  2. The EHX Soul Food is also very affordable

So is the Electro-Harmonix Soul Food just a Klon copy? Yes.  The only downside to this pedal is the build quality.  It’s been proven that EHX skimps out on their potentiometers which means if you drop this thing, it will probably break.

The good news is you’d need to be 30 of these pedals to equal what you would spend on the real KLON so it is what it is.  If you check out Amazon you can also find the JHS Modded EHX Soul Food pedals too.

EHX Soul Food Features

  • Transparent overdrive
  • Boosted power rails for extended headroom and definition
  • Super responsive
  • Compact, rugged design
  • Selectable true bypass or buffered bypass modes

3. Electro-Harmonix East River Drive Classic Overdrive Pedal

Buy it on Sweetwater | Thomann

The East River Drive from EHX is a great little overdrive pedal.  This might not be covering any new ground in terms of tone but it sounds great and looks really cool too.  I have to give credit to EHX for reinventing the wheel with such cool designs.

If you are wondering if this is a TS-808 copy, you’d be correct.  The World probably doesn’t need another Tubescreamer but EHX has made a great-sounding overdrive with the same drawbacks as their Soul Food.  Combining this with the Soul Food effects pedal is a match made in tonal heaven!

EHX East River Drive Features

  • JRC4558 IC based pedal
  • Symmetrical overdrive adds edge and gain without compromising tone
  • Volume and Drive take it from sweet to searing while Tone lets you dial in just the right amount of bite to cut through the mix
  • True bypass

4. Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi Guitar Effects Pedal

Buy it on Sweetwater | Thomann

Out of all of the Electro-Harmonix pedals I have tried over the years the Big Muff stands out as unique and timeless.

If you love Fuzz then the big muff is for you.  There are not many pedals on the planet that are more influential than the Big Muff.  That’s right! EHX didn’t copy anyone else with this one.  It goes back to the old days and sounds great until today.

The Big Muff has remained an affordable and timeless Fuzz pedal worth a shot if you want to capture high gain fuzz tones with little effort.  Well done to EHX for making such a fantastic fuzz!  In terms of how it could place on the 10 best Electro-Harmonix pedals of all time? It could be right at #1.

The EHX Big Muff Features

  • Singing sustain with attitude
  • Crushing distortion
  • Adjustable tone
  • True bypass
  • 9 Volt batteries required (included, best with Polaroid 9 Volt batteries), Optional 9DC-100 power supply available

5. Electro-Harmonix Superego Synth Engine

Buy it on Sweetwater | Thomann

This Illuminati-inspired pedal really is one of a kind. This is a “freeze” pedal which allows you to free a section of your playing indefinitely.  The Gliss control allows for instant or slow-blend chord changes as you move through your passes.

The Superego also features an effects loop for playback of the frozen sounds.  There are not many pedals like this on the market.  The Superego makes jamming on your own fun as well as creatively layering up sections of songs in the live mix.

Much like the POG2, the Superego also has polyphonic tones built right in.

The EHX Superego Features

  • Auto mode lets you capture and freeze notes and chords as you play, and sustain them indefinitely
  • Controllable glissando
  • Effects Loop allows external effects to be inserted into the wet signal
  • Latch Mode with layering feature allows stacking of sounds
  • 9.6VDC-200BI power supply included

6. Electro Harmonix Oceans 11 Reverb Pedal

Buy it on Sweetwater | Thomann
 
EHX made one of the most versatile small footprint reverb pedals of all time when they came up with this. Regardless of what sort of Reverb tones you like, you’ll find it in the Oceans 11 Reverb pedal.  With 11 different Reverb modes suitable for blues, swamp, rock, pop, country, surf, and anything else you want this is sure to impress.
 
Internally, this pedal also has some hidden functionality not found from the controls on the front.  This allows you to customize the tones even more.  Having a great sounding spring reverb in a pedal is handy for amplifiers that don’t have their own reverb.  For best results use this with the amplifiers FX Loop.
 
The EHX Oceans 11 features
  • 1. HALL the rich reverberant sound of a grand concert hall
  • 2. SPRING pays homage to the classic Fender 6G15 tube spring reverb
  • 3. PLATE the lush, warm reverb that got its name because a large metal plate was originally used to create it
  • 4. REVRS emulates the quirky reverse reverb effect where a notes reverb fades-in backward. (Jimmy Page claims to have invented it.)
  • 5. ECHO sends a recirculating echo thru the Plate reverb. The crisp clear delays get tastefully smudged by the airy plate reverb
Whatever the reason is, guitarists love to turn their “guitar” into an “organ”.  The EHX B9 makes this conversion really simple.  This is one of the best pedals from the Electro-Harmonix range for capturing some really authentic sounding organ tones found in the B9 organ.
 
The B9 features 9 different organ effects and in many ways, this (and the C9) are very similar to the POG2.  If you’re not sure how the B9 Organ sounds think “Doors”.  Not only that it does many other types of organ sounds found in some very popular recordings from the ’60s and ’70s.
 
The EHX B9 Features
  • Transform the tone of a guitar or keyboard into that of a convincing full body, electric organ
  • 9 presets that were finely tuned to emulate some of the most popular and classic electric organ tones
  • Control over percussive attack level, modulation speed, organ and dry volume
  • Rugged and easy to use
  • EHX 9.6DC-200 PSU included

8. Electro-Harmonix Epitome Multi-Effects Pedal

Buy it on Sweetwater
 

Here’s a pedal you don’t see every day! This is the EHX Epitom3. This 3 in 1 effects pedal places some of the famous EHX pedals all in one including the POG, Stereo Chorus, and Reverb.  Each effect on this pedal can be used independently or together allowing for a wide range of tones to be had.

  • The polyphonic Micro POG provides glitch-free octaves above and below your actual pitch
  • Stereo Electric Mistress adds EHX’s signature stereo flanging and chorus
  • Holy Grail Plus lets you choose from Spring, Hall and Room reverbs, plus Flerb
  • Shimmer Mode re-routes the effects’ chain and opens the door to a world of amazing sonic discovery
  • Individual footswitches plus dedicated controls for all three effects; 9Volt Power Supply included

9. Electro-Harmonix LPB-1 Linear Power Booster Preamp Pedal

 
Buy it on Sweetwater | Thomann

This is maybe in theory, the most boring pedal on this list.  The one “Boost” control aside, you can never underestimate a good boost pedal.  The EHX HPB-1 allows you to saturate the front end of another pedal or amplifier with ease.  The EHX HPB-1 also works as a very capable clean boost pedal on a clean channel as well.

The other way you can run the Electro-Harmonix Linear Power Booster is after your favorite overdrive.  Running it this way allows you to kick the volume up without adding any extra pre-amp distortion.  The options are plenty, even if the pedal looks simple.

If you run your amplifier on the dirty channel, this is also a great option for a lead boost pedal.

10. Electro-Harmonix Lester G Deluxe Rotary Speaker

 
Buy it on Sweetwater | Thomann

This is one wild pedal! When I first heard about this I wondered how great it would actually be.  Once I had a chance to hear it, I realized EHX had nailed the tones and done some very impressive things with this pedal.

The Lester G is great because the built-in compressor adds sustain to the rotary speaker effects allowing you to play clean and to play less.

The EHX Lester G Deluxe Rotary Speaker pedal features

  • Ultimate rotary speaker emulator, with built-in fully featured compressor & tube-emulated overdrive
  • Stereo/mono in/out
  • Adjustable Fast and Slow modes, acceleration control
  • High quality buffered bypass
  • Includes EHX9.6DC-200 power supply

I hope you enjoyed my Top 10 Electro-Harmonix Pedals! This list is a compilation of my favorite picks of the bunch. Do you agree with this top 10 list? Don’t forget if you want to find out more about the pedals click the images of the Electro-Harmonix pedals above to take you through to Amazon.

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