[Kapo_Polenton]

I'm really tempted to purchase a holy grail down the line but i keep hearing that they are noisy over time. Can anyone comment on this? What else do you like that is reasonably priced? ( so no T-Rex 300$ pedal)

 

[adamthemute]

I just was shopping for a reverb pedal. I checked out the Boss RV-5, EHX Holy Grail, Line 6 Verbzilla, and a Digitech Digiverb.

I guess it all depends what kind of sound you're going for. For just a basic reverb I'd go with the Holy Grail. It wasn't noisy for me, it's a pretty popular pedal so I couldn't imagine it to be a big problem.

Overall for price, sound, and features I'd check out the Line 6 Verbzilla. Build like a tank, lots of good sounds.

The Boss RV-5 was alright, for it's price tag the Verbzilla was much better I think. The Modulation setting was nice, the rest were usable but kind of cold I think.

Digiverb was an ok budget pedal, it's the cheapest one out of them.

I settled with a boutique pedal, Dr. Scientist Radical Red Reverberator and I'm really really happy with it. It's a bit more expensive than the others, but definitely worth the $30ish more than buying the other $200 pedals. Very warm and natural sounding reverb, not noisy at all. It also has a good amount of boost (25 dB I think). The only thing is that it doesn't have a spring reverb setting, but that wasn't a problem for me. Most good amps have superior ones.

You can order them right from the maker www.drscientist.ca. You can choose out of many sweet designs, last time I talked to him there was a 4 - 6 wait week though.

 

[Ripper]

I just picked up my second Holy Grail (for a second pedalboard). They are great pedals. I've never had one go noisy on me nor have any of my buddies that use them. The have a sweet sound and keep on ticking. I'd give a listen to one before you cross it off your list. Electro-harmonix makes some killer pedals.

 

[david henman]

...i'm pretty pleased with my line six verbzilla.

lots of lush digital reverbs. no downsides, as far as i can hear.

-dh

 

[flashPUNK]

I've got a pretty noisy Holy Grail... the noise dissapates though when you use the supplied AC adapter...
its still there..
its like a high pitched ringing.

 

[noobcake]

That's odd, I used to have a Holy Grail and never had any noise issues with it, it was powered by a Visual Sound 1 Spot though. flashpunk maybe it's just the outlet you're using that's not well grounded or something? Anyways the holy grail's a fine pedal that satisfied all my reverb needs until I picked up an amp with kick ass spring reverb.

 

[Ripper]

I've got a pretty noisy Holy Grail... the noise dissapates though when you use the supplied AC adapter...
its still there..
its like a high pitched ringing.

Sounds like a bad/cold solder joint. I've seen the same thing on small clone and small stone pedals.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

I'm handy with a soldering iron, if anyone has an idea on how to troubleshoot any cold solder joints or what to look for, let me know. I have listened to the holy grail pedal and I really like the tone. Digiverb sells for 150$ through Steve's which makes no sense to me or else I might grab that one as I like the sound of it as well (usually retails for 99$ online)..

 

[zdogma]

The T rex is the best I've heard, but there's one called the sole mate that is very close and a lot cheaper. I'll see if I can find a link for you.

 

[zdogma]

Here is the link:

http://www.vanamps.com/solemate.htm

Its got a real spring tank, but its a bit big. I've only heard it once but it sounded a lot like the big Fender reverb boxes.

 

[Budda]

i plan on just gettign the EHX - my JSX doesnt have reverb, and it just died on my YCV80

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

Do the traynors use digital reverb on board? I would have thought they might have a built in reverb tank using springs?

 

[Ripper]

I'm handy with a soldering iron, if anyone has an idea on how to troubleshoot any cold solder joints or what to look for, let me know.

Alot of that comes with time and experience, but there are some things to look for that can help to point out a bad joint. If the solder connection looks very dull and crystalized, that is usually a good sign. Big blobs of solder can also cause problems. Another thing to do is to get a magnifiying glass and check out connections for a "halo" effect, where the wire or component lead looks like there is a small ring between it and the solder. On those pedals the most common places for joints to go bad are on the pots and where the wire/pots join the board, the power connector and 9v battery wires, input and output jacks and of course the pedal switch. Hope that helps somewhat.

Oh, and don't use plumbers solder on electronics components. They don't like it very well.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

I'm really surprised they'd have such bad quality control... soldering isn't exactly rocket science. I had no problems with my BYOC delay or my Plexi really.. how can these be soo consistently bad? Right now its between the holy grail and the behringer reverb beleive it or not... gets good reviews for the price.:rockon2:

 

[Ripper]

I personally have never had to fix a bad one out of the box (not ehx), only after a little wear and tear. I have however had to fix quite a few Marshall solid state amps right out of thebox (for a local music store here), usually poor solder joints etc. Remember too that there is a big difference between a person working on one box (a homebuild/boutique) and someone trying to get things out on a production line.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

Good point.. have you seen any EH Holy Grails coming back with complaints or know if the store has had a lot of them returned? I just really don't want to be out 100+$ on a pedal that sounds great for a week and then becomes a noisy can of hiss.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

Well the store clerks were trying to push the BOSS reverb but honestly, not sure its for me. I might just have to sit down with all of them when i have more than a 40 min lunch break to walk down to the music store. Wondering when they are gonna come up with DIY kits for reverb..

 

[iaresee]

Good point.. have you seen any EH Holy Grails coming back with complaints or know if the store has had a lot of them returned? I just really don't want to be out 100+$ on a pedal that sounds great for a week and then becomes a noisy can of hiss.

I think the new price for Holy Grails is a little ridiculous. They can be had used for well below $100. Often with the adapter. They tend to suffer from sloppy solder work at the connectors. But that's easy to fix.

 

[adamthemute]

I just posted a thread about some new EHX pedals and it looks like there's 2 new reverb ones:

Holy Grail Plus-$149.95-08/07
Holy Stain-Multi Effect-$98.99-09/07

Apparently the Holy Stain-Multi Effect is a reverb, tremolo, pitch shifter and distortion box!

 

[tri99er]

Using a Holy Grail at the moment, does the trick for me.