Stonewall Approved Gadgets #1: Electro Harmonix Cathedral

Long ago, when Stonewall's Guide was still gestating within the folds of my brain, I decided that I wanted to provide a resource to fellow musicians/nerds, without having to ball gag everyone with the latest hype and trends that plagues the forums.  Like music, I like to create things I would want to hear/read.  There's nothing more worthless to me, than reading a review about a pedal, which the writer has owned for three days, and ultimately claims "X pedal is the best thing they've ever heard."  If this is the case, you were probably born yesterday.  Tastes change, you get interested in other music, yada yada.  So I'm creating an installment, if you will, where I'll highlight some of my favorite pieces of gear that I'm particularly attached to.  Most of it, I've had for a decent amount of time and still use fairly regularly.  Since I don't get any free gear via sponsorship, I can give an honest pro/con.  I hate the term "review", because that gives off the vibe that I plugged it in for a couple days and formed some silly opinion, rather than really putting something through the gauntlet.  So welcome to the first feature of Stonewall's Approved Gadgets.

I'd like to kick this off regarding a very popular item these days, the reverb pedal.  It seems to be an ever increasing trend of buying/selling/trading reverb units, to get that latest "Shimmer" or "Grandma's Bathroom" reverb sound.  Prices on these puppies are getting higher and higher too (Blue Sky $300, Space $500).  To me though, most reverbs are just boring as F%&$.  (*turns knobs* big space *turns knobs* little space)  I'm still trying to wrap my head around why everyone wants a dedicated modulated reverb (I do have a deep hatred for most Flanger sounds).  I have two requirements that I look for in modern reverbs, decent plate sound and on subtle reverbs, the effect doesn't wash out when a boost is engaged.  I don't know why, but most companies never get the latter requirement right.  Any other added features outside of those requirements I just consider a bonus.  I used to just resort to using amp reverb, which I sometimes forget to shut on and off for various songs during shows, and is a pain.  I also don't want to deal with extra cables from FX loops and footswitches.  Solution?

Electro Harmonix Cathedral

 I will start by saying no, this is not the greatest reverb ever.  But damn, it is cool.  I'm not going to explain what all the knobs do, you're a big kid, but let me give you the basics.  It does 7 different types of reverb that you can save one preset for each type, and an echo.  The "Infinite", is a momentary switch that will hold sound that it captures when you hit the switch until you let it go.  Sort of like the Freeze/Slow Gear pedal, but very different.

Pros

An old pedalboard shot from a short tour I did.

Obviously, I like this pedal because it covers my two requirements.  The Plate setting is very big sounding, which I love for that droney shit.  And on most of the reverb types, it doesn't wash out.  The Plate will wash, but that's just what happens with real Plate reverb anyways.  As long as I have one other type of small reverb sound to emulate amp reverb (knob set to maybe 1-2), I'm happy.  Most people use too much reverb, I like it subtle.  The Room setting does a good job of that.

Added bonuses:  Cheaper than most reverbs.  I think it's maybe $220 street price?  Snag one used for $150 and you're set.  That's the price of the ever-so-popular RV5, and unlike the RV5, it doesn't sound like crap.  Presets?  Awesome.  It's nice to be able to just save a couple different 'verbs and recall them quickly.  I'm lazy.  Having an extra delay is nice too.  It'll sort of (I say sort of, and I'll address that in the Cons) of knock out the need to have a simple digital delay on your board for long repeats.  The Reverse doesn't really work like how a Reverse Delay would, but I actually use this a lot for a long, 90% wet, droning sound.  Very This Will Destroy You sounding.

The "Infinite" feature is definitely my favorite bonus.  I own a Freeze and Superego, and I must say, I really like the way this "freezes" the sound more.  A)  It swells into the freeze, rather than lock it in right away.  Sounds more natural to my ears.  B)  You can use the momentary switch to control how fast you want to release, by repeatedly releasing the switch for a couple moments at a time.  Like easing on the break in a car.  Again, more natural sounding than just killing the sound.  

The pedal is also built like a tank.  Which is actually pretty strange, because I've had a number of build issues with EHX stuff before.  This pedal has seen tons of shows, and I've even dropped it a couple times (yeah, like you've never done that).  Still works great.  As lame as this sounds, the graphic is pretty cool too.  

Cons

Since the goal isn't for me to gloss over the nasty stuff, here are a number of things that I wish could be improved about this pedal.  It's got the old Holy Grail algorithm as one of the preset types.  Which means all the old problems the Holy Grail had such as, being useless after 12 o' clock, volume drop, etc.  Again, some of the reverb types will wash out, which is really frustrating.  It basically means I can't use that reverb unless I don't anticipate doing any sort of gain staging.  But like I said, a majority of reverbs have this problem so I just choose to deal with it on this specific unit.  There's also a slight volume dip on a couple reverbs, especially the Accu Spring.  

As I eluded to before, the Echo is nice, but isn't very good.  For some reason it doesn't "cut through" very well.  I had heard about delays having this issue, but I've never really had this problem with any of the ones I owned, so it was very noticeable discovery for me.  Even if you turn the Blend (aka Depth) way up, it seems to duck out regardless.  I don't really use the delay much due to this (not that I really needed another delay).  

My final real complaint is that the white selector knob can be a bit sensitive.  Meaning if you're playing a show and the pedal is bumped too hard, it'll bypass your preset to whatever the knobs are at.  I end up just taping it down.  Not really a big issue, you just have to watch out for it.  

Improvements?

The last two "issues" I'll talk about, are more recommendations than cons.  I wish this pedal (actually any reverb) had a spillover circuit.  I'd like to turn it off and have the sound decay out naturally vs. stopping abruptly.  I actually have a looper on my board, just so I can sample short segments of this, and slowly fade it out, cause of this problem (some delays do this too).  I know that would require the pedal to "lose" its True-Bypass, but you're a child if you really believe all of your pedals need to be True Bypass.

Also, it would be super amazing if someone (Walrus audio?) offered a mod, so you could have an expression pedal control the "Infinite" function.  That way you could control the swell in and out better.  Not necessary but it'd be convenient.  

Anyways.  There are so many cool usable things about this pedal that I just love.  I've had since it came out, and I've used it on everything I've done ever since.  I think I tried to sell it once, but I put it at a stupid high price so no one would buy it (a big indicator that you really don't want to let something go).  I don't really care whether it has a Shimmer effect or not.  I tried a pedal with them shimmers, and I could never really use that sound in a musical context (it's harder than you think without sounding cheesy).  I've never been so blown away by more expensive pedals that I've felt the need to make an "upgrade".  If you're selling a $500 reverb, it should sound/have features that are $300 better than my $200 reverb.  I'm intrigued by the Eventide space, but it's way too much to shell out for.  So I just stick with what works.

- Stonewall