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

Finally, a Stonewall Pedalboard Rundown

Hello all!

Rather than write another smug blog post today, I thought I'd post my most recent pedalboard photo, with a little explanation of my rig as of now.  Like many silly people, I used to tote around a much larger board than needed, complete with a multi FX spaceship for wiggly underwater sounds.  But I've learned, the more crap you bring with you the more things can go wrong.  I will leave those topics for future posts, I digress.  Feel free to chime in with any recommendations,tips, or lessons learned!

I made it a point about a year ago to buy a PT Jr. with the intention of never going larger than the space the Jr. would allow.  This way, I had to truly decide if I was actually using something or not, and if it was really worth bringing to a gig.  95% of the time my signal chain is solely Tuner>Octafuzz>RC Booster>DM3.  The Octafuzz may get swapped for my Tall Font Russian (Green Muff clone) if I'm feeling a little more "muffy" on a given day, but it is a rare occurrence.  I've been through a number of pedals throughout my musical career, so I used to have quite a habit of constantly swapping things out.  The reason why these four pedals have stuck is because they sound good no matter which axe I'm playing.  It may sound obvious or silly, but if you haven't figured it out, some pedals sound like total crap with guitar X, but sounds spectacular with guitar Y.  Being a minimalist, I don't want to have to tote 3 extra overdrive pedals around because each one only sounds good with one guitars.  I will now provide you with a quick synopsis of how I use them in my rig, in the order of the signal flow.  I play a Tele, Gibson 339, Jaguar, Baritone Tele, and a Guild S-100.  I run everything through an Orange Rockerverb 50, using both channels.  EQ fairly flat with a slight mid boost.  Clean is clean.  Dirty channel is a little past the point of breakup.  Sometimes (but rarely) I run in stereo with an AC30, set to a similar sound to the Dirty Orange channel.  Volume knob to clean up.

Tuner:  I have no brand preference on this.  As long as it works, and doesn't suck my signal dry it works for me.  I much prefer a tuner that has a "Strobe" feature, which is a more accurate way to tune.  The "Poly" function on this tuner is nice, but I don't use it often.  However, I've been in a situation where I know I'm out of tune, have four seconds to figure out which string is unruly, and fix it before a lead phrase comes up.  I will say that using the "Poly" function as your sole tuning method is not a good idea.  Even though I've had everything "in tune", it clearly wasn't the case.

Moog Murf:  I can't really even describe in words what this pedal does.  Long story short, each of those sliders is a different filter and you can select 12 different patterns for the filters.  By flipping the LFO switch, you can reverse the pattern that you have selected.  I use this as my "modulation" on my board.  I can get a cool choppy tremolo, phasery/vibey swirly sounds, and arpeggiator-esque sounds (minus pitch modulation).  To be honest, it doesn't really do any of those in a "traditional sense" and that's why I love it.  It has a "Drive" knob so you can add some analog distortion to the sounds to make them even weirder.  I have no quarrel with bending over and changing the settings on a pedal, so I don't need a modulation spaceship with presets.  There really aren't any good videos that do this pedal justice out right now.  I hope to maybe make one someday (but it'll never happen).  This is the best one, which actually wasn't released very long ago by Moog themselves.  Just wait for the Murf segment to hear it.  I do also have a Moog Ring Mod that I love dearly and sometimes that will replace the Murf on the board.  The Moog pedals have built in buffers so I have it at the beginning of my board, and the DM3's buffer at the end of the board.

Micro POG:  Here's another weird pedal.  I actually use it quite a bit, and it tracks quite well.  The POG stuff is discussed quite a bit so I won't get into much detail.  I primarily use it for a Bass Octave, Octave up-esque sound, and B3 organ when combined with the Murf.  I never run the octave settings past 1 or 2 o' clock because it can start sounding a bit cheesy.  I used to have both a HOG and a POG2, but I settled on the Micro POG for my needs.  The HOG was just way too weird.  The POG2 was nice, but it was way too large, and I was really only using it for stuff the Micro POG could cover.  It's a good way to catch someone's attention with a lick.  It's also not like a Whammy or even the HOG where you write a song around a lick you made with this pedal.  You can actually turn it on and it sounds cool just over some playing.  I like to play Leo Nocentelli (The Meters) riffs with this.

Ghost Echo:  I own an EHX Cathedral that I was using fairly regularly.  But since it's such a large pedal and it can suck some signal, I've been starting to experiment with this Eartquaker reverb.  I normally put a reverb at the end of my chain, but this unit doesn't have much headroom so I have to put it before my boosts.  I don't use much reverb, but I don't like walking over to the amp to turn it up or down.  It's pretty extreme, so I keep the settings low.  Like it's name implies it has some slapback qualities if you dial it in right.  You could probably use it as a really short delay if you wanted.  I have been enjoying it, so it'll stay (for now).

Octafuzz:  I actually rarely use the "Octa" setting on the toggle switch.  The "Fuzz" is just nasty.  Mike Fuller could seriously just make the "Fuzz" side of this pedal and I would buy it.  It sounds HUGE into the clean channel of my Orange.  You can also get this really fantastic gated sound into the dirty channel.  I love this fuzz because it sounds epic whether I'm using single coils or humbuckers.  It's the first fuzz I found that works well with both types of pickups without farting out with the other.  Can't say enough good things.

RC Booster:  I've gotten further and further away from overdrives and much more into clean boosts.  I love the sound of my amp, so why the hell would I want it to sound like something else?  The RC is the first real "transparent" boost I've fallen in love with.  I'm sorry Paul C., the Timmy sounds pretty good, but just isn't "transparent" compared to this.  My Klon now sits on the shelf collecting dust since I've gotten this.  It seems to fatten things up in all the right places without adding a Mid-hump that most do.  It does add some slight Treble frequencies, but that's what the Shelf EQ is for!  The Shelf is probably my favorite feature about this boost.  My Gibson can be a bit boomy, so I like to roll back the Bass and give it a touch of Treble.  With my Tele, I roll off some of the harsh Treble, and some of the boominess of the neck pickup by rolling the Bass back a hair.  I can't say enough great things about this.  I've even considered getting a second.  

DM3:  Like many of you, I love delays.  But this IS my favorite delay.  Hands down, no questions asked.  I own the Moog delay, DL4, DMM and I've owned/tried dozens more and this is it for me.  I had tried a DM2 before and always wanted one, but I was really skeptical of the shorter delay time.  After a good friend let me try his I had to get one.  Like with my PT Jr., being limited really allows me to get creative with my delays (long delays are overrated anyways).  The slapback is superb.  You can also do some pretty insane indie-rocker stuff with it.  I won't say anymore, I love this thing.


Well there it is.  There are a handful of runner ups, but those four aren't going anywhere in the foreseeable future.  I power everything with a mounted PP2+.  I use some nice Fender patch cables I got for a good price too.  I try not to get hung up on the small stuff like cables.  Please don't misjudge, other pedals are great.  This is just what has worked best for me.

- Stonewall