What could make pedals irresistible again? New York-based, independent Electro-Harmonix is squeezing their greatest hits and multi-functionality into 9 baby pedals. And they look adorable.
I also think “Triboro Bridge” is one of my favorite names ever though “Lincoln Tunnel” as an infinite delay seems like it needs to happen.
But this is great to see – and looks like a chance to recession-proof some top-notch effects, just when the market is flooded with a bunch of cheap wannabes. It’s just a whole bunch of the best DSP from Electro-Harmonix over the years. But it seems like they didn’t just take the easy route, either – they’ve crammed a bunch of new extras and multi-mode possibilities in here. So sure, they could have just dumbed down their best effects to simplistic versions, but they really made each of these do a lot despite their small size.
EHX has the full description on their site, but here’s the overview of each NYC Series Pico:
Pitch Fork: 30 pitch shift options, multimode, with sweep (instant – 4 seconds), plus latch/momentary.
Ocean 3-Verb: That’s three as in Spring, Plate, and Hall from the Oceans 11, with pre-delay, spring length, tone, and Infinite Reverb.
Canyon Echo: Up to 3s delay time, tap tempo, filter, switchable delay tails, Infinite Repeats, and more.
Deep Freeze: Derived from the Freeze and Superego, this is a freeze function with multiple modes, speed/layer, gliss, and different bypass options.
Attack Decay: Vintage classic filter effect with poly mode – lots of possibilities here (“volume and reverse swells, backward tape sounds, artificially short staccato notes, and bowed instrument effects”).
Triboro Bridge: 3 drive effects in one – Overdrive, Distortion, Fuzz, plus Input Contour, EQ, gate.
Rerun Tape Delay: Also derived from the Canyon Delay & Looper, this is a tape delay with flutter & saturation (3 modes), feedback, etc.
Platform: Compression and limiting, “studio style.”
POG: Polyphonic octave from the POG line – octave up, octave sub, tone, 3 filter pedals.
And yeah, this comes on the heels of Universal Audio making pedal versions of some of their best stuff, which could pair well with this – though the EHX options fit more into the kind of stuff you’d use all the time.
US$119 and up street, with 9V EHX power supply included.
They’ve got a full video series to check these out. Playlist: