Electro Harmonix Microsynth

Excellent but...

With some guitars is dificult to tune up... But when its done its amazing !!! Great sound, grat product.

Death to Ming!

This pedal sounds great. You can get the swirling, sub-octave synth sound of the Ming's Palace theme by Queen from the Flash Gordon soundtrack which, in itself, was enough reason for me to buy it.

It took a while to get used it and I find that, compared to fuzz, vibrato, and the more usual fx units, it can be quite difficult to dial up a new sound that sits well on the fly during a gig. To counter this I wrote a few of the settings that provided cool sounds on the handy record sheet that comes with the unit and am now quite comfortable with it.

The starting tone slider broke quite easily within the first month of having it and i now need to keep a ready supply of tooth picks handy to slide between the gap in order to change this parameter. It has the usual, sturdy metal chassis of an Electro Harmonix FX pedal

You get a lot of control with the unit leading it to the kind of versatility that makes it very good value for money.

The sound quality of the Electro Harmonix Microsyth improved greatly when i added a compressor before it in my FX chain and it sounds fearsome with my Strymon Echo pedal after it.

Without the compressor, long sustained notes can die with a bristly farting sound at a moments notice, depending on how you set the trigger. This was fixed by the compressor and allows for some far out, 70's Sci Fi film sounds.

I've never really managed to get a clean guitar to sound nice with a compressor so I intend to get a line selector and keep the Compressor->Synth->Echo on a separate line so i can turn them all of at once(much easier than trying to turn off all three in succession while changing guitar parts).

Kudos to Electro Harmonix for reducing the physical size in this new version. The dimensions are 143 x 119 x 60 mm (5.6 x 4.7 x 2.4 inches) -- for some reason it was impossible to find the actual pedal's dimensions listed anywhere online! It came with its own power supply, but with the 9 V negative-center DC setting, I was able to daisy-chain it to the power supply of my other pedals without any problem.

I have always loved this pedal from the time I first played the predecessor version way back in the day. It has some really cool features that allow you to compete with or completely replace the lame keyboardist in your band ;-) Think the solo on Queen's "I Want To Break Free" -- it can easily be replicated with the MicroSynth! And although it is ideal to have an amp set up that is capable of responding to the frequencies it generates, it will still sound great in smaller amps and less-than-ideal set ups. You will have to change your playing to adapt to this pedal, which is a good thing. It'll keep you aware of your legato technique and phrasing, which can only expand your musicality.

There is however one drawback in the current design. The pedal essentially works on unity-gain levels. In most of the live situations I'm in, I need to have a drastic rise in volume when switching from rhythm to solos. The pedal has no general volume boost available, which potentially renders the pedal unsuitable for live situations. I have tried combining it with boost pedals at the pre/post stage, with varied results. Like a fuzz pedal, it works better with some than others or may not work at all. In certain combinations, can sound really awful when the square wave is engaged. Although I consider the pedal to be an excellent one and there is nothing else like it out there, in its current design, based on my particular needs for volume boosts, I would have to relegate it to studio and practice situations.

Great little pedal!

This is a no brainer. It really is... it's a breeze to master, sounds absolutely fantastic, has a small footprint, and is not terribly expensive for what it offers. Some of the sounds are really mind blowing. Great job EHX!