All guitar players are partial to their own sonic proclivities, and everyone’s entitled to their own favourite effects pedal.
But let it be known: if we’re talking holy grail guitar tones, then depth and dynamic are the two things that’ll separate you from the pack and make you a great player. And the real trick? It’s not the notes you play: it’s all about the space between them. Ambience and texture are so important to the makeup of modern music. Rippling echoes, cavernous reverbs, ping-ponging delays and fluctuating feedback make all the difference whether live or in the studio, and when it comes to depth, few brands do things better than Electro-Harmonix (EHX).
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EHX have been masters of creating high quality reverb and delay pedals for decades, with classic units like the classic Memory Man delay and the more contemporary Holy Grail and Cathedral reverbs being held in high esteem by many players. Electro-Harmonix are obviously cognisant of this legacy and have recently looked to expand on it with the Pico NYC DSP series, packing immersive tone-shaping into pint-sized pedals to appeal to a whole new generation of guitarists.
Squeezing a trio of classic reverb circuits and a trove of secondary features into a unit that’d fit in the palm of your hand, the Pico Oceans 3-Verb is the perfect counterpart for any budding shoegazer or surf rocker. It dishes up a Fender amp-inspired spring circuit, a lush plate reverb and a rich hall reverb with dedicated controls for wet/dry blend and tone, while a secondary control knob lets you choose between three different spring lengths or toggle pre-delay in plate and hall modes.
A tails bypass function can also be toggled to create seamless transitions between sets, letting your reverb ring out even after you’ve stomped on the footswitch. This is an invaluable feature that really adds a lot in live settings: trust me, there’s absolutely nothing worse than a rich reverb abruptly cutting off mid-set.
EHX 3-Verb
One of the 3-Verb’s hidden features is unlocked by cranking the Time control in plate or hall mode and latching the bypass switch, which automatically takes the pedal into infinite reverb mode. Any self-respecting soundscaper will know that infinite reverb is the secret to creating truly immersive ambient textures, and the 3-Verb’s infinite verb is an absolute delight to play with. Fluttering tremolo dips and dynamic volume swells sound glorious in this setting, particularly when paired with a splash of delay or modulation.
Speaking of delay, let’s move on to check out the Electro-Harmonix Pico Canyon Echo. Longstanding pedal-heads will know all about Electro-Harmonix’s Canyon Delay and Looper pedal, which has won plaudits all over the world for its extensive echo tones and vintage sound-on-sound looping effects.
EHX Pico Canyon Echo
The Pico Canyon Echo extracts the digital delay model from its older compatriot and injects it into a dedicated stompbox format, with up to three seconds of delay time and some seriously impressive sound-sculpting possibilities. On the face of the pedal, you’ll find all the usual suspects: a delay knob controls the response time, feedback lets you choose from a single repeat all the way through to crazy, dubby freakouts, and blend controls the overall wet/dry mix of the signal.
One nifty feature bundled into the Pico Canyon Echo is the filter control, which functions as a high-pass filter when dialled behind 12 o’clock and low-pass filter when cranked past the right hand. This filter function really lets you lean into your inner King Tubby, taming wild frequencies and adding organic warmth to your wet signal.
Similar to the Pico 3-Verb, the Canyon Echo also makes use of the tails bypass feature to prolong your delay tones once the effect is disengaged. It’s hard to overstate how useful this function is, especially when transitioning to a new part of your set or looking to add depth to a particular passage.
This feature is complemented further by the Canyon Echo’s new infinite repeats mode, which repeats a single delay and takes the input out of the overall delay path. In a nutshell, this turns the Canyon Echo into an ongoing sound-on-sound loop that can be played over without adding new delays – think Robert Fripp’s famous Frippertronics soundscaping work of the ‘70s, and you’re somewhere in the ballpark.
Tweaking the delay control in this mode can create some truly weird and wonderful freakouts, which are easily tameable with a touch of wet/dry blending – no need to blow out your speakers this time.
A handy tap tempo function is included and can be engaged by quickly pressing the footswitch twice, with the inbuilt LED blinking in correspondence with your BPM. Subdivisions can also be employed with the tap div button, letting players toggle between quarter notes, dotted eights and eighths should they desire.
With the Pico 3-Verb and Canyon Echo, Electro-Harmonix have created a one-two punch that would be the envy of any ambient leaning instrumentalist. These pedals might be compact, but they squeeze a whole lot of sound-shaping beneath the hood, with incredible tones and secret features galore. If you’re looking to dominate depth and dynamic and add a splash of space into your playing, you’ll be in safe company with these two units on your pedalboard.
For local Electro-Harmonix enquiries, keep reading at Vibe Music.
