Electro-Harmonix Mel9

ELECTRO-HARMONIX
MEL9
£170
A keyboard classic that you can play from your guitar…
In its quest seemingly to make
keyboard players redundant,
EHX has produced the Mel9
The Mel9 brings classic
Mellotron sounds to a
compact guitar pedal
The Mel9 features nine
classic Mellotron
sounds to choose from
WHEN
The Beatles
used a
Mellotron on Strawberry Fields
Forever, it immediately elevated
the instrument to ‘must-have’
status for many bands in the late
60s/early 70s. The legendary
instrument was sort of a forbear
to the digital sample-playback
keyboards that are made today,
except it used tape loops to offer
recreations of orchestra, fl ute,
cello, strings and more. The nature
of the technology meant that
unlike today’s pristine duplications
of samples, the sounds actually
ended up being slightly crunchy,
warbly alternatives that became
the sound of the instrument in
their own right.
In its quest seemingly to make
keyboard players redundant, EHX
has produced the Mel9 – a box that
allows you to play Mellotron
sounds from your guitar.
It features nine classic Mellotron
sounds, includes a blend between
your guitar and the Mellotron
sounds, attack and sustain controls
to manipulate the shape of the
effected sound, and has dry/effect
outputs so you can run your guitar
and the effected sounds to
different outputs if you like.
Tonally, the Mel9 is our favourite
of the range so far. The nature of
the sounds mean that latency is
less of a problem – strings don’t
need an immediate attack to
sound convincing. The fl ute, cello,
strings and orchestra sounds are
great, and we reckon anyone from
covers bands to post-rockers could
fi nd a use for them. The clarinet,
brass and choir sounds are more
‘nice to have’, but there is a big
elephant in the room here. It costs
£170. At this price, it’s a defi nite
luxury that will never trump staple
effects on the wishlist.
Stuart Williams
FEATURES
SOUND QUALITY
VALUE FOR MONEY
BUILD QUALITY
USABILITY
OVERALL RATING
SUMMARY
86 SEPTEMBER 2016
EHX MEL9
REVIEW
TYPE: Mellotron emulator
CONTROLS: Dry/effect volumes,
attack, sustain, model select
SOCKETS: Input, dry and
effect outputs
BYPASS: Buffer
POWER: 9V adaptor (included)
CONTACT: Electro-Harmonix
www.ehx.com
TGR284.gear_quick1.indd 86 11/08/2016 12:03