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ROUND-UP

ELECTROHARMONIX PEDALS

EAST RIVER DRIVE £47

Dirty ol’ river

WE’VE SEEN many green overdrives in

our time, but EHX doesn’t do anything by

halves: the East River features the much-

revered JRC4558 op amp, which you’ll

find in vintage Tube Screamers. The pedal

gives you classic mid-boosted overdrives,

which are perfect for everything from

American blues to raunchy rock at higher

gain levels, where the East River really

excels. There’s not a huge amount of

volume on offer, so it might not be the

best dirt for boosting your amp, but this is

one seriously impressive – if not entirely

original – overdrive.

OD GLOVE £47

Smell the Glove

TOUCH-responsiveness and a range

of drives are the OD Glove’s modus

operandi. So, you get a tone-shift switch

to alter the mid character, and even an

internal voltage control, which boosts a

nine-volt input to 18 volts for more open,

less compressed tones. 12 o’clock on the

gain dial yields tight distortions for heavy

rock and metal, while you’ll find a solid

low-gain crunch at lower levels. Too

much gain can lead to an overwhelming

low-end, but be careful with the controls,

and the OD Glove could be a perfect fit

for your playing.

ELECTRO-HARMONIX £47£117

ROUNDUP

The revered e ects mages cook up three distinctive new budget

overdrives and a potent polyphonic pitch shifter

Words: Michael Brown

THE ZANY

world of US

effects maker

Electro-Harmonix is one we’ve been more

than happy to populate over the decades, but

recent years have seen Mike Matthews and

his stompbox wizards flooding the effects

market with innovations such as the POG and

Freeze, alongside classics such as the Big Muff

and Small Clone. However, something that’s

long been missing from EHX’s extensive and

esoteric catalogue is a ‘regular’ dirt pedal, and

one that doesn’t revolve around the word

‘Muff’. Now, the company’s only gone and

released three at once: the East River Drive,

OD Glove and Hot Tubes Nano. As if that

wasn’t enough, EHX has finally added a

foot-controllable polyphonic pitch shifter into

the mix: enter the Slammi, part of EHX’s ‘no

moving parts’ Next Step series. So, let’s give

this quartet of fresh stompers a whirl and find

out whether they all live up to the EHX legacy…

88 MARCH 2014

TGR251.gear_pedals.indd 88 1/30/14 11:27 AM

Summary of content (2 pages)

PAGE 1
ROUND-UP ELECTRO-HARMONIX PEDALS ELECTRO-HARMONIX £47-£117 ROUND-UP The revered effects mages cook up three distinctive new budget overdrives and a potent polyphonic pitch shifter Words: Michael Brown THE ZANY world of US effects maker Electro-Harmonix is one we’ve been more than happy to populate over the decades, but recent years have seen Mike Matthews and his stompbox wizards flooding the effects market with innovations such as the POG and Freeze, alongside classics such as the Big Muff and Small
PAGE 2
GEAR ROUND-UP SLAMMI £117 Pitch-shifting powerhouse AS WELL as a motion sensor, the Slammi boasts three octaves of pitch shifting, plus four controls, either side of the pedal: dry volume, for blending shifted and dry signals; max bend, for setting the interval; a bend up/down button, and calibrate button for the sensor. That means more flexibility than the Slammi’s rhyme-sake, and the sounds are on a par, with speedy polyphonic tracking and convincing tones.