Mod 11 Modulator

122
GUITARIST FEBRUARY 2020
Electro-Harmonix pedals
Three new units from Long Island in familiar formats
MANUFACTURER
ELECTRO-HARMONIX
MODEL
MOD 11, NANO OPERATION OVERLORD & BASS9 BASS MACHINE
CONTACT
ELECTRO-HARMONIX WWW.EHX.COM
PRICE
£84 TO £195
PEDALBOARD
Words Trevor Curwen Photography Phil Barker
E
lectro-Harmonix always has something new up its sleeve.
Each of this particular trio, released in the latter half of
2019, represents a particular strand of EHX’s extensive
catalogue. The Mod 11 follows the tradition set by the Canyon
Delay and the Oceans 11 Reverb, both of which provide 11 distinct
variations on their nominative effect chosen from a rotary switch.
It was inevitable there would be a modulation variation at some
point. The Bass9 is the latest 9-series pedal following on from the
B9, C9, Key9, Synth9 and Mel9 pedals, which all endow your guitar
with the sound of nine variations of a particular genre of keyboard
instrument. Interestingly, this one provides a mixture of bass guitar
sounds as well as bass keyboards. Finally, the Operation Overlord
is the latest instance of a pedal initially released in a larger format,
now shrunk down to a more pedalboard-friendly ‘Nano’ size. None
of the three nine-volt pedals support battery power, but they do
include an adaptor as part of the package.
ROUND UP
Mod 11
Modulator
£134
Nano Operation
Overlord Overdrive
£84
D
edicated pedals for much-used
single modulation effects are
perhaps the preferred option
for many, but a pedal that puts loads of
different ones into one place can be very
practical, especially if it’s as pedalboard-
friendly as the Mod 11. 11 different effects
have either two or three variations: the
Filter can be low-pass, high-pass or
bandpass for instance, while the Uni-
Vibe emulation offers the Chorus and
Vibrato modes of the original. Each effect
has knobs for Depth, Rate and either
Volume or a parameter specific to the
effect, plus two secondary parameters for
tweakability. Effects include Fender amp-
style tremolo, a Small Stone-like phaser
and a flanger that channels some of the
textures of an Electric Mistress. Versatility
is increased by a tap tempo facility and the
footswitch lets you add an effect for as long
as you hold it down.
VERDICT A comprehensive selection of
effects as a sole modulation pedal or for
filling your pedalboard’s sonic gaps
W
hile previous 9 Series pedals
have put classic keyboard
sounds under guitarists’
fingers, this one seems closer to home as
some of its programs emulate bass guitars
and it also does octave pedal sounds, too,
in particular a dead-ringer of the EHX
Octave Multiplexer. With control over
dry and effect volume, you get the choice
of whether you want to go with a full one-
or two-octave-down bass or to just mix
some of it in with your standard sound.
Tracking is pretty flawless, and while
the ‘Precision’ sounded fat and solid,
the ‘Longhorn’ emulation of a vintage
Danelectro six-string bass was the most
useful program because you can adjust its
pitch in semitones from unity to an octave
down, giving a range of baritones or drop
tuning. Elsewhere, the bowed sounds and
various synth bass types offer plenty of
opportunity for low-end grooving.
VERDICT Indulge in an instant extension
of a six-string’s lower range at the flick of
a footswitch
Bass9
Bass Machine
£195
T
he original Operation Overlord
was designed to work for a variety
of instruments, so it had three
selectable input levels and (optional)
stereo operation. This one keeps the input
level option but loses the stereo.
This is a JFET-based drive with three-
band active EQ to set the tonal context
just how you need it. In normal mode, the
amp-like drive runs from a gritty almost-
clean through to all-out crunch, but you
can engage the Boost knob (also available
via an external footswitch) to put an extra
drive circuit at the start of the chain for
extra saturation, verging on fuzz-like. The
secret weapon, though, is the Dry knob,
increasing flexibility by blending normal
and effected sounds to build definition
into dirty sounds or endow clean sounds
with some hair, for example. The result
is an everyman drive that’ll slot right into
many different musical scenarios.
VERDICT An affordable and versatile
drive/distortion packed into a practical
space-saving footprint
VIDEO DEMO http://bit.ly/guitaristextra
GIT455.peds_ehx.indd 122 17/12/2019 13:13