In the EHX thread, somebody asked for my opinion on my new Epitome, so rather than hijack that thread, I figured I'd start one here, give my opinion, and see if anybody else with one would like to offer up thoughts.
To start, I'll share my first real experience using it over the weekend. On the weekends, I play in a contemporary worship service setting. It's the typical setup, if you're at all familiar with those. In rehearsals before the service, the keyboardist was going through some settings looking for a good organ sound. I tweaked a few settings, turned all 3 Epitome effects on, and strummed some chords on my 6-string bass. The guitarist said, "hey, that's great. use that setting."
So that might give you an idea of the sounds you can get out of it. It probably won't fool anybody into thinking you're actually playing an old organ, but it can sound as close what you might expect from an electric keyboard / synth.
So, first off, I'm not a huge EHX fan. I've tried a lot of their pedals - HOG, Freeze, Small Clone, Small Stone, and a few others - and the Micro POG is the only one I really liked. But I liked it A LOT. It was my favorite pedal. Until the Epitome. It's got the Micro POG built right in, so what's not to like? (I do have at least one complaint, but it's minor.)
The Micro POG portion seems to be the exact same as the original pedal. Octave up, octave down, and dry signal. Seems to sound and track the same.
I've never been a huge fan of chorus, flanger, or phaser effects, at least not on bass, so I wasn't pumped about the Electric Mistress portion. However, when used in conjunction with the POG and reverb, I quite like what it can add.
The Holy Grail Plus portion is great. It can add a nice bit of reverb, and I particularly like using it for a little slap-back delay. Using it to create the cascading octaves (the delay feeds back into the POG, which feeds back into the POG, going up and up and up [and down and down...]). It's fun, but I'm not sure what scenarios I'd actually use it for.
For the pedal itself, I was surprised at the size. I sold my Micro POG before getting this, so I can't compare side-by-side, but it doesn't seem much bigger than that. The switches are far enough apart that you can easily hit them individually without problem, though I did accidentally turn 2 on one time when I wasn't paying attention. My feet are smallish / medium, average at most? 9 1/2 men's. I can turn them all on at once by turning my foot sideways.
You can't, unfortunately, turn the Shimmer switch on with your foot.
The switches don't give that hard click the Micro POG does. This is buffered bypass, whereas I'm pretty sure that was true bypass. These switches are much easier and quieter, so it's a trade-off I guess.
The only thing that I'm really disappointed in is the lack of a dry out. I used that on the Micro POG every time I recorded. I put the Micro POG first in line, then went straight from the dry out to recording, so I always had a dry duplicate of whatever I recorded. This has stereo in/out, which I'll probably never use. Disappointing for me, but others will probably prefer it this way.
That's all I've got for now. Feel free to shoot me questions or offer your own opinions. Personally, I think it's a fantastic pedal.
To start, I'll share my first real experience using it over the weekend. On the weekends, I play in a contemporary worship service setting. It's the typical setup, if you're at all familiar with those. In rehearsals before the service, the keyboardist was going through some settings looking for a good organ sound. I tweaked a few settings, turned all 3 Epitome effects on, and strummed some chords on my 6-string bass. The guitarist said, "hey, that's great. use that setting."
So that might give you an idea of the sounds you can get out of it. It probably won't fool anybody into thinking you're actually playing an old organ, but it can sound as close what you might expect from an electric keyboard / synth.
So, first off, I'm not a huge EHX fan. I've tried a lot of their pedals - HOG, Freeze, Small Clone, Small Stone, and a few others - and the Micro POG is the only one I really liked. But I liked it A LOT. It was my favorite pedal. Until the Epitome. It's got the Micro POG built right in, so what's not to like? (I do have at least one complaint, but it's minor.)
The Micro POG portion seems to be the exact same as the original pedal. Octave up, octave down, and dry signal. Seems to sound and track the same.
I've never been a huge fan of chorus, flanger, or phaser effects, at least not on bass, so I wasn't pumped about the Electric Mistress portion. However, when used in conjunction with the POG and reverb, I quite like what it can add.
The Holy Grail Plus portion is great. It can add a nice bit of reverb, and I particularly like using it for a little slap-back delay. Using it to create the cascading octaves (the delay feeds back into the POG, which feeds back into the POG, going up and up and up [and down and down...]). It's fun, but I'm not sure what scenarios I'd actually use it for.
For the pedal itself, I was surprised at the size. I sold my Micro POG before getting this, so I can't compare side-by-side, but it doesn't seem much bigger than that. The switches are far enough apart that you can easily hit them individually without problem, though I did accidentally turn 2 on one time when I wasn't paying attention. My feet are smallish / medium, average at most? 9 1/2 men's. I can turn them all on at once by turning my foot sideways.
You can't, unfortunately, turn the Shimmer switch on with your foot.
The switches don't give that hard click the Micro POG does. This is buffered bypass, whereas I'm pretty sure that was true bypass. These switches are much easier and quieter, so it's a trade-off I guess.
The only thing that I'm really disappointed in is the lack of a dry out. I used that on the Micro POG every time I recorded. I put the Micro POG first in line, then went straight from the dry out to recording, so I always had a dry duplicate of whatever I recorded. This has stereo in/out, which I'll probably never use. Disappointing for me, but others will probably prefer it this way.
That's all I've got for now. Feel free to shoot me questions or offer your own opinions. Personally, I think it's a fantastic pedal.
