Electro Harmonix Small Stone > Reviews > Whoosy Swooshy Woo Woo

Author's product rating:   

Ease of Use	Very easy
Durability	Good
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Shimmering analogue phase shifting, wonderful
Disadvantages:	Possible bypass modification needed

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This review is for the original EH4800 (Not sure exactly how old) as I have never tried the new ones.

Without a doubt one of my favourite effects. I have also owned one of the older Russian manufactured reissues as I prefer not to use vintage pedals live where possible.
Whilst it had similar characteristics I was left disappointed with the build quality as the plastic connectors do not last and I don't like feeling as though I need to modify manufacturers errors on new equipment. Needless to say I no longer own the Russian version.

The EH4800 has two preset depth settings controlled by the 'Color' switch and a nice big knob for modulation rate.

I notice they seem to have started putting led indicators on the new ones which I am all for provided it is still true bypass. Unfortunately the old one i have had an SPDT footswitch when I acquired it which needed to be changed as the bypassed sound still had a swooshing background noise at high volume.
If they have used a TPDT switch or some kind of JFET bypass on the new ones fair enough. However, I would advise checking this as I would imagine they have a DPDT switch with one side as bypass and the other controlling the led which would leave the problem I had.
Having said that anyone who is savvy with older pedals will probably have encountered this problem, some people can learn to deal with it, others mod it out.

Sound quality is lovely with anything you plug in to it. I mainly use it with guitar and bass but it lends a lovely organic warmth to digital sound sources and drums.
It interacts beautifully with other effects too. Fuzz in front or behind give different characteristics and wah pedals are fun as you can go with, against or around the sweep for weird frequency cancelling/amplifying effects.

I normally tend to use this thing without the color switch engaged especially at volume as the bass frequencies seem to be amplified slightly when it sweeps down low which is annoying through a clean amp when distortion is not desired.

The obvious competition for this pedal is the MXR Phase 100 which is also a lovely pedal with slightly different bandpass characteristics and variable depth control. I would advise getting both if you like phase shifters as it is down to personal preference.
I had no manual with mine so ignore this category in the rating