Electro-Harmonix MEL9 Tape Replay Machine Guitar Effects Pedal

I fell in love the sound of a Mellotron years ago via some of the patches on my Nord Electro 3 (which I still own), but I liked the idea of having access to those sounds in a guitar pedal, so the EHX Mel 9 was a must have. The Orchestra, Cello, and Saxophone sounds are probably my favorites, but I'm sure I'll find uses for most of the patches on this pedal. I'm mostly using this pedal to create a spooky string or horn layer that sits under my guitar part. The Attack/Sustain knobs help control how the sound fades in or out. I play finger style, so the device tracks pretty clearly for me, though it might get murky if you're a strummer. To take full advantage of the Mel 9's functionality, you'll need to use an A/B switcher, a separate amp for the effect output and a dash of reverb on the back end, but I knew that going in. I'm pretty dang excited about using this in my live rig, it will surely be a game changer!

I'm a novice with pedals as I play acoustic/electric guitar. It fits well into select songs I play at open mic nights.

The sounds it generates is impressive. The learning curve is not flat but not too steep.

Things thats great about it.

This dynamic response is garbage, you pluck slightly to hard it screams, to soft nothing... this thing is garaged, tracking sucks, this thing is not worth a dollar, so overrated by people who aren't being honest.

I used it for a brief time and my songwriting partner then stole it. So she must have liked it quite a bit. I found it to have much of the queasy, otherworldly quality I was looking for during the recording of a specific project. It is easy to use but requires patience to master the nuances, as with any complex device. It is well built. Wish I owned one.