30 Pedals in 30 Days 2014: Visual Sound H2O Chorus and Echo V3
Marc Johnson | Nov 06, 2014 | Comments 0
Don’t forget to check out the full vid at the bottom and enter our official giveaway!
Bob Weil brought out his first Visual Sound Pedal at NAMM of 1995. Nearly two decades later, Visual Sound is going strong with big names behind it like Aerosmith, Avenged Sevenfold, and Rascal Flatts. Part of that seems to be Bob’s eagerness to revisit some of his most successful pedals and look for ways to improve on them. Enter the 3rd iteration of his flagship chorus pedal. For 30 Pedals in 30 Days, TheToneKing.com had a chance to check out the Visual Sound V3 H2O.
When you want to see demos of the best gear on the market, there are two people you should trust: The Tone King, and the dude who built the damn thing. While watching Bob Weil demo Visual Sound’s V3 H2O, you get a real sense of the passion that brought him to design pedals in the first place.
The Visual Sound V3 H2O is, in every way, two pedals under one roof, an analog delay on one side and a chorus/vibrato on the other. Two completely separate circuits with two input jacks and three output jacks that can be used to run the effects separately, in unison, or change the path of the effects altogether. Any configuration that you can dream up with two separate pedals, you can do with the V3 H2O
The classic H2O analog stereo chorus and dual pedal feature remain intact in the V3.
So what’s new?
Everything else.
Adding toppings to what was already an awesome sundae, Visual Sound dropped a ton of new features into the H2O. A tone knob adds a variety of killer sounds to better complement different tastes, and a chorus/vibrato knob moves smoothly and seamlessly between a chorus effect, a vibrato effect, or a mix of the two. For the chorus/vibrato, the V3 H2O has speed, width, and depth controls, while the delay side has delay (obviously), repeats, and level. Topping off that level of control are three top-mounted switches; intensity, short/long, and detune on/off.
The insane number of controls that don Visual Sound’s V3 H2O make a whole host of different effects available. Fans of Leslie speakers who don’t want to carry a billion pound cabinet around will dig what happens when you drop the depth knob to 7 o’clock and put the speed and width both at 2. The controls are so versatile that you can easily find yourself in phaser or flanger territory. Shortening the echo will create spring reverb effect. When you have a time-based effect pedal as versatile as this, the tonal possibilities are nearly infinite.
Rugged enclosure and custom designed Forever Footswitch ensures that this thing will last forever. Visual Sound is willing to back that up with a Lifetime Warranty. Um, yeah. Lifetime.
What’s Visual Sound’s secret to longevity and popularity? Maybe it’s being willing to take a look at even some of their most successful gear and say, “we can do better!” Bob Weil brings that mentality to Visual Sound, and it’s probably what keeps bringing everybody back to his company for cutting edge gear. The Visual Sound V3 H2O was definitely one of TheToneKing.com’s highlights for 30 Pedals in 30 Days 2014.
[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d63nTHTEmes’]
[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNyRMhpUn4E’]
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