EBS Red Label FX

EBS Red Label Multi Comp Compressor (see above)

The MultiComp Guitar Edition compressor is one of the three first launched pedals in EBS's new Red Label Pedals, along with the DynaVerb Guitar Edition and Red Twister Guitar Edition. They all come with the heritage of the well regarded EBS Black Label Pedals which, though they were designed for bass, have also been used by world-famous guitarists for years. With the Red Label range, what EBS has done is optimise the performance for guitar, including input from some of the most busy Swedish session guitarists and the staff from the famous TGT11.se pedal specialists store in Stockholm, Sweden.

Let's start by covering the basics. All three pedals share the following: 9 volt battery, or standard power supply, average stomp box size with high build quality and true bypass signal relay switching. Right, now onto performance!

With just two knobs. comp/limit and gain, dialling in a sound is a painless affair on the MultiComp. The addition of a three way switch in the middle allows you to select from a variety of compression sounds: Normal/Mix/TubeSim. This really does make it a plug in and play pedal. For those that need more, there is an Active/Passive switch on the side as well as a trim pot for the Threshold, located internally. We're not very keen on internal switches, but I suppose that this is one you won't need to adjust very often - which is just as well!

This is an impressive, easy to use, transparent compressor pedal. I like the fact it's very easy to dial in great sounds. I also liked the three way switch that gives you instant access to typical compressed sounds. Even turned all the way up it didn’t squish the tone to a horrible un-musical amount and it sounds really good.

EBS Red Label Red Twister

EBS claims that this pedal is built with the best analogue processing circuitry available, giving a smooth, warm and fat sounding chorus/flange effect, useful both for live and studio performances. Well, you can judge that from the video, of course, but I'd say that's a pretty fair assessment.

The Red Twister is built on the legacy of the EBS UniChorus studio edition bass effect, but with adjustments of delay times and frequency range to match the guitar. The pedal output can run in mono or stereo. As with all three pedals simplicity is key, and less is more! Once again just the two controls and three way switch, ranging from Soft – Heavy – Flange. It's great that this pedal offers a Flange setting too, making it much more than just your average Chorus stomp box and living up to its claim of being “An Analog studio quality chorus, flange and pitch modulation effects for guitar”.

The quality of sound and tone is excellent, making it a musical rather than just a 'crazy sounds' pedal.

Under the hood of the Red Twister, there's a mix level control that lets you decide how much or how little of the effect you'd like to be blended with the original tone. It's a great feature that would be even better if you didn’t have to take a screwdriver to the thing in order to adjust it, that's just plain annoying.

EBS Red Label DynaVerb

This reverb pedal uses 24-bit digital processing circuitry designed for outstanding and noiseless performance on stage and in the recording studio. It has stereo input as well as stereo out and features three different Modes or types of reverb - Room, Plate and Hall. Room and Plate can run in three variations, A, B andC, while the Hall reverb offers two variations A, B (C same as B). Making a total of eight different reverbs. The controls simply set the volume for the effect, and how much of the reverb you'd like to blend in.

There are many reverb pedals on the market, as well as amps that come loaded with great sounding reverb already installed. Therefore, trying to get one that stands out from the crowd is a tricky thing. There is no doubt that the DynaVerb is a very good reverb pedal, clear, transparent and musical with a wide variety of settings. Having said all that it didn’t jump out at me as “wow this is the best reverb I have ever heard!” It was more a case of, “Yeah this is another good reverb pedal”, and so there is not much more to say other than that it's easy to use and sounds great!

That said, have a listen to the video and see what you think. If what you want is a high quality reverb without fuss, this could suit you just fine.

These are three great new pedals from EBS. All sound fantastic and are easy to use and set up. I have a couple of personal issues with “internal switches” but maybe that's just me. I look forward to seeing and trying more guitar specific pedals from EBS, as I consider these a real success.