Explore new sonic dimensions, from chiming delays and ringing reverbs to haunting echoes, otherworldly howls and ghostly moans
Want to travel out into the furthest reaches of echo-y, reverb-y space…and beyond? Then say hello to Eventide’s Blackhole, a reverb pedal based around the same celebrated Blackhole algorithm found in the company’s H9000 hardware processor.
As Guitar World tech editor Paul Riario says at the beginning of this demo, he likes to think of the Blackhole as an “ethereal and ambient reverb pedal.” But it’s also so much more, with a circuit capable of creating haunting echoes, otherworldly howls and ghostly moans, as Riario demonstrates in the above video.
But that’s not all – you can also witness Paul unleash cascades of Edge-like ringing notes and chiming tones.
(Image credit: Eventide)
In fact, the Blackhole offers a choice of five presets: the namesake Blackhole ethereal reverb; Dark Matter delay; the swirl-like Nebula; the warm-toned Singularity; and the warped vibrations of Pulsar. Users can also create unique and far-out presets of their own.
Additionally, five presets can be loaded at a player’s feet from a latching/momentary dual-action active footswitch, with dozens more available with Eventide Device Manager (EDM) software.
A “Freeze” footswitch allows for two types of infinite reverb, with “Infinite mode” continuously layering new sound on top of a suspended reverb and “Freeze mode” holding the effect in stasis, allowing musicians to play over the reverb tail.
(Image credit: Eventide)
There’s also a wealth of other features, including a PreDelay, which Eventide says can “offset the onset of the reverb,” a “catch-up” mode that helps dial in a sound when toggling between presets/parameters, Lo, Hi and Q (resonance) controls to fine-tune your tone and a Gravity control to customize the reverb tail in two realms – normal or inverse decay.
Get The Pick Newsletter
All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!
Additionally, a rear-panel Guitar/Line Level switch allows impedance matching with guitars, synths, FX loops or DAW interfaces, a single Aux switch can be deployed to Tap Tempo and a triple Aux switch can be used for easy preset changing. You can also map any combination of parameters to an expression pedal.
That’s a feature set as big as the cosmos, with a rich, reverb-y sound to match.
Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.
