Electro Harmonix MEL9 Tape Replay Machine

I purchased this to produce orchestral etc. sounds without the need to add a midi pickup to all my guitars. While the MEL9 is not nearly as versatile as my Roland GR-30 synthesizer, it can be useful f.ex. when you want to add the occasional sound layers, especiaIly in a band without a keyboard player. There are 9 sound presets and controls for balance, attack and sustain. Most of the presets sound surprisingly good, "Orchestra" being one of them. Switching presets requires twisting the preset pot as the effect on/off is the only footswitch (there would have been plenty of space inside the unit for additional footswitches).

It is important to note that the MEL9 requires a relatively high guitar pickup output to work properly. A compressor in front of the MEL9 is recommendable, particularily with low/medium output single coil pickups.

The MEL9 works well with clean or mildly overdriven sounds. However, with an high gain amplification setting or with overdrive/distortion pedals also the MEL9 sounds will be distorted. There are ways get a overdrive guitar sound together with a clean
MEL9 sound. The best option, dry output for the amplifier with the effect output going to the PA mixer reveals a major flaw of the MEL9. All fine when effect is on. But when off, you hear the DRY SIGNAL coming out of the PA. So, a switch blade (or better, a volume pedal) between the effect output and the mixer is necessary.

Overall, the MEL9 is good sounding but has shortcomings. In particular, if you purchase a MEL9, you may also need a compressor and something to control the effect output.

Weak effect level and weird unwanted harmonics with the base note. Almost useless sounds. No matter how I tweak it. I use it in front of an amp with clean sound and tried different guitars.

I've heard that some of the Mel9's works fine but mine was a flop. Based on Youtube demos it seems to be ok and useful with nice sounds, but I don't know what's wrong with mine...

For years, I was hooked to the mellotron sound of many Beatles, Moody Blues and early Genesis classics. Well, as soon as I came to know of the existence of this toy and my finances were in good order, I could not resist it.

Imagine the goosebumps when I first played a chord on my guitar and had the orchestra mode full on.....I could not count the WOW's going through my mind.

I can advise this little baby to everyone with warm feelings for late sixties proto-prog and early seventies prog rock sounds,. you will not be disappointed.

Small con: the attack volume for, as far as I have tried and experienced, on my electric 6 string, acoustic 6 string and acoustic 1 string can be somewhat loud on playing first time when you put the effect know all way out. I advice to adjust the attack and sustain knobs when you try it out, on your own playing style.

Update on recent sound experiment in combination with the EHX keys9 pedal: this combination gives some wonderful sound textures somewhat reminiscent of Devin Townsends music. It is as if your guitar releases a cathedral-like wall of sound (especially with a creamy fuzz turned slightly open...). So this pedal is not just for the retro-prog enthusiasts...........

Update 2: this pedal on your bass amp, in combination with the Keys9 pedal on preset Dynamo, Tri-glorious or Organ and with the Dry button of that pedal half open, your bass can replicate the bass instrument sounds of Mike Oldfields' Tubular Bells.....EHX, when will you stop amazing me???

I'm a huge fan of prog music.
I grew up with the keyboard sound of groups such as King Crimson and Genesis, and PFM (I'm italian). Only in recent years I undestood the important role of Mellotron in this music but, alas, i'm only a guitar player so the Mellotron was not wish list. When I heard of MEL9 i could not believe to my ears: i could play mellotron sounds directly from my guitar, without using any MIDI esaphonic pickups. I own several MIDI esaphonic pickups for guitar, including Roland GK-2 and Fishman Triple Play. Each one features some latency and some incorrect note detection, and needs additional hardware (PC and/or Sound Generator) to produce sounds, so I use them not so often. The great advantage of Electro Harmonix MEL9 versus MIDI esaphonic pickups is that it does not require any extra hardware to produce keyboard sounds. I still don't undestand which technology has been applied, but it works. I simply connect my guitar to MEL9, and as I play I hear tipical mellotron sounds coming out of MEL9 with virtually no latency.

I tried it with both electro-acoustic steel string guitar and electro-acoustic nylon string guitar, and the result is good on both type of guitars.

About the sounds: some sounds are really convincing, especially the "Orchestra" sound which we hear in many Genesis and King Crimson historical tunes. Other sounds are far less convincing, such as "Cellos" and "Brass".

On the negative side:
1) this pedal is raher pricey, so more sounds would be appreciated. Also I would greately appreciate an USB connection to PC for modifying envelope curves and timbre.
2) The pedal switch is very noisy, so when I turn it on / off in my room al low volume level, the acoustic "click" is too much loud for me.
3) The MEL9 is able to effectively convert only notes played rather loudly. In softer phrases, the converted sound is slightly out of tune.
4) The only way to switch between the presets is via the dedicated rotary knob. A dedicated preset switch would be appreciated, especially during live performances.


However all these negative sides don't prevent me to enjoy playing it very often, and I recommend it especially to lovers of classic prog music.