Review Demo - Visual Sound V3 H2O Liquid Chorus & Echo

To read the written review, visit: bit.ly/VisualSo...
The guys at Visual Sound have built some pretty cool dual-mode pedals in their time, the most famous being the Jekyll & Hyde Overdrive/Distortion and Route 66 Overdrive/Compressor. The success of these designs is due to practicality, not gimmickry-they co-package cool-sounding, commonly used effects to save gigging players headaches and hassle. On the surface, the new V3 H2O Echo/Chorus might seem a little less practical than an overdrive/compressor, but the beauty of the third version of the H2O is that the two effects work together in a cohesive manner that makes the echo/chorus effect feel like a natural-even essential-addition to your effect array.
A New Form for Sonic Evolution
Visual Sound has scrapped the old shield-shaped enclosure used for the first incarnation of the H20 in favor of a roughly 5" x 4.5" x 2" rectangular housing that's about as wide as two conventional Boss pedals. And because the V3 has top-mounted jacks, it actually takes up less space than two Bosses wired together.
The control set is a fairly busy affair, though it's mostly very intuitive and easy to navigate. The six topmost knobs are familiar enough: The chorus section has speed, width, and depth knobs, while the delay section has delay, repeats, and level knobs, as well as a short/long switch for toggling between 10--225 ms or 225--450 ms delay ranges. The newest additions are two smaller knobs-tone and "chor-vib," the latter of which lets you select either chorus (a mix of your dry and wet signal) or vibrato (the wet signal exclusively)-or a blend of the two.
There's also a new switch for choosing three levels of modulation intensity, and a detune switch that adds a crazed pitch-shifting texture to the modulations. Underneath the hood you'll find two on/off switches for each effect's "Pure Tone" signal buffer. Visual Sound recommends leaving these switches in the on position, but if you prefer true-bypass, the option is there.
Gear freaks love the ability to control every aspect of their rig, and the H20's separate in and out jacks for each effect means you can route your signal in any of the same configurations as you would with individual pedals: Put chorus before delay, delay before chorus-or patch pedals in between the two.
To continue reading the written review, visit: bit.ly/VisualSo...

[@GloriaChiever]

It's cool that officer Andy from twin peaks plays guitar too

[@joejfromatown]

Really like this guy's playing style. Next time I visit the fam in Nashville I'll have to see if he's playing anything on the local scene

[@hawg427]

Great Demo :-) Visual Sounds seem like they have some great pedals out there :-)

[@xngr]

Awesome playing, as always!

[@Iggytommy]

please turn the amp's reverb off when demoing a delay pedal!

[@breakalime]

I used to have the old style one of these. I was never very taken with it, as I wasn't very into choruses at the time, but the new features on this one might make it worth a look in.

[@TheBigGuppy]

I'm tired of carrying my pedal steel rack. I wonder how this pedal will work on my MSA D10?

[@allanmunro3893]

Love the review,love the guys style.I have a nagging suspicion though that he doesn't understand the pedal. I own one. A serviceable if unremarkable analogue delay with a ton of great sounding modulation options and fantastic connectivity,are we not in Memory Man territory?

[@TomRC88]

awesome review john!

[@BNZ1001]

Great review

[@everhard1000]

nice work,guy !!! TNX !!!

[@emirozdemir2037]

why wouldnt a single person show the leslie setting???

[@Iggytommy]

true bypass? are you sure? i thought visual sound used their own buffered bypass on all their pedals?

[@baplaso1]

you can turn it to true bypass or pure bypass

[@revolutionday1]

Great demo and playing! PAY THIS MAN!! B-)

[@colebridgewood8014]

I love this guy! He's hilarious!!

[@ITheFight]

Johny beans the man!

[@slyyeti4336]

How do I learn to play like that?! Damn!

[@allanmunro3893]

check out Truetone,the makers of this magic box.they make great stuff and have given me nothing but exceptional customer service.

[@MrEmohdee]

ROCK ON

[@Strateuphoria]

cool hairline cracks on that s a nice LP dude.

[@knobsandnoises1552]

how is this better than the mobius you get way more features for not much more

[@ndtealmusic]

The Mobius is $500. This is $180. So that's nearly triple the H²O's going rate. I wouldn't say, "not much more." The Mobius is intended to be a multi-purpose modulation unit, and this is intentionally limited to chorus/vibrato and delay. It's basically an ambient unit that is straight to the punch at a price the average consumer can be a little more comfortable with. Neither one is necessarily better or worse. Both serve a different purpose. I realize your comment is 6 months old, so maybe you've already figured this out.

[@LeviBulger]

Apples to oranges. Not to mention half the shit on the strymon is useless and the other half is very obviously digital and unnatural sounding

[@pppaulie73]

most of these sounds you would never use in a song. Most pedal demos I see use these ridiculous useless settings