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Download Example 1
Light ring mod with live expression pedal control of tremolo speed. Neck pickup.
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Download Example 2
Trippy filter tremolo. Neck pickup.
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Download Example 3
Moody sub-octave + harmonic pitch shift. Bridge pickup.
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Download Example 4
Rich harmonies via blended pitch shift. Bridge pickup.
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| Clips recorded with Gibson SG through a hand-wired EL34 amp mic'd with Shure SM57.
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The early 1960s saw the ring modulator’s
first major appearances in the world of
music. Pioneer synth builder Don Buchla
incorporated a simple ring-mod circuit into
his Buchla 100 Modular Synthesizer in 1963.
Around the same time, revolutionary electrocomposer
Karlheinz Stockhausen was scoring
music that often called for numerous ring
mods to work in tandem with live musicians.
But what does all this mean for guitarists? As
with every other invention of sound design,
guitarists have absorbed it, corrupted it, and
made it a thing of their own.
You may recall Electro-Harmonix’s 1978
release of a basic ring modulator pedal
dubbed the Frequency Analyzer. Building
on the success of that pedal, EHX recently
released the ultra-versatile Ring Thing. Like
the Analyzer, it’s a ring mod, but it’s also
a pitch shifter, a tremolo, a rotary-speaker
emulator, and many other things that can’t
be easily classified. And with it, EHX challenges
guitarists and electronic music purists
alike by cramming so many features into one
pedal that you might never have the time
to discover them all. The Ring Thing is the
most versatile, cutting-edge ring modulation
stompbox on the market. Yet even a beginner
can bypass the manual and instantly blast
off into their own warbling space-time warp.
With This Ring, I Thee Wed
At first glance, I knew the Ring Thing was
a quality product, because it boasts the
characteristic rugged casing, comfortable
knobs, true bypass switching, and high-quality
jacks and footswitches. And one
glance at the knobs across the top tells
of the versatility that lies within. From left
to right, we have Blend (wet/dry), Wave
(square, sine, ramp up/down, triangle),
Filter/Rate, Fine/Depth, Coarse, and Mode.
The Ring Thing allows you to store and
recall up to nine presets, all hands-free. The
Mode knob selects between the pedal’s
four main settings—ring modulator, upper
sideband modulator, lower sideband modulator,
and pitch shift. The pedal features
stereo outputs so that, in upper and lower
sideband modes, you can send each sideband
to a separate output. Features-wise,
my only confusion arose from the fact that
the square, sine, and triangle waveforms
are the only ones marked around the
Wave knob. Two ramp waves are situated
between the sine and triangle waves, but
they’re not labeled. A meager complaint,
I’ll admit.
For me, the Ring Thing’s most indispensable
feature is the Blend knob, because generally
ring modulation devices produce unpredictable,
atonal textures that tend to alienate
the average guitarist. But who really wants to
be the average guitarist? The trick is to modulate
a percentage of your sound. It’s this
mingling of processed and unprocessed signal
that produces tones ranging from subtle
strokes of weird harmony to mammoth bells
that chime and swell.
The most difficult application of ring modulation
has always been on the stage. But EHX
has stepped up to the task by including an
automatic tuning function, accessible via
footswitch, that sets the pitch of the ring
mod’s carrier wave to your instrument’s
pitch. With this function, you can use the
heavily modulated effects of a ring mod
without sacrificing the ability to create emotive
and discernable melodies. Less than
a second after stepping on the Preset/
Tune footswitch, the Ring Thing has already
detected your pitch and set the carrier wave
accordingly. And get this—if you hold down
the footswitch the Ring Thing will track your
pitch as you change notes, constantly resetting
the carrier wave. This produces some
spectacular digital artifacts that make the
pedal even better suited for performance
and improvisation.
Yet another way to control the Ring Thing’s
carrier wave is via a ¼” expression pedal
input. Did I mention that the Ring Thing is
also a polyphonic pitch shifter? The Pitch-
Shift setting yields some pretty epic pitch
changes within an enormous four-octave
range (two up or two down).
One Ring to Rule Them All
The fun part of the review came, as always,
when I put the Ring Thing between my
Gibson SG and some tubes. In ring modulator
mode, the Ring Thing offers endless ways
to transform your instrument into a bell or
chime of any size and shape. These are the
classic ring mod sounds, and they are executed
beautifully. Dialing in the best tone to
work with your riff is simple, and pulling back
the Blend knob really lets that processed signal
interact in complex ways with your unprocessed
playing. The Filter knob is a great
feature because it allows you to tame some
of those unnatural high frequencies that often
accompany ring modulation synthesis.
I’ve always loved 8-bit music from 1980s
gaming consoles, so I spun the Wave knob
fully counterclockwise to the square wave
setting. The square wave is what gives
you that unmistakably digital, bit-reduced
sound—as if you’ve plugged your guitar into
an old Commodore 64 computer. Rotate the
Filter knob clockwise, and you let all the high
frequencies through—what you hear is that
buzz-saw digital fuzz distortion that’s all the
rage amongst hobbyist pedal builders. The
blend of dynamics with this fuzz is pretty
striking, and it really inspired me to play as I
would through any good amp.
To test the Ring Thing’s tremolo abilities, I
switched to the upper sideband setting, dialed
in a sine wave, cranked Blend fully clockwise
and slowed the speed of the undulations way
down. Simple, unmistakable tremolo. Because
the speed of the tremolo is determined by the
Coarse knob, you can control the speed with
an expression pedal. Tremolo happens when
your volume is being modulated with a slow
cycle anywhere from about 2Hz up to about
15Hz. The range on the Ring Thing is 0 Hz to
over 2,000 Hz. And specs like that make the
Ring Thing stand out in a crowd.
The Final Mojo
EHX has a long history of developing tools
that intersect the guitar and synthesis worlds.
Their experience in these areas makes them
particularly well positioned to offer guitarists
inspiring but practical products like the Ring
Thing. To that end, players looking to experiment
and broaden their tonal horizons need
look no further than this pedal. Even those
who already own an expensive analog ring
modulator might find themselves preferring
the Ring Thing, because it’s so versatile you
can’t help but come up with wild new ideas
for songs, solos, and more. And really, what
else matters?
Buy if...
you want a timeless ring modulator
with a wide range of tonal
possibilities.
Skip if...
you have no interest in bastardizing
your tone in glorious ways.
Rating...
MSRP $210 - Electro-Harmonix - ehx.com
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