Electro-Harmonix Completes End-of-Chain 11-Mode Nano Workstation Trifecta with the MOD 11 Modulator

With very little fanfare Electro-Harmonix has launched the 3rd of its Nano Multi-Effects Workstations - following the extremely well received Canyon Delay & Looper, and the Oceans 11 Reverb. I have featured the Canyon and Oceans several times on this site, while I’ve often bemoaned the lack of a full featured compact multi-modulation pedal.

I personally have always favoured multi-effects units at the tail end of my own pedal-chain - obviously the larger workstations. I started out with the Strymon Stryfecta of Mobius, TimeLine and BigSky, before rotating in the Boss MD-500, Empress EchoSystem and Boss RV-500, and I currently have the Empress Zoia, Strymon Volante and Source Audio Ventris occupying those slots. Yet there has never been anything at a more compact size that gives you the full range of the available modulations - indeed until now.

In fact I think the Electro-Harmonix launch is very well timed as there is a very big fish coming down the line in the guise of the forthcoming Boss MD-200 workstation which is just slightly wider - yet comes with tap-tempo, stereo output and presets.

In the meantime the MOD Modulator 11 is pretty much as good as it gets at this more compact size - offering up (in clockwise fashion - Uni (-Vibe), Chorus, Rotary, Flange, TZF (Through Zero Flanger), Phase (90?), Pitch (Shifting), Filt (-er), Trem (-olo), Harm (Harmonic Tremolo), and Vibr (-ato)!

You get just 3 controls besides the mode rotary selection dial - Depth, Rate and Volume - but with an additional Mod button - which allows you to scroll through additional sub-modes - so for instance for Phase - you can change between 4, 6 or 8 stages. The secondary modes add a huge amount of depth to such a small pedal - and for its size there really isn’t anything like it out right now.

I would still probably have preferred to see a second tap-tempo footswitch, but considering everything that’s onboard here you can’t really quibble. It’s actually quite and achievement that EHX is the first to complete and end-of-chain workstation trifecta, I alway felt TC Electronic was the most likely in that area - so props to the EHX engineers.

Even when the slightly more capable Boss MD-200 comes into play in a month or two - I still feel that the MOD 11 will retain its advantage of size and price. This is something I’ve actually been waiting for to happen for quite a number of years - and I’m really delighted that Electro-Harmonix has finally filled the gap. I’m just surprised it took this long, and that on one else has done it yet either!

As of this moment there are no demo videos out and around and the pedal is solely being listed for Pre-Order with no one quoting dates as yet. However EHX are known to be quick movers and I don’t doubt that this will be in the stores within the next 4 weeks - certainly by the end of September - where the units are being priced in the UK at an extremely reasonable £141.

As soon as some demos materialise - I will append to this post - here below vvv!