Designed with the most adventurous instrumentalists in mind, the Electro-Harmonix Superego is a pedal capable of creating a multitude of effects, including glissando, infinite sustain, pitch shifting, organ-like shimmer, and much more. It builds upon the synth-engine of its predecessor, the Superego, in several ways. The original's SPEED, GLISS, DRY, and EFFECT parameters are still on hand, but added to mix are ATTACK and RELEASE knobs, as well as a THRESHOLD parameter that allows you to control the onset of processing with your dynamics.





You’ll also note a knob giving you access to 11 onboard internal effects, including flanging, phasing, rotary, tremolo, low-pass filter, and others. Each internal effect responds, in specific ways, to corresponding RATE and DEPTH knobs. A MODE footswitch provides five different freeze settings, most which can be controlled by the BYPASS switch, as well as your favorite, previously purchased expression pedal.





In many modes, the effect section of the Superego operates on your “freezes”?i.e., on sustained notes/chords that you’ve created by means of holding down the BYPASS switch. This way, you can strum a chord, hold down the BYPASS switch, causing it to sustain; then, an onboard effect is applied to the frozen signal as you solo over this cacophonous sound-bed with your normal, unprocessed tone.





However, LIVE EFFECTS mode will allow you to run dry sound directly through the effects engine, foregoing the freezing altogether, and giving you dramatic, immediate effects on stage. Thus, you can use the pedal similarly to Electro-Harmonix's Freeze pedals, or as a direct modulation effect.





An external effects loop can be routed into the pedal by means of 1/4" send and return jacks. You can also opt to send processed signal from the send jack to another destination, such as an amplifier, or an impedance-appropriate mixer channel. When the signal is split in this manner, your freezes and processed notes will be directed out through the send jack, while unfrozen signal will route to your main amplifier.





When you use the Superego with an expression pedal, you can set up presets that sweep through different settings programmed into the heel and toe positions of the expression pedal. For a deep dive into this operation, as well as the effects and controls provided by the Superego , please peruse the features section.