Oh boy, this pedal really opens up a can for sure. I was on a search. I wanted something specific. Tremolo speed control with an expression pedal. The Worm! An affordable pedal with tremolo and expression control! Well with that feature I have to say I was a little disappointed to say the least.
The Worm by Electro-Harmonix is a multi effect unit from one of the industries greats, with so many “classic” “must have” units to their name. EHX has always been forward thinking in a very fun way when it comes to features and twists to their product, The Worm being no exception. A four position MODE knob lets you choose between WAH-PHASE-TREM-VIBR, a RANGE knob that seems to control depth, RATE knob for speed, and a mini toggle for AUTO-MANUAL/EXP.
The WAH setting is kinda fun, in auto mode it’s similar to an autowah, in manual/exp mode you can set it to a cocked wah sound or use an expression pedal and it’s pretty much your standard wah with an EHX flavor.
The PHASE is probably my favorite, with the range adjustability it has shown me that phase is an effect that I can actually enjoy and use regularly. It’s a very rich, smooth phase sound that gets you from slow like molasses to spacey warbbley fast. In manual/exp you can rock thru the entire sweep with an expression pedal or just set the knobs to any position for a set phasey sound.
Here’s where it gets a little disjointed in my opinion. The TREM setting. Ugh, I feel bad even writing it because EHX puts out some good stuff. The tremolo is bad. A little searching on the search machines will quickly turn up results on the noise associated with this side of the pedal. Good news, there do exist mods to clean up the sound, and my plan was to employ one. But something I didn’t read online was the fact that using an expression pedal in TREM mode doesn’t control the rate like one would hope. It just turns into a volume pedal. Yep. Bummed. That was me for sure. So you get to tremolo and you get a noisy volume pedal.
Next you get to the VIBR setting. A good amount of the noise in the TREM setting is gone here but it’s not as clean as WAH and PHASE. I wish I had a little more experience with vibrato effects so I could really give you a proper assessment but this is my first vibe and I’m not too excited. Maybe vibe will grow on me, it is an “up and coming” sound these days it seems like. But for now it’s just not my thing.
Overall this pedal has all the build quality you’d expect from EHX, and some fun features, but some definite misses. I keep it on my board right now for the PHASE when I need it, but I’ve considered just getting the Small Stone.
Submitted by Coe S, Instagram, Twitter
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October 31, 2016
I got a XO The Worm and i do love it. It’s a central piece of my kit. It’s not a swiss army knife modulation box. It’s a phaser with 4 ‘flavors’ preseted. It’s more a tweaker piece of gear. One can find his own sound in it, if in search for all analog low fi trippy swampy things. You can control the sweep in “manual/exp” mode with the knob or an expression pedal. Great in “wah” or “phase” mode to filter a fuzz or distortion sound, but not very useful in other modes. The expression pedal doesn’t tranform the pedal in a ‘real’ wah: it’s quite a different sound. And as you wrote the capability to foot control the rate is cruelly lacking.
Some say it’s noisy but mine is not noisy that much (the older ones in sheet metal box is said to be the noisiest, and perhaps noise may differ from one model to another, and other factors… i read about mods to reduce it but never try).
A very good pedal, cheap, but to buy informed. Skip it if you are in search of a multieffect, or if you can’t (or don’t bother to) include the specific 24 volt transformer in your pedalboard. And beware: as connectors are the same you can easily fry one of your other pedal with the ‘high voltage’ if you mix up. It’s wise to color code the 24v connectors with heat shrink tubing or anything suitable.
January 22, 2018
You’re missing the point of manual TREM setting. In manual mode it doesn’t work as volume, it works like Treble Booster.
It’s always on effect for me, controlling it with exp. pedal I can dynamically boost the signal for solos, and reduce the highs and gain when not needed. It’s brilliant!