This pedal fills a niche in our band. Lets us play some ELO tunes that we would otherwise have to skip. I use it mainly on the June-O setting. Takes a little bit of time and experimentation to dial it in, but once you have it set properly, it sounds great!

If you already have the Mel 9 and think "Ok I have strings, I'm set" think again. For instance, I've been using the Mel 9 cello in verses of a song and the urge was switch it to strings on the chorus but two things. One the cello disappears and two, switching live is a hassle. Now I orchestrate with ease, wonderous combinations of powerful layers! Lots of touch sensitivity and sustain contrasts when using the two together.

This pedal is fun. I'm still exploring what it can do.

If you are looking for a $ effects system l for under $, you are delusional. If you want great sounds, this is a great choice!
Works with acoustic/electric and electric equally well. Plays well with a Zoom AC-3 in front of it.

I gave it 4.5 stars out of 5 because only issue I have is a wimpy power cord. Come on Electro-Harmonix, up the game on the power supply.

While I appreciate Electro Harmonix's breakthrough in giving us an alternative to the expensive midi/Roland options, this pedal didn't work well for my needs. I just wanted a trailing string pad behind an acoustic. It sounded noisy in this application (more so than the Electro Harmonix video example).

That said, I very much appreciate Sweetwater's customer service, particularly my sales engineer Alex Campos. All the benefits of a big-box retailer with a personal touch that rivals Disney World.

Couldn't return the candy - the kids already ate it. :-)

So, I like the idea of this pedal. When playing acoustic guitar, and mixed in correctly, it can really add a nice dimension to your sound. It's easy to understand and operate, but it feels like the sounds are limited when it comes to overall quality, and you REALLY need to make sure to take the time to dial it in the right way.

With that being said, Electro-Harmonix includes the CHEAPEST, WEAKEST power adapter EVER! If I'm paying over $ for a pedal that really has one purpose, you may want to include something that doesn't have the weakest wire in history. I've had it for less than 3 months, and while it was set up at a show, someone step on something near the wire, and now there is a break in the wire. I cannot stress enough how cheap of wire they use for the power adapter, but I will stop at a local music shop and pick up a good wire so I can still use the pedal on occasion. Understand that you should do that RIGHT AWAY unless you have this on a pedal board where the wires are not exposed and it will practically NEVER get moved.

The thing that caught my attention about this pedal was the inclusion of the three "freeze" programs. I am a user and fan of the E-H Freeze pedal. With the Freeze in "latch" mode, you start by playing a sound and hit the switch, which freezes the sound and lets you play over that sound. When you want to change the chord/drone, you simply tap the switch again once, and the pedal re-samples and starts holding the new chord. To bypass the pedal and stop the playback, you double-tap the switch.

The String9 has two modes for the freeze patches, one of which the E-H produced demo video describes as "latch mode". Going just by the demo video, that "latch mode" APPEARS to work the same way as the Freeze pedal. So, silly me, I assumed that it DOES work the same way. I was looking forward to using it the way I was used to using the Freeze, but have access to some more interesting sounds to play over (orchestra, synth, and voice).

Well, shame on me for not reading the manual before I bought. What the demo video calls "latch mode", the manual calls "manual mode". And if you single-press the switch while a chord is sustaining, it does NOT re-sample and continue playing. It kicks out to bypass. So in order to change from one chord to another (while playing over them), you have to bypass the pedal (which instantly stops the playback), and re-activate it, and after that it often takes a fraction of a second for the pedal to zero in on the sound and start to play back again. So I find it pretty much impossible to smoothly change chords while playing over them, which I can do pretty effortlessly on the Freeze pedal.

The "auto mode" on the freeze patches works as advertised, sustaining the sound at a constant volume until you play another note/chord. But you can not play over the sustained sound in this mode.

Despite my disappointment with the freeze functionality, we ended up keeping the pedal, because my wife likes the sounds she gets running her violin pickup through it. And I might use it on occasion to lay down some synth pad sounds for demo recordings. Many of the sounds are fun, and it seems to track well with just a little practice and consistent touch. Not a bad product, I was just disappointed that I am not able to use it in the primary way I intended. I won't go so far as to say the E-H demo video is intentionally misleading, but I do find it misleading, especially for anyone already familiar with the Freeze pedal. Just wanted to give everyone a heads-up in case you were thinking the same thing I was. If I am missing something and someone out there can educate me, I would very much appreciate being corrected, and write a new review. Thanks!

Already have the Mel9 and Synth9 pedals, thought I'd like this one as well.
The 1st one I received had some issues, in typical Sweetwater fashion, a new unit was shipped out to me immediately.
Unit has nice string sounds available with lots of gain in the signal.
(Seems like more gain than the other 2)
The pedals input is from my loop switcher, from there it goes to a dedicated channel
on my mixer, than out to pa. (See Photo)
I'm playing mostly Acoustic/Electric using a BBE Acoustimax preamp and a spark booster pedal.
So far my Fav is setting no. 1 (Symphonic) as it has a very full sound and works well mixed with the sound
of my acoustic. A bit of High Choir from the Mel9 pedal added it and it sounds very full. Tracking is good,
just like the other synth pedals. A winner in my studio!

On the whole this rig has been a fairly welcome addition to the sound sources that I have on hand in my studio. I should probably preface this review by mentioning that I am basically a guitarist/singer/songwriter, but I didn't purchase the String 9 for use in live venues. I got it for recording purposes only, mostly because I'm fairly dissatisfied with the preponderance of string patches I can summon up through both Pro Tools and Reason. As stated, I'm mostly a guitar player, so I don't envision this machine turning me into any facsimile of Keith Emerson.
Most of the music I compose is geared towards the target audience of classic/arena rock with a somewhat progressive edge. Hence, the use for a decent set of string sounds.
I would also probably qualify this review by stating that I am only beginning to use this rig and haven't explored the possibilities as deeply as I will in the future.
While I am fairly impressed with the overall selection of orchestral and synthesized sounds available in the String 9, I've found it has some significant limitations that I hadn't anticipated while watching the demos before purchasing.
The sound of the Orchestral patch, the Juno 8, and the ARP are right up my alley and I can make decent use of them. The sounds are lush, authentic, and eminently adjustable in terms of overall tone and sustain/release. Plus the controls and the manual are fairly user-friendly, unlike most modern gear these days.
I really am impressed with the availability of the freeze functions. These almost completely eliminate the need for me to purchase outside long sustain pads. Plus, because they are guitar driven, functioning as a pad they can become major, minor, diminished, major sevenths, dominant sevenths—what have you. Most purchased pads merely offer the fairly pedestrian root and fifth versions.
However, there are a couple aspects of the device that I find a little disappointing, not the least of which is that, for my intents and purposes, I can't render the orchestral and synthesized sounds in stereo. I know that technically it can be applied to two channels by using the dry signal out, but I have yet to find a use for doubling the string sounds with a guitar part. My idea is to keep the strings separate from what the guitar is doing. In the future it is conceivable that I could apply wild effects to the dry signal and come up with some very hybrid blending of guitar insanity with the string sounds. But that takes hooking up some serious additional hardware. Ain't got the time at the moment.
To my way of thinking, I would much prefer a signal flow that would split the string sound output into two separate stereo channels, much the same way a digital delay works so that one can ping-pong the echoes a la the Edge. Curious to know if Electro Harmonix has entertained the idea of such a development.
But as it stands, all the stand-alone string parts necessarily have to be recorded in mono. Luckily, as stated, the sounds are very lush, so I can cobble together a workaround where needed. And it just means I have to be a little more judicious in the use of where I place the string sounds in the stereophonic field.
So the verdict: Great sounds within certain limitations. At the moment I can totally live without the dry output. I can make a guitar yield some strange sounds all on my own without any help from this rig. But on the whole I think it will turn out to be a good investment—even though it's a trifle spendy.

It's somewhat of a pricy pedal, but it does exactly what I hoped it would. It's hard to stop playing it...sounds great and it's so much fun to use. I've been acquiring guitar effects pedals for over 40 years. I can't remember that last time I bought a pedal and had this much fun. Below are segments of the same comments I posted on YouTube.

Just got this pedal from SweetWater a few days ago. Can't stop using it. The first 3 sounds are where it's at for me. To incorporate it with my band or acoustic duo I think the Juno and the PCM will work the best, as they're a little more subtle. Using a volume pedal after the String 9 works really well. I have a gig this weekend so I'm going to try it out. It's already mounted on my gigging board...which I didn't plan to do so quickly...but it's a keeper and sounds great. Fills in the holes incredibly well for some of the 70s and 80s stuff the band does.

Running it in parallel is where its at for me. I opened up the pedal and set the internal switch to mute. So when the pedal is off, there's no sound coming out of the Effect output jack. I'm basically running my guitar into the pedal then sending the Effect output to a volume pedal then into a DI box then sending the XLR into to the PA mixing board where the String 9 has its own channel. The Dry output buffered signal from the String 9 goes to the rest of the pedals on my board and then into my Marshall amp. Sounds fantastic!!! I love using the volume pedal to blend the sounds together. Really handy if you want to lower the volume of the String 9 during verses or a guitar solo, then bring the volume up on the String 9 for a chorus section. It also sounds great behind my acoustic guitar as sort of a background string pad. Really works well (again I run it in parallel with my main guitar signal so the String 9 has its own channel on the PA mixing board.)

I researched this pedal for several months after wondering if there was a pedal out there that could do exactly what it does. It does pretty much everything I hoped for. Can't wait to hear it do the synth parts in the middle of Rush's "Distant Early Warning". Sounds great using at home. I've been using 2 different amps: one set up on my left for the Dry guitar sound, and the other amp is getting the String 9 effected signal and that amp sits on my right. Sound is huge! This Saturday I'll find out how it works with the band. It's a little box of Magic!

I have 5 of the EHX 9 series pedals. None are perfect emulations of their intended purpose, but they get you in the ballpark. For a guitarist in a classic rock, 3 piece band, they are very beneficial, esp B9 Hammond sound. For String 9, it is one of the better ones. The symphonic is good at providing an orchestra sound. And there are a couple that do good at providing a sustained symph backdrop for chords, as you are playing acoustic. A poor man's substitute for Roland GR55 without special pickup. I use Helix Floor for tons of tones in my classic rock band. The 9 series are on a separate board and i put them in an FX loop of Helix. That way i can place them anywhere i need them in signal chain, per each song. So yes, String 9 is a keeper

Ordered pedal in hopes that it would add a nice orchestral type pad under acoustic guitar rhythm for worship service. After trying at home that application didn't seem to sound the best (even when running wet/dry seperate). It turned out to be somewhat muddy and overwhelming. It seems to respond much better to arpeggios and lead lines to create a defined orchestral movement. The pedal tries to pick up on these notes and produced major and minor triads. So, keep this mind for your specific application.

Great effects. Can't wait until I get my tenor caster and run it through this pedal. Thanks Sweetwater.

Great effects. Can't wait until I get my tenor caster and run it through this pedal. Thanks Sweetwater.

The pedal is absolutely amazing! BUT! My recommendation is to use both outputs (Dry > into your normal pedal chain and Effect/Wet > Direct into a PA/MIXER/FOH) This is the way to really make the pedal shine! I use it in a band context, we are a 3-piece, we don't have a keyboard player. So I am using the WET out into our PA when playing live, and I can use almost any of the 9th modes because they all sound very good! It is even better to switch off the internal switch, so that way when the pedal is bypassed there will be no sound on the WET output. It takes a little while to understand the pedal and its potential, but after that it can be used as "Set and forget". I play almost every genre and all of the modes are giving me what I need.
I totally recommend this pedal!

It's different for sure. There's no denying that EHX makes some of the best effect pedals around. This is one is fun to mess around with, but I don't see me using it in any application.

To be honest, I probably wouldn't have purchased this had I tried it out first. There's not enough demos on YouTube to help you decide. (Only demo of this one is from EHX.)

If you have the opportunity, I'd recommend trying this one out before you buy.

Can't tell you how much fun this pedal is.The guys I play with love it and ask me to break it out (haven't put it on my board yet). I can see some serious applications for it down the road but right now I'm still figuring out everything it can do. Worth the money, good instructions and pretty easy to use right out of the box.

I really want to love this, and I think there will be a place for it, just not with my Martin D16. The pedal just does not play nice with it's Fishman Matrix Enhanced pickups. With the Effects nob at about the 8 o'clock position I get either way too much of the effect or non at all. I've tried turning it up and playing lighter and turning it down and playing harder, both are inconsistent. This could very well be an issue with my style or maybe it will work better with one of my other guitars. If it plays nice after testing it with the 414 and Acoustic sonic I'll update my review.