Electro-Harmonix String9: It's fun, but is it actually useful?

You might imagine I'd be annoyed that a certain well-known pedal builder and YouTuber had published a video on the Electro-Harmonix 9 Series three days before I planned to upload mine. And you might be slightly right. But this demo of the EHX String 9 / String9 / S9 is very different, for three reasons:

1. There's no amp or amp sim here - it's straight to the audio interface. It just sounds better that way. (Well, you wouldn't run a real synth through a guitar amp, would you?)

2. The dry signal is set to zero for most of it, so you only hear the synth, with no plinky guitar notes mixed in...

3. ...except for the last bit, where you do hear plinky guitar notes mixed in, but for very good reason. This is arguably the String9's coolest trick.

So is this a pedal that's actually worth having? For recording, I'd say most people are probably better off with a controller keyboard and soft synths. But I'd be interested to hear if anyone is using an S9 live…

(Guitar is a Telecaster.)

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