Electro-Harmonix Ravish Sitar

Electro-Harmonix

Lead Voice

The LEAD voice will track your playing very well, if you play with a slide it will track it. Basically whatever you play on the guitar, the LEAD voice will make it sound like a sitar is playing it. The more your playing mimics how a Sitar player would actually play, the closer it will sound to a real sitar. You have control over the LEAD’s timbre, kind of like a tone control and its volume or level.

Sympathetic drones

This is where the Ravish really begins to shine. As you play your guitar, the sympathetic strings start to resonate in whatever key you have chosen. Let’s start with E Major. No matter what you play, the sympathetics will ring out in E major. They will track your pitch a little bit, if you play lower notes, the sympathetics will resonate lower notes in the chosen key, if you play higher, the sympathetics will produce higher notes in that key. Minor mode does the same thing but in E minor instead of E major. The exotics scales we are still working on and are disabled on the units we sent to NAMM. If you were to play with a slide, within the given scale you have chosen, I think it would sound great. When playing your guitar more traditionally, in most situations, having a tuned guitar when playing along with the sympathetics, is essential. For the sympathetics you also have control over their Timbre and volume Level as well as a dedicated output just for the sympathetics so they can go to their own effects and amp if you want.

In KEY mode you can tune the sympathetics to your instrument. First you choose one of the three types of scales: Major, Minor or Exotic, then hold down the DRONE/TUNE FSW. You play one note, that note will set the root key of the sympathetic’s scale. If the guitar is a little out of tune, that’s ok, the Ravish will track to the tuning of the root note you play. So if you want to quickly change to F# major, as long as the Ravish is set to major, you press and hold down the TUNE FSW, then play an F#, now the sympathetics are in F#.

In addition (also in the KEY mode) you can input your own scales for the sympathetics strings. You press and hold the DRONE/TUNE FSW, then play each note you want the scale to contain. The Ravish will track each pitch and recreate it when the sympathetic strings ring out. If you then save a preset, your scale will be saved along with the all the other knob and parameter settings. If you only play just one note while holding down the DRONE/TUNE FSW, the Ravish retunes the currently selected scale to that note but if you play more than one note then it begins creating a new scale from the notes you play.

Drone/Tune footswitch

This footswitch allows you to freeze the sympathetic strings if you press and hold the FSW, except when you are in KEY mode. While in KEY mode this FSW allows you to tune the sympathetic strings. If you press and release this FSW, it will load the current preset or move up to the next one.

Electro-Harmonix

Very few instruments offer as much harmonic and dynamic flexibility as a sitar. Electro-Harmonix has streamlined the essence of the sitar into a compact enclosure that offers a polyphonic lead voice and tunable sympathetic string drones that dynamically react to your playing. Create your own custom scales for the sympathetic strings while you set the decay time for the lead voice. Two expression pedal inputs allow you to bend the pitch of the lead voice and control the volume of the sympathetic strings simultaneously. These unique controls offer the player the ability to program the Ravish to become a totally unique and organic instrument unto itself. The Ravish is a truly new design with the flexibility to be a crossover tonal wonder.

Quick Specs:

• Transform your electric guitar into a sitar
• Lead sitar voice tracks your notes polyphonically with a wide range of tonal possibilities
• Selectable decay speed for the Lead voice
• Sympathetic string drone simulation with a wide tonal range
• Selectable keys and scales including major, minor and exotic provided for the Sympathetic strings
• Create custom Sympathetic string scales from your guitar
• Ability to choose the Sympathetic key by playing a note on your guitar
• Modulation adds movement to the sympathetic strings
• Bend the pitch of your Lead voice notes using an optional expression pedal
• Control the volume of the Sympathetic drone using an optional expression pedal
• Separate Main Output for all voices plus a secondary Sympathetic Only Output
• Save and recall 9 presets
• 9 Volt power supply provided

• Premier Guitar