To certain players desirous of infinite sustain, Electro-Harmonix’s 2010 release of its Freeze pedal granted instant gratification. It gave guitarists the ability to sustain any one note or chord while they continued to play additional licks or harmonies—the closest a picker could get to a piano’s sustain pedal.
EHX’s Superego—released just two years later in 2012—built upon the Freeze technology to give more control over the frozen notes. Now there was greater character, complexity, a chance to create a more ideal sound.
The Superego’s "Gliss" and "Auto" modes could create instant modulations and slides between held notes, or capture chords as you performed them, without having to engage the footswitch. It also came with a built-in effects loop, so that you could modify the sustained sound to your tastes.
To expand even further on these developments, EHX has now released the Superego+. While maintaining the option of the external effects loop, it brings into the pedal a range of modulation effects, including rotary, tremolos, flange, delay, echos, and more. You can attach an expression pedal (or a synth with an CV out), to determine the rate or level of the onboard effects.
Other new features allow you to further dial-in the functionality of the freeze effect, like the "Threshold" knob, which you can set to only sustain the heavier notes you hit, letting your gentle lead lines float freely above the sustained tone.
Of the four "global freeze modes," the "sustain" mode makes good on what, for some, was the original promise of the Freeze pedal—allowing you to layer new, sustained notes on top of existing ones, and then release the footswitch to end them all—the actual functionality of a piano sustain pedal.
But, as Andy demonstrates in the above video, this is just one of many new possibilities the Superego+ provides.