I am, for nature, a skeptic. When something generates a lot of fuss, I often reflexively question it. Few effects pedals in recent memory have generated more buzz than the Mercury high end guitar pedals. But after using it, I can’t even try to pretend that the Mercury X doesn’t live up to the hype. It’s pretty expensive at $599, but it’s the best reverb pedal on the market, period.
Honestly, that could be the end of the review, but I know I can’t make such a bold statement without backing it up. The Mercury
On the floor
Let’s start by talking about the construction: it’s rock solid. The four footswitches, four potentiometers, and three push encoders are robust and have a good amount of resistance. The screen is bright and viewable from any angle, and the Mercury X has basically every connectivity option you could ask for. It has stereo inputs and outputs, 5-pin MIDI input and output, an expression pedal connector, and USB-C, although the latter is strictly for firmware updates at this time.
Obviously, the hardware is secondary. It’s the variety and incredible quality of the reverb algorithms (“structures” in Meris terminology) included in the pedal that make it the best available. There are eight in total, ranging from standard spring and hall reverbs to more exotic tracks like “Ultraplate” and “Gravity.” Regardless of whether they are more restrained ambient washes or really extravagant, they sound incredible.
Photography: Terrence O’Brien
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I’m picky about my spring reverbs. I often find the emulations to be sparse and obviously artificial compared to the sound of a traditional Fender amp. Even the real thing can look cheap and toy-like if not implemented properly. But Meris highlights it with a spring algorithm that’s convincing and lush at more subtle settings, and when you crank it up, it feels like your guitar is running through an incredibly large spring tank without it feeling unnatural.
The 78 Room, 78 Plate and 78 Hall algorithms are borrowed from Meris’ collaboration with Pursue happiness (another relentlessly innovative guitar pedal company), the CXM 1978. That pedal, in turn, is inspired by the Lexicon 224, an iconic late ’70s digital reverb unit used by artists like Vangelis, Brian Eno, Kate Bush and Talking. Heads. The difference here is that the CXM has three different versions of each of those algorithms, while the Mercury X only has the “hifi” version. These all sound awesome too, but not super realistic. Instead, they mimic the unique character of early rack-mount digital units. With the peripheral effects that Meris includes, you can really lean into the lofi and imperfect nature of his inspiration.
Ultraplate and Cathedral come from Meris’s modern classic reverb pedal, Mercury 7. They are epic, in the true sense of the word. Sure, you can scale things down and get big, but not uncontrollable, reverb tails. But they gain importance when the vast voids at their extremes are embraced. The Ultraplate in particular plays almost forever even with the decay halfway down.
The last two algorithms, Prism and Gravity, are exclusive to the Mercury X. They are the two most available options. Prism is a “dual tank that allows you to build your own geometric rooms.” That description doesn’t really give you an idea of what it sounds like. I would describe it as dense with reflections and somehow claustrophobic and massive at the same time. Gravity is almost granular in nature, taking small pieces of your sound and blurring them into infinity. If you want to play big ambient emo melody lines, these two will probably be your best friends (along with Ultraplate).