The Electro-Harmonix Freeze Sound Retainer has always been a favorite and a pedal that sits on my personal pedalboard. It’s a really unique effect that can add a lot of texture for such a small package. The biggest complaint by far has always been the footswitch on this pedal; It uses a momentary switch that has a physical click when depressed. This can be particularly annoying if you’re repeatedly triggering the pedal. We’ve offered an Overhaul Mod to replace the footswitch with a soft touch footswitch and also a 1/4″ jack so you can use your preferred remote footswitch. Connecting a sustain pedal designed for a digital piano immediately became my preferred way of using this pedal but let’s take it one step further and rehouse the entire EHX Freeze’s circuit board inside of the sustain pedal.
The rehousing started off with trimming down the Freeze’s PCB to fit into the new enclosure. The sustain pedal is large but the inside has a massive spring and hinge mechanism so there isn’t as much room as it appears. The casing is plastic so the inside needed to be shielded with copper tape. After that we’re installing a DC jack on back, 1/4″ jacks on the side for in and out, volume on the side, and a red LED on top. This pedal had the toggle switch removed and has been wired to permanently be in the “Slow” mode which allows the sampled sound to slowly fade out. Otherwise there are no surprises or add-ons as the goal for this project is to have a simple pedal that does one thing very well.
I look at this rehousing and I think this is how the sound retainer circuit should have been packaged. The smooth, long taper of the sustain pedal feels natural and doesn’t introduce mechanical noise that might be picked up by microphones when recording an orchestral string instrument. Rehousing everything into one package not only saves space but also simplifies setup. This rehousing is definitely not for everyone, but I think I’ll see some people that can appreciate the modifications!
And now for the bad news: this project was incredibly time consuming and isn’t something that we’ll be offering again. It was a fun project but it’s not a good business offering.
