Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork Plus

The Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork+ is a polyphonic pitch shifter pedal released in 2020 by Electro-Harmonix. Where a basic pitch shifter moves your whole signal by one interval, the Pitch Fork+ puts two independent pitch-shifting engines in one enclosure, each with full control over its own shift amount and level¹. Each engine can transpose your pitch up or down over a range of plus or minus three octaves, with detuning of plus or minus 99 cents available per channel².

Because it is polyphonic, it tracks chords as well as single notes, and because there are two engines you can stack two shifted voices against each other and against your dry signal, each with its own volume control³. Delicious Audio described it as building on the original Pitch Fork circuit while adding the second engine and an extra modulation effect⁴.

Two engines, eight modes

The core idea of the Pitch Fork+ is that the two pitch-shifting engines are identical but independent². Each can be set to its own interval in semitones or octaves, covering the full plus or minus three octave range, and each has its own detune setting of up to plus or minus 99 cents¹². Gearnews reported the pedal as offering eight modes across its two engines³.

For a player, that independence is what separates the Plus from the original Pitch Fork. The original, released in 2014, offers three shift modes: up, down or dual, over the same plus or minus three octave range⁶. With the Plus, you are not limited to a single shifted voice plus its mirror; you can set two different intervals, balance them against each other and against the dry signal with independent volume controls, and route the result in stereo³.

MusicRadar's reviewer put the appeal plainly:

The pedal also adds a cross-modulation feature, accessed through the X-MOD button, which opens up the modulation effect Delicious Audio noted alongside the second engine¹⁴.

The controls and buttons

The front panel mixes knobs with buttons that each open a set of settings. From Electro-Harmonix's own product page¹:

There are two footswitches on the enclosure. One engages and bypasses the effect, and as on the original Pitch Fork it can be set to either latching or momentary mode¹. The other, the User footswitch, can be assigned to a variety of functions, including selecting presets, toggling between the pitch-shifting channels, crossfades, or muting either pitch-shifted voice, and it has its own dedicated LED⁷³.

Power, expression and footswitch connections

The Pitch Fork+ ships with a 9.6VDC-200mA power adapter in the box, and the pedal itself requires 120mA¹². This is a difference from the original Pitch Fork, which also runs on a 9V battery⁸; no battery option is listed for the Plus.

On the connection side, the pedal offers more than the usual input and output pair¹³:

• Main output for your primary signal path
• Auxiliary output, which Gearnews noted makes it easy to route the pedal into a stereo effects setup with two amps
• EXP jack, accepting a TRS expression pedal or a tip-sleeve 0 to 5V control voltage input, assignable to a number of different parameters
• EXT jack, a TRS input for a generic external foot controller such as the EHX Triple Foot Controller, useful for changing modes and loading presets

The external foot controller can be used to control frequency, glissando and effect volume³.

Presets

The Pitch Fork+ comes with 10 unique factory presets and the ability to save and recall 100 of your own programs¹. The PRESET button manages loading and saving, and the User footswitch can be assigned to preset access so you can step through sounds without bending down¹³.

What reviewers said

Guitar World's review of the Pitch Fork+ noted the two independent pitch-shifting processors and the ability to tune up as well as down, with up to 100 presets savable⁵. In a comparison against the DigiTech Drop, the same reviewer found a trade-off when tuning down:

MusicRadar's verdict emphasized the versatility of the two-engine format rather than any single sound⁷. Gearnews, covering the pedal's appearance ahead of its official announcement, highlighted the eight modes, the preset storage, the expression and foot-controller inputs, and the stereo routing options as the headline features³.

Where it sits in the EHX line

The Pitch Fork+ is the larger sibling in a family of EHX pitch shifters. The original Pitch Fork offers one engine with up, down and dual modes over the same three-octave range⁸. The Pico Pitch Fork packs the format into a compact Pico enclosure, with a Mode button for Up, Down and Dual shifts and a 100mA current draw at 9.0VDC. The Pitch Fork+ sits at the top of that line with its second engine, cross-modulation and 100-program storage¹⁹. Players looking at the wider category can compare it against other octave and pitch pedals.

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