Guitarists who use a lot of reverb live...

Andrew Lamprecht

Andrew Lamprecht

Minion of One
How do they get away with it? I've always heard that reverb live for the most part is unnecessary. Sometimes just a bit for ambience but a lot will kill your sound. When I've played out I've just used a delay or went dry. I'm more of a fan of reverb vs delay so I want to start using it effectively live. I'm just afraid of having ass ugly tone. :confused:

Two of my favorites use a ton of reverb live. How do they do it without sounding like crap?



 
Re: Guitarists who use a lot of reverb live...

The way I was told is that if you're using reverb as a specific effect, go for it.
If you're in a small room and want it to sound like a bigger space, go for it.
If you're in a large amphitheater and you go throw "room" type reverb on it then you're defeating the purpose.
If everyone in your band needs reverb for their instrument then unless that's "your sound" then avoid that too.

Just don't go overboard. the reverb does kinda take your guitar to the background where a dry signal will be right out front.
 
Re: Guitarists who use a lot of reverb live...

Watch some Chris Isaak footage and you'll figure it out. At that point the guitar acts a brush, painting in the sonic gap between the rest of the band. Telling a story that the vocalist doesn't have the words to say.
 
Re: Guitarists who use a lot of reverb live...

Lots of reverb live works only for certain applications... Post-rock and other trippy variants.
Metallica's Live **** album is a great example of reverb gone wrong.
 
Re: Guitarists who use a lot of reverb live...

Big Flannel said:
Watch some Chris Isaak footage and you'll figure it out. At that point the guitar acts a brush, painting in the sonic gap between the rest of the band. Telling a story that the vocalist doesn't have the words to say.
Click to expand...

James Wilsey (previously of The Avengers) was the guitar genius behind that, BTW.
 
Re: Guitarists who use a lot of reverb live...

I just turn it till it sounds right, either to fit the room, or fit the song. Sometimes that means turning it off altogether.
 
Re: Guitarists who use a lot of reverb live...

Diego said:
Lots of reverb live works only for certain applications... Post-rock and other trippy variants.
Metallica's Live **** album is a great example of reverb gone wrong.
Click to expand...
Metallica is a great example of a band gone wrong.
 
Re: Guitarists who use a lot of reverb live...

Fewer notes played in general. On a jazz gig I'll go almost dry, maybe a tiny touch of echo or reverb, but if it's a solo guitar gig or with my newer americana influenced project, I'll just wash my entire guitar tone in reverb and echo, and only play a handful of notes. Some of you are right in saying that it takes away from the directness or the closeness of the sound, but thats just like arguing that an overdrive pedal is taking away from the pureness of your amplified sound. An effect is an effect.
 
Re: Guitarists who use a lot of reverb live...

Peter Green was using a '59 Les through a spring reverb. Jeff Buckley's guitar was not using reverb, his other guitar player was, but it was a digital reverb and I suspect the wet signal was running through a separate amp.

Peter Green got away with it because a '59 Les has lower output pickups with some brightness and spank to them, which the reverb doesn't reproduce - this creates separation from the source guitar signal and the reverberated one.

To do this yourself, allow a touch of brightness (8khz - 10khz @ + 2-3db) to your source guitar signal then darken/roll-off your reverb signal on the highs with a low-pass filter around 4khz - 2khz @ -12db per 8ve. This will separate your clean sound from your reverb so they will co-exist without getting muddy.
 
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Re: Guitarists who use a lot of reverb live...

In much of today modern Praise and Worship stuff it's absolutely DROWNING in not just digital Reverb but Reverb with Shimmer ( A Strymon Blue sky is the unit of choice most times) + multi tap Delay and many times EBOW. Everything sounds like U2 on steroids.
For this stuff you use it or don't get the gig and these gigs can pay quite well. There is a whole musical world that revolves solely around the use of what is referred to as "ambient" tones and it's been a challenge for guys like me who prefer to run a good tube amp and almost no effects to cope with. It's why I chose to play in mostly Black Churches now days as I am more of an old school tube tone purist + you can SHRED your BRAINS out instead of holding one note or just playing a 3 or 4 chord pattern all night!!
A good example of what I'm talking about is this particular song by Jesus Culture.

or this one by Hillsong United
 
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Re: Guitarists who use a lot of reverb live...

beaubrummels said:
To do this yourself, allow a touch of brightness (8khz - 10khz @ + 2-3db) to your source guitar signal then darken/roll-off your reverb signal on the highs with a low-pass filter around 4khz - 2khz @ -12db per 8ve. This will separate your clean sound from your reverb so they will co-exist without getting muddy.
Click to expand...

how do I do that on my fender amp? its only got a reverb knob
 
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