Let's talk reverb

[misterwhizzy]

How much reverb do you use? And what tones do you find it useful as an enhancement? Or are you a reverb-always-on guy?

I'm a straight-ahead rock and roll type of player, typically JCM800-ish tones, so I have never found much use for it. I like adding some delay and a boost for solos, and that feels like enough color to me. Am I missing out on something?

 

[ErikH]

Depends on the situation for me; venue, songs I'm playing. For some I like to have an ample amount for ambiance and others maybe just a little. It's on all the time for me.

 

[jeremy]

many of my main amps are vintage fender reverb amps. '66 princeton reverb, '66 deluxe reverb, '66 pro reverb, '69 dual showman reverb... you get the idea. on those amps, the reverb is on all the time. im typically playing blues rock either straight in or with a small pedal board with drive and delay. for my tweed fenders or other non-reverb amps i have a fender stand alone reverb unit, brown tolex ri model. but honestly a 5e3 or 5e7 doesnt need reverb to sound good. neither does my trainwreck express clone or jtm45 or my other non-reverb amps.

i guess my point is, if an amp has a nice built in spring reverb, i will use it (even my badcat cougar 50 has a decent reverb) but if it doesnt, i can live without it as long as the tone itself has got some meat to it.

 

[Seashore]

I like spring reverb or a pedal emulation of it on clean tones. It's nice with my VHT because that amp has thinner and more brittle cleans than I would like. My old 50W Traynor had a pretty great spring reverb, which is how I got hooked.

I use clean sounds pretty sparingly, mostly just as occasional soft parts, and I want the reverb to be moderate at most. Enough to be heard and add some space and atmosphere, but not enough to drown anything. I really love the sound of some of the spacier shimmery post-rock reverbs, but I have no application for them in what I'm doing.

 

[Mincer]

I always use reverb. It comes from it being the only effect I had on my first amp (no gain channel). So, an amp without reverb isn't something I'd ever consider.

 

[ehdwuld]

on and thick
I like the BiYang Tri Reverb until I got the Caline Snake Bite
the Snake Bite is much more versatile and lush

if my new H&K tonemaster had reverb
I probably wouldnt have any need for the Caline

but then again the Bugera I had before had reverb and I still used the pedal in the loop
I love that thing

 

[FuseG4]

I love reverb but I just play at home for fun...

first use is a little bit of bigger space for playing in at home. This is like what I would use for 90% of my playing. It can be so distracting and muddy so none at all or a little delay for like most things really.


I do really like... The drippy washy overdriven spring tank chaos of a loud small fender reverb amp. I don't play music like Jim campilongo but I like his tone with a cranked Princeton reverb. Doing things like volume knob and tone knob swells and behind the nut bends on harmonics, with the kinda nasty Princeton overdrive, you get a lot of sonic space and sustain with just an amp and a guitar. Good for a 3 piece band playing with one guitarist in small to medium rooms.

Third, Ambient/ dream pop guitar. Two delays into washy modulated swelling reverb kinda stuff, play simple and wandering patterns and focus on mood and texture. Kinda goes with the next one.

Fourth is shoegaze. Dirt into reverbs into fuzzes stuff. Wall of noise that masks your pick attack but has endless amounts of sustain and changing textures, you can hear chords still but there's this all enveloping harmonic nasty assault that's ugly but dreamy. Easy to do and fun if even if you suck at guitar. ​​​​​

 

[marcello252]

many of my main amps are vintage fender reverb amps. '66 princeton reverb, '66 deluxe reverb, '66 pro reverb, '69 dual showman reverb... you get the idea.

my idea about your amps is just WOW

 

[marcello252]

I'm currently using a Princeton as my main amp and I love that little always present amount of reverb (never more than 3) when I'm home, and the fender spring reverbs are usually gorgeous.

When I play outside I don't mind the reverb so much, I only use some delay when needed, it's difficult to hear it in a band context unless it's functional to the song of the moment, in that case the amp spring reverb isn't enough : being a huge Jeff Buckley fan, in some more ambient songs I use a TC Hall of Fame in Church mode, very spacey, washy, but it's not an always on effect

​

 

[Aceman]

If the amp has it - it is likely on "3" all the time.

My VS100 - 4 on clean channel, 3 on OD 1/2
My HK18 - Flint on 80's with Decay at 2p and level at 10p, so like 3.5
My Fender Pro Jr. Trey Verb set to '65 with blend really low
My Mesa - Verb from my Zoom G3N, usually a hall set on ~35%, when I use it. I don't always, or usually.
My POD Go - Hall on ~35% when I use it

Mesa/POD are for live usually, so I only pop it on for songs that need it.

I have two reverb pedals: A large box EHX Holy Grail and a Boss RV3. (Besides Flint/Tre-Verb)

 

[Ascension]

How much reverb do you use? And what tones do you find it useful as an enhancement? Or are you a reverb-always-on guy?

I'm a straight-ahead rock and roll type of player, typically JCM800-ish tones, so I have never found much use for it. I like adding some delay and a boost for solos, and that feels like enough color to me. Am I missing out on something?

Depends on the venue and what I'm doing. I normally use a little verb and delay, just for a little depth. However, being a modern worship player a lot of the time I do at times get into deeper use of time based effects, from true washy ambient tones to running some shimmer when playing with say a couple acoustic players with no bass and or keyboard to help fill space.
My normal tone is a little plate verb and delay when I'm just playing here at the house or practicing. Most of my amps don't have verb, so many times I just run an Ocean's 11 set on the delay setting with a touch of verb and a light slap in the loop.

 

[Chistopher]

Normally I don't use too much reverb. Most larger rooms have more than enough natural reverb. The only time I use a lot of it is when I put it before distortion.

 

[Mincer]

Also I set up patches that are 100% reverb, and no dry signal, sometimes pitch transposed an octave up or down. I then swell in the notes with an expression pedal. Works great for pads.

 

[JMP/HBE]

Ive used the TC HOF mini a long time. Set & forget. No issues whatever. Works great.

 

[Securb]

Also I set up patches that are 100% reverb, and no dry signal, sometimes pitch transposed an octave up or down. I then swell in the notes with an expression pedal. Works great for pads.

Same here; typically, if I am using reverb, I am doing something more on the extreme end of what you would call reverb. I have great spring reverb in a bunch of amps, but typically, I am using the SPACE algorithm in the H9/90.

 

[GuitarStv]

I love using reverb while practicing. Playing out I will often turn it off and do stuff with low mix delays - it just seems to work better most of the time live.

 

[JOLLY]

I never even used reverb until about the past year. I've just always used delay. Now I only use delay on my leads. I use reverb now on my rhythms, but it's down really low. You can barely even tell that I'm using any.

 

[GuitarStv]

I never even used reverb until about the past year. I've just always used delay. Now I only use delay on my leads. I use reverb now on my rhythms, but it's down really low. You can barely even tell that I'm using any.

This is how I like reverb mixed on my guitar when recording most of the time . . . you set it so that it can be just barely heard, then back it off a tad.

 

[PS412]

99.9% off 99.999999999999999999999999999% of the time.

 

[Artie]

I always dial in a teensy bit. (In my small music room.) Otherwise, my electric guitar sounds dead and lifeless. Acoustic guitars don't need it. Their reverb is built in to the cavity.