Recommend me a reverb pedal

Seraphial

New member
What's everyone's experiences with reverb pedals and what do you recommend? I've heard mostly positive reviews of the EHX Holy Grail but am open to suggestions!

Thanks!
 
Re: Recommend me a reverb pedal

I bought a Holy Grail last year. It's not perfect, but much better than Verbzilla.
 
Re: Recommend me a reverb pedal

Holy Grail is a darn fine pedal, not only for its spring sound which really is hard to tell from a Fender amp amazingly, but also for the hall and room settings which are very nice as well.
 
Re: Recommend me a reverb pedal

First - just give in before the Verbzilla Police come. There is no escaping their love for that pedal. They have ways of making you buy it. For the love of god if you want anything but that - delete this thread now, do some searches, and work with non-Verbzilla fans by PM!!!!!!

I love my Holy Grail - It's one of my "tone" pedals that I use with my Pro Jr. when I'm going for some killer sound. There is a new version that has a couple more parameters. You may want to check that out. But for me - Spring & hall are all I need. I really like the warm, organic, quality- almost a touch of grit, really. JUst awesome.
 
Re: Recommend me a reverb pedal

I'm the Verbzilla police. Hand in your other reverb pedals, failure to do so will result in ownership of a crappy reverb pedal. You have been warned.
 
Re: Recommend me a reverb pedal

I'm not a member of the Verbzilla Police per se, but I do have one and really dig it! I never compared it to the Holy Grail, but I went with the Verbzilla because of the praise on the forums and comparing reviews and some other features. I only have two gripes with the pedal:
- I do not like the bypass switch, it feels kinda cheap IMO, not a solid CLICK like the switching on say the holy grail
- The battery life is terrible. I think it sucks the battery power even when theres no cables plugged into it or something i dont know

But besides those minor issues really, the thing sounds insane
 
Re: Recommend me a reverb pedal

First - just give in before the Verbzilla Police come. There is no escaping their love for that pedal. They have ways of making you buy it. For the love of god if you want anything but that - delete this thread now, do some searches, and work with non-Verbzilla fans by PM!!!!!!

I love my Holy Grail - It's one of my "tone" pedals that I use with my Pro Jr. when I'm going for some killer sound. There is a new version that has a couple more parameters. You may want to check that out. But for me - Spring & hall are all I need. I really like the warm, organic, quality- almost a touch of grit, really. JUst awesome.


The new XO series Holier Grail is an awesome upgrade of a classic. Not only does it take up far less room, but its tweakable for each setting, for spring you can adjust the tank size, for hall I think you can adjust the number of reflections etc.

Also new and notable for me was the Room setting which is really a great sound and the one I use for general ambiance where as the Hall and Spring are used more for an effect.

To top it off it now can use a standard 9v adapter as well.
 
Re: Recommend me a reverb pedal

When Lew, "I hate all things digital", endorsed the 'Zilla, I knew I had to check it out.

Now I own one.
 
Re: Recommend me a reverb pedal

I like my Digitech Digiverb, which sounds very sweet- pretty cheap too.
 
Re: Recommend me a reverb pedal

I know this is probably not what you're after, but I wanted to put it out there anyway because I think it is great:

Van Amps Sole-Mate reverb

http://www.vanamps.com/solemate.htm

It really nails that spring reverb sound...because it is a spring reverb.

It is big, and only does one type of reverb, but it sound wonderful and lush. It is true bypass, if that matters. It also has an "aux" jack that can operate your amp's tremolo or other duties, which perhaps kind of almost justifies it's size since you would be able to leave another pedal off.

I was skeptical that a spring reverb would work in pedal form, but it does and it sounds great. It is surprisingly robust...no boinging when I engage the foot switch. It does seem more susceptible to lateral movement, so I don't recommend kicking it (of course, I tried this in the name of science...hence the warning). That being said, I have not gigged with it yet, but I have jumped around a lot in an attempt to get it to crash, to no avail (other than the lateral kick...).

solemate_tan.jpg
 
Re: Recommend me a reverb pedal

Danelectro Spring King Reverb

I had one of those for a while, cool unit because it is a spring tank, but the downside is that its a very SMALL tank and sounds it.

Its not a bad verb per say, but if you've ever had a little 8" combo amp with those tiny Accutronic's tanks, thats what it sounds like.

Just doesn't get the fullness and depth of a nice fullsize Fender tank.

Its a bit of a space hog as well as its a big unit, cool retro look though
 
Re: Recommend me a reverb pedal

I have had good luck with the Marshall Reverb pedal. Well, and the Fender Reverb unit.
 
Re: Recommend me a reverb pedal

In your experience what is best for Reverb as an effect? Not for ambience, like most spring, or surfy reverb, but for like Post-Rock and Shoegaze set to 100% wet, or used with massive dwell and a volume pedal to create pads?
 
Re: Recommend me a reverb pedal

In your experience what is best for Reverb as an effect? Not for ambience, like most spring, or surfy reverb, but for like Post-Rock and Shoegaze set to 100% wet, or used with massive dwell and a volume pedal to create pads?


Are you asking me ? I'll feel like a egotistical jerk responding if that wasn't addressed to me but here goes anyways lol

The "best" as an effect is sort of a tough question because on one hand theres some rack gear that can give you literally 15 or so parameters to tweak, and then with some software plug-ins I've had, the sky is literally the limit as you can actually create the virtual space and even move the listening postion around in an x/y/z axis! So in some regards stuff like that would be the best for most realistc sounds and flexibility.

However, I'm a big fan of keeping it simple and on the floor with a basic box. So for me, the "best" reverb I've had that works not only for the typical spring type of thing, but also as an effect is the EH Holy Grail Plus.

Its stupid simple with just three knobs and the already excellent Grail reverb. To it it adds a blend knob and a knob to tweak each setting.

On spring you can adjust the size of the tank from small to crazy large

on Hall the amount knob adjust the reverb time so you can go from smaller to huge caverns and then adjust how much blend you want

then you also gain a Room setting which gives you a dampening sound to go from nice natural room to empty metal water tank

lastly you get the not every useful flerb which adds control over the flanger rate



Between a blend knob, and the ability to adjust reverb time, dampening and tank size its all the more control you could ever really need.

More to the point, its still stupid simple to work. Not 19" rack, no need to have a dual core PC just to process something. No little LCD to stare at, and no 198 pg manual to study.

Just a wide range of both natural and over the top reverb sounds, all of which sound great in a small affordable box with true bypass and a 9v dc input.

What more could you ask for ?


(that read a bit like a sales pitch didn't it ?)
 
Re: Recommend me a reverb pedal

I know this is probably not what you're after, but I wanted to put it out there anyway because I think it is great:

Van Amps Sole-Mate reverb

http://www.vanamps.com/solemate.htm

It really nails that spring reverb sound...because it is a spring reverb.

It is big, and only does one type of reverb, but it sound wonderful and lush. It is true bypass, if that matters. It also has an "aux" jack that can operate your amp's tremolo or other duties, which perhaps kind of almost justifies it's size since you would be able to leave another pedal off.

I was skeptical that a spring reverb would work in pedal form, but it does and it sounds great. It is surprisingly robust...no boinging when I engage the foot switch. It does seem more susceptible to lateral movement, so I don't recommend kicking it (of course, I tried this in the name of science...hence the warning). That being said, I have not gigged with it yet, but I have jumped around a lot in an attempt to get it to crash, to no avail (other than the lateral kick...).

solemate_tan.jpg


Now if I needed verb I would more inclined to something like this rather than a pedal. There is just something completely wrong IMO with a reverb pedal. Maybe I am just an old Fender snob and have never needed a verb pedal. If I did I would probably just do without it.
 
Re: Recommend me a reverb pedal

http://www.fender.com/products//search.php?partno=0217500000

IF you want reberb....... you won't find it in a pedal. I have a Verbzilla and it is very good, but there isn't any pedal that will give you the natural decay of real reverb. Buy a Fender reverb tank and be done with it.

My verbzilla works well enough, but when I compare the reverb in my Deluxe Reberb, or Super Reverb. Its just not as good.
 
Re: Recommend me a reverb pedal

I had one of those for a while [Danelectro], cool unit because it is a spring tank, but the downside is that its a very SMALL tank and sounds it...

FWIW, the Sole-Mate has a full size tank (versus the Danelectro) and does not sound small at all.

And, I felt it was quieter than the reissue fender units (and smaller) and was more transparent with my guitar tone (I felt the fender colored the tone a bit, but that would be expected with the tube preamp, etc., I guess--I know some really like what the Fender does, but I preferred more transparency). I've never tried a vintage fender, so I can't comment on how they may differ.
 
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