Reverb, or NO Reverb?

[Bluzboy66]

Re: Reverb, or NO Reverb?

When I first bought my 77 Marshal Super Lead, I missed reverb........As my playing got better and my ear for tone got better, I began to appreciate the amp and learned how to use the amp..........I learned about power tube saturation vs preamp saturation and blah blah...........I don't miss reverb anymore. I used to use reverb as a crutch for my playing and tone. Reverb can really warm up a stale tone and give the illusion of longer sustain. With the dry Marshall, all the tone is not masked and whatever sweetness and sustain you get out of the amp is from the fingers. Now I prefer a dry sound and might use reverb in the slight case that it is needed.

I can certainly relate. I had a similar relationship with my '78 Marshall Super Lead 100. At the time I was using a (THEN brand new) Fender Blues Deluxe as my main club amp. That amp had a very usable reverb, and I would mix it in when the room required a little extra life. For OD I used a Danelectro Daddy-O, which I still have and love. The Marshall was on a whole different level, and it took a LONG time for me to find a place for it in my signal chain. When I finally DID learn how to harness the Marshall, I didn't miss reverb AT ALL. As a matter of fact, I think reverb would have KILLED the Marshall's tone. For a long time I used the Fender for the clean, and the Marshall for the dirty.

As time went on, I consolidated my regular gig-rig down to one Fender combo, and a couple of guitars. The Marshall ended up sitting back at home. After while I sold it, and MAN do I miss it now. I have an opportunity to by a straight, early 70's 50-watter for a great price, and I'm really thinking hard on it.........

Mike

 

[aestus]

Re: Reverb, or NO Reverb?

Go for it! I'll never sell my marshall. Even if I someday get a rare plexi stack sitting in the room next to it, I'll never sell my 70's ssuper lead.

 

[B2D]

Re: Reverb, or NO Reverb?

I prefer just a little bit to warm up the tone a tad. You'll never hear me use a whole lot of it unless i really need a lot of it as a dimensional or spatial effect.

90% of the time i keep the knob on my amp on 2.

 

[Brow]

Re: Reverb, or NO Reverb?

I like a little Reverb on Vocals and maybe a little on a Snare Drum when recording, but I NEVER use Reverb on guitars, be it live or in the studio.

Craig

 

[brinton]

Re: Reverb, or NO Reverb?

I like reverb, but I'm not too much for spring/fender type reverb. I think the whole "boing" thing ruins the decaying sound when it's turned up, and in my deville if I put it past 3 it muddies up your playing by layering the sounds over each other and your still hearing clicky closing sound half a second later. However because my room is very small I do use "just a splash of spring reverb".

I like plain old natural echo/room reverb, like Zeppelin's "Good Times, Bad Times".
It was actually Eddie Kramer who took the track and played it in stereo in a long staircase hallway and he had a few mic's setup on different floors/locations to catch the natural reverb of the hall, then he mixed it with the original track and wallah.