The attributes that seperate great Reverb pedals from ones not as good ?

Telejester

Been looking into reverb pedals and quite taken aback as to how costly they can be. I believe you get what you pay for but don't think price tag is the be all end all.I really don't need a pedal with 10 different sounds and loads of control knobs that can cause boogie-esque constant adjustment and fiddling. Give me one or two great sounds and a control to set effect level and I'm happy. What qualities identify a great Reverb pedal irrespective of price tag ?

JDE

Personally, I like a reverb with a "level" control, rather than a "mix" or "blend" knob. I don't want it to overtake my clean signal just because I want a lot of reverb. Apart from that, I like a semi-realistic spring sound and a decent hall that doesn't have that "juddery" and grainy decay that a lot of the older digital reverbs have. All of the high end pedals are way too complicated for me - I like the Boss RV5 the most. Decent spring, good hall setting and I like the modulated setting a lot.
Shimmer etc does nothing for me. I actually think it sounds stupid when I use it, but I've heard a lot of people make it sound great. Plate reverb is just boring. Room setting... boring.

From what I understand, verb pedals are generally expensive because of the processors they use. If my amp didn't have reverb, I'd personally look into something like the Demeter pedal, or if I was loaded, a standalone Fender tank. I could handle just having a really great spring verb. 

Beexter

Great ones make you go "Aaaaaaahh"
Not so good ones make you go "Eh?"

(but you only get an "Oo" with Typhoo!)

My Catalinbread Talisman makes me go "Aaaaaaahh"

guitarfishbay

Best I've heard are the ones in the Axe FX 2 (FX8/AX8).

Realistic and lush sounds with plenty of control. Shame I don't have much use for it most of the time since I generally need a dry sound, or delay, but they sound excellent.

To me it should be easy to get a smooth diffusion that doesn't sound like lots of short harsh sounding delays

Winny_Pooh

I'm not 100% convinced it's worth the upcharge... comparing reverb tails on good studio monitors is hard enough, guitar speakers are anything but accurate and have their own innate low pass filter anyway. I like mine boingy but not too long.

crunchman

I've not used some of the other high end ones so I don't know how they compare btu the Big Sky is amazing.  Eventually you do get down to 5 or 6 settings that you save and use regularly.

Funkfingers

JDE said:

a standalone Fender [6G15] tank. 

I like the BOSS FRV-1. 

juansolo

I've yet to hear a pedal that sounds like a real spring reverb. Nothing really gets close to it.

As for the others, there's two camps, the ones you can load patches from you computer too, and those that are a traditional effects pedal with either a single or a few knobs on them. The latter tend to be brick based and are variations on a theme and can sound very good. The former are things like the TC stuff, which do something different, but equally pretty good. I suppose the third option is the high-end stuff like Eventide and the like which is more like having a rack effect in a stomp box.

Which you prefer is entirely down to what you want to get out of it.

57Deluxe

How little you wanna spend??

Apart from great Fender Reverbs in my Fender amps and a great selection in my BOSS ME-5, I have two cheapos that are even better! Total price paid for these two was only £37 new...



https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1V6AmRFXXXXb.XFXXq6xXFXXXo/Caline-CP-26-Snake-Bite-Reverb-Guitar-Effect-Pedal-reverb-guitar-stompbox-with-delay-effect-no.jpg_640x640.jpg

jonnygreentrees

57Deluxe said:

How little you wanna spend??

Apart from great Fender Reverbs in my Fender amps and a great selection in my BOSS ME-5, I have two cheapos that are even better! Total price paid for these two was only £37 new...



https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1V6AmRFXXXXb.XFXXq6xXFXXXo/Caline-CP-26-Snake-Bite-Reverb-Guitar-Effect-Pedal-reverb-guitar-stompbox-with-delay-effect-no.jpg_640x640.jpg

that Mosky pedal is a total rip of Malekko's artwork

JDE

Funkfingers said:

JDE said:

a standalone Fender [6G15] tank. 

I like the BOSS FRV-1. 

Yeah, but again, if I had lots of money, I'd go for the tank!

UnclePsychosis

jonnygreentrees said:

57Deluxe said:

How little you wanna spend??

Apart from great Fender Reverbs in my Fender amps and a great selection in my BOSS ME-5, I have two cheapos that are even better! Total price paid for these two was only £37 new...



https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1V6AmRFXXXXb.XFXXq6xXFXXXo/Caline-CP-26-Snake-Bite-Reverb-Guitar-Effect-Pedal-reverb-guitar-stompbox-with-delay-effect-no.jpg_640x640.jpg

that Mosky pedal is a total rip of Malekko's artwork

-suspect the internals aren't exactly original either tbh. 

Majorscale

Mr Black Supermoon... beautiful

longshins

Funkfingers said:

JDE said:

a standalone Fender [6G15] tank. 

I like the BOSS FRV-1. 

I've done a direct A/B with the FRV-1 and a 6G15. Couldn't tell the difference.

ICBM

longshins said:

I've done a direct A/B with the FRV-1 and a 6G15. Couldn't tell the difference.

Same here - an original '64. Or more accurately, I could but mostly because the Boss doesn't hum (good) and doesn't crash when you kick it (slightly disappointing!).

After all that I prefer the RV-5 though, because the FRV-1 does just that one thing, no matter how good it is. The Spring setting isn't too far off - it still does that 'drip' effect when you turn it up all the way - and the Modulate is fantastic.

ESBlonde

If you are playing surf or such like that has reverb as a significant feature of the sound (in which case get a decent spring and be done with it) I think that the subtleties of fine reverb is lost once the keys/bass/drums harmonies come in. To that end for my use (and we are not all the same) then reverb is reverb. I tend to think a good amplifier with a dimensional sound is as important if not importanter!

Chalky

A big difference to making a good reverb great is pre-delay, the time before the reverberations start, but its not so common on stompboxes.

Beexter

Chalky said:I 

A big difference to making a good reverb great is pre-delay, the time before the reverberations start, but its not so common on stompboxes.

^^ Another reason why I like the Talisman so much.
There's a YouTube video of a Talisman into the front of an overdriven Marshall which really helped my purchase decision too.

Wazmeister

- Warmth
- The ability to stay clear in the mix
- lack of metallic splash (the Talisman excels at this)

57Deluxe

UnclePsychosis said:

jonnygreentrees said:

57Deluxe said:

How little you wanna spend??

Apart from great Fender Reverbs in my Fender amps and a great selection in my BOSS ME-5, I have two cheapos that are even better! Total price paid for these two was only £37 new...



https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1V6AmRFXXXXb.XFXXq6xXFXXXo/Caline-CP-26-Snake-Bite-Reverb-Guitar-Effect-Pedal-reverb-guitar-stompbox-with-delay-effect-no.jpg_640x640.jpg

that Mosky pedal is a total rip of Malekko's artwork

-suspect the internals aren't exactly original either tbh. 

sounds exactly the same as the Malekko - I love mine to bits!

VJIves

I'm a big fan of having a hold function, to keep the reverb spilling over indefinitely.