Decent quality budget reverb pedal......is there such a thing?

UnclePsychosis

The shimverb is OK for "normal" sounds. The shimmer mode is awful though.

ellandroadhero

Biyand Tri Reverb is very good for cheap! 

surfguy13

ellandroadhero said:

Biyand Tri Reverb is very good for cheap! 

That's interesting you should mention this pedal as a mate of mine had said the same thing, great value for money and not too budget sounding.  At about £40 delivered it seems like a bargain.  As I said in my original post, I had bought a Joyo delay and was very impressed with the quality of sound and construction for a mere £20 (new!) and so was disappointed when I found they didn't do a reverb pedal.

I was advised to check out T Rex Ghost Tone 60th Ann at watched the Thomman utube clip and was quite impressed for the money. But, not being an expert of reverb pedals I wasn't too sure as the demo wasn't using gear I am familiar with. 

Any views on the Biyang or the T Rex?

EricTheWeary

@not_the_dj has ordered the delay from the 60th anniversary range, he might be able to give you a clue on the general quality but TRex stuff in general is good stuff.

not_the_dj

EricTheWeary said:

@not_the_dj has ordered the delay from the 60th anniversary range, he might be able to give you a clue on the general quality but TRex stuff in general is good stuff.

I have indeed, and it's on the way. In the past I've had the T-Rex Gristle King and that was excellent (although as I understand it a licensed version of someone else's pedal).

Dave_Mc

surfguy13 said:

Any views on the Biyang?

I haven't tried the Biyang reverb pedal, but the other Biyang pedals I had (the ones in the big chrome boxes) were terribly unreliable. They sounded pretty good when they worked, but yeah. Maybe the reliability on the newer ones with the coloured boxes is better, I dunno. But personally I'd be wary.

Mooer is alrightish, but I feel it's just about ok- and I got mine cheap at about half the current going rate and I still feel that. I'm not sure I'd want to pay £50-60 for one- considering you can get the Hardwire Reverb for just over £70 on Thomann (it's out of stock at the moment but that's what it cost when I got mine recently and the other Hardwire prices are still the same). I haven't tried the Digitech Digiverb, but the other pedals I've tried from that series would make me think it'd be a better call than the Mooer for a little less money. It probably needs a lot of mA to power it, though, so that'd be worth bearing in mind.

I'm no reverb afficionado, though, I should point out- there may well be other better options than the ones I've suggested. I haven't tried the TC Electronic stuff, for example, or the T-Rex one you're asking about.

not_the_dj

I had a Biyang Phaser and EQ a while back, the big silver ones. Cheap and cheerful really, but I wouldn't trust one gigging often.

joeyowen

verbzilla?

surfguy13

Thanks for that @Dave_Mc.......that is what I was worried about!  Unreliability.  As you say, OK when they're working but........!! 

I haven't seen the Hardwire on the Thomman website but it's not a pedal I'm at all familiar with....maybe worth checking out though.

not_the_dj said:

EricTheWeary said:

@not_the_dj has ordered the delay from the 60th anniversary range, he might be able to give you a clue on the general quality but TRex stuff in general is good stuff.

I have indeed, and it's on the way. In the past I've had the T-Rex Gristle King and that was excellent (although as I understand it a licensed version of someone else's pedal).

Aha!  I'd be very interested to hear how it sounds.  Also good to know that you've had a T-Rex before and it was well made and performed well.

The thing about Thomman is that although you have to shell out about £7 for shipping you get a 3-year warranty and my experience with pedals generally is that you can be unlucky and have horrible problems.  A long warranty is extremely tempting!

Also, this 60th Anniversary range from T-Rex that appears to be exclusive to Thomman is pretty keenly priced based on what you get.....although I'm no expert.  At £67 with a 3-year warranty it seems to be a fair price for what looks like a versatile pedal.....unlike the Byang which has less in the way of sound modelling a la the controls.

not_the_dj said:

I had a Biyang Phaser and EQ a while back, the big silver ones. Cheap and cheerful really, but I wouldn't trust one gigging often.

This seems to back what @Dave_Mc says and I think it's extremely good advice.

joeyowen said:

verbzilla?

I did have a look at this pedal but they seem quite rare in the UK and as a result they seem to be quite expensive too.  Mind you, I may just be looking in the wrong places!!


Thanks once again guys, it really in incredibly helpful to have so much input before buying something.  I know we're not talking mega bucks here but if you get it wrong and have problems with a pedal, regardless of what it costs, it can be a bloody nightmare!!! 

Dave_Mc

^ Yeah ) I never really go in for the boutique pedals thing, and I like pedals to be as cheap as possible, but if they're super-cheap but always breaking it's a false economy too (plus the Biyangs aren't that cheap!).

Thomann seems to be out of stock of the Hardwire at the moment. I'm guessing they'll get it in again at some point, but exactly when i dunno.

And yeah the postage thing is annoying with Thomann. Normally I try to gather up enough stuff to hit the 200 Euro free postage amount, but sometimes if you just need one thing that's just not possible, and a false economy as well. And yeah the 3 year warranty is pretty handy- I wouldn't pay a ton extra for it, but it's nice to have if the price difference isn't much. Plus Thomann is often a fair bit cheaper than the UK anyway, so it mightn't be any dearer overall.

surfguy13

Dave_Mc said:

^ Yeah ) I never really go in for the boutique pedals thing, and I like pedals to be as cheap as possible, but if they're super-cheap but always breaking it's a false economy too (plus the Biyangs aren't that cheap!).

Thomann seems to be out of stock of the Hardwire at the moment. I'm guessing they'll get it in again at some point, but exactly when i dunno.

And yeah the postage thing is annoying with Thomann. Normally I try to gather up enough stuff to hit the 200 Euro free postage amount, but sometimes if you just need one thing that's just not possible, and a false economy as well. And yeah the 3 year warranty is pretty handy- I wouldn't pay a ton extra for it, but it's nice to have if the price difference isn't much. Plus Thomann is often a fair bit cheaper than the UK anyway, so it mightn't be any dearer overall.

Totally agree!  My experience with boutique pedals has been mixed and it seems to me that it's pretty much hit and miss regardless of what you buy.  My personal experience with EH pedals has been appalling and although I reckon they sound pretty damn good for the money they always end up in the bin so......!  If I was going to buy one again I'd get it from Thomman and take advantage of the 3 year guarantee. 

I didn't realise Thomman did a 200 euros free postage deal.......I got a studio desk from them a couple of years ago and I'm pretty sure that came post free but normally I don't mind paying an extra £7 for shipping if I get 2 extra years guarantee.  Also, they're pretty much no quibble in terms of their warranty so they won't give you a hard time as some UK sellers do!!!!

Dave_Mc

^ I bought a few EHX pedals recently and I made sure to get them from Thomann for the warranty )

And yeah Thomann is pretty good with its aftersales service, at least in my experience. That being said, I've had equally good service with the few UK shops I've had faulty kit from as well (but obviously that was well inside the first year's warranty).

dilbert

I have the Digitech Digiverb and have no complaints whatsoever. Cost me £25 off the bay and is even good enough for the the cork sniffers at TGP so .......... :-bd

Gassage

I really really implore you to consider this. They've flown up in price- used to be so cheap. This is truly one of the best digital reverbs ever. You can buy a footswitch controller too.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Boss-RRV-10-Digital-Reverb-Micro-Half-Rack-Rare-Vintage-Made-In-Japan-/231410519273?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Outboards_Effects_MJ&hash=item35e1244ce9

Drew_TNBD

Get a Zoom MS70CDR. Great pedal.

english_bob

I've got the Behringer RV-600 Reverb Machine too- it sounds fine, makes some interesting "special effects" noises as well as "normal" reverbs and doesn't cost the earth, but I recently took it off my gigging board partly because I wasn't really using it, but mainly because it seemed to be causing intermittent fluctuations in volume and distortion- not the good kind either, the "something's wrong with my amp" kind.

I'd be inclined to look for used rack units- you can pick up older BOSS, Lexicon and Alesis stuff quite cheaply, and assuming you have a suitable footswitch or two hanging around you may well get a much better reverb for your cash than you would from a pedal. Of course, if you end up having to buy a rack case and an expensive midi controller it won't be "budget" any more, so it depends on what you need it to do exactly.