Ambient reverb pedal - recommendations?

Hey there!

As the title suggests, I'm looking for a reverb pedal that's capable of producing ambient reverb sounds. I haven't really bought any new pedals for quite some time now because of financial reasons but mostly because I've been pretty happy with what sits on my pedal board so far.

I've played different kinds of music during the last couple of years but a few old friends have recently decided to start an indie (pop) / alternative / shoegaze project. We're planning to record a few things, play a few gigs and basically revisit the kind of thing we did back in the '90s.

This calls for some more effects than I would normally use. I mainly play through a silverface Bandmaster Reverb - I love the reverb on that amp and I almost always use a hint of it no matter what I'm playing, so I'm pretty much set when it comes to "normal" reverb sounds. I've also got analog and digital delay pedals, so I've got that covered as well.

I'm basically looking for a true bypass pedal with solid build quality and the option to get some very wet reverb sounds out of it.

I've never really looked into reverb pedals before because I never felt the need to get one so I don't really know what's out there. Price range is not that important at the moment so please feel free to recommend anything that comes to mind.

I'd be very grateful for any recommendations, your experiences etc.

At the risk of sounding stupid: Are all reverb pedals digital? Or are there analog versions as well? I'm usually a bit partial to analog noise makers, but I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks in advance,
Stephan

If money is no object, the Strymon Blue Sky is the pedal that makes many a reverb fan drool.

I picked up a Trinity reverb from Pro Guitar shop, and it is half the price ($149), with killer settings. It apparently is identical to the Hall of Fame Reverb, but this one has two "etherial" settings - both can take your music way out there, and it is phenomenal for ambient stuff. I use mine in plate and spring settings for the most part, and I am glad I have this pedal on my board.

http://proguitarshop.com/tc-electronic-trinity-reverb.html

Apparently out of stock at the moment

:0(

EHX holy grail

This will fit the bill.
http://www.neunabertechnology.com/gear/wet-stereo-reverb
http://www.neunabertechnology.com/_/rsrc/1317571909507/gear/wet-stereo-reverb/WetTopSmall.png?height=200&width=124
or this,
http://www.drscientist.ca/pedals/rev
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31-HijELd8L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Thanks to all of you!

First off, I had heard about the Strymon Blue Sky before, but didn't want to mention pedals I'd already looked into in my first post. I'm definitely going to try out that one when I hit the stores.

Thanks for suggesting the Trinity, I didn't know that pedal and will look into that as well. Both of those produce sounds like what I had in mind.

Did you per chance try out both of those pedals? I'd love to hear from somebody who knows both...

I know the Holy Grail but I've gotten a bit careful with EHX pedals lately... I own a few EHX pedals and my friends own more of them but with some pedals there were problems with them introducing noise into the signal chain even when they were switched off.
So far I've been lucky - my pedal board is quiet and I can't hear any difference between going directly into the amp or going through the pedal board.

I'll also look into the Neunaber and Dr Scientist stuff right away.

Check out the Hardwire Reverb. People like it!

T-Rex Tonebug Reverb with the spring/modern switch set to modern.

Ambient!

Thanks again for your suggestions, I've spent the last few hours doing a bit of research on all of these pedals (and watching football / soccer of course :wink:).

I think all of these pedals sound good, at least judging from videos / sound samples but so far I have to say I love the additional options that the Blue Sky and the Trinity offer. More knobbies could be the ticket and those pedals seem to be more unconventional and flexible than the others. Tbh,
I lean towards the Blue Sky at the moment, especially the long plate reverbs and the "shimmer" mode look very interesting.

The Hardwire is also interesting because it seems to be the only one with a reverse reverb function which should come in handy for some shoegaze sounds - I believe My Bloody Valentine used reverse reverb for some of their guitar sounds... hmm, need to give the pedal a try and compare it to the sounds I can get from the reverse delay function on my digital delay. I know that reverse reverb and reverse delay are different but I think I can live pretty well with the reverse delay stuff alone.

You mentioned you were a bit wary of EHX, but check out the Cathedral if you get the chance. It's pretty cool. Presets, 100% wet, flange, delay and reverse




Although the Strymon is the bee's knee's

The Mooer Shimverb purportedly does the Strymon shimmer thing (or a rough approximation thereof) for cheap. I haven't played one, and caveat emptor and all that.

I bought a hardwire RV-7. I was really stubborn about going with a pedal reverb too but this pedal just sounds spectacular.


.

Not sure what you mean by "ambiant" reverb. Reverb is an ambiant, atmospheric type effect, so I think they're all ambiant. Having said that I like EHX reverbs and the Boss Fender FRV-1. EHXs have an airy quality to them and good selection of different types of reverb. The FRV-1 is warm with a conviincing spring reverb.

I think he wants that huge in your face, other worldly sound that goes far beyond standard plate or spring reverbs. I'm actually having great luck with a Muza delay/reverb pedal. I forget the model number but I can check when I get home if you're interested.

I use a Hall of Fame reverb to put a little on my tweed vibrolux clone and the Trinity is the same pedal but 2 setting are different, anyway not to be repetitive, The trinity was made just for PGS and you will not find them in stores, the same with the Strymon, unless you have a nice boutique store in your area, most stores offer the Boss,hardwire and E.H.X pedals. Most you have to listen to as many demos as you can to get a feel and buy from a store with an excellent return policy. That's been my experience with pedals so far at stores, usually not the best selection in store. The hall of fame is really good, I can get it pretty darn close to my drri. just a little warmth is missing from the tubes in the amp, but it's close and totally passable in a band situation where most people are going to notice anything but the song as a whole. Maybe gear heads would notice but when is the last time you played a gig and it was all tdpri members:)

I would look into the Jack Deville Mr. Black Supermoon its coming out this month or next its pre order price is much cheaper and it has a modulation type knob. Check it out!

Not sure what you mean by "ambiant" reverb. Reverb is an ambiant, atmospheric type effect, so I think they're all ambiant.

I took "ambient" to be a more-natural, room-like reverb. Spring reverb came along to emulate that, but rapidly became (in my opinion) a sound in its own right. That's why I would NOT recommend the BOSS FRV-1, which nails that 'artificial" spring reverb sound.

Tsetse, since you're in Germany, check out Zcat pedals... he makes some cool sounding reverbs (even one with a "hold" feature), and is based over in Europe somewhere:

http://www.zcatpedals.com/

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I'd look at the Hardwire too...a lot of variety in that pedal.

First of all, I am sorry for answering so late, but it was a very busy day for me.

Secondly, thank you for all further recommendations, input etc. I truly appreciate that and will investigate all those pedals!

With regard to the "what does he mean when he says ambient" discussion - I really should have seen that one coming and I'm sorry if I couldn't make myself clearer. You're of course right in stating that basically all types and uses of reverb effects are "ambient" or atmospheric in a way.

I was thinking of a pedal capable of producing sounds to be used in making "ambient" music, like for example simulating a synthesizer pad or things like that. Like I said before, for "normal" uses I'm really happy with the reverb on my amp and I use that a lot anyway but when it comes to creating "ambient" sounds, I'm currently limited to my delay pedals. Volume swells with delay and other such "tricks" are nice but I want more variety.

To quote smoss469:
I think he wants that huge in your face, other worldly sound that goes far beyond standard plate or spring reverbs.

Exactly. That's one of the uses I have in mind. My amp's reverb does everything between just a hint of reverb to surfy sounds but there are more "extreme" or "diverse" kinds of reverb that I just can't get from my built-in reverb.

This is a demo video of one of the Strymon's settings down there, maybe that will explain it better than I can:

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That's one good example of a sound I could see myself using for my new band project. It's new territory for me, normally I wouldn't play with such extreme settings, but some of the new songs include parts which could benefit from creating such soundscapes.

The trinity was made just for PGS and you will not find them in stores, the same with the Strymon, unless you have a nice boutique store in your area, most stores offer the Boss,hardwire and E.H.X pedals.

You're right about the Trinity... if I decide to get one of those (and if or when it will be available again) I will have to trust the demos. The Strymon range is available (almost) locally, the same is true for an increasing number of other "boutique" or "rare" pedals. Anyway, I have ordered stuff from builders or retailers in the US before and so far I've always been very happy with the outcome, so I'm not at all "afraid" to order directly from abroad if a product really convinces me.

About EHX: I don't want to bash them, I have some of their pedals that I really love but I have also experienced some pedals which were really noisy even when in stand-by. I'll check out the Cathedral anyway, so thanks for the pointer!

What were you using to power the EHX-pedals? They can be dead quiet, but you need a good powersupply. My original Holy Grail is noiseless when powered by my Fueltank Classic or the original power supply, but with other adapters it's noisy as hell..

But on the other side..the Strymon is a really really good pedal, and my holy grail would start crying if i'd put the strymon on my board :p

Bought a T-Rex Room-mate II earlier this year that I'm loving. Nice hall and LFO modelling, not a fan of the spring (never have been really) or room modes.

I use mine mixed in fairly low to fatten up the tone rather than as an obvious reverb. It's certainly capable of providing a washy/drenched saturated shoegaze verb, but on the other hand you may want more knobs to twist... although paired with a good delay (I use a Wampler faux tape echo) it's pretty tasty.

The Strymon looks like an excellent option too.

@JohnathanVL: Well, they were different power sources on the pedals in question... I know exactly what you mean, though. My digital delay is an EHX Stereo Memory Man w/ Hazarai, it was noisy at first even when using the original wall wart that it came with - after I learned I could safely power it using my Pedal Power, that solved the problem for good.

(I like that pedal a lot for its versatility, reverse stuff, tap tempo, looper etc. It's got quite a steep learning curve but once you get the hang of it, I think it's a really cool pedal. Needless to say, this pedal is worth its weight in gold right now because of the new band project. I never really worked with the crazier options on this pedal before but now I really get the chance to put it through its paces.)

However, the other guitarist in our current line-up got himself another of their digital delays (don't remember which model it was from the top of my head) which was noisy as well and we tried powering it with the PP2+ as well, which didn't help at all. The most problematic pedals were time-based modulation effects iirc. Just plain old noise, fragments of the effect in the chain even when the pedal was in standby, signal loss etc.

Don't get me wrong, I came in touch with a lot of EHX pedals, most of which were fine and I'd never advise somebody to stay away from them or something along that line, it's just that I've gotten a "bit wary", like somebody phrased it in this thread.

I really like my SMMH and I'd never part with my (heavily modded) Big Muff either, although I'm using the wrong amp to let it really do its thing.

@SilentCityRob: Yes, T-Rex make cool stuff and the pedals are readily available in the closest music store to where I live so this will probably be one of the first pedals (along the other T-Rex pedal that was mentioned before) that I will get my hands on. I already own one of their pedals which I might as well weld to my board, it's not gonna leave there anytime soon ;o).

Speaking of delay, I have two delay pedals, the EHX one mentioned above and the ubiquitous MXR Carbon Copy which I also like a lot.

Line 6 M5...several really great ambient reverbs...plus a few other things. It has a setting to be true bypass.

If I were spending lots of money, I'd get an Eventide Space. If I was going lower on the foodchain, probably the Hardwire.

My vote goes to the tc hall of fame.

Thanks for your replies!

Considering the Eventide Space and the Line 6 M5 - they are both out of the picture because I simply don't like preset banks, navigating through menus, knobs with multiple functions etc. I've owned a Line 6 amp at one time and that was just not for me - I'm not talking about sound here, it's just that I find it much easier, more intuitive and more like an invitation to experiment a little if there's one knob or switch corresponding with exactly one function on a pedal or other piece of gear.

Aside from the new band project, I'm also a member of a loose formation of musician friends where we jam a lot (mostly funk or '60s / '70s influenced rock or free form jams) and for that I find it important to be able to change some sounds on the fly or even experiment with effects during jams. It's just not the same if you need to scroll through preset banks...

Actually, my Memory Man was a borderline case at first and that's about as far as I want to go when it comes to "complicated" layouts in effect pedals.

I've narrowed the search down a bit... I have a gut feeling that in the end it will probably come down to the Strymon Blue Sky, the TC Electronic Trinity (or Hall of Fame), the Hardwire RV-7 or the EHX cathedral. I will test anything that's been suggested (at least those I can actually find in stores).
What sets those four pedals apart are different things - the shimmer, modulation, reverse modes, infinite plate sounds etc., lots of options, but all quite easy to use and manipulate. I will have to see which of those sounds I like best, which of them might actually be useful for the band and which are only nice to have.

You guys really helped me in showing what's out there and narrowing it all down a little and for that I want to thank you all again!

Regards,
Stephan

I suggest taking a look at the Marshall Reflector. It has reverse, two springs, room, plate and a hall reverb for about 70 bucks used on either eBay or used.guitarcenter.com

http://www.stourmusic.co.uk/ekmps/shops/musicmanmatty/images/marshall-reflector-rf1-271-p.jpg

A lot of shoegazers in the 90's used rack gear and multi-effects unit. If you want to get into that look at the Alesis Midiverb/Quadraverb or Yamaha SPX90

I came upon this thread when I was researching reverberation pedals and after watching lots of video's and checking over on the TGP forum - I ended up ordering the blueSky, just got shipping notification e-mail, can't wait to try it.
Strymon customer service is very responsive and very plesant to deal with too, as I first ordered the Flint combo on their presale and then decided to switch after I read/watched more on the extra ftn's on the blueSky.

Check out the Hardwire Reverb. People like it!

+1
Great pedal, even works well for vocals in a pinch.

I have used the Hardwire RV7 for about a year or so. I am very happy with it as a guitar reverb with some extras to play with. I can't say anything bad about it for what it is and what it does. But ... It does not do 100% wet except in reverse mode. Also, as was mentioned already, for the stuff you're describing a used rack unit is going to get you there faster and cheaper There are obviously pedals that do what you're describing but used rack units, especially the Alesis units, go for practically nothing these days. The midiverb 4 is a multi effects that people give away for nothing ( I know because I gave mine away). It has a plate reverb function that uses 100% of its processing power. It can be incredible if you take your time setting and tweaking.

I love the RV 7 and the sound quality is spectacular. But it can't do the plates that hang out swelling in the background for an eternity.

If this makes no sense, its because i Sent it from my iPhone using TDPRI

[QUOTE=mal paso;4222827]You mentioned you were a bit wary of EHX, but check out the Cathedral if you get the chance. It's pretty cool. Presets, 100% wet, flange, delay and reverse

^
This

Never had an EHX pedal go bad and the Cathedral's great.

Hi again and thanks for your replies!

Regarding rack units - I freely admit I don't know the first thing about using them. I realize they're cheap these days, but what about peripherals like a midi (foot) controller, a rack case (is that what those things are called in English?) and whatever else? Isn't that going to be more expensive than even a 300-400 $ pedal?

Like I said before, I want to be able to use my effects in an easy and intuitive way, preferably on the fly whenever I feel like experimenting. Won't the use of rack units complicate matters even further?

One more probably stupid thing to ask - wouldn't I need some kind of an FX loop for using rack units? Needless to say, my SF Bandmaster Reverb doesn't have anything like that and I have no plans to part with that amp...

A lot of shoegazers in the 90's used rack gear and multi-effects unit. If you want to get into that look at the Alesis Midiverb/Quadraverb or Yamaha SPX90

I know that and I hope you don't mind me quoting you, but I'm not really interested in nailing a particular sound, not MBV's or any other shoegazers' guitar sounds. We don't really have a shoegazing band project going on, we just have a few song parts where such elements fit the song extremely well, but that's not the case with the majority of our songs. So there's not really a desire or a need to nail any particular "tone" or sound. In fact, there's exactly one song (of about 10-12 in total) where I have my jazzmaster's whammy bar in hand all the time while strumming and where I really need to get a huge, droning sound, drenched in reverb and / or delay. That song doesn't sound a whole lot like MBV but I consider my part in it as a bow or an homage to MBV. That song kind of naturally went into that direction, we weren't trying to steal from MBV or rip them off for ideas.
Btw, so far I've been using delay, dirt and the Jazzmaster's rhythm circuit for that song part and it works pretty good that way.

Having a few more options to get that droning sound would still be nice in the future, that's one reason I want to get a decent reverb.

Another reason is that in a few other song parts, I already know that when we go to the studio, I want to make my guitar sound like it's coming from far away in the background, to really "get lost" in the mix on purpose. I know that this effect can be achieved by using reverb in the studio but I also want to experiment with mimicking such effects in the band room or on stage. I think the option to play 100% wet could prove to be necessary for achieving that.

One more reason is that my pedal board is only half finished at this moment. I've got all my different flavors of dirt, I've got a nice compressor, I've got enough options for delay but I'm still lacking in the reverb and modulation department. I think I'd start with a reverb pedal because I know that the way I use modulation effects like chorus or phaser is subtle. For me those things are really just icing on the cake and unimportant for finishing my guitar parts for the current project. I think reverb is more important because it's a "stronger" effect and can lead to more ideas, it's hard to put that in words...

@wpete:
I ended up ordering the blueSky

Congrats - I would be grateful if you could drop a few lines in this thread when it arrives, concerning how you like it.

@jefcon1, concerning the Hardwire:
But ... It does not do 100% wet except in reverse mode.

Thanks a lot for that info, that could take it out of the competition for me.

Regards,
Stephan

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the Boss RV-5. It's not true bypass, but it has a great "modulated" reverb, which could very well be the quintessential ambient/spacey reverb sound.

But, I still think my RV-3 sounds fantastic for that kind of stuff, too. I can get really washy and spacey trails with my Carbon Copy and my RV-3 together. Even for mono, they sound so huge and spacious -- they do pad sounds better than most keyboards, IMO.

The Strymon BSR looks and sounds great, but 'tis a lot for verb.

I never play ambience without my Line 6 Verbzilla.
It has a pretty bad buffer in it (it's always on though, so I don't mind) and the plate mode on it is pretty sublime to my ears.
However, there's about 5 modes on it I don't use. I pretty much use spring (In the effects loop of my amp, pretty much always on), plate, octo (Cool octave shimmery effect), hall and cave.
The only thing I was ever disappointed in was that there's no modulated reverb on it. I bought a Boss RV-5 just for that purpose.

I'm actually surprised that it hasn't been mentioned on this forum. The price seems to have increased since I bought mine (Last year I think). Anyway, check it out, I like it anyway.

The Boss RV-5 has Room and Hall which I guess are the "ambient" reverb types rather than the more drunken spacey things.
Ambient = relating to immediate environment, being the only definition useable for reverberations (rather than the "ambient music" = relaxing atmosphere). I'd use Ambient Reverb as a term to model a larger environment than the one recorded in, rather than an entire very variable genre of music.

I also have a Marshall VT-2 Vibratrem which I consider to be a better pedal than Boss tone-suckers, the Marshall Reflector having been mentioned.

Thing with ambient reverb is it is for adding spacious room or hall type reflections, good for practice and recording but if you use it live in a room or a hall, you turn it off and let the room or hall do the natural reverb (or it sounds like mush).

If you need to go to even bigger environments then the various DAW plugins are probably best for modelling complex multiple echoes.

if you wanna play ambient music you need a tape echo.
oops, oh, reverb...an lxp 1.

Thanks for suggesting the Boss RV-5 - I spent a little time researching on the internet yesterday and it seems like that pedal is a favorite for some players who are into making... yeah, see, I wanted to write "ambient" yet again :lol:... atmospheric sounds... in this context, thanks to jefrs for bringing that definition to the table, now I see a little clearer.
The different uses of the term "ambient" can get pretty confusing for somebody who is not a native speaker...

it has a great "modulated" reverb, which could very well be the quintessential ambient/spacey reverb sound.

Back to the RV-5 - like you say, people seem to be using it mainly for its modulated setting - the reverb sounds it produces seem to sound artificial and not very convincing, but I've seen people mentioning that the mod setting has a subtle detune effect which kind of beautifully blurs or smears everything that is played. I'll definitely keep this in mind.

However:
...I consider to be a better pedal than Boss tone-suckers...

I know I should probably keep my mouth shut, but I'm not really fond of Boss pedals either. I have an old Boss phaser that is currently off the board because I can't get a decent sound from the board when it's in the signal chain. As I mentioned before, I'm pretty happy with having only true-bypass pedals on my board at the moment and I intend to keep it that way for as long as possible until I absolutely, positively feel the need to add a buffered pedal.

I will definitely try the RV-5 when I go to the stores to get a first-hand impression of its sound. As a last resort, I own a pedal from Loop-Master which allows me to switch problematic pedals out of the signal chain when I don't need them. I originally got that one for a different purpose, but it's currently not needed anywhere else. However, that's really a last resort kind of option - I'd definitely prefer to keep that switcher pedal off the board. Don't get me wrong, that pedal is great and absolutely does what it says on the website but at this point it feels wrong to add two pedals to the board just to get the sound of one other pedal.

@Freethenoise, regarding the Verbzilla:
It has a pretty bad buffer in it (it's always on though, so I don't mind)

See, that's the problem... in my case, no reverb pedal would ever be on all the time, because I always go into the reverb channel of my amp and for general purposes, I'm really happy with the sound of it.

But, I still think my RV-3 sounds fantastic for that kind of stuff, too. I can get really washy and spacey trails with my Carbon Copy and my RV-3 together. Even for mono, they sound so huge and spacious -- they do pad sounds better than most keyboards, IMO.

Owning a Carbon Copy myself, I'd hazard a guess that that pedal is responsible for producing those huge sounds. It is what it is - dark, fat and warm - I love that pedal :wink:.

Concerning the LXP-1: Again, I don't know what I would need in terms of external controllers to make that work for me. I realize it's a classic effect (Bill Frisell comes to mind), but that's about everything I know about that one.

I really worry about the integrity of my signal chain and I honestly, sincerely love everything about my amp and I don't want to ruin its responsiveness / dynamic behavior for just about any pedal or other effects unit. I know it's easy to get a different impression by reading this thread but most of the time, I run it (almost) clean with some reverb from the amp, my Tele and nothing else in terms of effects. Besides an optical compressor with such subtle settings that you wouldn't be able to notice it's there until I turn it off.

To sum it all up, I'd be happiest if I found one pedal which does it all (or most of it) without ruining my basic sound, strap it onto the board and just go with that.

Owning a Carbon Copy myself, I'd hazard a guess that that pedal is responsible for producing those huge sounds. It is what it is - dark, fat and warm - I love that pedal :wink:.


I would agree that the self-oscillation of the CC sounds pleasant, but I'm not going to discount the extremely pleasant textures the RV-3's delay can produce. I used that pedal alone with my Breedlove acoustic for my best friend's wedding last year, and its Delay+Hall setting helped me make some nice washy pads for some "prelude" music. Sometimes, wedding music can be difficult to pull off if you are the only person playing. It felt awkward at times. Glad I brought a pedal.

However, during the reception (I was also a groomsman, which made being the musician that much more stressful), non-musicians and musicians were coming up to me and not only complimenting my voice and playing, they were also saying how huge and nice my guitar sounded. It was just the Delay+Verb on the RV-3.

I do love the RV-3, but I wish it had a modulated setting. It'd be perfect.

Todd

Regarding the ambient genre, it started in the 70s and you could use a very broad brush to connect Hawkwind to Einaudi, I have been know to indulge too.

Thing is you do not need a washy reverb to do it, it's not compulsory.

The RV-5 has a modulation effect. All this is, is a slight chorus, and you cannot vary the chorus. But the RV-5 is a stereo pedal, you can dial your own across the end of it. Imo its best FX are its Hall and Room, not the Modulation

A washy tape-loop echo? - both the Carl Martin Red Repeat and the Dano Reel Echo offer this in different manner. The Red Repeat is a stomp box and easier to use. The Reel Echo is more of a home studio toy.

Imo the best complex reverb are going to be found as DAW plugins of the type where you can dial up your own impossible echoes. These can be very interesting but you can end up playing with them and lose sight of the music.

Again a caution on using heavy reverb live - what sounds good on playback dissolves into white noise on stage in a hall, the reverb has to be wound right down or it all turns to mush.

Just wanted to say that none of you are very helpful...for my npd gas. :grin:

I'm ordering that Neunaber Wet Stereo Reverb pedal now. That's 4 dadgum pedals in the last 2 weeks. :shock:

Just ordered a Stereo Wet myself. Flyingbanana, I have you beat, this makes 5 new pedals for me. Time to stop now...

@tbader:

Hey, I just re-read my last reply and I'm sorry if it came out sounding condescending in any way, towards either you or Boss pedals in general. I could or should have phrased that differently. I won't discount the RV-3 or RV-5, I'll try them at any rate. I'm not a "cork sniffer" when it comes to pedals, it's just that so far when hunting for pedals, I almost always found something nicer than what Boss had to offer. On the other hand, I know that their digital delays are really good and maybe I'll find that the same is true with their reverb stomps. Some vids I've found seem to confirm this impression.
I'm still not sure about pedals with buffers, so there's still that as a caveat.

About the wedding, playing with an acoustic and the RV-3: You know, this mention could prove to be really useful. Our other guitarist (and singer) wields an acoustic for some of our new songs and I think he would be very interested in the idea to use some pedals for that purpose, so thank you for sharing that experience!

@jefrs:
First off, thanks a lot for dropping those two names... I had heard about Hawkwind before and the few songs I knew I liked a lot, but didn't really know a lot of their work. I had not heard about Ludovico Einaudi. Just listened to a few pieces that I really like. Time to dig into this...

That's what I love about this place, just ask a few questions concerning a stomp box and not only do you end up with a lot of helpful, informative, insightful and balanced replies but two all new musical interests along the way :grin:!

Thing is you do not need a washy reverb to do it, it's not compulsory.
I hear you and you're certainly right. However, to put this into context, I still feel like I could very well use it for some songs or parts thereof. This has to do with the majority of the song material for the new project having been written and arranged by our singer / other guitarist. My guitar parts are my responsibility to see to and I just want to do his music justice because I basically think it's great. This calls for doing a few things differently.

So far, I've used a lot of approaches and different techniques to accomplish this but I still feel that some songs (or parts) would benefit in a big way if I could somehow put some unobtrusive, pad-like, "ambient" sounds underneath them to make other elements of the music stick out more while at the same time contrasting them, if I'm still making any sense. This is just to give an example, there are more varied uses of reverb I have in mind, but there are some parts that really scream for using (lots of) reverb and I can't reproduce the sounds I have in mind with what's on my pedal board currently. Delay really isnt' the answer for everything.

Another reason for getting a reverb has already been hinted to in some previous posts - I want to have a more "complete" pedal board anyway because I find myself in diverse playing situations lately and at the same time have lost track of what the market has to offer in terms of pedals. For our funk "band", to give an example, I would often leave the pedal board at home and only grab my Fuzz Face and a wah pedal.

I'm basically on my way to build an all-purpose pedal board which has enough to offer to get me through any playing situation I find myself in and it seems that reverb has to be a part of it.

The RV-5 has a modulation effect. All this is, is a slight chorus, and you cannot vary the chorus. But the RV-5 is a stereo pedal, you can dial your own across the end of it. Imo its best FX are its Hall and Room, not the Modulation

By the way, a chorus pedal is the next thing I have set my sights on. You seem to be familiar with the RV-5 - would you think that combining a chorus and another type of reverb would yield similar results? I don't have a chorus pedal, so I can't experiment with that myself (yet).

Regarding DAW plugins - I know. I have a bit of a home recording setup (or at least had one until my audio interface went the way of all living things) and I have access to a recording studio. While this is probably the ticket for getting the sounds I want during recording, I still want to be able to have something more portable and more intuitive to experiment with, especially during rehearsals or jams.

Again a caution on using heavy reverb live - what sounds good on playback dissolves into white noise on stage in a hall, the reverb has to be wound right down or it all turns to mush.

Thanks for the warning, much appreciated! Luckily, while we probably won't be able to start gigging until the end of this / beginning of next year, I will have some opportunities to get onto a stage in the next few months, one of the locations is a large barn where our bass player organizes his own little festival (about 500 people and growing) and while we sadly won't be able to play there, we've planned to do a lengthy rehearsal on stage on the day before the festival starts. I'll listen very closely to what happens to my reverberated sounds. One other opportunity will be an open-air situation where the same is true. For all purposes it's a live situation, just in private so I can really take my time and experiment there.

To get back on topic, I've narrowed the search down a little. Without having tested anything in person yet (so it's all subject to change), I'm right now most interested in the Hall of Fame, the Cathedral and the Blue Sky. They all seem to offer quite some options to experiment with, they are all true bypass and they seem easy enough to operate. The Hardwire is out of the picture for not offering 100% wet settings (except for reverse) as is the Verbzilla for purportedly having a bad buffer.

I'll be honest, if money and pedalboard space weren't an issue at all, I'd probably get about three pedals, one of the three mentioned above for versatility, a Neunaber WET (thing sounds amazing and unlike any of the others, as far as I can judge from the videos) and maybe one of the Boss pedals, probably the RV-5 for yet another flavour.

Maybe I'll still turn out to be the biggest reverb nerd known to man... :razz:

Tsetse, just saying, you are an excellent poster.

Don't give anyone bancrofti now!

Well, I don't know about bancrofti, but judging from a few of the comments, this thread seems to be pretty contagious when it comes to reverb pedal GAS! :mrgreen:

(On a side note, dear reverb pedal builders, please feel free to contact me for my banking details... :twisted: )

Back on topic:
It seems like I will be able to visit a few stores on Saturday where I'll probably be able to give a lot of the suggested pedals a ride. If nobody minds, I'll update this thread on Saturday (or Sunday) to share a my impressions... maybe this thread will be of some use to somebody looking for similar reverb types in the future.

In the meantime, thanks again to all who took their time to post here, it's been great to read all of your contributions! Thanks to all of you I now have a much clearer picture of what to look for in a reverb pedal!

Front of house sound can be a nightmare.

We had one where vocals were good at front and back of hall but inaudible in the middle. Couldn't figure it, front was meeting a reflection from back of house and cancelling out. Dropped the "flattering" reverb and sorted it.

You really have to get the echoes right at the sound check.

Out doors? - good luck with that. You can get a situation where audience near the back will hear wet echoes out of the PA before they hear the dry off the stage.

http://i375.photobucket.com/albums/oo199/gibsonkal/ebaystfff/-9028592709660813290.jpg

These Muza M Ambience are excellent pedals, I've had one for a year (bought from ebay), and for $90 you won't find a better reverb/delay combo...an insane deal.

@jefrs:
I will have to see about those problems and I'll keep this in mind, so thanks for the warning. The two occasions I talked about are probably perfect candidates for experimenting and learning - the barn is pretty difficult to mix a good sound in and open air is almost always difficult, I'm aware of that. However, since there won't be an audience who paid money to see us at both occasions, I won't risk ruining our gig or anybody's evening. There will be some pretty experienced sound guys around to talk with as well.

Concerning those song parts I talked about earlier, I will probably have to think of alternative versions should I run into situations where the issue can't be solved.

@brown meadows:
Thanks and the videos look nice, but they're only available from ebay and I can't even find a quote for shipping to Europe. By now I think I'd prefer to test a reverb pedal in person before buying it.

(First off, sorry for double posting, but I don't want this to get lost in case somebody is interested.)

Ok, so I hit some stores yesterday and now I have one less vacant spot on my pedal board. I tested quite some pedals including all of the pedals that I'd narrowed down on and some of the others that were mentioned in this thread.

I'll not go into details on those pedals that simply had different or less functions than what I was looking for, so no Tonebug, Hardwire, T-Rex Room-Mate II (which is REALLY something), FRV-1 comments etc. Some of those pedals fit more into the "I've got no reverb on my amp, so I'm looking for an alternative to amp reverb" category, which is simply not what I was looking for.

Now, on to the pedals that I want to talk about and those which actually have some or all of the functions I was looking for, but let me first say that all of the following is REALLY subjective and just reflects my personal opinion, so please take this with a grain of salt.

First off, the Boss RV-5 and the TC Electronic Hall of Fame were disqualified almost immediately and here's why - the Boss was noisy as heck. I tried two of these in the amp room of one of the stores I visited and I got wierd static noise / interference no matter if the pedal was on or off. I have absolutely no idea what went wrong there but I'm certainly not going to live with that. None of the other pedals did this. The reverb sounds itself were nice, though, especially the modulated setting.

About the Hall of Fame: The knobs move VERY easily and are set VERY close to the footswitch which renders the pedal all but unusable to me. If you're not extremely careful, you're risking switching modes or setting the FX level accidentally when you switch it on or off. I can't imagine taking this to a stage.

Now, the EHX Cathedral and the Strymon Blue Sky: The Blue Sky has a sound quality which honestly couldn't be matched by any of the other pedals and it doesn't take much for it to sound really good. The Cathedral sounded really good to me as well, somebody talked about an "airy" quality in EHX pedals and this pedal sounds just like that. It's different than the Strymon, but I liked both a lot.

To make it short, I left the store with the EHX Cathedral even if it was a hard decision. The reasons why I chose this pedal:
- No noise at all (like the Strymon)
- Customizable Presets on all modes beat the "Favorite" Switch on the Blue Sky, while at the same time not having to navigate through banks or menus was a clear plus when comparing it to the (rather cold sounding) Eventide Space.
- Tap Tempo and having the option to go "infinite" on every setting make this crazy versatile. I love the "infite" function to bits.
- Large amount of control over the different settings
- Reverse Reverb: That's a really cool effect and having this is a big plus over the Strymon.
- I happen to like all of the modes.
- It's a lot less money than the Strymon.

I've spent the most part of today just toying with my Cathedral, it plays nicely with my other pedals, I've still got no signal degradation, no noise and I'm really happy with this pedal.

Like I mentioned earlier, the next pedal on my list will be a chorus and a few short tests with a chorus pedal and a reverb pedal resulted in something quite similar to the mod setting on the RV-5, so I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to get those sounds (or something very similar) in the future.

Thank you all once more,
regards,
Stephan

Excellent choice Stephan! I'm glad you like it, and I look forward to reading about your chorus search(seeing as how I am on that search as well)

Hey there and thanks! FYI, it could take a little while until a chorus thread pops up (or at least one started by me) - for one, there are already a few chorus pedals I'm taking into consideration, secondly, I have a love / hate relationship with "traditional" chorus types (I mostly hate them, tbh :lol:) so I'm looking for something special and most importantly, I spent money on the Cathedral and have a Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret on its way to me, so I will have to wait until my bank account has recovered a little :wink:.

Additionally, I imagine I will be pretty busy getting familiar with the Cathedral, the DLS could also change things a bit and keep me busy for a while.

Anyway, there's definitely going to be a thread about chorus pedals in the near future, since there's always invaluable tips and hints to be had around here.

Now excuse me while I head back to my guitar!

Regards,
Stephan

Well I just pulled the trigger on one of these,does everything and more that I need a reverb pedal to do,and has a great spring setting.Been using an RV-5 that needs repair...the 'spring' mode is audible in every mode except modulate! Never heard of this problem before but I certainly cant fix it.
Big pros of the H.O.F for me-
1] Small footprint! Theres no way I could fit a Cathedral or Strymon on my 7 pedal board [unless I bought a flint which would cover tremolo too,but sadly I just cant drop $360.00 on a pedal.]
2] This- ''Hall Of Fame Reverb also has true bypass design, which ensures zero loss of tone when switched off, and features analog-dry-through which guarantees total tonal integrity of your dry sound, even with the pedal active.''

Stephan,sounds like you went with the Cathedral so enjoy it! But I wouldnt let easily rotating knobs be a deal breaker.There are simple remedys for that like small rubber faucet washers.[I actually use em on any pedals that I tend to set and forget.]

Congrats on your new pedal, hope you like it!

I still believe I made the right decision in my case, I'm slowly learning how capable and versatile the Cathedral is and I'm finding lots of new sounds in there, including two perfect matches for parts of songs where I really wanted to have reverb as a very noticeable effect from the beginning. It's always a good sign with effects (or gear in general) if they actually deliver the sounds you have in mind.

There are simple remedys for that like small rubber faucet washers.

That's pretty clever, hadn't crossed my mind before but I will keep that in mind should I run into that kind of situation again.

Concerning large / small footprints: That didn't really matter to me - I have a pedal train (I think one of the "medium" sizes, it's not their largest one) with currently 8 pedals (soon to be 9 when the DLS arrives and if I happen to like it enough) and I've still got room to spare for 3-4 more pedals. I'll definitely want a chorus pedal and maybe another modulation effect but that'll be it - I don't think I will run out of pedal board real estate anytime soon.

Stephan,sounds like you went with the Cathedral so enjoy it!
Thank you and I hope you'll enjoy your HoF as well!

Probably post purhase but I am definitley plus one on the BlueSky. It is expensive but worth every single penny and after a year I still admire the tone. Just about everything else on my PB has come and gone but the BS remains. Stereo Delay (Nova) through the BS in stereo to two amps (Mesa LSS and Bogner Alchemist or Vox) is heaven! You can get lost in it.

"There are simple remedys for that like small rubber faucet washers.[I actually use em on any pedals that I tend to set and forget."

Rubber faucet washers!! That's the ticket!

........
@wpete:

Congrats - I would be grateful if you could drop a few lines in this thread when it arrives, concerning how you like it.
......
Regards,
Stephan

Sorry it's been a while since I looked at this thread, probably because I've been exploring the options on the blueSky and I'm not done yet - big fun !! Still need to explore the stereo in/out more and try amps on each side of the room, this box is soooo - tweakeable !! Mine has the silent footswitches too tho there is a bit of "pop"

Congrats on your choice, Cathederal sounds pretty good for your useage and setting pre-sets would be nice to have.
Regards Wpete

Hi!

About the Blue Sky: I just wanted to say that I'll keep this in the back of my head. As of now, there are more 'pressing matters' to attend to when it comes to effects - I've still got no modulation effects on my board and I could really use a good chorus (and maybe other stuff as well) but the Blue Sky really gave me a hard time when trying to choose between it and the Cathedral.

It's a bit like comparing apples and oranges. The Blue Sky sounds somewhat more refined, more like a studio-quality reverb while the Cathedral has got a sound of its own. A bit more raw, it's hard to put in words. Both pedals sounded really different (and imho better than the rest) when compared to other reverb pedals.

Plus the two pedals have different and unique sounds to them - the shimmer mode is exclusive to the BS, the reverse mode is exclusive to the Cathedral, for example. They simply do different things.

Right now, it was the right decision to go with the Cathedral. Yesterday, my Dirty Little Secret arrived and I had a lot of fun with that and the Cathedral set to a short, discreet reverb in Grail mode. I have a little Vox Pathfinder 15R for a practice amp at home and that little guy sounded pretty much like a full-blown Marshall. The grail reverb gave the sound somewhat more of an edge and made the whole thing even more convincing to my ears. I see a lot of potential for cool low gain lead sounds in this combination.
(As a side note, it sounded crazy good with my Fuzz Face stacked into the DLS.)

This reverb setting has a different 'voice' than what's on my amps and while I didn't buy the Cathedral for such subtle things or as a replacement for the reverb tanks in my amps I'm now pretty sure that I will use it in more situations than I originally planned to.

However, the Blue Sky is not out of the picture and maybe I will get one of those in the future after getting my hands on decent modulation effects.

Regards,
Stephan

P.S.
There's going to be a chorus thread from my side as soon as I find a little more time for writing and have done a little more research.