Best small reverb pedal...lots to choose from!

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 2 Jan 2012 2:08 pm

I'm going to be returning my TC Hall of Fame reverb. Used it on some gigs and the Holy Grail sounds better to me.

I even downloaded some reverbs for it. It is not transparent enough. It affects the sound of my picking. Giving it an artificial thickness. I also can hear some digital artifacts around the 3rd partial ( a super high resonance).

I found my ear being drawn to the sound of the reverb while I was on stage. Reminds me of my reaction to Fender reissue twins. Something is just not right about the highs to my ear.

Jay Ganz · Post by **Jay Ganz** » 3 Jan 2012 6:14 am

Yeah, I agree. I tried the TC for a couple days and sent it back. Wasn't crazy about it.

Brett Lanier · Post by **Brett Lanier** » 3 Jan 2012 10:26 am

The Holy Grail is my favorite that I've owned. I've used mine a lot for about ten years and it just recently started making an unwanted noise. The same "little vacuum cleaner" sound that Bob Hoffnar described.
A friend of mine has a Holy Grail Cathedral and it sounds incredible with two amps.
I'd like to hear a review comparing the Wet reverb to the Holy Grail.

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 3 Jan 2012 9:27 pm

Brett,
I used the Holy Grail on a recording session today and a gig earlier tonight. I was setting the HG on top of my twin before when the noise was happening. I moved it to the floor next to my volume pedal and it was as clean as a whistle. I think maybe the problem was output transformer interference. I have yet to try an outboard digital reverb I like better. I like the sound of the HG better than my Lexicon MPX 500 when it comes to steel tone.

Brian Fee · Post by **Brian Fee** » 4 Jan 2012 3:25 pm

I like my pedals to sound like spring, so take that for what it is:

Holy Grail - I liked this pedal. It added a kick in the upper mid presence that added a touch of grease to my sound. Hard to describe, but I missed it when it was gone. I got rid of the pedal because as you turn up the effect, especially past 12:00 (which I did occasional) the dry signal dropped and the overall volume was noticeably lower. Instead of adding reverb to your constant dry signal, the pot blends out your dry as it mixes in the reverb. I didn't like it by design. But if you just keep the pedal at a constant lowish level, the pedal sounds great and is cheap. Mine was the older big one which requires it's own power supply in order to stay quiet. I believe the new, smaller ones have fixed that issue.

Hardwire - didn't like the spring setting. It was overly bright for me, even with the tone rolled all the way down. This pedal also dropped something in the mids, some frequency was missing - the dry signal felt more hollow, even with the reverb dialed all the way gone. Subtle for sure, but drove me nuts.

Mr. Springgy - pricey, but I found one used and it was perfect. The buffer in this pedal adds a tiny bit of clean clearity. I don't how to describe it, but I liked it. -A similar effect of using a high quality cable. Clear. That's just the buffer. The reverb effect is beautiful. Rich and warm, yet metallic enough to sound like a spring reverb. It sounded like blackface reverb. The reverb melds well with the dry signal. I don't know why, but this one just sounded right.

Spring Chicken - based on the same reverb chip as Mr. Springgy, and was almost as nice. For some reason it was a little grainier and didn't have the wonderful buffer. It had twice as much reverb on tap as the Mr. Springgy - but all of that was wasted on me.

Chicklet - tiny. crackly and percussive sounding. didn't like.

Hermida - I never got around to trying this one, but it's also based on the same chip as whats in Mr. Springgy and many rave about it. And it's cheaper.

Boss/Fender Frv-1 - I really really wanted to like this one. It is definitely the Springiest but I thought it was very thin and muddy sounding. I did sucessfully dial in something that was OK, but it wasn't easy. If I was doing surf covers, perhaps I'd have kept it, but I found it one of the least musical otherwise. Very hissy and full of white noise in my application. I had the Mr. Springgy at the same time and there was no match between the two.

I haven't tried the TC HOF, but I love their delay pedal.

Benjamin Wolfram · Post by **Benjamin Wolfram** » 6 Jan 2012 8:46 pm

Well I tried a couple of reverb pedals out yesterday in a shop, one was the Wet Stereo pedal and the other the TC HOF...didn't like the TC it just didn't sound transparent enough and like others have said seemed to color the tone of the amp. The Wet was great and was completely transparent, no change in tone if the pedal was on or off at all and great sounding reverb...would have bought one if they had the mono pedal in stock but they only had the stereo one.

Ended up finding a really good price on a second hand Solid Gold Surf Rider reverb pedal and after a bit of research on the net decided I'd go with that because all the clips of it sounded pretty great. It'll probably get here next week so I'll see how it goes.

Johnny Thomasson · Post by **Johnny Thomasson** » 7 Jan 2012 6:48 pm

A Boss RV-5 does the job for me. I have two of them. I played through a '65 Twin Reverb for years, and while the RV-5 isn't an exact match for the spring reverb in my Twin, it's plenty close enough for me. Lots of tweakability in the RV-5.

Matthew Carlin · Post by **Matthew Carlin** » 7 Jan 2012 8:38 pm

Well its not the smallest but I use the Van amps sole-mate, real spring reverb.
a close second being the WET pedal that I keep meaning to order.

Benjamin Wolfram · Post by **Benjamin Wolfram** » 7 Jan 2012 11:14 pm

Was going to get the Van Amps because it's a real deal spring reverb but I just wanted something smaller, easier, and much cheaper. Heard they are brilliant though...so long as you don't kick or bump them while they're on

Mitch Druckman · Post by **Mitch Druckman** » 8 Jan 2012 8:35 am

Has anyone tried this Guyatone spring reverb unit?
A good price for a full size reverb w/ NOS tubes.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/ ... everb-unit

Robert Gifford · Post by **Robert Gifford** » 8 Jan 2012 7:38 pm

I have a EH Holy Grail Nano pedal that I've run with a 1 spot with a number of other pedals and never had an issue with noise.

Brett Lanier · Post by **Brett Lanier** » 8 Jan 2012 8:07 pm

The opposite is true for me. I just realized the little vacuum cleaner sound goes away when I give the (old) holy grail it's own 1spot.

Bob Farlow · Post by **Bob Farlow** » 9 Jan 2012 4:53 pm

Specs look good on this unit. Kinda pricey, but if it sounds as good on steel as it does on their sound clips I would surely consider it.

http://www.maxonfx.com/Vintage_AD999.php

Micky Byrne · Post by **Micky Byrne** » 10 Jan 2012 4:30 am

Still love my Boss RV-3 ... on mode 7..so it's delay and reverb. Bought a spare as a back up. Shame they stopped making them. So simple to use.

Micky Byrne U.K.

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 10 Jan 2012 4:16 pm

I'm really enjoying my new Earthquaker Devices Dispatch Master. It's actually both reverb AND delay with an all-analog dry signal path. The reverb is big and long and sounds nice. The delay goes from incredibly short to absurdly long (2sec), but with a good setting, this pedal is really cool and lush. Not too pricey either. The only thing I didn't like about it is that the delay time knob has ALL the good usable range all tucked into the zone around 9 o'clock. So I replaced that reverse-log-taper pot with an audio taper and now it's real easy to dial in a good delay time. Not many delay/reverb pedals out there. I think that's why the RV-3 is still a favorite, and I like it too. But this Earthquaker pedal lets you tweak the relative balance between reverb and delay, and it's just a bit warmer and bigger sounding, and doesn't hurt your dry tone.

http://www.earthquakerdevices.com/devic ... master.htm

Brad

Benjamin Wolfram · Post by **Benjamin Wolfram** » 10 Jan 2012 5:22 pm

Brad Sarno wrote:I'm really enjoying my new Earthquaker Devices Dispatch Master. It's actually both reverb AND delay with an all-analog dry signal path. The reverb is big and long and sounds nice. The delay goes from incredibly short to absurdly long (2sec), but with a good setting, this pedal is really cool and lush. Not too pricey either. The only thing I didn't like about it is that the delay time knob has ALL the good usable range all tucked into the zone around 9 o'clock. So I replaced that reverse-log-taper pot with an audio taper and now it's real easy to dial in a good delay time. Not many delay/reverb pedals out there. I think that's why the RV-3 is still a favorite, and I like it too. But this Earthquaker pedal lets you tweak the relative balance between reverb and delay, and it's just a bit warmer and bigger sounding, and doesn't hurt your dry tone.

http://www.earthquakerdevices.com/devic ... master.htm

Brad

Damn that sounds like a great pedal because I'd love a little tiny bit of delay in with my reverb too...wish I had have at least tried that one out before going and buying the Solid Gold Surf Rider...hmm maybe I'll go try them side by side at the shop up the road now and if the Dispatch is that much better I'll just sell the Surf Rider when it comes in the mail...or I'll just get both and keep one for my guitar board and one for my steel

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Best small reverb pedal...lots to choose from!

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