The Steel Guitar Forum

Who play with no reverb?

I was always thinking thats it was very important to have a good amount of reverb for steel, I don't know why. Then I realized that amp from 40's don't have reverb and most of my favourite players play without reverb! I just bought a nice hand made tube amp (30 watts) with no reverb and I really like the sound, more defined and clear without the reverb. I mean, not just for hawaiian or wester swing, even for ambient, modern songs, I prefer the pure sound without reverb.

Do you guys play direct in the amp without reverb?

It depends on the room.

Playing traditional folk/country, no reverb - I'm with you. Even Hawaiian music sounds better with no reverb - but it's definitely a personal opinion between each set of ears.

I prefer delay to reverb. My default setting is one repeat at a level slightly lower than the dry sound, in time with the song (tap tempo). It just fattens the sound without the washy,muddy thing that reverb can do. When I do use verb I like a plate setting rather than room or hall.

I never use reverb when I am doing Hank Williams Sr backup but I do use it for most Hawaiian theme music on my D8.

I also use a little reverb when I play country on my Remington D10. The reverb is on about #3 most of the time.

Cartwright Thompson wrote:It depends on the room.

Personally, I think the less reveb the better, but sometimes dry can be a little too dry. The key for me is to have the reverb seem natural, rather than an effect.

I was once told by an engineer that the best reverb to add is whatever the room you're in doesn't have.

Small Living Room -- Add a little hall for longer reflections and a bit of extra decay.

Big plain room -- Add some small room early reflections and complexity.

Nice Complex room with good natural reverb -- add nothing.

The issue I find is that the big long hall reveb that sounds great in a small room gets used in large venue and becomes redundant with the reverb the room already has. Nothing is worse than hard room with lots of natural long decay reverb and someone using tons of long decay reveb. Mushville.

I like the no-reverb sound. To my ear it sounds more transparent and I like the sound of the old western swing players.

can you imagine coltrane or casals using reverb
effects are subtly killers unless ambient is your goal

ebb wrote:can you imagine coltrane or casals using reverb
effects are subtly killers unless ambient is your goal

Good point!

ebb wrote:can you imagine coltrane or casals using reverb
effects are subtly killers unless ambient is your goal

Why yes, they used the reverb of the room/hall they were in

I tend to turn off my amp reverb when playing live. Most rooms I play in are pretty lively. But at home and in some practice rooms I need a smidge of reverb to help keep the sound from being unnaturally dry, i.e. no one listens to music in a padded closet.

Yeah, I'm a dry kind of guy. Easier to hear mistakes when you practice. Which is good.

I've always like it either way, wet or dry. My current set up is a stereo rig using two amps and the stereo split created by using a phase shifter pedal with stereo output. I have the pedal set so there is no real perseptable phase effect but it really makes my steel come alive! Also with two amps you can have one wet, one dry, one overdrive, one clean or any combo you can come up with.