Spring Reverb Pedals – Help a Brother Out!

I did not like reverb "A" as it sounded too 'boingie' and 'cheap'.  "B" and "C" sounded much more natural to me.... natural being more like a real Fender reverb sound.  I too am looking to do what you are doing, getting a nice sounding reverb pedal to use with all my amps.  I don't really use it much when playing out, but do like it at home and for practice.  So, I would not want to spend a lot of $$$.  I'd have to hear more from "B" and "C" to choose one, but with this video and my small speakers, I'm probably leaning just a bit toward "B".  Between "B" and "C", I'd probably be happy with the less expensive of the two. 

Honestly, I kind of liked the reverb-less sound the best.  That AMP on its own is really nice.

But as far a the reverb goes, I liked Reverb C the best.  "B" was good and close to C in many ways, but seemed slightly bland to my ears.  Maybe it is the tiny and cheapo-computer speaker but I thought it lacked something... not bad, but not as good as "C".  I felt "C" was subtle when it needed to be and perked up when it was pushed (more so than "B" anyway). 

"A" was different.  I think it had a stronger effect.  I liked it for its bold sound, but I felt "C" was superior.

thanks for the demo - that AMP sounds even better than it looks.  And it looks great.

OK, Pedal A might make a good doorstop, but it doesn't belong on the board. I've heard of wet reverb but that one sounded like hour 17 of water torture, especially when you got to the surf sound. There's too much spring to it, sounding like when you drop your amp with a reverb tank on the floor, or you open an old screen door too wide. Pass on that one.

You said two were spring reverb effects, and I think Pedal C was the other. The spring effect wasn't as loose as in Pedal A, and overall it wasn't bad. The "depth" was reasonable; I didn't feel like the sound was falling into a well. I could see this on a board if your repertoire includes a lot of surf or you want to sound like Luther Perkins. And I dig Luther.

For overall good sound and general play, though, Pedal B to my ears was the clear winner. It had the most natural sound to it, and even a bit of warmth in the first set of licks you played. That would be my pick.

I actually preferred your tone w/o reverb at all but, as the first poster says, 1 is distastefully boingy. 2 was ok, and finally 3 was probably my favorite in this recording. It would make the comparisons easier if you played a super-steady rhythm , softly at first then steadily increased your attack  while playing as cleanly as possible. Lastly, lead lines would help confirm the results from the rhythm tests but you would have to pay particular attention to consistency in you pick attack from pedal to pedal. Thank you for this video as well as your continued efforts in this blog.

BTW. Have you done a comparison between a G12C and a Black & Blue?

I loved the sound of your rig dry and I my opinion of the best reverb is based on this. With that said, here is my observation.

I, also, didn't like the boinginess of A.

B seemed to keep closest to the sound of your dry signal which is why I like it the best of these three.

C seemed to add brightness and detract a little dimension from your dry signal to me.

Conclusion; In my opinion, B was my favorite, followed by C, with A in last place.

Good hunting :) !

A. had a nice crisp tone, a little faster decay which added to the "depth" of the sound.

B. seemed to muffle the tone slightly, reverb effect sounded good though.

C. good tone, seemed to "compress" the tone though with slightly less dynamics.