Reverb, changing needs and what to go for?

Teyeplayer

It seems my reverb needs are changing. Please forgive the background but hopefully it’ll make the sonic journey make sense and will ring a bell or two:

For several years I was dragging around a proper tube reverb unit and getting a wonderful tone with lots of admiring oohs and ahhs from fellow guitarists, that was until I picked up a used boss frv1 from here and found it did everything the head did. Cue the sale of the head and several years of lighter lifting and one less thing to collect from the car each show.

However, the times are a changing and so are my needs. I now own a Princeton Reverb so have all that natural splashy springy goodness if I want or need it and I find I am increasingly intrigued by the possibilities or shimmer reverbs and maybe even reverse reverbs. 

It seems logical therefore to move the frv1 on and with the proceeds purchase a polara or rv6. I’m not in the bank balance zone of being able to stretch to a big sky or blue sky unfortunately, so pedals around the value of the boss are the only possible option -though with a little in the PayPal I maybe able to trade towards a used blue sky if one came up cheap enough.

So what do you recommend guys, any pedals I’m missing, any reliability issues I should be aware of before I purchase? What are your experiences and what did you go for and why?

ICBM

I'm not sure if you're aware that the FRV-1 is now worth considerably more than it was about a year ago - they've been discontinued and have shot up in value, to roughly double what they were. Unfortunately I sold mine for £70 just before that happened... and now this...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_udlo&_udhi&_ftrt=901&_ftrv=1&_sabdlo&_sabdhi&_samilow&_samihi&_sop=12&_dmd=1&_ipg=50&_fosrp=1&LH_Complete=1&_nkw=boss frv-1&rt=nc&LH_PrefLoc=1&_trksid=p2045573.m1684

Teyeplayer

ICBM said:

I'm not sure if you're aware that the FRV-1 is now worth considerably more than it was about a year ago - they've been discontinued and have shot up in value, to roughly double what they were. Unfortunately I sold mine for £70 just before that happened... and now this...

Yes I’m aware of the crazy increased value, it’s nuts! To be honest @ICBM I’m very uncomfortable with the idea of profiting from a fretboarder for a pedal that I purchased for a reasonable price even if it was a few years back. My thought process is that if I was to sell it, then its sale would fund its replacement, which would make me feel a little less morally uncomfortable with the whole thing! Silly perhaps but something akin to the one in one out rule.

It’s just the indecisive decision of what the devil to go for.

ICBM

Teyeplayer said:

Yes I’m aware of the crazy increased value, it’s nuts! To be honest @ICBM I’m very uncomfortable with the idea of profiting from a fretboarder for a pedal that I purchased for a reasonable price even if it was a few years back.

In that case I'll give you £70 for it .

Seriously - accept your good luck and sell it for the going rate, and don't have any moral doubts. If someone wants to pay that much it's up to them - it's quite likely that if you sell it too cheap the buyer will just flip it for the profit anyway.

(And no, I'm not in the market for one now .)

Teyeplayer

Maybe you are right @ICBM, out of interest though -what reverb are you using now and why?

heavyrocker

I never understand eBay sellers who price gear  high when there are other listings at way below that price. Why would someone buy the one at £160 when there are so many others for sale?

Teyeplayer

It’s mad what people are paying and posting things for on evil bay, I use it less and less. Much easier to trade with folks on here.

Now this reverb issue, what do you recommend guys?

ICBM

Teyeplayer said:

Maybe you are right @ICBM, out of interest though -what reverb are you using now and why?

The ones on my ME-50 and FDR-1. They're not as good as the FRV-1, but actually aren't bad - the biggest problem with the ME-50 is that it only has a single parameter knob for 'reverb' and it's *very* touchy, since the whole range for the Spring setting is only a quarter of the turn. The FDR-1 is better but is still a bit too touchy, unless you want an 'effect' reverb rather than background. I'm not enough of a reverb specialist to need the really accurate emulation of the FRV-1.

At least I was lucky that I got the FDR-1 when they were cheap too - they've also gone up, if not quite as much.

thecolourbox

The Polara is good, cheap, and has loads of nice useful sounds. I've never tried a Boss one, but I preferred the Polara to the TC Hall of Fame

Teyeplayer

Cheers gents, keep the good advice coming.  

jdgm

Marshall Reflector, cheap and very good features for price.

Gadget

How about the Strymon Flint? Lovely reverb pedal with bonus tremolo. Can be had for sub-£200 second hand.

Teyeplayer

Gadget said:

How about the Strymon Flint? Lovely reverb pedal with bonus tremolo. Can be had for sub-£200 second hand.

I have considered it, though I love my swamp thang clone and along with the Princeton have all the trem I could need. If I was going to take the hit to embrace strymon I think I’d have go the whole hog and go blue sky -which may be the way forward.

Gadget

Perhaps the Neunaber Expanse series of pedals then? Lots of lovely reverbs (and everything else besides) in there.

VJIves

If you want variety, the Polara or the Electro Harmonix Oceans 11 are both great options.

Teyeplayer

I’ll have to have a listen to the neunaber series -I only know the wet so will give these a listen.

There’s the polara again, keeps getting good mentions.

Just YouTubing blue sky clips...might have to just save up and do it.

tone1

I use a Flint but maybe a Catalinbread Talisman might be worth checking out

Teyeplayer

Good call @tone1 cheers.

Teyeplayer

No shimmer on the talisman, that’s that one off the list. It’s these crazier reverbs I’m after as I’m well sorted for a more traditional reverb thanks to the Princeton.

That leaves the polara, oceans 11 and blue sky. Having had a glance the blue sky looks more user friendly than the Neunaber and is in the same ball park pricewise.

tone1

Teyeplayer said:

No shimmer on the talisman, that’s that one off the list. It’s these crazier reverbs I’m after as I’m well sorted for a more traditional reverb thanks to the Princeton.

That leaves the polara, oceans 11 and blue sky. Having had a glance the blue sky looks more user friendly than the Neunaber and is in the same ball park pricewise.

Sorry, didn’t see you’d like shimmer... bit of a curveball but how about a line 6 M5... Lots of Reverbs to choose from and were pretty decent as I remember 

vale

you can't go wrong with digitech stereo reverbs, imo. they are superb. and seems literally crazy insane that the company has just closed for business. not sure what the reason was but will be greatly missed.

for a clean and crystalline all-rounder they have the rv7 stereo. for late 1960s ampy reverb vibe they have the polara, for dark ambient they have the supernatural. they do a few others but they are the three i have either owned or borrowed long-term, so can speak personally of their merits.

line 6 verbzilla is pretty decent too, but long out of production and getting pricey used for what they are. £60 good, but not £100.

behringer do a bang on clone of the zilla but i have heard complaints of noise and buffer issues.
personally i haven't noticed this, so it maybe some and not others, or a dirty signal corrupting the power supply. i've only used mine at home, not in venues with crap circuitry.
plus they are plastic. for a bedroom demo maker like me that's not an issue, but if you are playing out maybe a consideration.

another interesting one is the boss re20 space echo thing. it's a bit overblown (huge box and two pedals) for what it does, but sounds pretty good and actually has some of the charcter of the space echo. worth looking out for if you have a boss affection.

nux have just released a pedal that plays with the black green space echo graphics and pretends to be of that ilk, but it sounds to me like any other digital reverb-echo-delay. like the d-seed etc. dry and superclean but lacking character.
but it has a cool trick in that you can link it to your computer and tweak the parameters, then save to the pedal. for fancy pedals that's normal, but for a sub £50 pedal that's quite a lot of tweakability for pocket money.
so while demos sound uninspiring, you may well be able to go radically off piste via the gui options. plus the potential for future firmware upgrades means it may get better in time.