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This pedal has intrigued me for a long time - I've been leaning towards spring reverb for a while. If carefully set they can add brightness and a vintage vibe to a more modern sounds with delay, which makes things ambiguous which I like.. specially because I always use archtops contrary to the 335 trend these days. I want a sort of Jim Hll / Wes meets Rosenwinkel sound.
Most of the Neunaber derived pedals (Belton brick) tend to have a specific sound which does not sound that close to spring reverb to me.. I have a BYOC Reverb 2 in my Henriksen and I have tried the wet, wampler faux spring and listened to tons of other clips and they all have an ambient sound that is not close to a spring sound. They sound great but have their own vibe going on.
So DSP was the only option... I found the spring on the HOF quite weak (and all the spring toneprints). The RV7 one is nicer but still far from a spring tank - the Flint was closer but it's too expensive. Never tried the Supernatural.. The Spring Theory by clips was my favorite one - and the advantage of having a room reverb was just perfect. So I scored a used on TGP and my friend who lives in NY just delivered it.
And after some playing... sound VERY good, the best spring reverb emulation I have heard. It's hard for me to say it sounds exactly like a spring tank because in my experience spring reverbs sound very different according to tank size, number of springs and even the circuit each brand uses - fender and ampeg reverb for example sound quite different (and even the same exact tank can sound different). My favorite spring reverb was in my Bandit 65 and the ST comes close to that sound... having a depth control makes it also much easier to control how subtle or surfy you want the sound - on most fenders is too subtle until 3 and too surfy from 3 to 10. The room side is an excellent bonus, just a simple digital reverb that can go from very subtle to very big... it's hard to find a reverb than can add presence without being overwhelming. The HOF can do it and so can the room on the ST.
If you like spring reverb it's really nice for the price and with the bonus of an excellent digital reverb.
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12-21-2013 04:37 PM
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Congrats on the new pedal! Have never seen one of those - but it sounds interesting! ... But I will say that the mad profesor professor silver spring reverb IMHO sounds even nicer than the reverb tank on my twin ... Have you ever tried one of those?
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No... they seem great too, will try if I have the chance!!
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Congrats, I looked into one of these two but never got a chance to play one. They seem very cool and good sounding. I like Subdecay pedals...used to have their Liquid Sunshine which was a cool overdrive that could also do a fat clean boost.
I too have Mad Professor Silver Spring and really like it. It's not a super biong, boing spring sound, but that's not what I'm looking for. I find it's a tad smoother and atmospheric than authentic spring, which I like.
As for others, I tried a Neunaber Wet which gets great reviews, but I got tired of it and ultimately wasn't that crazy about it. Much prefer the Silver Spring. I also have a cheapo Behringer RV600 (which is their Line 6 Verbzilla clone) and it's surprisingly good sounding for a cheapo to bang around! I had an RV7 and wasn't crazy about it either. A bandmate of mine has the TC Hall of Fame and it sounds kind of sterile to me, but I haven't actually plugged into it myself...so it could be the way he has it set.
Have either of you two tried the Earthquaker Devices Ghost Echo? If so, how is it?
Since both you guys (jorge and frank) seem to be on top of the good reverb pedals, keep on eye out for an upcoming reverb pedal from Mojo Hand called the Dewdrop. I generally like Mojo Hand's pedal offerings and they are usually reasonably priced.
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I am really curious with the Mad Professor, I have to try one soon. I agree with the WET comments... but the wet reverb is a little like "ice pick", it can be unbearable in the bedroom but quite useful in a band stand.
Never tried the Ghost Echo... had a Dispatch Master and despite being a great design in the end I found the reverb too ambient. But the Ghost Echo sounds much more manageable... another one I would like to try.
Will keep an eye on the Dewdrop, thanks for the tip!
As a post honeymoon review I still like this pedal a lot. The room side can do any size of reverb you want and it's very transparent - not dark or bright. It's all I need from a digital reverb... The spring side is the best emulation I've heard, it gives a blackface sound to my Mambo which I like. Simple is indeed the best way sometimes
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congrats. I've heard good things about those.
In the past, I obsessed over reverb pedals but what I've found is that when you're playing by yourself, it makes a huge difference but on the gig, you usually end up hardly using any reverb because that big, cavernous reverb that sounded so cool now sounds boomy and undefined like you're in the ocean or something.
So, for me the original digitech digiverb is just fine. Sounds very good and while it won't fool anyone into thinking you're playing through a real spring tank, it's more than good enough to be inspiring while playing.
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I agree with you Jack.. Even at home I've been leaning towards a more subtle reverb and then the difference between pedals is not so apparent. All the extra depth comes from a delay, if needed.
But not all pedals do subtle well... These days both my amps have quite nice reverbs - the Mambo has the FV-1 chip reverbs and the Henriksen a BYOC Reverb 2 (similar to the WET). Because of this the Spring Theory will be my only pedal and it's a very nice subtle pedal for when I go trough the PA or when I want to control the reverb with a pedal on my pedalboard instead of the amp. The depth control on the room really works well on a subtle linear progression of the size of the reverb.. I love my HOF but I don't need it anymore I think.
I wish people who demo reverbs would do more "real life" demos. Most sounds you hear on the demos are completely unusable on a gig...
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Agreed about the differences between playing alone at home and with a band. I've experienced similar things and that's partially why I prefer a simpler reverb pedal than one with a bunch of settings/types that takes more tweaking on a gig.
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I've just found that live, you hardly need any reverb so the difference between my Digiverb and a boutique tube, spring tank are negligible. Now, if I was playing in a surf band where the reverb is actually part of the performance it might be a different issue.
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Curious about the silver spring, also your new Subdecay reverb.
It is true about reverb at home alone versus on stage. There's another angle to this. I find some reverb pedals cooperate with clean boost and delay (always on for me) much better than others. Such as the Hermida reverb, also the Fuchs Good Verberations. I love both those pedals ... they seem to assist in creating a soaring, fat sound at higher volumes.
For playing jazz, that may or may not be something you'd be concerned with.
MD
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I need a reverb pedal to use with an archtop going through a MarkBass bass combo (no verb on the bass amp). Has anyone compared the Digi to the Boss RV5? Or another?
Originally Posted by jzucker
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What's your budget?
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Well... I'm doing a set of Gershwin songs with a symphony and vocalist, and for logistical reasons I will have to use the MarkBass combo. (Very nice amp for archtop, with a tweeter.) Just wanted a touch of dig verb for a little depth. At first I thought I would just flip the verb after the concert, but now I think it's something I should just have. My main Pearce guitar amp has nice Alesis verb already, but I should probably have a portable pedal for the next time I need one.
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In the US and buying new I would never buy an RV5 (170$) simply because an HOF costs 150$ and sounds much better. If you don't want a spectacular spring reverb emulation the HOF can't be beaten imo. If you need one (as I did) the Spring Theory works really good. The Hardwire Supernatural is supposed to be great too... But if not just get a HOF.
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I have also been using a bass amp for a few weeks with my archtop. Someone wanted to give me a little Peavey Micro bass amp...I said no thanks... Ended up trying it and guess what? I love the sound with my archtop. Prefer it over many other amps that I have. And of course no reverb so I had a Digitech Digiverb tucked away and it's fine. There's probably better out there(for cheap I've heard that the Mooer reverb is nice). But I agree with previous posts, reverb is mostly for home use or playing in a really dry room(quite rare on most of my gigs).
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Jorge, how does the mini HOF compare to the more expensive model?
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Never tried it Jack.. lack of real time decay control is a deal breaker for me. I am actually sad about selling my HOF but I cannot justify having two reverb pedals.. TC should release a good spring toneprint, it's the pedal's main fault.
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Another new spring pedal coming out... One from Catalinbread, the Topanga spring reverb. I'm generally a fan of their pedals.
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Should be great... but in my case I also need a digital reverb option, thet's why the ST is so nice. But I would like to hear some clips of the Catlainbread!
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so, how is the Spring Theory stll works for you? any clips?
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Did you try tweaking the pedal in the toneprint editor? I'd like to pick up a HOF at some point mainly for the flexibility of the editing software (going on the youtube videos I've seen alone mind). Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
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Still have it, still love it. Not using it that much because I am using modellers more and more... I can't do clips right now because my laptop needs fixing.
I have tried the editor but I find designing reverbs very hard... Delays sure but not reverbs.
Anyway I got a nice trade offer and slipped the HOF - the room side of the ST is all I need for digital reverb anyway.
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they just made a new, springier version with extra springs to make you guys feel inadequate:
Subdecay ? Super Spring Theory ? Reverb
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