Until a few years ago, it was uncommon to see players use reverb pedals, preferring instead to let their amps handle that job. The explosion of high-quality, handmade effects has resulted in a very wide variety of outstanding pedals on the whole, but reverb in particular, giving players both more creative outlets and ultimate control over their tone. For this list, we’ve focused on well-rounded, compact reverb pedals with a few weird ones thrown in for variety. Unlike our delay pedals post, we decided to skip the mega-verbs, though we do discuss them at the end. For those looking to add a sense of atmosphere to your guitar tone, learn more about the best reverb pedal offerings on the market.
The Holy Grail is well-documented in the annals of pedal-based reverb. It used to be housed in the old-style Electro-Harmonix thin metal box, but these days, the Nano version does it all in a much smaller (and tougher) package. To me, all three modes are very distinct sounding.
Spring is the straight-forward Fender-style amp reverb. It starts to get very saturated around noon and you can encourage a lot of the springy sound. Hall sounds to me like a cathedral sound versus, say, an amphitheater, and tends toward the dark side. Turning this all the way up washes out your dry signal entirely. Flerb is a really fun setting that adds the jet-like flanger effect to the reverb sound.
If this one doesn’t cut it, there are variants on the Holy Grail theme. First, there’s the Holy Grail Neo, which swaps out the Flerb for a Plate-style reverb. Then there’s the Holy Grail Plus which has Spring, Hall, and Room types, and adds a Blend knob to control the wet/dry mix. Finally, there’s the Holy Grail Max, which offers Spring, Hall, Plate, and, crucially, Reverse. The Amount knob on this one is swapped for a Time knob, which changes the decay or reverse time.
If you have the money (and the pedalboard space), you could skip the Holy Grail altogether and go for the Electro-Harmonix Cathedral, which will let you do almost everything you could dream of — in stereo. Most of the EHX pedals are pedalboard hogs, though, so you may also consider the Oceans 11, which packs eleven different verbs into a nano-sized pedal.
Some of those aforementioned spring reverbs are legendary for playing certain styles. If one of the styles or tones you love is dripping 60s surf verb, this is the pedal for you. Designed to emulate the Fender 6G15 dedicated reverb unit that sells for $1000 or more, this will give you all that wet, springy reverb for much less.
The Dwell knob is more or less akin to the reverb length, but in this instance functions as a volume for the springs themselves. The Tone knob rolls back the highs on the wet signal which can put space between it and the dry signal sound. The Mix knob will allow for 100% wet signal, unlike the 6G15.
The Volume knob is a separate preamp within the pedal that drives the pedal as a whole, or can act as a clean boost with the Mix knob low. This pedal is meant to go after your drive section and right into the front of the amp.
Neunaber creates some of the most inspiring and best-sounding reverb algorithms on the market, and their second generation Immerse should be on your list if you’re looking for particularly rich verbs leaning toward experimental and ambient.
The control set of this device is enhanced by the graphics on the top, making it easy to understand which knobs are doing what in which modes. Mix and Depth are at the top and always perform these functions. The center knob changes the reverb type among eight different styles, which then changes the lower two controls.
When in W3T (Neunaber’s custom 3D reverb algorithm) or Plate, the parameter knob on the right adjusts Pre-Delay. When in Hall or Spring, it adjusts modulation, and when in Shimmer, Detune, Echo, or Sustain, it adjusts the Blend. Also, in these latter four modes, the left parameter knob adjusts the Time, while in the other three modes, it adjusts the Tone.
Other nice touches on this unit include an analog dry through path with a kill dry switch for parallel effect loops, a trails switch, and full stereo operation. The Mix knob is capable of 100% wet, as well. Compared to earlier versions, this has higher headroom, so it can take any and all gain stages coming before it without breaking up.
Pete Thorn has a nearly 12 minute demo of this wonderful machine.
The MkII is a bit too new still to realize any significant savings on used units, but there are plenty of first generation Immerse pedals used on Reverb.
Specs:
Reverb type: W3T, Plate, Spring, Echo, Detune, Sustain, and Shimmer
True bypass?: No, designed with an excellent buffer for the end of your signal path
If, somehow, you’re bored with the possibilities of the Hall of Fame, have I got a pedal for you. Sometimes honoring the past and encapsulating well-loved effects isn’t enough. You have to push the envelope and build something new. EarthQuaker Devices is no stranger to making strange things, so it shouldn’t surprise you that the Afterneath is out there.
Rather than emulating a spring or plate directly, this pedal uses a series of short delays cascading into one another to create the reflections typically created by reverb units. Each delay stands in for each decaying reverb reflection, thereby creating an enormous space. The sheer size of this pedal far outstrips anything most pedals are capable of, and the novel approach means that they don’t darken and dampen too much on longer decays.
For controls, you get Length, Diffuse, Dampen, Drag, Reflect, and Mix. Length controls the decay, while Mix controls the wet/dry ratio. Reflect changes the regeneration, and feeds the output back into the pedal. Drag controls the speed, while Dampen changes the tone.
Diffuse can be thought of as a size knob, changing the spread of the effect. I have one of these on my board and rarely play clean without it. The dragging, pinging effect is pure magic. If you need more space in your reverbs, as well as a touch of modulation, consider this unique creation.
Version 3 adds a Mode switch which changes the character of the Drag control between nine different modes that affect how the speed adjusts when you sweep the knob or expression pedal – which is also new. The LED changes color based on which mode you’re in. This is a very good addition to an already-amazing pedal.
You should know that because of the density of the reverb, there’s a slight volume drop when it’s engaged. I get around this by using a wet-dry amp setup, but when I can’t use that, I stick an Xotic EP Booster (we wrote about that in our best boost pedals post) after it in the loop if I find myself struggling to be heard. Definitely worth it, in my opinion, and it shouldn’t dissuade you from considering this pedal.
In addition to the Afterneath, EQD offers the similarly bizarre Transmisser, as well as the more vintage-influenced Ghost Echo and Levitation. If the V3 is still out of stock when you go to buy, that’s because it’s on pre-order as of this writing, but V2 is still available.
This offering from Chase Bliss is an absolute monster and notable for a few key reasons. For one thing, it’s the first fully digital pedal they’ve ever made, as they typically only use digital components to control analog circuits. Second, it’s a collaboration between three different pedal makers to create a reverb that’s equal parts bonkers experimental and highly useable utilitarian.
There are two reverb channels which, in the most basic terms can be swapped in terms of signal order. In reality, thanks to stereo outputs and MIDI control, these can be routed 33 different ways. If you currently have two reverbs on your board, one for weird sounds and one for standard sounds, this could replace and quite possibly improve on both of them.
The “Dark” side was designed by Cooper FX, with modes inspired by their standalone offerings, which are both rare and expensive. This is the experimental side, with three crazy modes: Mod, inspired by their Generation Loss, which is meant to emulate a worn out VHS tape; Shim, a pitch shifting freeze influenced by their Outward; and Black, which is a sampling sustainer that picks up new audio based on spikes in volume according to your playing dynamics. These are controlled with the two parameter knobs above depending on the mode.
Both the Outward and the Generation Loss are produced in extremely small batches, so used units on Reverb rarely go for less than $200 on their own. Getting something approaching those effects along with the rest of what this pedal offers easily justifies the price, if it’s what you’re after.
The “World” side was designed by Keeley and is the rational, more functional side. Modes include great renditions of Hall, Plate, and Spring reverbs. These are controlled with the Dwell and Pre-Delay knobs above. Between the two is a Mix and a Tone knob for final overall shaping, with the routing switch below.
Since these were integrated into a Chase Bliss offering, you get all the wild MIDI switching, the dipswitch customization for expression-based playing, stereo ins and outs, and presets. A read through the product manual will help you decide if this over-the-top solution is for you.
There is much to absorb with this, so I recommend watching both the Knobs demo and the ThePedalZone demo for samples.
Used units are scarce, but occasionally come up on Reverb for a decent discount off of new.
The Fathom reverb combines a healthy amount of functionality into a relatively small enclosure, just like the ARP-87 on our delay pedals list. There are four reverbs inside this pedal, but the controls expand each of them.
Those controls include Decay, Dampen, and Mix, all of which are common and easily understood. There’s a white line to denote at where on the Mix knob is equal parts wet and dry signal. The Program knob lets you select between the Hall, Plate, Lo-fi, and Sonar modes.
Depending on which you select, the X knob controls a different function. For Hall and Plate, it controls the pre-delay. For Lo-Fi, it controls the width of the filter, and for Sonar the blend of the high and low octaves. Technically, it’s fair to say that this pedal is really a modulated reverb, as all modes are controlled with the Mod switch that allows you to select between low, medium, and high modulation. Only in Sonar mode does switching it to Lo turn off the modulation.
The footswitches are a bit unique, too. The Bypass switch functions as the expected on/off, but when off, it can also be used as momentary switch to add reverb just to a small section. The Sustain switch stretches out the reverb decay until you release it for pad-like effects.
The more recent hotness released by Walrus is the Slö Multi Texture Reverb, which is aimed more at ambient and experimental players.
If you know that you’re going to be creating a lot of atmospheric textures and vibes, you’ll probably want to go with something like this offering from Old Blood Noise Endeavors, which combines a vast core verb sound with one of three modulation effects.
Controls on this strange machine include Speed and Depth, which affect the modulation, and Mix and Reverb, the former of which can be 100% wet and the latter of which controls the decay. The three modulation effects are Flange, Filter, and Tremolo, all of which come after the initial reverb effect itself.
To play this without any modulation, you can set the selector switch to Tremolo and turn the Speed and Depth down all the way. This means that it can be both a crazy, heavily-effected sound or a simple, very useful verb.
Internally, there’s a trimpot that will allow you to dial in the pedal’s overall volume so you can boost it above unity if you perceive a volume drop when the pedal is engaged. Speaking of engagement, the Bypass switch turns it on, while the Hold switch sustains a note as long as it’s held in.
If this isn’t weird enough for you, you could also try their Dark Star, which is a pad-style reverb and is even less conventional.
With a little patience, you should be able to find one of these for upwards of $50 off the new price used on Reverb, in addition to much cheaper version ones, which lack the expression pedal input and internal trimmer.
Somewhere in amongst the Hall of Fame’s Mash function and the Afterneath’s cavernous psychosis is this gem. It’s based around a spring reverb, but Caroline likes to make weird, loud things, and this is one of them.
Controls include Level, Attack, Regen, Size, and a Bright/Dark switch. Attack controls the gain from slight boost to grainy overdrive. Size is the space of the reverb, while Regeneration controls the decay. Using these, this pedal will self-oscillate like a delay, which will be very dangerous indeed if you don’t watch the Attack and Level settings.
Like the Hall of Fame, there’s a mash button of sorts, called Havoc, which works with the Size setting for freeze, oscillation, or even fast decay. Because of the danger of out-of-control volume increases via self-oscillation, this is good, old-fashioned true bypass with no options for trails.
This will help your tone stand out in a crowd. And if it doesn’t, you can just turn it up and drown them all out.
The Knobs demo of this is both relaxing and informative.
Very much a utility pedal, this offering from Wampler combines a very compact size with a rich, drippy spring reverb. This is the second version, the first of which was a full-sized pedal and had smaller ranges on all three knobs.
Those knobs are Depth, Tone, and Volume. Very straightforward so you can dial in a tone right away. In part informed by its small size, this is certainly meant to be utility pedal, either taking up no space on your pedalboard, or hiding in the back of your amp when using an effects loop. It’s really just meant to restore that lovely spring sound to an amp lacking it.
It’s true bypass and has an analog dry through so it won’t mess with your signal path.
Used stock for the small form factor Faux Spring Reverb is a bit hard to come by, but you could look for a first generation used on Reverb to save some money.
What Boss does best is provide the best of the mid-range, standard-setting pedals in tough enclosures. If you want something tried and true this is the latest update to a fine lineage of digital reverb units and provides a good variety of tones for the price.
With the RV-6, you get seven different reverb modes covering everything from subtle and expected to modulated. The standout option on this pedal is the Dynamic mode, which responds to your touch and guitar volume. By playing harder and louder, you can create a larger reverb splash to accentuate the key moments of a track.
The controls include Effect Level, Tone, and Time, and are programmed to adjust in response to one another so you always have a perfectly calibrated sound. Pair this with stereo outs and you’ve got an excellent all-around unit with everything the daily player needs for any style.
The Boss reverbs family also contains the brilliant TE-2 Tera Echo, the RE-20 Space Echo, and the mothership, the RV-500, which does everything ever.
The Sweetwater demo will give you a good overview of how it works.
Like the Boss above, this MXR unit is designed to deliver a variety of tones while still being pedalboard and wallet friendly. The novel operation of the push Tone knob lets you cycle through a total of six reverb effects, all created to sound emulate studio-style reverbs.
In addition to Plate, Room, and Spring, you also get Epic, which combines analog delay with modulation for darker sounds. Mod is a plate reverb with modulated feedback, while Pad combines down and up octaves, a shimmer effect, and a modulation that is changeable with an expression pedal.
Controls include Tone, Decay, and Mix. Unlike the Boss, there’s no stereo out, though. This is made up for somewhat by selectable true bypass and tails modes.
The ProGuitarShop demo of this pedal will show you everything you need to know.
You may have read about the Hall of Fame’s little brother the HOF Mini in our cheap effects post. That little guy is great, but limited. If you need the full compliment of controls and tones, you have to go the source. The Hall of Fame is aptly named, since it resides on many a pro pedalboard and is supremely flexible. This is probably the closest you’ll get to the mega-verbs I discussed in the intro, but the price is far more reasonable.
To begin with, this pedal also has three slots for TonePrint, which is TC Electronic’s massive library of effect presets which are totally customizable on the computer. Beyond that, you get eight dedicated reverb sounds to choose from, including everything from the expected Spring to grittier sounds like Lofi. Room is good for warming up your tone, while Church will give you a dark, enormous tone.
Controls include Decay, Tone, and Level, in addition to a switch that lets you choose between short and long pre-delay. Long pre-delay will maintain more dry signal before the reverb effect. Like the Polara above, there are stereo outs, and like the Topanga, true bypass is selectable with an internal switch if you prefer tails. There’s also an analog dry-through for those of you concerned about the digital processing.
Version two of the pedal adds Mash — a magnet-driven, pressure-sensitive footswitch that acts as an expression pedal. Mash is mapped to a fixed parameter with each of the on-board reverbs, but using TonePrint, you can assign it to anything you like. The LED below the Decay knob indicates how hard you’re pressing down, and you can control the curve at different pressure points. Additionally, for those who aren’t so sick of it they could scream, TC caved and added a Shimmer algorithm.
All these upgrades, and the price is still the same as the predecessor. If you were reluctant to give in to the Hall of Fame before, now may well be the time.
A favorite of both Stefan Fast of ThePedalZone and Sarah Lipstate of Noveller, this device from Meris simultaneously targets something very specific while also delivering something grand. According to the company, this pedal was inspired by the Bladerunner soundtrack, which you can also hear Stefan cite as an influence in the demo below, as well. At its core, this is meant to be a modulated reverb and bases everything around two modes.
First is the Ultraplate, which is a plate style reverb. It’s a very usable and pristine algorithm, even if you never touched any of the other knobs. The other rode is Cathedra, which is a cathedral style verb that builds more slowly to an immense space.
There are six knobs to control each of these algorithms Space Decay sets the length, Modulate the modulation, Mix the wet and dry ratio, and Pitch Vector sets the reverb pitch. Lo Frequency and Hi Frequency are essentially EQ controls, but are less direct than simply rolling off certain frequencies. They change how those frequencies interact to emulate certain room sizes. Max Lo Frequency gives the feeling of a larger room, while lower Hi Frequency is a more natural room. Dial these in together to form the kind of space you want.
Each of the knobs also have a secondary function that is adjustable when the ALT button is held down. Space Decay becomes pre-delay, Modulate adjusts modulation speed, Mix adjusts the volume of the pitch as set by Pitch Vector, Lo Frequency becomes a Density control, Pitch Vector becomes attack time for the the Swell footswitch, and Hi Frequency controls Vibrato Depth at the input.
The Bypass switch is selectable between true bypass and trails mode. The Swell knob can be pressed to auto swell according to the Alt setting of Pitch Vector or held to increase Space Decay to maximum.
Ultimately, this is a very beautiful and flexible unit that could be the best reverb pedal for ambient playing. Still, there are more than enough down-to-earth settings in this box that it could serve a variety of purposes. One slight downside is that, especially with hidden function knobs, an on-board preset option would’ve been a nice touch. You can expand this pedal with the Meris Preset Switch or use MIDI to get that function, however.
Watch the aforementioned ThePedalZone demo for a tour of this device.
These things are super rare, so you might just have to go to Reverb to buy one at all. Absolutely worth it if you can get your hands on one.
Somehow simultaneously one of the most normal and most bonkers reverbs on this list, this offering from Danelectro is an actual reverb tank in pedal form. If your amp doesn’t have a spring tank that can be driven, this will solve that problem for you.
Controls are Volume, Tone, and Reverb. About as straightforward as it gets. While this would make a good candidate for placing back on your amp, it also offers the very unique Kick Pad to jangle the springs on a whim, just for the fun of it.
It’s definitely on the cheaper side with that squishy footswitch, but it’s also just fun. It’s probably better run on batteries as it’s quite noisy on an adapter, which is compounded by the fact that it’s a battery eater. Still, if you’re into novelty and authentic sounds, this is an interesting choice.
The Reverb demo does a good job of previewing the sounds.
These are very rare, so finding one used on Reverb will require patience and prices are all over the place. The price you see here at time of this writing is less than you can buy it from Danelectro themselves, but availability and pricing is likely to fluctuate quite a bit.
Over the years, DigiTech has released a number of reverb pedals to mixed results. You could almost always find a cheap Digiverb somewhere, and later on they came out with the Hardwire line, which was a bit of an improvement. There was also the Supernatural, which has only grown in stature since it was discontinued. Reflecting the success of boutique pedals and their tendency to feature high-end graphic design, DigiTech released this line to compete more directly.
The Polara is the direct descendent of the Hardwire reverb. Types of reverb include: Room, Hall, Reverse, Halo, Modulated, Plate, and Spring. The latter three of those effects use the Lexicon reverb algorithms.
For controls, you get Level, Liveliness, and Decay, as well as a switch for Tails. The knobs of this unit lock in place so your settings remain untouched during transport. As a bonus, you get stereo outs for the true reverb experience.
Lest you think this is just a reboxed Hardwire RV-7, take note of the new Halo mode, which uses octaves to achieve a far more lush atmosphere than anything available from DigiTech before. Perhaps with another pedal maker, you’d get only the Halo mode and it would cost $99.
Who better to demo this than Andy Martin, who offers a good overview.
These hold their value better than you’d expect in the used market on Reverb, as do the HardWire RV-7 and the Supernatural, but there’s still a savings to be had.
Specs:
Reverb type: Room, Plate, Reverse, Modulated, Halo, Hall, Spring
