Amp Without Reverb [What Are My Options For Adding It]

I have two dozen vintage tube amps all in fantastic playing condition, some in mint physical condition. Obviously, most do not have reverb and I use reverb all the time. I suggest not spending anymore money on a reverb pedal than the EH Holygrail. The ratio of performance and cost is the best IMHO. Many digital reverbs have a hard time handling real tube overdrive and can sound "crashy"if the natural tube distortion is too heavy. The Holygrail, set on Spring, handles tube grind really good and it allows you to dial in just enough reverb without getting crashy. The Hall setting however, will go crazy on you if you have too much reverb and too much tube distortion going at the same time however, the Hall setting on a clean channel sounds friggin heavenly (no plagiarism intended) and overall, this device, for $80 bucks give or take, will satisfy almost all reverb fans. I'm one afterall.

Even the Flerb setting is useful for some mildly spacey, flanger type sounds.

I own two of them and have no desire to buy any other reverb "pedal". Even though Uncle Spot tempered my 1969 Twin Reverb amp's reverb so that it's lush and swirly (new Accutronics tank too), I still use my Holygrail on that amp when playing clean. It's just really awesome sounding.

My .02

 

+1 on the EH Holy Grail. I had a Dr Z. with no reverb and the Holy Grail worked very well with it. The spring reverb is very smooth and much better than many rack units I have tried. And if you're going to play any Saigon Kick or Tesla, that "Flerb" setting comes in mighty handy.

 

I prefer the little Lexicon LXP-1 over any other pedal or rackmount reverb. It's just as cheap, too. You can even increase the headroom on it if you get the upgrade from Audio Upgrades in Van Nuys,CA. You may find that you don't need it, especially if you're running it through a loop and not pushing it too hard.

I run mine through the loop, and have a 'preamp/effects loop mix' knob on my amp that I have set about 80-90% towards preamp. I push the lxp-1's inputs and outputs but keep the 'mix' on the lxp-1 below 12 oclock so that I'm getting as much of the amp as possible.

It's a very natural sounding and cheap setup.

I'd recommend it highly.

 

Mine are always in front. What's a "loop" ?

 

Another happy Grail user. :AOK

 

One more for the Grail.

Strange but true, this cheap-o digital box now goes in front of several very high-end verbless, loopless amps chez me.

It's flimsy, unreliable, ugly, and only runs off a wall wart ... and I bought a second one ($60 used) to have around.

Okay, the ultimate endorsement: I had a '73 Marshall 20-watter that hated every pedal ever put in front of it. Delays, digital verbs, everything. They all sounded like a gravel dump truck.

But the Baby Marshall loved the Grail. Go figure.

Kiwi

 

Question: I tried a Digitech Digiverb and it introduced a annoying hiss to my amp. Will the EH Holy Grail do the same thing?

-Jay

 

The possibilities are endless.

If you want a real spring, I would get the Demeter if you want new. Alternatively, go on ebay and find old high end broadcast spring reverbs, like Orban.

Many digital reverbs are fine these days. Many of them have excellent effects. If you have a ton of money get an Eventide Eclipse. But there are many affordable options.

 

If the amp is silent, the HG is silent. In my experience. Most of my amps run dead quiet. The Uncle Spot-a-lized 69 Twin runs DEAD silent, with the HG in front or not. It's certainly NOT like compressor pedals are for sure.

Literally, running a Boss V-Wah and Holy Grail in front of my amps imparts no extra noise at all. With the Twin, I have to stroke the strings to even know it's on and running even Thanks Uncle Spot!

 

Fender, Soldano, and several others make stand alone tube driven reverb units.

 

On that note, and if money is not the issue, this device is considered one of the best on the market by some reviewers:

http://www.unclespot.com/USreverbunit.html

 

Curious: what amp ya' getting?

I recently picked up a Fender '63 Reissue Reverb unit....shipping issues have put me on hold, but it seems like a good unit.

Good luck! :BEER:

 

I am a happy Uncle Spot owner. It all depends on budget, but in my view if you are truely a reverb lover, the pedals never quite get you there. I don't mean to say that they don't have a useful place for some folks, but if the little things tend to bug you then you should definitely test drive thoroughly before you decide. All of these things are completely a matter of our own tastes. Good luck on the search.

BTW - what amp are you considering?

 

Anyone use the Vermona Retroverb? It looks pretty reverbelishous.

 

Ooohhh- I had severe GAS for the retroverb 6 months or so until I delat with the fact that I can't afford it. Also it would be much more useful if you could put the filter before the reverb, although I know that's not the point.

 

I also am a Fender tube reverb fanatic.

To that end I caughed up for the pricey Uncle Spot
stand-alone tube reverb. End of story. This reverb
sounds indistiguishable from a great onboard Fender
reverb circuit. I really cant tell the difference.

I am in love with this thing. Works on every kind of
amp. Sounded like I was playing in a church when
I piped this thru the FX loop of my old Ganesha head.
The Uncle Spot is the last word in outboard reverb tanks
for me. All my tube reverb lust is now quenched.

 

I did find the EH to be noisy.

Edited to add:
Although many here have not cared for it, I prefer the Boss RV5 to the EH. It is much quieter; at least for me. I agree with prior comments though that any pedal is a compromise and will not really compete with an outboard, tube/spring verb.