More Natural/Realistic: Boss RV-3 or Verbzilla

Although not a big fan of L6, I am a huge fan of the Verbzilla, Echo Park, and Liqua-Flange Tonecore modules. They don't jack with your tone and sound very natural, particularly the Verbzilla. The Verbzilla far outdoes any of the Boss reverbs.

In general, I would be fearful to play any L6 stuff for fear of it breaking if I looked at it too hard, but the tonecore stuff seems to be pretty reliable if you don't step on the small knobs. I have one of the first echo parks and have been continuously using it since they came out. The only trouble is with some of the tonecores is that they do not like to be daisy chained on power. I have mine on a VL Pedal Power 2+, and have never had any noise issues, even with my early echo park.

I found the Boss reverbs too sterile, the EH Holy Grail line messes with your tone in a bad way, and was happy to hear my brother's Verbzilla when it came out (I immediately purchased one). The only other competition costs about twice as much and is about twice as big on your pedalboard--that new TC Nova Reverb, but I have not personally heard one.

 

I found the RV-3 to be one of the worst reverb pedals I have, the Line6 Verbzilla or the Elector Harmonix Holy Grail beat in my opinion.

TheGrooveking

 

"processed & metallic sounding" is exactly how I'd describe the RV-3 I had many years ago. Couldn't wait to get rid of it.

 

Get the verbzilla,,, I also owned the rv-5 for a while and finally took a chance on the verbzilla. Much better reverb all around. It has a much warmer and less digital sound with a whole bunch of extra options than the rv-5.
I found the rv-5 to pretty much sound the same across all its modes except for reverb trail off.

The only complaint I have about the verbzilla is the lettering for its modes are quite small and hard to read, not really a big deal unless you like to spend time reading lettering on the face of pedals.

I also run it off a 1 spot daisy chain and has been solid with no problems what so ever.

Its the heaviest pedal ive ever held and quite ugly,, its got character!

 

I have both the Verbzilla and the Boss RV-3.
The Verbzilla is much 'better' sounding in a natural sense, while the RV-3 is a decent maker of sound effects.

 

Another vote for the Verbzilla. Great sound - warm and natural sounding - no issues at all w/ this pedal.