While back in the early days, many amplifiers included circuits that offered a Tremolo function (a time based variance in volume), it was and remains a purpose use effect and may not fit everywhere. Another circuit that amplifiers may have had is reverb, an effect that is widely used to create space, emotion, distance and presence.

Amplifier Reverbs

Back in the early days, most amplifiers with a reverb capability used what is referred to as a spring tank, basically a box with springs inside it, where a portion of the instrument signal was passed along the springs. This spring reverb is readily identifiable, and if you listen to records from the early sixties, particularly in the surf genre, you can hear the beauty of spring reverb. The reverb control really only controlled the mix of the direct signal and the signal emerging from the reverb tank. Reverb tanks were referred to as either long or short, adjectives used to describe the length of the springs. The sound of a fine spring reverb is a glorious thing, and Fender amplifiers were the go to source for great clean tones and rich reverb.

A Definition

A reverb is basically a very short delay. The concept is based on what happens in a studio, a room, a hall or a cathedral. The sound is bouncing around the location and mixes with the direct sound to create a sense of space. Studios would be characterized by their reverb responses, with smaller studio rooms having tighter reverb and larger rooms having more dense an effect. Some, like the studios at Capitol Records in California became renowned for the quality of their reverb. Fundamentally reverb is a product of sound reflecting off of walls, floors, ceilings and materials in the space which then mixes in the listener’s ear with the direct sound. It is in this genre that it is said that reverb is completely natural and that an instrument sound without reverb is dull and dead.

A Step Farther

When recording in studios with specific reverb capabilities, musicians did not use reverb effects, even if built into the amplifier, because the engineer and producer more often wanted all the instruments recorded in that studio to have the same sense of space. Sound absorbing panels would be used to reduce reverb and this could also include vocal booths where natural reverb was not desired.

Studios also tended to look at other reverb methodologies. In addition to studio rooms built for specific reverbs, where the reverb could be controlled by artist, instrument and microphone placement, some studios would add a device that created a false but highly controllable reverb that could be added during mixing. One of the best known of these is the plate reverb used at Abbey Road Studios. A plate reverb is a large metal plate with two transducers. The audio signal is fed to the plate and the separate of the transducers determines the amount of reverb effect being generated. Plate reverbs sound different from spring and room type reverbs. It’s another choice for the engineer and producer.

The type of reverb used is often dependent on the character that the producer and engineer want to deliver. For example, consider Chris Isaac’s Wicked Game. The reverb on that song is dense and creates a haunting effect that helps define the character of the listening experience. A recording of The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment would likely use the natural chamber reverb of the recording location. George Martin would use the plate reverb at Abbey Road to give a distinctive flavour to some Beatles recordings.

Reverb Today

While there remain some amplifiers with spring tank reverbs, more and more include digital reverb. There are really horrible digital reverbs, and really good ones. For example, while I do not think that there is a finer spring reverb than the big tank in a Fender Blackface Twin Reverb amplifier, the digital reverb in my recently purchased Fender Tonemaster Deluxe Reverb amplifier is extremely close and more than acceptable.

However there are musicians who want more than just spring reverb. They want the sound of plate reverb without the trials of buying and storing a vintage EMT-140 plate. Or they want the sound of recording in a cathedral without having to go to one and set up a ton of gear to get that sound. Musicians about a decade ago discovered a reverb effect called shimmer, where the frequency of the reverb trails goes up over time and where some modulation may be applied to create this shimmering sound. Look to ambient music recordings or those bands who fall under the banner of Shoegaze to hear Shimmer.

For those of us playing live, the easiest route to these varied reverb sounds is via an effects pedal. Reverb pedals can be very inexpensive if they do one or two reverbs, or quite pricey and massively powerful such as the Strymon Big Sky or the Chase Bliss / Meris CXM 1978. A really great digital reverb uses a lot of processing power as reverb is one of the most demanding effects in digital signal processing. Mick over at That Pedal Show loves the CXM 1978 because he can load multiple presets for different songs without having to use a MIDI controller. Most high end reverb pedals will have MIDI support to maximize flexibility in a live performance environment. A really fine reverb pedal with lots of tonal options that is priced well is the tc electronic Hall of Fame 2

I recording in the studio, or at home for that matter, pedals still work, but a more popular and far more tweakable method is via plugins for your Digital Audio Workstation. Most DAWs include some basic reverbs, but for the best reverbs you will be looking at third party reverb plugins. My favourite reverbs that I use for recording all come from Universal Audio. That is not to say that other plugin makers do not make good reverbs, but reverbs are CPU intensive and I can then offload the processing to the dedicated DSP chips in the UA interfaces that I use and not hammer the computer CPU. While I like a spring reverb in an amp, when I am recording, I tend to go to the EMT-140 Plate plugin, the Capitol Chambers plugin, the Ocean Way Studios plugin or one of the plugins that deliver the functionality of the renowned and revered Lexicon desktop reverb boxes.

Wrapping It Up

Reverb gives you options in your live and recorded sound. There are some players who just cannot handle playing without at least a bit of reverb and if the amplifier doesn’t have it, a pedal will. To find a reverb pedal that suits you, your best advice is to visit a guitar shop with a good selection of reverbs that you can try out in the store. Ideally you will be able to try them in a small demo room so as not to annoy the other patrons, but that will depend on the shop. While the first pedal one gets should be a tuner, a reverb pedal is pretty high on the list. Thank you as always for reading and until next time, peace.