To my ears, the reverb pedal sounds MUCH more nartural and pleasing! Delay pedals as a general rule sound a bit more harsh. I think I will sell by harp delay and purchase this pedal in the coming few weeks!
Delay or reverb -- very subjective. I think it is cool that BBQ Bob had a hand in this pedal. I'm definitely curious. (I do wonder why no "dwell/depth" control in addition to the blend.)
It's important not to reify the terms "reverb" and "delay," as though each is one easily quantifiable sort of sound. I like the reverb here more than the delay, which is to say, I like the reverb on the particular setting it's set to more than the delay on the particular setting it's set to. Personally, I think the delay is at the right millisecond setting (I'm guessing it's between 300-500 milliseconds) but I would dial back the "feedback level"--the volume of the slapback sound--and slightly increase the "feedback" control (the number of times the signal cycles through). This would result in a delay that sounds slightly more like a reverb--a subtler sound. Right now the delay sound is basically the root sound and one big "thump" of delay.
In other words, it makes all the difference in the world how you set the device. Reverb is much easier to work with than delay. There are many types of reverb, but basically you just add a certain amount to the root signal. Delay has more parameters. It takes a while to figure out how to work skillfully with them.
I recorded the following in my garage a couple of days ago. I'm using a Boss DD-3 digital delay pedal. Feedback level and feedback controls are each at about 8:45 and I'm at the 11:00 position on the 200-800 ms position: about 400 ms., I'd bet.
I don't particularly like this much delay for vocals, but the harp sounds just right to me, and the delay sound is notably subtler, in action, than the sound in the OP's clip. That's the other thing about effects: how much you use it always situational, depending on the room, the amp(s) you're using, how many other musicians you're playing with, and how loud everybody is playing.
Becasue I raised the question of "no dwell" here, I thought I would post Randy's explanation from the Lone Wolf Board:
"There is no dwell because I was not pleased with the way a dwell controlled functioned for harp. Dwell required a circuit that when the dwell was increased feedback became a problem. The dwell is set for a short duration because many people believe that the short duration reverb tanks sound best for harp, I agree with this analysis. You can actually increase the dwell time with a hotter signal into the unit by increasing the gain on a pedal before the reverb, but then again you have to be careful with feedback.
Here is one way to increase the dwell without increasing feedback. Harp Attack (or any pedal with a volume control) > Harp Reverb > Harp Tone + (or any pedal with a volume control) 1. Set the volume on the first pedal for a gain 2. Set the volume on the last pedal to bring the volume back down to normal mic level.
I do believe that this will not be necessary; but, it is a trick I wanted to share.
Randy"
Last Edited by TetonJohn on Mar 18, 2013 10:54 AM
I'd say that listening to the video by Brad that Randy has got everything just right with that pedal. I'm not normally a fan of reverb and usually prefer delay with harp, but that demo impressed the hell out of me. I'm looking forward to getting the chance to try one out for myself.
My all time favorite outboard reverb unit is the Premier 90, the very first outboard spring (and all tube) reverb unit ever and the only control it has was one that was both an on/off switch and reverb, and it gets far deeper than any other that's ever been made, hands down, and that's even deeper than the much more popular, and roadworthy '63 Fender unit, and the only one that can get the reverb sound from a '52 LW session that produced Blue Midnight/Sad Hours/Mean Old World/Boogie.
The single reverb knob on this pedal kinda works more along the lines of the way amps with built in spring reverb works, but unlike those amps, where the control affects both the dry signal as well as the reverb signal, the control completely leaves the dry signal alone, which allows you to crank it and have almost no0 feedback issues at all, which with amps like a Super Reverb, Twin Reverb, Vibroverb, trying to get it past 4 becomes an automatic feedback nightmare regardless of what mike you're using.
Most pedals with a tone control or even outboard spring reverbs doesn't really do all that much and the tone control on this pedal REALLY works from really bassy, very dark vintage to a bright, modern and even studio spring reverb settings, and this tone control allows you to not only adjsut to taste, but tailor it to the romm acoustics, as some rooms are more bassy, trebly, etc., and if you work this pedal in conjunction with an analog delay pedal, analog delays tend to be darker by nature and when you have this reverb unit on, you can compensate a bit by making the reverb as trebly as you may want.
THe reverb is VERY breath force sensitive, meaning that you'll really notice huge differernces when playing extremely soft on a single note one minute, and then on the same note, much harder, the harder sound is gonna be essentially in your face like an explosion, which is the way some of the best spring reverbs tend to react.
There are some things to note here is that no matter what mike you use, the pedal seems to automatically adjust to correctly match the impedance of the mike, and the LW Delay pedal has a similar quality and n early every other pedal lacks this.
If anyone has ever noticed that when guitarists use amps with reverb in them, even at low volume, once the reverb gets turned on, it seems like the amp gets at times, annoyingly louder, now harp players will have this thing happening to and for many of you, it may be your first chance to start really using/learning good breath control because even the slightest difference in how hard you hit individual notes will be like night and day.
The video really doesn't show much of what I'm talking about here.
The idea of leaving the dry signal alone and the controls only work on the reverb signal was something that I originally found with two reverb units that were made by Guyatone. One was the long discontinued MR-2 pedal, which had a switch where the reverb controls work on both dry and wet signals or you could switch it to just the reverb signal, and I always used the latter, which allowed me to get considerably deeper and avoiding feedback problems, and had a tone control (which they called contrast). Their other unit, the MR-3000V, which was an all tube spring reverb, which is no longer on their site, but available from Musician's Friend, had a similar thing in the back, but also seperate bass and treble controls.
I've always felt delay was a poor substitute for reverb and when using them, I basically set it up like more of a faux reverb, and delays are great for slapback, but they can never sound like a real reverb no matter what.
One of these days I may get around to doing a video to better demonstrate the pedal (unless I get beaten to the punch, which is perfectly fine with me) because you need to hear how both of the two controls work at different settings, giving a much more flexible reverb. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglint
This unit is a spring emulation, and to make sure it has the spring sound, I checked it not by blowing harp, but by playing guitar, using as a test, playing the Jimmy Reed march sound, and when spring reverbs are set at least 4 or higher, you can always hear the boing/clang of the springs, and the very first spring reverb pedal, the Holy Grail, doesn't have this and is just to noisy for my taste.
Randy and I went back and forth thru several prototypes for the last several months and I hope you guys like it. It's also not too bad as a guitar reverb pedal also. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
There's already a review of the pedal on the site right now. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Yeah Bob I've seen Brad Capper's video demo and read Arne's review. The pedal sounds great. It would be nice to see a demo of the pedals flexibility that you discussed though.
The pedal sounded great in the video. I own 4 of the lone wolf pedals, so I am a fan. More videos need to be made no doubt to showcase this much needed pedal. As for the present video, You can set the lone wolf delay pedal, to achieve a reverb type effect that's why showing the settings is obviously very significant before making any comparisons. I'm sure the delay pedal has it's limitations,however, compared to the reverb pedal which also has its limitations. Nonetheless, a great pedal and looking forward to picking one up. I was going to settle on the Holy Grail before Randy offered this one.
When i started with music i was a sound guy. I've done the livesound to many bands. I worked with spring reverbs and tape echoes. They had a warm wonderful sound you can't get with modern pedals. Until this day with Randys pedal. I have been one of them who tried it. read my review on Lonewolf site
Last Edited by arnenym on Mar 19, 2013 12:20 PM
@arnenym -- Until this pedal came about, I personally didn't care for the Holy Grail because they're not that great of a spring reverb emjulation and worse, I find them to be very noisy, especially the very first ones made, and if you run it only on batteries, as the battery weakens, the noise gets worse (on any pedal, I'd rather use the CORRECT AC adapter regardless).
The best spring reverb pedal that's oriented as a guitar pedal (until LW pedal, they're ALL that way), IMO, the best and more realistic emulation was on the Wampler Faux Spring Reverb, and when tested with a guitar doing things like the Jimmy Reed march (or if you're a Jimmy Vaughn fan, doing it with a Strat) or having a guitar player doing Dick Dale surf rock guitar tunes shows how close emulations are, and the Wampler was the best so far for guitar and this pedal is strictly oriented for harp.
Digital effects can get noisy if you're not careful and even using the wrong adapter, regardless if it LOOKS like it could be right, can spell disaster and on top of that, digital tends to emphasize highs quite a lot, and for harp, that's not always what you may want.
I also own a Digitach Digiverb and even that's a far better spring reverb simulation than the Holy Grail is, but the new LW pedal is far better, by my opinion, obviously, may be a tad biased. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Just a heads up for all the guys and gals in the UK and Europe. I've just had a chat with Peter at Harmonicas Direct and he told me that he should have some Lone Wolf Harp Reverb pedals available on the release date.
