Deluxe reverb for home use?

[noisepolluter]

Pretty much as title really. I tried a couple of guitars through one in a shop. It sounded great even at low ish volumes. But can't help wonder if its overkill for the house. Anyone use one ?

If you're only going to use it at home, then it's probably overkill even if you're only planning to play clean.

If however you're also likely to take it out occasionally then I'd definitely recommend it - even if it's for an hour's thrash in a small rehearsal room to blow the cobwebs away. It really does sound great around halfway, using the guitar/playing dynamics to control the amount of crunch.

In its defence for home use, the volume controls on both channels are nicely graduated so it's easy to dial in a sensible volume - it doesn't jump from silent to loud. The vibrato channel is a fair bit brighter though, so you need to work around that when using drive pedals which can sound a bit scratchy.

Unfortunately the tremolo can be a bit of a let down for home use due to the audible background ticking - I still use a tremolo pedal. Reverb still sounds great though.

I'm not sure I'd bother attenuating it to get crunch at home - you'd only be driving one part of the amp (power valves), I honestly think a decent pedal would sound just as good, possibly better, and would add a lot less noise.

[ICBM]

In its defence for home use, the volume controls on both channels are nicely graduated so it's easy to dial in a sensible volume - it doesn't jump from silent to loud. The vibrato channel is a fair bit brighter though, so you need to work around that when using drive pedals which can sound a bit scratchy.

There's an easy way of doing that - use the Normal channel, then to get the reverb you take a lead from the #2 input of the Normal channel to the #1 input of the Vibrato channel, turn the treble on that channel off, the reverb up full, and use the volume control to dial in the reverb. If that's still too cave-like, turn the reverb down a bit but keep it balanced with the volume control as low as possible to avoid introducing fizz from the pedal.

[noisepolluter]

There's an easy way of doing that - use the Normal channel, then to get the reverb you take a lead from the #2 input of the Normal channel to the #1 input of the Vibrato channel, turn the treble on that channel off, the reverb up full, and use the volume control to dial in the reverb. If that's still too cave-like, turn the reverb down a bit but keep it balanced with the volume control as low as possible to avoid introducing fizz from the pedal.

Ah yes, I forgot to try that - ta.

Of course, you've just taken away my reason to by a Strymon Flint just to use in the normal channel now.

[mellowsun]

I disagree. that might be how to get a nice cleanish tone, or vintage od tones, but if you want high gain tones that plain doesn't work.

True, but my comment was about getting a good sound out of a big amp at house volumes - I'm not sure you can get (good) high gain tones out of a big amp at house volumes! (without a pedal).

I do mostly play clean though so I accept your point about black and white advice etc.

[Sir Axeman]

Everywun knows that toanz are measured in decibels. Pah!!

[Dave_Mc]

(a) True, but my comment was about getting a good sound out of a big amp at house volumes - I'm not sure you can get (good) high gain tones out of a big amp at house volumes! (without a pedal).

(b) I do mostly play clean though so I accept your point about black and white advice etc.

(a) sure you can. An od used as a boost does help- but the amp's still doing most of the heavy lifting.

(b) yeah that's kinda what I mean. I mainly play higher gain stuff. even at home volumes I'd rather use a high gain tube amp (with the aforementioned boost, though even without the boost i'd rather use the high gain amp) than a clean amp and pedal.

[ICBM]

True, but my comment was about getting a good sound out of a big amp at house volumes - I'm not sure you can get (good) high gain tones out of a big amp at house volumes! (without a pedal).

Certainly you can. The Mesa Trem-o-verb easily does, for one. OK, it's slightly better if you open it up a bit (not all the way) and attenuate it, or boost it up front as well, but you can still get a good heavy high-gain tone out of it at well under 1W levels without any other gear. There are others too.

[guitarfishbay]

Certainly you can. The Mesa Trem-o-verb easily does, for one. OK, it's slightly better if you open it up a bit (not all the way) and attenuate it, or boost it up front as well, but you can still get a good heavy high-gain tone out of it at well under 1W levels without any other gear. There are others too.

Add Blackstar 100 watters (HT and S1s I've had both) and the Laney Ironheart 120h to that list too. And at the minute I'm only using 4x12 cabs. In fact re: Blackstars with the attenuator on the S1 you can easily get it whisper quiet if you need to.

I was practicing through my Blackstar S104EL34 halfstack at 9:30pm last night quiet enough that you could hear my strings louder than the amp. It sounded great! Of course it sounds better louder, but it was definitely a useable tone for practicing. My Ironheart is at the rehearsal space for now but I know it also is capable of sounding great at low volume.

When I worked out I could run my big heads at the same volume as the low wattage amps and still get a good sound for what I like (modern high gain) I sold my low wattage amps. YMMV of course, but for me I don't see the point in owning anything other than fullsize gear at the moment. The fullsize stuff sounds better at equal volumes to the low wattage stuff, even through the same cabs IMO. The main advantge to the low wattage stuff is physical size (and usually cost!), but if that is no issue and you play out anyway the best solution I've found is to only own fullsize stuff and just run it quietly at home.

[octatonic]

True, but my comment was about getting a good sound out of a big amp at house volumes - I'm not sure you can get (good) high gain tones out of a big amp at house volumes! (without a pedal).

I do mostly play clean though so I accept your point about black and white advice etc.

My CAA PT50 sounds great at low volumes.

[ICBM]

The main advantge to the low wattage stuff is physical size (and usually cost!), but if that is no issue and you play out anyway the best solution I've found is to only own fullsize stuff and just run it quietly at home.

Exactly - that's the only reason I have my little Marshall 12-watter as well as my Trem-o-verb - the T-verb is a bit of a bugger to carry upstairs to practice up there if I want to . (And for taking to other people's houses etc).)