Reverb is the ultimate tone maker or breaker. No matter how good the amp and pickups sound, the wrong delay setting can make the guitar feel like you it’s being played in a different building from the rest of the band; the right sense of space, though, is the ace on top that makes the difference between a good and an excellent tone and even give you a unique voice on the guitar.
Reverb pedals with presets ensure a versatile enough rig for any room, stage, and style, making it far quicker to save and find your favorite settings. The only possible downside is the risk of becoming too dependent on your, or the pedal’s factory presets.
Of all effects in music, reverb is the one you’ll encounter the most because it emulates our real-life perception of space. In other words, your chorus level or gain knob could be exaggerated and left to taste. However, the reverb type, mix, and decay can throw off even the most casual gig attender and be the worst nightmare of front-of-house engineers.
Our Top Picks
- Strymon BigSky Multidimensional Reverb Pedal – Strymon are masters at building workstation pedals that can live up to any situation. The BigSky Reverb is a great choice as it has an excellent tone; it’s incredibly versatile and can be found on the boards of many of today’s greats.
- Walrus Audio Mako Series R1 High-Fidelity Reverb Pedal – The Marko R1 is a small-quality reverb pedal that allows up to nine onboard presets and over 128 if using Midi.
- Empress Reverb Pedal – The Empress is another pricey workstation that simplifies saving and using presets. What I love about The Empress is the dedicated ‘save’ footswitch and the lights clearly showing you which preset you’re on.
- Keeley Hydra Stereo Reverb & Tremolo Pedal – I choose this pedal as a solution for vintage players, especially country or blues guitarists, where tremolo is one of the only effects you need besides reverb, a great amp, and a guitar.
- Eventide Blackhole Reverb Pedal – The Eventide Blackhole is a great mystery box you can go wild experimenting with. It covers the basics perfectly, but its true power lies in the nontraditional reverb and modulation blends.
Contents
Are There Analog Reverb Pedals with Presets?
It’s challenging to reproduce the sense of space reverb delivers using only analog technology in a pedal, and not possible to save presets if there’s no digital memory bank to save them in.
There are analog-style digital delays that either use a hybrid circuit or are programmed to give an ‘analog warm’ vintage feel you’d expect from the reverb of a Neve board.
Do I Need a Midi Controller to Control Presets?
Reverb pedals with presets typically allow you to control a limited number of presets using only the switches available. Most have an external Midi output with which you can control up to hundreds of presets and other settings.
I recommend you get an external Midi controller for your reverb and all your effects if you regularly play your set list on tour or if you’re a session musician that needs to get the sound ready and stored quickly.
Pro Tip: You can also use a Midi controller with your laptop and a quality reverb plugin if you want to go the high-tech way. I have done that before, not only for the reverb but my entire chain, and I admit it was as reliable as any digital unit you place under your feet.
Best Reverb Pedals with Presets
1. Strymon BigSky Multidimensional Reverb Pedal
Strymon are masters at building workstation pedals that can live up to any situation. The BigSky Reverb is a great choice as it has an excellent tone; it’s incredibly versatile and can be found on the boards of many of today’s greats.
What I like the most about the pedal is how it stores and scrolls through the presets like a multi-effect pedal with the footswitch scrolling up and down the banks and the 300 presets it can store.
As we have discovered before, the tone knob is also very helpful in separating or merging the wet reverb sound with the ‘dry guitar output.
It’s an expensive big pedal, but just as it covers an enormous amount of space in your board, it does the same for the needs of all player levels and will last you even decades.
2. Walrus Audio Mako Series R1 High-Fidelity Reverb Pedal
The Marko R1 is a small-quality reverb pedal that allows up to nine onboard presets and over 128 if using Midi. It does not take up much space and feels solid the moment you step on the footswitches.
The only disadvantage of the Mako R1 is that it delivers best when connected to an external controller, as it can get confusing tapping the same two switches while scrolling through presets. The small size works against it in this context, yet only if you need many presets.
It’s right at the edge of where gear becomes expensive but not far from a beginner guitar’s price.
3. Empress Reverb Pedal
The Empress is another pricey workstation that simplifies saving and using presets. What I love about The Empress is the dedicated ‘save’ footswitch and the lights clearly showing you which preset you’re on. With or without a Midi controller, it will deliver for all levels.
It’s quite an investment, but you don’t need to replace it any time soon, as it’s arguably one of the most versatile reverb pedals on the market. If you’re not a heavy effect user, you can even gig with this one pedal using the delay+reverb and the built-in modulation modes.
4. Keeley Hydra Stereo Reverb & Tremolo Pedal
I choose this pedal as a solution for vintage players, especially country or blues guitarists, where tremolo is one of the only effects you need besides reverb, a great amp, and a guitar.
The tone is excellent for everything vintage; it fails slightly in versatility, but the affordable price makes up for it if you’re focused on a particular reverb type.
5. Eventide Blackhole Reverb Pedal
The Eventide Blackhole is a great mystery box you can go wild experimenting with. It covers the basics perfectly, but its true power lies in the nontraditional reverb and modulation blends.
It’s great on its own but truly shines when connected to its external midi controllers, as it’s based on the famous Blackhole plugin. You can connect the pedal to the Eventide Device Manager for Mac and PC and take your time to build very detailed presets for your shows.
It also works perfectly with keys or synths if you occasionally play them live or in the studio.
How Many Reverb Presets Do I Need?
You might need none or many depending on the genre and the setting. For classic rock genres, blues, jazz, and country, you only need a few (1-5), considering that the effect only gives some space to the guitar in the mix or ad coloring.
For modern genres or studio musicians that record over different genres daily, saving multiple presets saves you hours of work.
Regardless of the context, remember that presets are there to help you, not make you depend on them. The same reverb preset will sound different in different rooms, headphones, and speakers, and you’ll always need to tweak the knobs slightly.