Tone needs dimension to develop. Sound needs room to breathe. This is why your favorite riff sounds iconic at Red Rocks, yet horrific in your basement. For the average guitarist dealing with the confines of a bedroom or apartment rig, reverb and delay pedals are essential tools to infuse your signal with body, resonance, and depth.
First achieved via reverberating recording rooms and improvised tape echo systems, these effect first cousins have evolved substantially over the years and now come packaged in a massive range of stompboxes, from svelte single–knobbers to
The wealth of delay and reverb options on today's market invites endless opportunity for experimentation. That is, of course, a huge part of the appeal of pedal buying to begin with. But for those looking for a head start on finding their ideal reverb–delay combo, there are a number of tried–and–true pairings set to bring a perfect balance between the two effects.
These can take the form of multiple best–bet pedal pairings or single units that contain both circuits. So today, we're taking a closer look at four such options guaranteed to open up your otherwise enclosed sound.
Seymour Duncan Vapor Trail + Electro–Harmonix Holy Grail Nano
Though the Seymour Duncan Vapor Trail is a relative newcomer on the scene, it’s sure to become a fixture on pro and home boards alike. This stompbox delivers warm analog presence wrapped in a modern package.
The Vapor Trail’s true bucket brigade circuitry results in authentic echo modulation reminiscent of tape machines. As the signal faithfully fades, its echoes inherit a subtle darkness on the tail end, which adds instant depth even to the tiniest space.
While developed for use on the dimly lit stage, the delay speed’s visual pulse offered by the blinking LED light inside the translucent delay knob is a real benefit in low decibel settings (even headphones) where echo rates hardly have time to register in the ear before quickly evaporating.
When it comes to reverb, sometimes the simplest solution is the best one. With its three–way toggle and single knob, the Holy Grail Nano owns this plug–and–play ideal. If you can operate a light switch and the heat dial on your stove, you can engineer amazing reverbs out of this EHX fan favorite.
The Nano’s reverb palette includes the spacious sounds of spring, hall, and fabled “flerb” — a proprietary blend of reverb and light flange. Whereas some digital effects sound increasingly artificial through low watt setups, the Holy Grail Nano rises to the occasion and plays well with other elements of your layered sound without drowning them out.
Ideal for: Home players looking for an easy–to–use fresh take on legendary sounds, at a price point significantly less than resurrecting antique echo and amp units.
Line 6 EchoPark + DigiTech Polara Reverberation
True to its name, the Echo Park provides home guitarists with a fully featured delay playground.
As the little brother of the famed Line 6 DL4, the compact pedal contains no less than eleven echo patterns, including slap, ping pong, reverse, and ducking — all of which can successfully embody equally compact amps with surprising sonic precision and tonal authenticity.
Each delay type can be tailored for mix, echo duration, decay, and cast within tape, digital, or analog emulators. This concentration of options gives players the ability to both recreate their favorite echoes and craft entirely new delay sounds.
With reverb emulations from tradition hall and spring to great room resonance to what sounds like ambiences from a galaxy far, far away, the DigiTech Polara Reverberation pedal pushes the bounds of what reverb has been and will become.
Alongside these classic sounds are a familiar yet fresh reverse reverb and an innovative “halo” setting, which rolls cascading octaves into reverb echoes. This results in a shimmering sound that is at once spacey, glowing, and intimate.
Pairing the pulsing capacities of the Echo Park with the ambient range of the Polara opens up a matrix of reverberating echoes in any direction and dimension.
Ideal for: Home musicians looking for a pedal tag–team that offers true–to–form emulations of delay and reverb classics and an arsenal of tools for crafting new sounds.
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Foxpedal The Wave
In a world of boutique pedals constantly one–upping with their designs, The Wave is a visual masterpiece. Yet more sophisticated than its artful exterior is the delay and reverb combinations the unit produces.
On its own or in tandem with the delay section, the reverb’s tonal and special capacity has an impressive range of lush, intense, open sounds. For small space players, the decay feature is a definite plus: a spin of this dial expands room sizes and dimension. Suddenly, your space doesn’t sound so small.
The Wave’s dual programmable delays offer modulations based on three famed units: the Binson Echorec (a la Pink Floyd), Roland RE–201 Space Echo (think Radiohead), and the Echoplex EP–3 (the brand behind sounds of Jimmy Page, Van Halen, Neil Young, and Andy Summers).
Configuring the delay and depth knobs in any of these categories offers endless territory from punchy ping pongs to chiming tonal bounces to lingering delays with increasing eeriness.
The Wave | Foxpedal Effects
Like its reverb counterpart, the delay side of the pedal has a hidden gem for an effect that is hard to come by in the small setup: an independent ambient feedback knob. Better still, depressing the mid–ship “wash” footswitch suspends this setting and tosses the signal into self–oscillating feedback elevations that throb with the delay’s rate and intensity.
The Wave offers limitless reverb–echo architecture for any guitarist, while also packing some built–in assets with a particular payoff for small space players.
Ideal for: Users playing at the borders of traditional reverb and delay sounds, all the while exploring what this age–old pair can do when there are no rules.
EarthQuaker Devices Avalanche Run
Expertly designed, flawlessly delivered, and innovation at every turn. From the simplest of crisp, clean, and inviting echoes to atmospheric delay–reverb combinations, the Avalanche Run offers a fortress of sound.
Its plate–style reverb blends seamlessly with delay modulations to create normal, reverse, and swell patterns, which can be engineered with ease by tone, mix, repeat, and decay knobs.
In their endlessly creative quest to create a “dreamy sonic discovery device” (their words) the EarthQuaker crew in Akron never lost sight of the importance of simplicity. For most home musicians most of the time, quick access and intuitive use of a limited range of high–caliber sounds is key.
One of the Avalanche Run’s biggest assets is the range of control users have over almost any ingredient of the pedal’s sonic output. Remember that pawn shop expression pedal you play with while watching Nascar? Give it a fresh nine volt and meet your new best friend.
EarthQuaker Devices Avalanche Run Stereo Delay & Reverb | Reverb Gear Demo
When plugged into the Avalanche Run, your old expression pedal harnesses control of six assignable variables selected by the “EXP” dial, such as reverb decay length, echo time, and wet/dry mix. On–the–fly changes with close measures of precision mean you’re not committed to one sound for long or boxed in by pre–set parameters.
All in, the Avalanche Run builds an impressive edifice atop even a five watt box.
Ideal for: Players seeking usability for familiar sounds and a creative license to press reverb and delay into new frontiers.
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So what if your amp more closely resembles a lunchbox, or the room you call a rehearsal space doubles as a daytime home office and evening yoga studio? The size of the rig doesn’t matter. It’s all about how you use it.
Any of these pedal pairings or combo reverb–delay units will set a firm cornerstone for building large, looming sounds at low volume your space can handle.
Banner image courtesy of James' Home of Tone.
Learn more about effects pedals on our Effects Pedals: What Do They Do? | The Basics homepage.