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Our Best Reverb Pedal Recommendations

From adding subtle depth to your guitar sound, to replicating the space of rooms and concert halls, these highly-recommended reverb pedals will end the dry spell on your tone.

Reverb is naturally occurring, so whichever room or venue you are playing, there is just no escaping it, your guitar signal is never really “dry”. Reverb effects enable you to mimic and control these sonic bounces, letting your notes bounce off in a virtual space that you can tweak. The popularity of this effect among guitarists led it to be a standard add-on for amplifiers, and the need for flexibility and portability pushed manufacturers to transition the effect into pedal format.

Here we look at the reverb pedals that we, and many others, rate highly, stompboxes that are proven to make guitars sound bigger and fuller. They are listed here for easy comparison, so you can conveniently pick one that fits your particular style and budget.

Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Nano

Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Nano Reverb Pedal


With virtuosos like Yngwie Malmsteen and Vernon Reid endorsing their brand, there’s no denying the popularity and reach of EHX. Their entry for the reverb market is the Holy Grail, which is currently one of their most popular pedals and available in various versions, the Nano version being the most practical and accessible.

Since most guitarists utilize subtle reverb for tone enhancement, the Holy Grail Nano’s compact size and single knob configuration make it the most practical choice. All you need to do is insert it where you want it in your signal path and adjust the reverb knob to taste. Adding value to this pedal is a three way mode selector that lets you switch between spring, hall and flerb modes. While spring and hall follow traditional sonic signatures, flerb provides a unique reverb texture thanks to the combination of flanging and spatial reverb. If you are looking for a money and space saving reverb pedal, check this one out. Get the latest price & reviews at Amazon.com.

TC Electronic Hall Of Fame Reverb

TC Electronic Hall Of Fame Reverb Pedal


The TC Electronic Hall Of Fame Reverb is hands down the most versatile pedal in this list, with its impressive collection of 10 reverb types that include Spring, Hall, Plate, Room, Church, Ambience, Mod, Lofi, Tile and Gate. These reverb types should be more than enough even for the most reverb obsessed guitarist, but if more is needed, the pedal’s TonePrints feature further expands the sonic possibilities by letting you create your own reverb patch or download the creation of others, including those made by artists..

Popular Hall of Fame Reverb TonePrint contributors include Guthrie Govan, Albert Lee, Paul Gilbert, Roben Ford and many more. If these guitar greats find the pedal to be good enough, then it should be great for us mortals. Complementing the rotary mode switch are three knobs that let you adjust decay, level and tone so you can fine tune each reverb type some more to your liking. If you are not sure what to choose or if you’re musical style varies, the Hall of Fame Reverb is highly recommended. Get the latest price & reviews at Amazon.com.

Catalinbread Topanga Spring Reverb

Catalinbread Topanga Spring Reverb


Although not as popular as other mass producers of pedals, Catalinbread has quite the line up of quality pedals. A good example of this is the Topanga Spring Reverb, an excellent stompbox format take on the Fender 6G15 outboard spring reverb unit.

This reverb pedal recreates the fine details of vintage outboard spring reverbs including the flutter, drip, clang, cluck, splash and even the subtle distortion caused by the unit being placed at the front of the amp – and it packs all of it in a regular sized pedal that easily fits into your pedalboard. Tone shaping features include dwell and tone knobs which lets you adjust the dynamics of the effect and match the voicing of your electric guitar. Although a bit pricey and limited to just one reverb type, this is a worthy investment if you’re looking for realistic sounding spring reverb. Get the latest price & reviews at Amazon.com.

Blackstar HT-REVERB Tube Reverb

Blackstar HT-REVERB Tube Reverb Pedal

There’s really nothing better than analog tube circuitry when it comes to getting great guitar sounds, this applies to reverb effects as well. And with this in mind, the Blackstar HT-Reverb is highly recommended, utilizing ECC83 (12AX7) Vacuum Tube to provide genuine tube-like compression and harmonics which is controllable via the Dwell knob. While the innards utilize old school technology, this reverb pedal offers modern reverb type rotary switching, which lets you go from room to hall, plate to spring and it even comes with gate and modern reverse reverb effects.

Surprisingly, all the reverb types in this pedal are implemented nicely, thanks to the tube based circuitry. If you’re into David Gilmour style reverb applications and want to experiment this is a great pedal to have. The only downside being the price, but the genuine tube circuitry and great sound more than makes up for the cost. Get the latest price & reviews at Amazon.com.

Boss FRV-1 63 Fender Reverb

Boss FRV-1 63 Fender Reverb Pedal


The confusing name of this pedal is the result of an unusual collaboration between two competing brands, Boss and Fender, something that will likely not happen again in the near future because Fender is now busy growing their own pedal line.

The FRV-1 pedal is based on the B1963 Fender Spring Reverb, built to modern standards and packed inside a regular size stompbox. This is essentially a modern recreation of the 1963 Fender Reverb which became the staple sound of rockabilly, country, blues, surf rock and even grunge rock. Note that spring reverb does not sound as natural as modern digital reverbs, they sound like… uh… spring and may not appeal to players that were not exposed to the older musical styles mentioned above. So if you are looking for a realistic vintage sounding spring reverb with big name brand backing, this is a good affordable choice. Get the latest price & reviews at Amazon.com.

Keeley Aurora

Keeley Aurora


What started out as pedal modifications grew into a strong contender in effects pedals. The Keeley Aurora is their first foray into the reverb pedal market, and as such they wanted to give it all the essential features while adding in some modifications that have become synonymous with their brand.

The Keeley Aurora lets you switch between the three most used reverb types, Room, Hall and Plate. You can then shape the reverb effect sound via the pedal’s four knob configuration, which include decay, warmth, blend and a special slapback knob. Interestingly the warmth knob operates contrary to the usual tone knob, in that the brightest setting is the lowest one. If you are a gigging guitarist and you’re looking for a reliable reverb pedal with impressive tone then you should check this one out. Get the latest price & reviews at Amazon.com.

As always, if you feel there’s a great reverb pedal we’ve overlooked then present your argument in the comments below.

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1 thought on “Our Best Reverb Pedal Recommendations”

  1. Check out the Chuckpedals
    Anonymous

    Check out the Chuckpedals Blue Dream. Tiny little manufacturer out of Los Angeles, but it’s a gorgeous slightly modulating reverb that’s really hard to turn off!

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