# BYOC Reverb Pedal Impressions



## gtone (Nov 1, 2009)

Just received a pre-built (my soldering skills are pathetic!) BYOC Reverb pedal this week. My first impression basically matched what most people felt about the stock unit - far too much reverb on tap! In fact, only the first 10% of both the dwell and the reverb level/intensity control ranges yielded anything musical IMO (rest was good for producing clanking and other myriad metallic noises). In all fairness, this first test-drive had the unit in front of a fairly high gain head - not the best place to put time-based effects by any stretch. For the second test run, I placed the unit behind the head using the amp head's line out feature to a second clean, low-gain amp (ie. dry signal ran to high gain head, wet signal to clean amp). This is more in keeping with the notion of an effects loop and the BYOC responded nicely. In this configuration, I was able to double the useful musical range to about the lowest 20% range of the reverb/dwell controls. In this mode, the spring reverb emulation seemed much smoother, more natural and had a nice "open" quality to it as well. FWIW, the tone control is both effective for tweaking and also seems very well calibrated in its parameter range.

I've read about mods that some folks have performed on these pedals (trim pots installed, resistor values changed, pot tapers changed, etc.) to improve on this inherent weakness. To me, a good pedal design should either have the "sweet spot" at/near the 12:00 o'clock positions on the control pots or possibly have a built in trim pot (or two) to help you approximate that same result. Never have I played a pedal with such a narrow range of useful tones as this one possesses. Don't get me wrong - this pedal can/does deliver some fine spring reverb tones; it just proves very touchy and difficult to dial them in with such a narrow range of control. The overall pedal design just seems flawed in its execution as a result.

Maybe the good folks who designed this unit should check out the Neunaber Wet Reverb pedal, a superb sounding (albeit, at almost twice the price) competitor which has it's whole control range compacted into about 30% of the actual range of the BYOC pedal. 

In summary, the BYOC Reverb pedal is not bad for the price, but certainly could be much better. Let's hope that BYOC addresses this weakness in future design revisions. As for me, I'll either put up with it or pay someone to mod mine if I just can't learn to live with it as is. Peace bruddas! (Note: my 69th post - think I'll stop posting and hang out here for awhile, as I like 69...).


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## bduguay (Jul 15, 2009)

I've done the mod you mention and it fixes the problem you're having. I spoke with Keith from BYOC about the reverb pedal and he said he intentionally designed it to have the most reverb available. You you want, send it to me and I'll set you up.
B.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

You know, given the state of solid-state reverb, both digital and otherwise (and that state is very good), given the nuisance of spring-based pans, and given the number of decent pedals and rack units out there, I'm surprised that amp-makers haven't simply opted for a dedicated reverb loop that allows the user to tap the send signal at a desired point, and blend in the outboard reverb unit of their choice with the unprocessed signal, as opposed to the more standard series loop arrangement that obliges the user to treat reverb like they treat a a fuzz or phaser.

Do any amps out there already do that?


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## bduguay (Jul 15, 2009)

None that I know of, but a great idea.
Does Mark ever have bad ideas? I suspect on occasion he does, but is smart enough to not display them.
B.


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## gtone (Nov 1, 2009)

Just thought I'd provide an update on this. Our very own boardmember bduguay offered to do the mod to the BYOC Reverb, so I took him up on it. Turns out, Brian was the original builder of my pedal. As I was so impressed with his build quality, I thought it'd be a safe bet to try the mod. He basically put in sockets for the resistor in question, put the value he thought would work well and threw in a few more resistors of other values in case I wanted to experiment.

The pedal has been literally transformed now! It is much closer in performance to the Neunaber unit at a little over half the price. Most importantly - the sweet spot for the reverb and dwell controls is now much closer to the 12 o'clock positions - very cool. Any metallic-sounding digital artifacts seem to be cleaned up, even with all controls cranked. There is one very interesting twist here also - with the reverb control at 3 o'clock or better and dwell set at 12 or 1, you not only get a very smokey jazzy blues tone, but the regenerated reverb swells are "tuned" in such a way that you almost get a a subtle but noticeable rotary speaker effect - way cool!

I would now rate this pedal a whole lot higher. The electronic/noise/ambient crowd might not like the mods too much, but a gigging musician sure will. The resulting effect is far more usuable, musical and transparent to allow the sweetness of your tone to shine through - very amplike reverb effect in its modded form.

Wouldn't hesitate to recommend a pro-build/mod of any BYOC kit by Brian. For those of us without the requisite skills, people like him are a Godsend. Oh yeah - his fees are ridiculously low in comparison to other pedal builders/modders out there; you might want to hit him up soon before he comes to his senses and charges what his time is really worth! All kidding aside, he's a great guy and a heck of guit-slinger (so I've heard) as well - kudos buddy!


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## bduguay (Jul 15, 2009)

Thanks for the kind words gtone!
After 1200+ BYOC builds, I've at least learned a thing or 2 and it's nice to be recognized and appreciated.
B.


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