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 Hardwire RV-7 Stereo Reverb |
Summary: With seven (7) licensed Lexicon reverb models, this is one bad-ass reverb pedal, and a great value proposition given the relatively inexpensive price of $149.99 for a true bypass pedal. With the Hardwire series, Digitech has really hit a home run!
Pros: Just about the best-sounding spring and plate reverbs I’ve ever heard in a digital reverb. Capable of subtle reverb, to thick, rich and wet surf. Cons: None. I dig this pedal! Price: $149.99 street Features (from Digitech):
Tone Bone Rating: 5.0 – I did a review of this awhile back, but I finally bought one, and I am oh so pleased with how it sounds! |
Yeah, yeah, say what you will about Digitech being known for “consumer” grade pedals, and I’m as much of a boutique pedal snob as the next guy, but there’s no denying the quality workmanship that has gone into the Digitech Hardwire series of pedals. And yes, I know, I reviewed this pedal before, but that review was based upon a test at my local Guitar Center, while competing against the flailing of a wanker sitting next to me, trying to look cool and and trying to play metal licks and failing horribly. Okay, enough of the ranting… Y’all know how I feel about wankers… (search GG for “wankers”).
And say what you will about a digital effect box, but the fact the RV-7 has seven licensed Lexicon reverb voices inside give this pedal LOTS of credibility in my book. As I mentioned in my previous review, I’ve used a Lexicon rackmount for vocals at my Church, and have absolutely loved the reverb effects it contains. Though digital, Lexicon has figured it out, so it’s no surprise that they’re pretty much the standard for digital reverb.
In any case, despite the conditions I had to play within during my initial test, the RV-7 blew me away. Honestly, at the time, I didn’t think Digitech was capable of making a truly great-sounding pedal. Make no mistake, I’ve had Digitech pedals in the past, and they’re all quite functional, but I would never give them a “best in class” rating. They tend to offer great value for the money you pay – which isn’t much for their standard stuff; at least until I discovered the Hardwire series – especially the RV-7!
Since I reviewed the RV-7, I’ve tried several, and even came close to buying an EH Holy Grail. It too is a great sounding reverb, but there was something about its room reverb model which just didn’t do it for me. It’s a great pedal though, but I still liked the RV-7 better.
Recently, I had the chance to go to the local music shop near my work (B Street Music in San Mateo, CA) to perform an A/B test between the Holy Grail and the RV-7. Head-to-head the pedals were pretty close in performance, but the RV-7 beat the Holy Grail with the types of reverb voices it offered, plus the room reverb model on the RV-7 was superb! While the Holy Grail just edged out the RV-7 with the spring reverb, I found I could dial in a great sounding spring reverb with the RV-7 just the same, so that, combined with the awesome room reverb was what sold me. But let’s get into some specifics…
Fit and Finish
All the Hardwire pedals are solidly built with a cool, flat metallic finish. These pedals are very well-built, and surprisingly heavy – definitely gig-worthy. The RV-7 has a purplish, flat metallic finish on the body with a flat silver switch plate that has a nice rubber pad with the Hardwire logo. The pedal featurs a cool, light-blue LED indicator light. The RV-7 has four control knobs: Level, Liveliness, Delay, and a Voice selector knob. The first three knobs are not smooth sweep knobs. They have – for lack of a better term – micro-notches that really add to the whole industrial vibe that the Hardwire pedals have going on. When you look at the pedal, what’s not to like? 🙂 Of course, how it sounds is where it’s at, isn’t it?
Controls
Level – Controls the Wet/Dry amount. Fully clockwise is 100% wet.
Liveliness – This is actually hi-cut filter to add or reduce the amount of high-end freqs that come through
Delay – Controls how long the reverb effect decays after striking a note or chord
Voice Selector – pretty self-explanatory
How It Sounds
In a word, AWESOME! I used it in my weekly acoustic gig this evening, and was thanking the heavens for such a great pedal. My guitar maintained its clarity, no matter how much I upped the level knob. It must have a slight pre-delay built in; whatever, the fact that I could clearly hear the notes and chords I was playing and not having them washed out by the effect was truly an inspiring experience. Add to the fact that it is true bypass, so when it’s off, it’s really off, is yet another reason to love this pedal; no hum, no buzz.
To be fair, I have no idea what to do with the reverse reverb other than to add some interesting effect with single notes in a song. But other than that, I’m really digging this pedal!
Sound Samples
Here are some sound samples I quickly created… Please excuse the recording quality. I just recorded in an open room with no filtering. BTW, I used a Strat with a prototype Aracom RoxBox 18 Watt Amp with a Jensen 1 X10 speaker. In almost every case, all the dials were at 12 o’clock, except for the Hall and Spring, where I set Level and Decay to about 2pm. I prefer a more subtle reverb effect, but as you’ll hear, the RV-7 is crystal clear, and produces a very nice reverb effect.
Room
Plate
Reverse
Modulated
Gated
Hall
Spring
Guitar Gear 
Nice piece dawg! I really dug the clips, especially the room and the spring. The spring sounds like a nice fender deluxe. This would cover the bases for reverb, no doubt – and at a cost that wont break the bank.
The spring on this pedal is delicious! I liked the Holy Grail spring a bit better, but as I’ve learned to dial in my settings, it sounds fantastic just the same. Even Jeff Aragaki with Aracom (luckily he lives sort of near me and he comes over to the house – very cool) commented today that it sounds really natural. It really is an impressive pedal.
Great write up dawg! I recently bought this pedal and am equally pleased with how you can dial in just about any reverb tone that suits you. This is my second HardWire pedal (also have the CR-7 Stereo Chorus) and second your opinion on the quality and workmanship of this product line…far superior to your run of the mill Digitech product.
Thanks for this interesting review. What about the the Hardwire chorus. Is it better than the Boss Ce-5 chorus? Are you planning a chorus effect guide?
The Hardwire Chorus is good. Very good, but not compelling enough for me to switch away from the CE-5. But that’s just me. I’ve been playing with BOSS choruses since the mid-80’s, and have pretty much stuck with them since. Wish I never got rid of my MIJ CE-2. I had that from the early 80’s until 1992. Sold it to a guy for like 40 bucks. Damn!!! Oh well, lesson learned.
The RV-7 is a great reverb pedal, but the Level control on mine acts as a sort of volume control. It doesn’t kill the dry signal the way the Digiverb does. I play ambient/shoegaze/dreampop and I like to get that floating guitar sound by using multiple reverbs, but you can’t reduce the pick attack on the RV-7 unless you use the Reverse setting.
damn, i love this masterpiece.. I went down to guitarcenter NYC to try one – and instantly buyed it!! it was so amazing to hear sounds so real so warm and so great out of one pedal that i knew – I will have to use this in a live show..
-> damn its so dynamic – i could get from “a little bit of verb” to dramatic verb szenarios without turning one know, just by giving more boost via the guitar ..
the price is higher than for the other hardwire pedals – but – hey its the best of them.. so..
Martin, I know what you mean! I TOTALLY DIG THIS PEDAL!!! I don’t use the reverse reverb at all, but I use all the rest, and it is absolutely dynamite!
I bought one of these and put it back on eBay within 5 minutes of using it. I’ve since bought another one along with the DL-8. Then I went and bought a Holy Grail. I think I will just sell the RV-7 and DL-8 straight away and use the Holy Grail along with my MXR Carbon Copy. One thing that bugged me about the RV-7 that I forgot about when I decided to try it again was that when you power them up they are always off. That’s better than being always on, a condition which sees any pedal I buy going back on eBay immediately. I have decided however, that always off also irks me. If you leave your Holy Grail on then when you power up your pedal board again it will still be on. Same with my Voodoo Lab Analog Chorus and Micro Vibe etc. I also didn’t really like all the modes on the RV-7. It’s like it doesn’t really do any one sound very well at all whereas the Holy Grail is known for it’s authentic spring reverb sound. I set the livliness tone knob fully off because the pedal is just so bright and brittle sounding. Is that because it’s a digital reverb like I didn’t like my Digital Delay DD3 or DD6 and sold them. The DL-8 Lo-Fi setting sounds promising to me. I don’t know, maybe I will use the two Hardwire Pedals, but I feel all the settings are more than I need. As for them being powered off when I power up my board well, maybe I can just not care that much about it. I find the silver knobs hard to read and the detents are just annoying. They’re great pedals for what they are though. I don’t know, I’m thinking they’re not for me and I just want my simple to use MXR Carbon Copy along with the Holy Grail. I love that the Hardwires are true bypass however, which is the main reason a digitech product made it in the door to start with. I just don’t think the sounds are anything more than the Digiverb myself. I think people are being hyped by the Lexicon monika.
Interesting experience, but it looks to me that you’re really not spending much time with the pedal in the first place. Putting it back on eBay after 5 minutes? Before you ditch it yet again – and if you can get beyond your irritation that it’s always off – perhaps you could actually spend more time dialing it in.
As I mentioned in my review, I auditioned both the Holy Grail and the RV-7 side-by-side and chose the RV-7 because of its sounds. The spring reverb of RV-7 – at least to my ears – was very close in quality to the Holy Grail. But then again, I took some time to tweak the dials to find where it was the sweetest-sounding for both pedals.
I lucked out and got one of these on a misprint sale by Musicians Friend, $49….I mean seriously Lexicon delays, and they are all very musical and tonal. Just love it. My opinion of the Hardwire series has gone way up, all these boxes are quite good even the delay. But I have to agree on the Vox TimeMachine, all the Vox JS boxes are simply great!The hardwires are true bypass and they boost up the internal voltage current which keeps them from clipping out.