That feeling is a mixture of sadness and sickness. After many years, and literally, thousands of gigs, my trusty Hardwire RV-7 Reverb finally stopped working. I remember that before I got this pedal, I went through several reverbs before I finally found one that inspired me, and that was the RV-7. Built in partnership with Lexicon, the seven reverb models the pedal offered were unparalleled in my opinion.
What I loved about that particular reverb, which turned me off with so many others was its subtlety. Most other reverbs at the time were really in your face, even at low settings and with long pre-delays, and they sounded processed. But the RV-7 was completely different from all of them. I could get rich, deep tones out of it, but even at high settings, the reverb was “just there,” as if it was a natural component of my signal.
Subtlety in a reverb is very important to me because it can easily overpower the rest of the effects on a board. But the RV-7 played so well with the rest of my pedals. I’m going to miss it.
That said, I’m going to finally put the TC Electronic Hall of Fame reverb on my board tonight. I’ve had it for a couple of years, and I actually like this pedal quite a bit, but never got around to using it on a regular basis as I was happy with my RV-7. While I thought it was great, it wasn’t great enough to compel me to make a switch. I have high hopes. But if I can’t get it dialed in at tonight’s gig, I’m probably going to get the Digitech Polara Reverb, which is the next evolution of the RV-7.
I know, there are other alternatives out there, such as the Strymon Blue Sky. That’s a great reverb, and capable of incredible subtlety, but if memory serves, I just wasn’t all that inspired by its sound. As with anything, you go with what sounds and feels good to you, and you go with that which you are familiar; and as I’ve mentioned in the past, I had Lexicon reverb inserts on my PA board at my former church gig, and I loved them.
We’ll see how it goes with the Hall of Fame tonight. You can’t go wrong with TC equipment, but then it all depends on the sound…
Are you sure it can’t be fixed? Could be something really simple.
John, it probably could be fixed, but I don’t have the know-how, and in the end, I have to weigh what it’ll cost to fix versus the cost of a new one. Besides, I have the TC Electronic Hall of Fame, and that’s working superbly for me now that I’ve taken the time to really work with it.
I understand. I build pedals so that is why my mind works that way. I’ve seen simple things like a wire coming loose etc.. With the verb it could be more complex or not. Don’t ditch it. You may run into someone local who works on pedals etc.. that might open it up for a quick look at least.
[…] That Feeling You Get When Gear Breaks Down… […]