Boss FRV-1 Fender Reverb
Unless you need it for the way it looks onstage, you can now leave the box of springs at home. Using its Composite Object Sound Modeling (COSM) technology, Boss has found the sound of the 1963 Fender Reverb unit that set the standard and put it in a stompbox. What’s impressive is not just how much more easily the FRV-1 will fit on a pedalboard—or how rugged it looks to be over the long haul—but just how much it plays and sounds like the genuine tube-driven spring unit. It’s got the same controls as the Fender unit: the Mixer adjusts the balance of wet and dry signal, the Tone brightens things up with a clockwise twist from noon or warms them with a counterclockwise turn, and Dwell sets the amount of reverb from just a bit to a whole helluva lot.
From gently creating a sense of space around a warm, clean tone to pouring on the rockabilly slapback, to a fully drenched surf style complete with the rangy, ringing tail and “splashy” attack, this pedal just does it. I plugged it in between a Fender Road Worn Tele and my workhorse Nash S-63 with Lollar pickups and a trio on non-reverb-equipped combos: an Xits 15W Sadie, an Orange Tiny Terror combo and a Tweed Deluxe replica built from a Mojo kit. Honestly, I couldn’t help myself. I jacked up the Tone and Dwell and hit the Nash’s bridge pup for a spell of some intensely bright surf twanging, and when my ears stopped ringing from that, I gradually made my way to the neck pup alone with just a hint of ‘verb for some relaxed bluesy, jazzy chord work. Everything in between sounded just as good. When you add in the touches that Boss is so well regarded for, like the solid construction, pedal switch and easy battery access, I’m not sure how they could’ve made it any better.
– CB
Buy if...
you want a board-friendly classic ‘verb that sounds like the real thing.
Skip if...
you like the sound the springs makes when you knock the tank over.
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Guyatone Mcm5 Micro Chorus
Part of Guyatone's Mighty Micro Series, the Micro Chorus comes housed in a tiny metal chassis, about the size of the small Danelectro pedals. There are a few small utilitarian features that adorn the pedal: a bar that blocks you from inadvertently changing settings on the pedal with your foot, a front-mounted battery compartment, and a glow-in-the-dark washer underneath the switch, just in case you're playing in complete darkness.
The Micro Chorus comes with the standard features of most chorus pedals including Level (master volume), Depth, Rate, and FX Level. Beyond those features is an interesting feature that had this synth enthusiast intrigued: a switch that allows you to switch the shape of the wave between Sine, Triangle and Square wave forms. This give you more options in sounds, and makes for a very versatile pedal. The Sine wave feature provides a lush classic chorus that has plenty of depth and clarity, the Triangle wave setting can achieve a dark vibrato that's more-vintage sounding, and the Square wave gives you a fluttery tremolo feel.
The MCm5 Micro Chorus provides a variety of modulation effects that will make you think outside the box, while leaving you plenty of real estate on your pedalboard. The one thing that makes me a bit gunshy about this pedal is the plastic PC mounted jacks that have no external support of a nut. Having bad luck with this type of construction before, I would have passed on this pedal in a store if I wouldn't have heard it first, but that's what reviews are for. Do do yourself a favor and check out the Micro Chorus—you may surprised at what this little stomp box can do.
– BB
Buy if...
you're looking for plenty of mod without taking up too much space
Skip if...
you want boutique style construction
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Granville Procrastinator
Judging by the pedal’s name, Granville’s Scott Davis (known to most of his clients as “Scooter”) certainly has a sense of humor. Judging by the stompboxes we received, it’s also clear that he has a strong sense of what working players are looking for in build quality, tone and usability. He calls his entry in the delay category “a ‘plex’-like tone in a compact pedal,” and it certainly is that, as well as being easier on the batteries and featuring true bypass, hand-selected and handwired components on double-sided PCB with solid-core copper wire. We get the impression Davis’s decision to offer a lifetime warranty with his pedals wasn’t a huge risk.
The Procrastinator tops out at around 325 milliseconds of delay, and the tone is warm, clear and analog sounding, but not dark—though it can get fairly lush and sweet-sounding depending on how you set the controls and the guitar. We heard no tone sucking, and it seems to get along well with just about every OD pedal we tried. The repeats don’t get mushy or washed out, but they warp a bit as they decay, a little like a tape delay. On the highest settings they do darken by traces, but they don’t warble or flutter. With brighter, chimier guitar/amp setups, like a Fender Road Worn Tele through an Xits 15W Sadie’s Hot Top Boost channel, you can notice the “click” on the attack of the repeats. It’s not unpleasant by any means, but it’s not perfectly “tape-ish.” Of course, if you’re that dialed in to the nuances of tape delays, you’re probaly not into swapping one for the other anyway. This is a pedal that emulates many of the best characteristics of vintage analog delay tones, and it does that very well. With a rig that just oozes texture, like the aforementioned Xits Sadie and the “notch” settings on a Nash S63, this pedal wouldn’t be a bad choice for post-rock atmospherics and cinematic soundscapes. It’ll make you want to play big, open chords and ringing notes.
– CB
Buy if...
you want analog sounding delay that’s easy on the batteries and the pedalboard.
Skip if...
you’ve got your heart set on a tape machine.
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