Best Reverb Pedals in the UK

The DigiTech TRIO Plus has practically no limits. The updated model lets you loop and custom sequence your looped guitar parts, so you'll be able to create complete songs on the fly. The footswitch makes the unit record a loop along with pretty much unlimited number of overdubs.

You can individually control the loop level. The model lets you record loops by themselves, like any other conventional looper, or along with the band. At the same time, the unit allows you to apply built-in effects to your guitar signal.

The reverb pedal is able to learn up to five different song parts, letting you create intros, verses, choruses, bridges, and outros. You can recall these parts on-the-fly as the song plays back or pre-program the parts as sequences for automated playback.

There are almost too many controls here. In addition to the standard assortment, the model features independent tempo, style, genre, bass level, loop level, drums level, and headphone output level controls. These controls are present because the looper offers you twelve music genres to choose from. There are also twelve song styles available for each genre.

We can talk about this pedal/looper for hours. Do we need to though? As far as we're concerned, the DigiTech TRIO Plus is easily among the best reverb pedals on the market right now. The unit listens to how you play and automatically generates drum and bass parts that match your song. The multi-coloured LEDs around the encoder display the styles that best match your song.

The Boss RC-3 Loop Station makes things almost too easy. Compared to its predecessor, the RC-3 model provides stereo rather than mono looping, adds that USB 2.0 connection to make things more versatile, and vastly increases the unit's storage capacity, letting you utilise three hours of recording time and 99 memory locations, which is pretty ridiculous compared to the RC-2's 16 minutes and 11 loops.

The biggest difference between these not-so-distant relatives is the rhythm guide though. Present in the latest model, the guide offers ten different rhythm types. You can set the tempo set numerically in BPM or using the tap tempo button on the unit's control surface (including different time signature choices).

Of course, with loopers, it is all about timing. The aforementioned rhythm guide definitely makes things easier in that regard. You can play along with the rhythm with recording starting the second you press the footswitch or hit the footswitch from silent and have one rhythm measure as a count-in before the recording starts and the rhythm continues.

Long story short, considering its many inputs and outputs as well as the rhythm guide with real drums, the loop and rhythm output knobs, and the rhythm and tap tempo buttons, you can use the reverb pedal pretty much any way you want. You can jam with yourself, lay down some chords to practise over, compose and arrange new songs adding new parts in overdubs, and/or use the looper as an effective live performance tool.

The Ammoon AP-09 is pretty basic compared to the two juggernauts that we've reviewed above. Of course, the price more than reflects the unit's quality and overall value. The record feature will let you record up to 10 minutes of stereo. The overdubs are unlimited. You can undo, redo, and delete the 'dubs, nothing we haven't seen before as far as standalone loopers go.

You can also use the unit with delay, meaning that you set the delay you want, then you create your loops.

There are eight different delay types available here. Each delay offers unique flavour, from the pure digital repeats to the naturally degrading tape repeats through to the surprisingly brilliant Bit Crushing repeats of Lo Bit.

You can set the delay time from slapback to ~two seconds between each repeat. The unit lets you input as many repeats as you want. You can even play delays backwards.

As far as the build is concerned, the model is ridiculously compact and unusually rugged. Measuring 41 x 76 x 46 mm, you can toss the aluminium alloy pedal into your backpack and always have the unit with you wherever you go.

Bottom line, the Ammoon AP-09 offers excellent value. The reverb pedal is more flexible than anything within this price bracket. The aluminium housing is pretty much immune to bending and corrosion.

The Boss Cs-3 Compressor/Sustain Pedal keeps things relatively traditional.

First and foremost, you have that classic Boss metal casing that is practical, sturdy, relatively nice-looking, and especially easy to use. The subject mono device features one input and one output in addition to the standard LED status indicator and this large on/off footswitch in the front. The four control knobs below the LED indicator let you adjust the tone.

Since the unit is equal-part a compressor pedal and a sustain device, you'll be able to craft various different tones. The pedal works wonders cutting down your loud signals and frequencies, all whilst giving the lower ones enough boost to make them relevant enough.

The well-rounded tone that you get from that presents more than enough versatility to shape up any guitar type playing anything from clean light acoustic to full-blown distortion. You can go from gentle compression to squeezed sounds.

On the downside, you might experience minor hiss issues when you don't place the unit at the pedal chain bottom. Also, the knobs can be hard to turn sometimes.

Setting these minor flaws aside, the Boss Cs-3 Compressor/Sustain Pedal brings enhanced sustain, tight dynamics control, and fatter sound. The smooth sustain that the pedal offers comes without degrading the original sound quality. The unit will improve your entire tone and that's where its biggest strength lies.

The Donner EC748UK deserves very little criticism and major praise considering what the unit offers relative to the measly price. The analogue effect pedal gives you clear, plump, and smooth delay effects. You can set the delay time anywhere between 25 and 600 milliseconds. There are two outputs that give you effected signal and dry signal.

You have these three basic adjustment knobs. The Echo Knob lets you adjust the delay level. The F.back Knob can be used to adjust the delay feedback. The Time Knob controls the aforementioned delay time.

Apart from that, there's also the True Bypass knob that offers bypass for zero tone colouration. You can always rotate between the transparent tone that the True Bypass switch brings and the delayed effected tone that these knobs let you achieve.

On the build front, the unit is as sturdy as they come. The aluminium alloy construction makes the pedal practically indestructible and especially durable.

In other words, there are no fancy delay types and tap tempo here. Nevertheless, the available controls will let you achieve pretty much any sound, from fatter tones with practically no echo to slow, lingering, spacey echo-type delay sounds. You'll be able to play with tremolo and ambient noise. Considering the affordable price, there's not much to complain about here.