A lightening strike broke my reverb pedal.

**srs** · 05-31-2016, 02:32 PM

Originally Posted by Jim Soloway

while I think about what to do next.

Are the Henretta or a Strymon Flint in the running?

**Jim Soloway** · 05-31-2016, 03:06 PM

Originally Posted by srs

Are the Henretta or a Strymon Flint in the running?

Definitely not the Flint. I owned one briefly and found it too confusing. It sounded great when I first plugged into it and after playing with the controls for a while I was never able to get back to where I started. Simple is better in my world (plus I'm really happy with my Boss TR-2 trem)

**Longways to Go** · 05-31-2016, 10:08 PM

something different might be fun?

I had a HOF but never clicked with it, so it got traded it off some time ago.
I recently was on the hunt for a new reverb pedal & stumbled into a Digitech Polara.
Not what I was looking for but it was a good deal so I gave it a shot.
Turns out I really like it. Unexpectedly.

Who knows? Lots of cool new reverbs out there

**feet** · 06-01-2016, 05:08 AM

You a spring, plate, room or hall guy? The Dr scientist is still my favorite, for Luddites or otherwise. I can also vouch for the digitech/hardwire verbs, too, but they are a little more involved. Something like the boing, silver spring or spring theory would probably be popular here. People seem excited about the new boss and mxr ones, too. So, lots of options.

Personally, I didn't find the flint that complicated, but I also didn't like it's "natural" sounds as much as its crazy lazer sounds.

**Klatu** · 06-01-2016, 07:32 AM

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

Not to make light of a lousy situation, but I'm reminded of a story that happened to my family, gotta be 20 years ago now...

A lightning strike blew out my uncle's TV (actually blew out whole wall socket, started small fire, etc.)

Anyway, once insurance paperwork was filed and such, my uncle ended up upgrading to a new "flat screen." It was the first time any of us had seen one. As we all stood around, amazed at the clearness of the picture and how thin the TV was, I remember him joking he was hoping lightning would hit his car next.

Sounds like it worked out pretty well for your uncle. Me, not so lucky.

3 years ago, we had a lightning strike that hit the lake behind our house. The power surge fried 2 flat screen TVs and our computer modem. Ironically, our third TV, an old piece of crap that we'd been trying to donate for some time without success, made it through unscathed.

We called the power company, hoping that their insurance program would cover the damages, but we were denied when they confirmed that there was indeed lightning at the time we had reported. As it turns out, they don't cover lightning.

As for our surviving TV, friends didn't want it and charities wouldn't take it, so it joined its high end buddies in the dumpster.

**Jim Soloway** · 06-01-2016, 10:36 AM

Originally Posted by feet

You a spring, plate, room or hall guy? The Dr scientist is still my favorite, for Luddites or otherwise. I can also vouch for the digitech/hardwire verbs, too, but they are a little more involved. Something like the boing, silver spring or spring theory would probably be popular here. People seem excited about the new boss and mxr ones, too. So, lots of options.

Personally, I didn't find the flint that complicated, but I also didn't like it's "natural" sounds as much as its crazy lazer sounds.

With my two TC Electronics pedals I used variants of the room sound that were bigger than the room and smaller than the hall. I actually like spring but the HOF and its variants don't do that very well.

**feet** · 06-02-2016, 12:12 AM

ok, i did some comparisons at home and here's what i'm finding:

if you feel like spending some money (or are feeling patriotic), the dr scientist is better (and much, much simpler) than anything i've used for rooms and plates. the obvious downside to it is that it doesn't do spring, and it kind of hates being daisy chained. but it couldn't be easier to use and it just sounds great where ever you set it.

for a really, really good verb, the polara does it all, and does it well. the downsides are that its a little more involved, and its impossible to read. and it has plenty of settings that you'll ignore (like your hof). but the spring is legit, and the plate and room verbs are amongst the best i've heard. it uses lexicon algorithms, you know. compared to the dr scientist, its a little more... obvious, while the dr scientist is a little more subtle and perhaps natural with its room settings. you get that touch of wetness without really feeling like something is happening- the polara feels slightly more like an effect than a tone, but not at all in a bad way. its liveliness knob is a little nebulous and the thing takes a little more to dial in, but its worth the effort, especially at that price point. it shouldn't be difficult to move if you decide you don't like it, either.

if you want to save some bucks, the discontinued hardwire rv7 uses the same algorithms as the polara, more or less, and functions the same. its a little larger and heavier, and the knobs are really close together, but they feel nice, at least. one of those should run you about $70-80.

can't really recommend the ehx, but i did consider the holy grail neo at one point. it just has the worst of both worlds- it doesn't have enough parameters to get a good sound and isn't dialed in as well as the dr scientist. and i don't care for the business practices.

i haven't used it myself, but now that there is a new boss reverb out, the previous generation should be pretty cheap these days. the new mxr could be of interest as well- demos sounded nice.

offer stands- if you want to take one for a spin, let me know.

**DRS** · 06-02-2016, 09:13 AM

I like my Hardwire RV7 more than the HoF I had. But I think they discontinued it. They still have the Supernatural and Polara. Supernatural gets good reviews.

**feet** · 06-03-2016, 05:04 AM

The hard wire became the polara, yes, when the hard wire line was folded into the digitech name. The supernatural is an rv7 tweaked to increase times and modulation. All three share the same basic algorithms and are all probably better than a hof.

**Jim Soloway** · 06-03-2016, 11:35 AM

Originally Posted by feet

The hard wire became the polara, yes, when the hard wire line was folded into the digitech name. The supernatural is an rv7 tweaked to increase times and modulation. All three share the same basic algorithms and are all probably better than a hof.

Feet, thanks for the offer. I have an rv7 on the way.

**Longways to Go** · 06-03-2016, 01:56 PM

I hope you like it!

FWIW, I have found the Polara to be very easy to dail in -- lots of great reverb sounds in there.
I'm currently using a nice room setting -- first time I ever used a reverb where I even liked the room settings.

**feet** · 06-04-2016, 02:45 AM

Good to hear. I hope you like it. Since this thread started, I've recovered the pedal, and room in general. In general, I'm a plate guy, but messing with the spring and room settings has been interesting. Keep us posted.

**Jim Soloway** · 06-04-2016, 09:48 AM

Originally Posted by feet

Good to hear. I hope you like it. Since this thread started, I've recovered the pedal, and room in general. In general, I'm a plate guy, but messing with the spring and room settings has been interesting. Keep us posted.

Will do and in the meantime I'm almost embarrassed to say that I'm actually kind of enjoying playing dry. Of course, that's at very low volume so I'm hearing the guitar as well as the amp but after a lifetime of polaying with verb it's a nice change.

**Robertkoa** · 06-22-2016, 10:38 AM

Originally Posted by AlsoRan

I have heard stories of the carnage a lightning strike can bring. My boss lost an expensive computer because of one. Another friend had a very expensive widescreen TV taken out by one.

Sorry to hear about this loss. You were pretty high on that HOF and it was not cheap, by my standards.

Yes.From a Sci Fi point of view you would think it would make a Guitar have supernatural Tones if it got a near strike...

But you need good surge protectors for electronic gear...even Amps etc.