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For me it depends on the room.
Smaller rooms could benefit from a touch of reverb, but larger rooms will have natural reverb and adding more will "muddy up" the sound.
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02-26-2012 06:15 PM
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I always use reverb - and lots of them when I use pedals. At home or any any other playing situation. It makes me play better because the notes don't "die" so fast.
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I concluded years ago that reverb is something that tends to sound a lot better to guitar players than it does to anyone else, and most people who listen to jazz aren't themselves guitar players.
Plus, reverb is truly awful when comping or playing rhythm, and it's too easy to forget to kill the reverb at the end of a solo...
So I don't use any reverb and the two amps I own today don't have any reverb and I don't intend to ever use any reverb again.
Besides, the jazz sound of the electric guitar managed to serve without reverb throughout the bebop era and we were well into post bop styles before reverb was invented, so it isn't like it was ever essential.Last edited by cjm; 02-26-2012 at 07:11 PM.
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"Plus, reverb is truly awful when comping" There is plenty of good souding comping with reverb on the jazz guitar discography.
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I like a little reverb, just barely noticeable. I think it adds a little depth and complexity to the sound. My $.02.
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I use a some reverb at home in acoustically dead rooms, but in reverberant rooms find it unnecessary. On occasion I will use a bit of delay instead of reverb for a subtle pleasant effect.
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I like a touch of reverb.
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I like my reverb around 1 or 2 at MAX. Never approach the surf sound. The key is to treat it like a spice, just a little to flavor, to much and it just kills everything.
'Mike
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It all depends on the music. Some styles beg for reverb, others don't. The more acoustic your tone, the less you need it. I usually don't like completely dry electric guitar, and wouldn't own an amp without it.
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it's like seasoning food, sometimes you can ruin a good dish with too much salt.
reverb is the same way with tone.
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I like it, and I mostly play in smaller venues (at larger venues, I've been at the mercy of the sound man). If it's a good reverb system, it shouldn't mess up your tone. I use tube driven reverb built into the amp.
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Good question, I was curious what other jazz players here thought about reverb.
So, for the longest time I thought I could never play without a little reverb. This is because all my amps I ever had had built in reverb. Then I went for an old amp without reverb because I wanted this old Fender Bandmaster. Well, after playing without it I no longer feel like its essential to my playing...espeically live at a gig or jam. There is natural reverb in the room already! At home practicing or in a small room some reverb sounds great though. But I now feel like I don't need it and would only use a very small amount if the amp has it built in.
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Exactly the analogy that I had in mind. I like just a dash of reverb.
Originally Posted by Jake Hanlon
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It depends on context and venue.
With a big band, I don't need it.
If the room is "live", I won't use it.
Other than that, I always have a little reverb, just to let the sound breathe and not slap you in the face. I like to have the guitar sound hang in the air.......no, I have no other way to describe it, certainly not a more scientific one.Last edited by mangotango; 02-27-2012 at 04:39 PM. Reason: "slap". I have no idea what "slip you in the face" means. Typping orrer, clearly.....
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I never play with reverb at home or at a gig. I just don't hear it as part of the jazz lexicon. Did the Trane use reverb? Miles? Evans? Charlie Christian?
I use it only when I record.
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Comparing the use of reverb on an archtop guitar (where the notes fade away very quickly) and a sax (Coltrane) or a trumpet (Miles), where the notes sutain for a long time is not very fair. Acutally some trumpet players use reverb and I like it in some occaisons. On guitar I always like it because it approximates you to the note decay of a sax or a trumpet. You may not like teverb on a guitar but saying you don't need because sax player or trumplet players don't use it...
Charlie Christian was an awesome player but saying you don't need reverb because he didn't used one could actually be said for so many things... For that logic you wouldn't even use humbuckers.
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A +1 for delay. A guitar with delay seems to cut through better than a guitar with reverb. Originally Posted by SOR
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I definately prefer the sound of a guitar with reverb. In fact an electric guitar without a bit of reverb in most cases sounds like it's missing something to me.
But most JAZZ GUITARISTS for the last 50 years have used reverb (correct me if I'm wrong?). So how can it not be part of the jazz lexicon? Originally Posted by kamlapati
Sure CC didn't use it but he generally had a really crappy sound IMO. Not really his fault since he just used the equipment available to him at the time, which wasn't a lot.Last edited by aniss1001; 02-27-2012 at 04:25 PM.
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With all due respect, reverb never had to "be invented", as it is a natural phenomenon associated with sound reflection, either in nature or architecture. In fact, we the human beings, live all our life in reflective environments, so our hearing sense is accustomed to, educated by, dependent of, reverb. Originally Posted by cjm
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Originally Posted by Pierrot
Understand that I was referring to the invention of a reverb tank circuit as a feature of guitar amplifiers rather than natural reverberation.
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Spring reverbs typically found in guitar amps are themselves very antique: from the Pleistocene according to my data... Originally Posted by cjm
Salud!, cjm
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Reverb is like mayonaise to me... I can't eat french fries without it!
What? You eat yours with ketchup?!?! Tsss.......!
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Ah yes that's true, good point. Folks noticed it added a certain nice "dimension" to music or singing in nature and found ways to create it electronically. Originally Posted by Pierrot
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I hope you don't really believe that. On a sax or trumpet you blow until you want the note to end. And blowing longer doesn't extend the end of one note over the beginning of the next. Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
The sustain pedal on the piano OTOH just causes the note to ring over the next. But a sensible piano player would never play a whole tune with the sustain pedal down, which is a close approximation to what a guitarist with reverb does.
Maybe that works for some forms of music, but when you're comping or blowing over complex changes with altered extensions and key changes, seems like that's the last thing you want.
The OP asked who uses reverb: not me, and that's why.
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Yes I was not accurate - instead of "note decay" it should be "note sustain". The reverb pedal can give the illusion of a note lasting longer and approximate your sound to the horns, that was my point.
"Maybe that works for some forms of music, but when you're comping or blowing over complex changes with altered extensions and key changes, seems like that's the last thing you want.
The OP asked who uses reverb: not me, and that's why."
Yes Rosenwinkel, Kreisberg, Metheny, Frisell, etc.. all guys that use reverb because their music is so easy - just triads and one tonal center right? Of course you are an aboslute master of "blowing over complex chord changes with altered extensions and key changes" because you don't use reverb.
Guys stop practicing, sell your reverb pedals instead.
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