Top Unconventional Reverb tricks

The reason why so many people want to learn playing the guitar is because at some point or another in our lives, we become infatuated with guitar legends like Freddie Mercury and Eric Clapton.

Freddie mercury - Source: queenphotos.wordpress.com

Not only we become infatuated with their posture and coolness while they play the guitar, but the way they can create such beautiful sound with only a little tweaking of a few strings also fascinates us.

But little did we know at that point that a lot of that magnificent sound was created with the help of various reverbs.

So here’s what you need to do be an awesome guitarist. You need to know how to play the guitar (that is pretty obvious) and you need to have some awesome reverb tricks up your sleeve. With this deadly combination, nothing can stop you from reaching your dream.

Hence, in this article, we are going to let you know about some extraordinary reverb tricks you can use to wow the audiences.

The Yngwie

This trick is super easy, and perfect for you if you have just started playing around with reverb pedals. To create this, you need your guitar, really long cables, an amplifier (any amp will do) and a distortion reverb.

Turn your amp up, crank up the gain knob on your distortion pedal, and make sure you have a decent distance between your mike and other accessories.

That’s it. You’re just one step away from getting the smoothest treble you can think of. The farther away you are from the amps, the less treble you’ll pick up, and you’ll get a glorious depth.

What is the cheaper way for getting this extraordinary sound (unless your neighbors call the police)? So go ahead and try this!

Fender Yngwie Malmsteen Overdrive - Source: reverb.com

The Industrial Keyboard Pad

Suppose you’re dying to create a distinctive sound that reminds everyone of a keyboard pad. But the thing is, you do not own a keyboard pad or MIDI. What do you do? You try this simple trick.

Dial up you reverb sound to be almost 2 seconds long. Set the mix in such a way that your sound is one hundred percent effected. Hold down any root not along with its octave, and strum as fast as you can.

You will get a distant, forlorn sound which is not exactly keyboard like, but certainly not guitar like either. Mix and match to create the perfect effect for the song you are going to play.

Experiment with your pre delay time and reverb length. It might take some time, but you will get there.

Want to enhance the effect even more? Try this: take a more conventional stereo reverb and feed your signal to it. Keep the time short. You will love the results.

Death by Audio Reverberation Machine - Source: proguitarshop.com

The Not-Quite-Delay

This one was inspired by pop singers who use some very interesting tricks to thicken up their voice while maintaining their original, breathy tone. Wouldn’t it be interesting to use those same tricks on the sound of a guitar?

Here’s how you do it- keep the reverb time very short. Less than 100ms will work more than fine, but just to be completely safe, keep it around 70-80 ms. Now it is time to set the reverb level- set it on around 70% of the original note’s volume.

Now, make sure to set the pre-delay time longer than usual. Any number between forty and eighty ms should suffice.

The result will amaze you. You will get an effect that somehow reminds you of a slapback delay, but the notes will be thicker and there won’t be those crisp attacks.

This is a fantastic way to thicken up the sound of your guitar in case it is too thin for your taste, but because you are not getting rid of your original note, all the fine details will be there to make your experience even more amazing.

If you are the lead guitarist, your power chords will get some additional punch and a series of some extraordinary harmonic overtone will be brought out if you use this trick. But that is not the end of it, this trick creates some kind of auditory illusion which will make your speed picking-seem even speedier.

Playing the guitar is fun. It is even more fun if you know how to play around with tricks and tones. All the great guitarists to ever walk this blue planet had one thing common in them- they loved music, and they loved experiments.

No one gets extraordinary results if they never step out of the boundary. Playing by the rules gets you nowhere. So it is time you pick up your guitar and start experimenting with the sounds.

We will be right here to provide you with tricks and motivations.
Best of luck, the next Eric Clapton!

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