Grateful Dead Music Forum

What do folks do to get the wonderful reverb sound that Garcia had in the 80's and 90's? I've got good gear and a good guitar. The reverb is the most elusive thing for me. His reverb made the notes just kind of float out there (and I'm not confusing that with the delay). Thank you for any suggestions.

Bruce
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The reverb sound you hear is an ADA FX2. Jerry used it at that time. Another thing to consider is the PA, and whether or not they had reverb or effects post stage added to the overall sound?

I use the reverb provided with my SMS Classic preamp, and love it. I turn it up to around 1pm, and it is very pleasant.

I'm pretty sure Jerry used a very well tweaked reverb in the twin preamp section all the way until 1991.

http://www.wald-electronics.com/gear_di ... story.html

When I first started down the road to Jerry tone, I initially thought I was trying to get that Jerry reverb sound.
I know this isn't what the OP wants to hear, but what I soon learned is that no reverb would get me there. To get that expansiveness of big Jerry sweet reverb, I learned (the hard way) that I needed in addition to the right reverb, the right pickups. And speakers. And preamp. And power amp. And nut. And action. And a few other things. Without all those ingredients I was pissing in the wind.
It is one of those painful deals where the greater something is, the harder it is to attain. And Jerry's reverb sound is pretty damned great.

Searing75 wrote:The reverb sound you hear is an ADA FX2. Jerry used it at that time. Another thing to consider is the PA, and whether or not they had reverb or effects post stage added to the overall sound?

The ADA FX2 was digital delay, chorus and flanger. No reverb on there.

He switched to the Real Tube Reverb when the Groove Tubes Trio preamp replaced the Twin Reverb heads.

For a really nice digital reverb pedal, try the Mr. Black Eterna reverb. It has that gimmicky "shimmer" effect on it, but if you turn that feature off, you have a really great sounding and very adjustable spring reverb effect using the decay knob, from short to very long.

Here's a sample without any shimmer: http://www.mrblack.jackdeville.com/audio/soft-65.mp3

https://www.mrblackpedals.com/products/eterna

A decent sounding spring reverb or spring reverb pedal will get you there. A lot of it has to do with pick attack and how you use that to make the reverb jump out or rest under your notes.

playingdead wrote:

Searing75 wrote:The reverb sound you hear is an ADA FX2. Jerry used it at that time. Another thing to consider is the PA, and whether or not they had reverb or effects post stage added to the overall sound?

The ADA FX2 was digital delay, chorus and flanger. No reverb on there.

He switched to the Real Tube Reverb when the Groove Tubes Trio preamp replaced the Twin Reverb heads.

For a really nice digital reverb pedal, try the Mr. Black Eterna reverb. It has that gimmicky "shimmer" effect on it, but if you turn that feature off, you have a really great sounding and very adjustable spring reverb effect using the decay knob, from short to very long.

Here's a sample without any shimmer: http://www.mrblack.jackdeville.com/audio/soft-65.mp3

https://www.mrblackpedals.com/products/eterna

Man O' man! I am going senile at 41!!! I knew this, and yet I posted this morning about it having reverb??? This kind of thing has been happening more and more as of late. Scary!