I have now 3 Hardwire series pedals on my board at the moment. I consider this line of pedals extremely good quality, build and tone for the money. I have been using the RV-7 Reverb model for nearly a year now and it remains a very musically useful vibrant reverb effect. My amp has no built in reverb so I needed a nice reverb to bring that deep long throw trail that is short of a delay and does not take away the essence of the guitar tone. I hate to rate most of my fav pedals as all 10s but I would be faulting the pedal intentionally to not call a 10, a 10.
The Hardwire series of pedals is perhaps the most underrated series of pedals. Each one I have tried delivers a nice full and well featured array of options on a theme. While being a superior line for the less experienced guitarist with budget concerns, the level of performance these pedals offer appeals to a long in the years experienced player like myself. Good is good, name brands be damned. (Not a Boss fan myself.)
The RV-7 Reverb is of course a digital platform circuit and the trueness of digital perhaps attains its greatest value in the arena of delay and reverb effects. Modern tech has improved upon the digital platform quite a bit from my first experiences years past.
Analog has its uses and I am not sure anyone would argue in the matters of delay and reverb, analog colors and does not carry the dynamic range capability of digital. Trade off is of course the often stale, lifeless, “lack of warmth” that is held to digital over analog but is more a matter of the circuit limitations of analog. Running a digital platform these days into a good tube amp, brings one the best of both worlds much less leaps have been made in digital improvements in the tone department.
The Hardwire RV-7 features the Lexicon chip used in the best reverb units to be found. While this is relatively a low priced pedal ($140) the quality of its tone is well beyond that price.
Hardwire pedals are “hard-wired” true bypass, the internal voltage is ramped up to 15v from the 9v supply making for more headroom and in the case of delay and reverb a very nice enhancement of the headroom quality and tracking. Extremely well made and built pedals, one wonders how such quality can be rendered into a pedal priced at $140. I have 3 Hardwire pedals and each has demonstrated its merits as a decent pedal for what it was designed. And I tend to drop pedals like Hollywood relationships. To be quite honest, for my Reverb needs, I have no idea what could possibly come close to out performing this pedal for me to change it out without paying more and having a lot less mode options.
I feel the RV-7 excels as a Reverb pedal, its internal voltage ramp (15v), Lexicon Reverb chip, and true bypass really make it a superb unit, for a mere $100, just a silly good deal. (I actually got mine for $50, on a price misprint, sweet!)
The unit boasts 7 modes of reverb and no matter what you have in mind for a Reverb effect there is little doubt you can find it in here.
Many reverb boxes are one-trick ponies and often mimic a spring reverb, having had some of the better spring reverbs in the past I was looking for something more transparent and studio quality. It can do that in the Spring mode but it is not my cup of tea.
I play a form of heavy fusion ranging from all manner of tones and gain levels, except I do not do the country thing. For me the Plate and Hall reverbs in here do the deal for my sound. Having run through them, each has its benefits and I can see how each could be of use to the well optioned guitarist who does not like to be stuck in a rut.
I find the quality of the reverbs to be deep, vibrant when not intentionally dampened, full and musical leaving the overall tone of the guitar untouched verses thinning the tone and washing out the gain quality as some units cause and makes for many not liking reverb effects.
If you have ever used a deep long throw canyon or hall effect on your leads, you know how cool this can sound and gives you that sensation of using a delay, without losing the tone in repeats. This unit does that exceptionally well. I find the Plate quality to be on par with units costing much more.
7 modes: Modulated, Reverse, Gated, Plate, Spring, Room, Hall
ROOM - fast decaying reverb; great for a touch of ambience.
PLATE - renowned studio reverb found on classic recordings.4
REVERSE - reverb in reverse; quietly crescendos to full volume.
MODULATED - lush modulating reverb ideal for chords.
GATED - unique reverb with abrupt decay; good for percussive playing.
HALL - large encompassing reverb with warm decay.
SPRING - classic “surf” reverb; great for Rockabilly too!
Level, Liveliness, and Decay
Liveliness: Controls the amount of high frequency response in the Reverb’s effect signal.
Decay: Controls the length of time it takes for the Reverb to fade out.
Variant ability of these controls on each mode makes for an extreme level of diversify, which surely can cover any imagined use of reverb effect.
Powered by std 9v supply, 75mA draw, internal voltage ramp to 15v.
Battery access is rather unique (I do not use them myself but...) push in one side of the pedal switch pin and remove the pad, clicks back into place. High end metal construction, truly one of the best made pedals I have seen.
Internal option switch “Tails Switch” (under the footswitch pad) selects true bypass or buffered output which allows the trailing of effect when switch off verses true bypass immediate cutoff.
Forgot to mention: all of the Hardwire modulation pedals have full stereo in/out. ALSO why LEXICON and claim to the Lexicon chip? Harmon Audio owns both Lexicon and Hardwire (Digitech) lines hence they use the same Lexicon chip in the Hardwire Reverb pedal as their Lexicon rack units.
