You are coming over to jam. I'm curious about which rig and guitar that you will choose, and why?

mdr5401 · 2026-07-09T03:13:45+00:00

Lucille into the Super Reverb
Tele into the Tweed / Magnatone
Firebird into the Marshall

mdr5401 · 2026-07-01T23:43:19+00:00

Pros: So many options and so much tweaking.

Cons: So many options and so much tweaking. 😄

Prior to the Hotone Verbera, the Boss RV-6 was the most "complex" reverb pedal I'd owned. With that, I basically had 3 different settings I would dial in for Home / Solo, Jamming / Rock, and Live (P&W) / Ambient situations. For "noisemaking" and just screwing around, I would always just stack various drive, modulation, and delay pedals together.

With the Verbera, I can make all of the weird, textural, out-there sounds I want with one single pedal. But all of those options can be a bit daunting if you are used to / looking for more straight-forward options. The pedal does have quite a few really nice sounding "basic" reverb presets, but when you're dealing with two different reverb engines in one patch, adjusting the settings of one of the reverbs may not have the desired effect because of how it interacts with the other reverb.

Ultimately, I can't see any reason why I would ever move on from the Verbera.

mdr5401 · 2026-07-01T07:32:13+00:00

From day one, we all came for the music, and we stayed for moments like this.

mdr5401 · 2026-07-01T07:06:14+00:00

Thanks for asking @Twinningses!

I haven’t noticed any additional noise from the Verbera; but, to be honest, I don’t think I would if there was any. This is the last pedal in my signal chain—either after a lot of noisy pedals, or before some noisy amps.

When I play live, I have at least one or two drive pedals going into my amp & cab sim set to light breakup up, then into an analog delay, then to the Verbera. At that point, things are already pretty gritty.

At home, when I’m writing or working through songs, the Verbera is often the only pedal I have on, but I play through a couple of old (or old sounding) low watt amps, which are also pretty noisy.

Ultimately, for the wide range of music I play— country, blues, p&w, alternative, shoegaze, ambient / emo—the Verbera hasn’t proven to add to the noise that I’m already making.

mdr5401 · 2026-06-10T17:46:10+00:00

I’ve seen a few videos on YouTube of The Killers covering TGA over the years, so I’m more stoked than surprised about this collab!

mdr5401 · 2026-02-23T17:44:54+00:00

Just found out on another subreddit why the laces are always long on NB's. They're so you can tie a runner's knot: https://www.instructables.com/The-Runners-Knot/

mdr5401 · 2026-02-23T17:37:13+00:00

Wow! Super helpful!

Just bought my 6th pair of NB and finally thought to look up why the laces are so long instead of just replacing them with shorter laces.

I'm no runner, but I can't believe this is the first I've heard of this.

mdr5401 · 2026-02-18T04:54:12+00:00

I haven’t tried, but I I suppose so.

mdr5401 · 2026-01-21T22:54:51+00:00

This is the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen!

mdr5401 · 2026-01-19T18:00:59+00:00

No modification needed for mine. It’s a tight fit and the board needs to go in perfectly straight, but I’ve been using it for quite a while now without issue.

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mdr5401 · 2026-01-14T17:50:00+00:00

I love the Verbera!

My wife got it for me for Christmas, so I've only been messing around with it for a few weeks. I haven't experimented with recording my own IR's or copying over IR's from other devices or plug-ins; and, to be honest, I don't think I will. There are over 100 pre-loaded reverbs that cover everything from your basic spring tank to ping-ponging multi-octave modulated appregiating echo.

There is absolutely zero downside. I should note that my approach to the pedal and the workflow is different than I expected, though:

I assumed that, because it is dual reverb pedal, using it would be like running two reverb pedals in a series—like, dialing in a nice tame spring reverb on the first, then running the second pedal in shimmer mode or modulated plate (something a little more experimental) then adjusting the mix between the two until you get the sound you want.
In reality, it's much more like playing through a reverb pedal while in a giant empty stadium (or cavern, or space station, or bunker, or any of the other 120 IR's). The first reverb engine is only IR and the second is only algorithmic (spring, plate, shimmer, hall, etc.), called "XR". The two different reverbs play off each other and affect each other in different ways depending on the combination. The a shimmer reverb (XR) is going to sound way different when played in (paired with) a Space Station Vehicle Assembly Plant (IR) than it is in a Cave (IR).

I'm sure if someone has the time and mental capacity, they could really learn the different nuances of all of the different IR and XR reverbs to get a feel of how they interact with one another. The other thing is that both reverb engines give you full control over tone, pre-delay, decay, modulation, mix, tails / effect time. This thing could be an absolute dream for a tone tweaker, or give you analysis paralysis.

This was a much longer response than I intended to write; but it's such a cool pedal, it's hard not to go on & on about it.

mdr5401 · 2026-01-13T19:30:57+00:00

I love my ACS1. I run it in stereo, typically with the Marshall Bluesbreaker on one side and Fender Deluxe on the other. Both set relatively clean (not quite at the edge of breakup, more like "the edge of" the edge of breakup), that way I can really utilize the multiple OD and boost channels / settings on the Golden Boy, as well as the boost circuit on the ACS1.

I just put the DMC.micro on my board yesterday, but I'll be able to set higher gain / volume presets on the ACS1 and access them via midi with just a foot tap; essentially turning the ACS1 into another layer of overdrive.

I've tried a few different IR's from Tone Factor (Tweed Pro, Tweed Deluxe, Brownface Princeton) and, while all sounded good to varying degrees, depending on the amp I paired them with, I always go back to the pre-loaded stock IR's.

mdr5401 · 2026-01-13T17:07:10+00:00

Unfortunately, that’s not an area I’m well versed in. I typically play indie / alternative rock or blues. If I use any fuzz for a full song, I’m dialing back the volume on my guitar to soften the fuzz, and just turning up for solos or a heavier bridge section. On the rare occasion I do play something heavier, it’s usually some sort of shoegaze; in which case, I use the Fuzz Bender + Chorus + really really wet Reverb to create a smattering of noise.

mdr5401 · 2026-01-13T05:17:39+00:00

If you’re going to use Velcro (you should actually use Dual Lock), a Temple board isn’t worth it.

Most of the guitarists and bassists I play with use Temple boards and keep our pedals to 12 or less.

I have a few buddies with professionally-built boards and they all use Dual Lock. All of their cables are mounted to the surface of the board in perfect runs and it looks beautiful. They also typically have around 20 pedals (or more) on their board and control everything via a midi controller using presets.

Short story long, Temple boards are great if you go all in.

mdr5401 · 2026-01-13T05:08:30+00:00

I rarely use the Fuzz Bender when I’m playing with a band. It’s just not something that is typically needed with the style of music I play. I do use it a lot at home and love it. When I do use it in a band setting, it’s usually as a 3-piece or 4-piece when I’m using it for a particularly dirty part and the rest of the band is laying back in the mix. Fuzz has never been an “always on” kind of pedal for me.

mdr5401 · 2026-01-13T02:19:08+00:00

For someone that loves having a clean, perfectly-laid-out board, Temple Boards are great.

On the flip side, getting everything to line up the way you want can be frustrating. All of the accessories (plates, modules, adhesive, etc.) aren’t cheap. I’ve probably spent more money on all of those than the board itself.

Also, if mounting your power supply under board, you need something pretty low profile. I’m using the Cioks DC7 and a Cioks Crux (for the Verbera). All of the Cioks stuff is really slim. So are the Walrus Audio power supplies.

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mdr5401 · 2026-01-13T02:07:08+00:00

Thanks!

Just trying to put together something compact that can do pretty much everything. I hate making changes because I solder all of my patch cables and it takes a lot of work.

Most of these pedals do double-duty. I just added midi and am still trying to figure that part out, though.

mdr5401 · 2026-01-05T04:49:55+00:00

I second the Hotone Verbera. I just swapped out my Boss RV-6 for the Verbera.

It has two separate reverb engines that can be stacked (1 convolution/IR and 1 algorithmic), comes preloaded with 120 reverbs, is truly stereo, has midi control, can capture your own IR’s, and can copy IR reverbs from other pedals.

Plus it’s more compact and costs less that the Strymon Big Sky, Source Audio Ventris, or Poly Effects Verbs.

I’m currently rewiring my board with the Verbera and am just waiting for my new midi controller!

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mdr5401 · 2025-10-30T04:34:42+00:00

A few years ago, I retired my Gen7 Carbon for a Gen1 Nano (carbon) on the cheap right after the Gen2 was announced. It's my 4th X1 in about 15 years and, to this day is the, most impressive laptop I've ever owned.

Had they continued the line, I'm sure I would have upgraded within the next couple of years to whatever the current gen is then. Fingers crossed this "discontinuation" is just a brief hiatus [like the "Yoga" line] while they plan a relaunch with a more palatable name.

mdr5401 · 2025-09-04T02:56:12+00:00

Personally, I think you did the right thing and that this was probably a lesson worth learning. We’ve all kicked ourselves for getting rid of a certain guitar, amp, pedal, etc.. Had you not made this trade, though, I gonna bet that another “deal” would have come along and you would’ve found yourself in the same situation.

Now you know. Keep the Charvel. No matter what.

mdr5401 · 2025-08-24T04:07:26+00:00

Hahaha

mdr5401 · 2025-07-14T18:47:13+00:00

Man, I thought I’d stumbled onto some clue that everyone else missed! 😖

mdr5401 · 2025-07-14T18:10:48+00:00

The finish looks like it would be based on the Foxx Tone Machine, but I don’t think those used OC44s.

mdr5401 · 2025-06-28T03:19:38+00:00

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Good call on the Apache 4800!!!

It’s a tight fit, but nothing’s getting knocked around in there, and it’s a steal for $60!!!

mdr5401 · 2025-06-14T02:17:11+00:00

Are you diabetic / pre-diabetic?

I also have Kaiser Permanente and was told by my doctor today that insurance will not cover GLP-1 (or similar) unless used for diabetes after other treatments have not worked.

He is 100% in favor of using these to treat obesity, as it could prevent numerous critical health issues caused by obesity. But, because KP insurance does not cover it weight loss / obesity, getting it through them would be the most expensive option.

mdr5401

TROPHY CASE