Boss RV-3 Reverb/Delay Pedal

I had this pedal for quite a while and loved every minute of it.  I’ve had a fair few Boss pedals during my tenure and they have always impressed me for their price point to sound quality ratio (although some of their effects are dramatically better than others).  Although this pedal is discontinued, you can usually find them on the used market for around $140 if they are in good condition.  I’ve heard of people getting lucky and finding them for much lower than that though.

FEATURES:

This pedal has four knobs, a wet/drive knob labeled BALANCE, a TONE knob that also acts as a feedback knob depending on the setting, a Reverb/Delay time knob and an 11-position rotary switch to change the reverb or delay setting that the pedal is producing.  The rotary knob breaks down like this:

01> DELAY (32-125ms)

02> DELAY (125-500ms)

03> DELAY (500-2000ms)

04> DELAY & REVERB (ROOM 1) |

05> DELAY & REVERB (ROOM 2) |--All with 32 - 1000ms of Delay time

06> DELAY & REVERB (HALL) |

07> DELAY & REVERB (PLATE) |

08> REVERB (ROOM 1)

09> REVERB (ROOM 2)

10> REVERB (HALL)

11> REVERB (PLATE)

This is really neat because you essentially get two pedals in one.  

CONSTRUCTION:  

It is made by BOSS and their name has pretty much become synonymous with “tough.”  In fact the reason most people (including professionals mind you) love BOSS is their unwavering reliability.  Over the years, they have become the standard by which all other pedals come to be judged (at least construction wise).

TONE:

At first the delays on this pedal didn’t really knock my socks off.  Pretty much standard boiler plate, I guess.  Maybe it was because the delay was digital (which can be a hard barrier to overcome for most tone purists), or because I bought this pedal specifically for use as a reverb, but I never really used the delays on this pedal.  I think the biggest stumbling block in that sense was that I pretty much have to have tap-tempo for my delays....I just do.  I wish I didn’t, as there are a lot of really cool delays that I want to try (namely the Malekko 616 and Echo600 Dark).

I mainly used this reverb on the HALL setting (rotary number 10) with the reverb time just past noon (closer to one o’clock) and the feedback knob around eleven o’clock.  This setting is lush, full and big.  I used it with my volume pedal for chordal swells and general epic-ness.  This setting isn't necessarily good for that quick spring reverb sound that is almost like a slap-back tone, but honestly, who cares? EPIC = WIN.

I've heard that a lot of guitar and bass players prefer this pedal to the newer RV-5.  I haven't had both of these pedals at the same to compare them to each other, but I definitely love how lush and full sounding the reverbs were on the RV-3.  I guess one of the structural improvements of the RV-5 is that it has stereo inputs and stereo outputs, while the RV-3 only has stereo outputs.

This pedal sounds rad.  I really liked the fact that this pedal has a wet / dry blend knob and that you can really dial the amount of un-effected signal.  One thing that I wish would be on more reverbs and delays is not just a blend knob, but also a level knob, so that you can boost the overall signal.  That would be nice.  Sometimes it seems that signal just disappears.  The only reason I sold this pedal was because my board real-estate is always at a premium and it took up a little too much space for me to be comfortable with. Great sounding reverb though, I would own another one in a heart beat.