Here ya go folks, the Dr. Scientist Radical Red (mini) Reverberator!
Dr. Scientist is one cooky, crazy effects company from our friends in the North. Canada, Eh? (I’m sorry I had to.) This is another company that puts out some seriously boutique pedals (with prices to match) and a super fun company visual presence. I’ve heard a few different pedals from this company live (usually on guitar) and they have always sounded great (especially the Sunny Day Delay). My attention was drawn to the Radical Red Reverberator while I was on my quest to find a killer sounding reverb that took up less space than my Boss RV-3 (always an issue). I think that it suits that role nicely.
Full description and mp3 samples are available on Dr. Scientist’s website:
CONSTRUCTION:
One word: boutique. This pedal is pretty synonymous with this term. High quality build materials, layout true bypass switching and and sturdy enclosures. These pedals were originally in a different sized enclosure, closer to the sized aluminum enclosure that Electro-Harmonix uses on their XO series pedals. Luckily for all of us, Dr. Scientist figured out a way to cram all of that reverb-y goodness into an MXR micro sized enclosure with the in and out jacks on the top of the pedal (along with the power jack, which is “Boss” style tip negative). All of this added together makes for one ridiculously small pedal. The reverberator will not run off of batteries (yay earth!) and does NOT like to be daisy chained, although an isolated power supply such as the VooDoo Labs Pedal Power 2+ will work just fine.Of course, when you start talking ridiculously small pedal enclosures, you also have to include small spaces. What I mean is that one thing that I have noticed with this pedal is that you have to be careful (or at least aware) of the direction and position of the in and out jacks with the power jack also being right next to them. If you are using right-angled 1/4” cables that are coming in from the side (diagonally or whatever) things can get really tight. Not really an issue considering how much space the mini- reverberator takes up, but I just thought I’d bring it up.
GRAPHICS:
If I’m not mistaken, these pedals are hand painted by one Mrs. Dr. Scientist and she does a terrific job with them! They come in a variety of different themes, mine is the black and yellow one shown, but there are many others. The blood one was a close second choice. Mrs. Dr. Scientist has also been known to do custom graphics from time to time. My favorite so far being the CosmiChorus with a Kirby theme. I’m not sure if that costs extra though...just ask Dr. Scientist! I didn’t want to wait for mine to get here, so I ordered mine from either tonefactor.com or analoguehaven.com, I can’t remember which one right now, but both stores are killer. I’m sure if you contacted Dr. Scientist directly, a graphic change wouldn’t be a problem.
TONE:
Lush. The controls are pretty straight forward with a Mix knob (a wet/dry blend) a volume knob (with up to 20dB of boost) a Slow/Fast rate switch and a nine position rotary switch. The volume knob is so awesome that I wonder why more reverb/delay units do not have them. Having a master volume control helps bring everything up in the mix (definitely needed with reverb) and lets you be heard (definitely needed in my band.......what was that?!? You’ll have to speak up! I CAN’T HEAR YOOOUUUU!!!).The Reverberator hosts two Hall reverbs, three Room reverbs, three Plate reverbs and a Rotary (Leslie Speaker) emulator setting (neat). All of the different settings on the rotary knob are conveniently labeled by a letter an number (H1 for the first Hall setting, nice, huh?). Also, a neat side-effect of the design of this pedal is that when the pedal is on, and you change the rate of decay there is a “swoosh” or like a little burst of reverb that is perfectly normal, and totally awesome. No, your pedal isn’t broken.... “this means it is please with you and can be considered a blessing from the Gods of Reverb, watching from upon high. (They are in your house and they are watching you.)”
My favorite settings for bass are the second Hall reverb with the rate switch in the “slow” or long decay position and the third Room reverb with the switch in the fast / shorter decay setting. I like to use them for big reverb filled volume swells with lots of chords and/or fuzz. The rotary speaker emulator is also really neat sounding. I almost wish this was a stereo pedal so that I could hear the rotary ping pong back and forth....but I guess that would defeat the purpose of getting the smallest reverb pedal I could find.
One really cool thing about this pedal is when you set the mix knob to completely dry it acts as a totally clean boost. Awesome. KloBber YouR TuBEZ!
Be sure to check out the Radical Red (mini) Reverberator as well as all of the other Dr. Scientist pedals on their website:
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