Review: Fishman AFX Acoustic Reverb Pedal ($250, street)

www.fishman.com

By Jon Chappell

Before I even plugged in and passed audio through the Fishman AFX Acoustic Reverb, three factors stood out: 1) I was dealing with a very well-made and beautifully designed pedal; 2) for a single-function guitar pedal, it was expensive ($249, street); and 3) this was an effect unlike any I’d encountered before, because it asks that I subscribe to the belief that a purpose-built acoustic guitar reverb is better than or different from a non-instrument-specific reverb.

During the course of living with and using this pedal, I experienced nothing to disabuse me of the factor #1, but I did come to a surprising answer for #3, which was yes. Thinking further, I suspect that Fishman is really on to something here, for the sound coming from the AFX Reverb was versatile, useful, and beautiful. Maybe all effects should be tailor-made for not only the task at hand but the instrument in your hands. After all, we have different pickups and different amplifiers for acoustic instruments, so why not effects? And then, strangely, I adjusted my thinking on issue #2. It’s still expensive all right, but in terms value (the ratio of function to price), the AFX Reverb fares more favorably than the absolute dollar-cost initially indicates. Let’s see what got me re-thinking the whole guitar-effects paradigm.

Overview

The AFX Reverb is from the same lineage as the Aura modeling pedals and is a sibling to two other effects in the AFX line, the AFX Chorus and AFX Delay. If you haven’t seen this series, the design, housing, and aesthetics look like something out of the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog—in other words, award-winning gorgeous. With its brushed aluminum faceplate and flared and beveled knobs, the AFX Reverb’s interface has an almost Scandinavian look, and tweaking its controls is tactile luxury, as it is with the other pedals in Fishman’s modeling line.

The AFX Reverb is designed to be used with either a stereo or mono input, and provides two TS quarter-inch inputs and two TS quarter-inch outputs. The jacks and smart-switching scheme offer plenty of choices: one in/two out (for mono guitar in and stereo reverb out); two in/two out (which allows you to use the AFX Reverb after another stereo pedal, such as a multi-effects processor, and still preserve all the stereo separation applied previously in the chain), and one in/one out (from either left or right input or output—no need to remember “is it left for mono?” or onstage fumbling for mono/mono hook-ups). There’s an input gain switch on the side for optimizing your signal, and a jack for the 9VDC power supply (not included). On the underside is the hinged plastic door for inserting a 9V battery. The unit maintains a constant output level regardless of whether Normal or Boost mode is selected. So switching from, say, an active preamp to a passive magnetic pickup won’t require you to adjust the output level in addition to the input gain setting. In bypass mode the signal is buffered (which this reviewer prefers to “true bypass”) with all-analog circuitry.

Lay of the Land

The front panel has four knobs plus the on/off footswitch and two LEDs: a green one for showing the pedal’s status (active/bypass) and a red one indicating clipping and low battery. One knob is an eight-position rotary selector for the different reverb programs: Studio, Room, Plate, Chamber, Stage, Concert, Cathedral, and Canyon. Noticeably absent is the “spring” selection, letting you know this is for acoustic guitars au natural, not acoustic guitars plugged into electric-guitar combo amps! The remaining three knobs are continuous controllers for Level (effect level, from Off to Max), Tone (Warm to Bright), and Decay Time (Short to Long). Everything on the front panel is well laid out and easy to read, if a little smallish (i.e., you can’t see the knob notches nor read the program settings from a standing position if the pedal is on the floor). As mentioned before, the knobs’ operation is smooth and working them is comfortable and satisfying.

With such a straightforward interface, you’d think there were no hidden features, but the AFX Reverb does offer one: You can use the unit in either “spillover” or “cutoff” mode. If you engage the spillover effect (by powering up the pedal with the footswitch depressed until the LED flashes), you go from reverb to bypass mode with the reverb ringing through the foot press. Subsequent notes are dry, but any vestigial ring-out is still heard in its processed form. Conversely, the normal cutoff mode stops the effect dead, and is good for stop-time sections or final notes where a ring-out would not be appropriate. It’s nice to have the option here, especially in a guitar stompbox.

In Use

The control scheme might be simple, but it’s still well laid out, as far as where the knobs fall. After selecting your program, you’ll want to tweak, and those continuous controllers are conveniently located at the top of the unit. The Level control works in parallel fashion, so the effected signal is mixed with the straight one. With the level maxed out, the ratio is 50/50 wet-to-dry signal. This limits its use in the studio, where there are cases where you’d want just the effected signal, or 100 percent wet.

Because the AFX Reverb is a pedal built for an acoustic guitar, the input circuitry is matched for a preamped signal, the most typical case in an acoustic guitar. This is the best choice, but if you have an unbuffered signal—say, from a magnetic soundhole pickup or a under-saddle piezo without onboard circuitry—it’s advised that you go through an outboard preamp first. I used a Martin J40M with a Baggs Para Acoustic D.I. and an Ibanez Artisan with its built-in preamp system. In both cases the signal—dry and wet—was quiet and strong, with plenty of headroom and clarity.

Sound

The AFXR provides 24-bit A/D-D/A conversion and 32-bit signal processing. Even on the longest tails in the capacious cathedral and cavernous canyon settings, the sound is smooth and grainless, decaying to silence with seamless subtlety. My favorite programs were in the middle of the selections, including Room, Plate, Chamber, Stage, and Concert. I thought I was going to miss “spring,” but the Plate selection gave me ample opportunities for metallic-sounding music. There’s a nice, mid-envelope swell that adds an edge to the sound, especially with the Tone cranked to the Bright side (check out the clip here. Listen to the audio clip where I play strummed chords using a Room setting with the Decay Time about mid-way and the Tone at about 1:00. And to hear the AFX Reverb strut its stuff, here’s a legato passage set on Canyon with a long decay.

I listened to the tails and the front part of the envelope through headphones as well as my nearfield studio monitors, and the AFX Reverb offers some of the best ambient effects I’ve yet to hear on my acoustic guitars. When I ran the same guitar setups through my software plug-ins and other outboard gear, I had a hard time coming up with sounds that were as good or as appropriate as the AFX Reverb’s. This is perhaps the true value of the unit: The AFX Reverb knows there’s an acoustic guitar plugged into it, and the entire sweep of the Decay Time and Tone produce something reasonable and useful. The eight programs themselves don’t offer anything weird and wacky, but that just contributes to the unit’s persona as a serious tool. Even the omission of the spring effect is consistent with that philosophy.

I see this pedal for a high-end acoustic guitar player who needs to control the reverb from the stage, rather than relegating that task to a soundman. The AFX Reverb certainly offers fidelity in signal quality and effect emulation to please even the most fastidious live-sound professional, and for a stripped-down acoustic setup, this pedal is good company for guitars costing several thousand dollars and more.

The Long Tail

One of the reasons the AFXR works so well—and the essence in the way it address issue #3 above—is that the entire sweep of the continuous controllers offers something musically useful. I have to think that Fishman was aware of this when designing a pedal for acoustic guitar: that all the settings in some way must sound like they’re in a guitar context. And they do, even if some of the maximum positions provide sounds I wouldn’t personally use. The point is, someone could use them, as no matter what combination I screwed the dials into, I couldn’t produce anything beyond the pale. It’s like the unit showed good taste even when I chose not to. It’s a serious tool and a class act all around.

Fishman AFX Reverb Pedal Features:

• Reverb Stompbox for Acoustic Guitar
• 8 Effect Presets: Studio, Room, Plate, Chamber, Stage, Concert Hall, Cathedral, Canyon
• Level control
• Tone control
• Decay Time control
• All-analog, buffered bypass path with foot switch control
• 1/4 inch stereo ins and outs
• Input Gain switch adds level boost while maintaining unity gain
• Clip light also shows when the battery is low
• 24 bit A/D/A
• 32-bit processing
• 9Volt battery or adaptor power
• Durable All-metal construction
• Price: $250, street
• Contact: www.fishman.com