Delay vs Reverb Guitar Pedals – Ultimate Guide

Guitarists often find themselves in a dilemma in choosing between delay vs reverb. Once you understand their intricacies, you’ll know exactly when to put them in your signal chain.

Delay vs reverb: both are time-based effects that add flavor and layer to your dry signal. We will help you polish up your knowledge with

Guitarists often find themselves in a dilemma in choosing between delay vs reverb. Once you understand their intricacies, you’ll know exactly when to put them in your signal chain.

“Reverb is a simulation of reflections of sound in a particular space. Whereas delay can be described as a copy of the signal repeated at a certain period of time.”

---

If you’re anything like me, you grew up listening to your parents playing U2, The Police, and other ‘80s bands every weekend. I was captivated by the rich, textural sounds I heard coming out of the speakers, which were so different than the in-your-face sounds of my favorite band, the very modern, in-your-face sounding, Foo Fighters. And thus began my infatuation with both reverb and delay, two very different but inspiring guitar effects.

It’s actually very common for people to confuse reverb vs delay and not understand their relationship to the best delay reverb pedals. This is especially the case among new guitar players and pedal enthusiasts. Often, they are used together, meaning you can easily associate them with each other. For some, this leads to the two effects being blended into one desired tone. But don’t be fooled, reverb and delay are two separate guitar effects. Let’s dig into the specific differences.

Reverb vs Delay Defined

What Is Reverb?

Reverb is the natural, mechanical, or digital result of a loud sound bouncing off of the walls back to the listener. This creates a short echo that can also sound a bit like sustain.

This effect dates back to the invention of musical performance, as sound would reflect off the walls of grand concert halls or a small room. To craft the reflections, they would use certain materials to achieve the sound. It’s often a very expensive process. This required acousticians to drape their halls with curtains and apply some paddings to reduce the long sustain of reflective surfaces.

Fast forward to today, we have the luxury of putting those principles through the use of circuits and computation. In addition, we have music production plugins as well. When it comes to guitar effects and pedals, we have manipulated this sound and exaggerated it to shape our instrument in many ways.

Reverb is often best described as a way to make your guitar sound more full or bigger sounding. This effect is also often built-in to amplifiers and can be considered an “always on” pedal for some players.

Some of the most common reverbs are:

• Spring reverb: Originally achieved by running a signal through a spring. It’s often used in psychedelic, surf rock, and rock music.
• Room Reverb: Mimics the small to medium acoustic spaces. Common in acoustic, folk, jazz, and blues genres.
• Plate reverb: Done by running a signal through metal plates. It has a metallic, dark tonal quality heavily used in rock, pop, and soul genres.
• Hall Reverb: Simulates the space of large concert halls and cathedrals. Often heard in ambient, post-rock, cinematic, metal, and shoegaze.

What is Delay?

Delay, on the other hand, is an audio effect where your guitar signal is recorded, and then these sound waves are played back after an amount of time. Delay times vary drastically and can be a quick echo, sort of like a reverb, or the delayed signal can be repeated a few seconds after the original note is picked.

Delay often has other effects added on top of these repeats. Sometimes, it is modulation, sometimes oscillation, but more often, it is changes in volume. This allows for awesome tones that ring out and fade away. Players often use the delay to fill space, create a sense of ambiance, and layer sounds. Contrary to reverb, delay isn’t considered “always on” for most players and is used for more specific purposes throughout a song. They are also utilized as stand-ins in creating a very big and ambient sound without using “too much reverb.”

Some of the most common and basic delay types are:

• Analog Delay: Warm, dark, and organic; suited for blues, classic rock, and indie.
• Digital Delay: Clear, precise, and versatile; used in pop, metal, and progressive rock.
• Tape Delay: Vintage, lo-fi, and textured; popular in psych rock, dub, and experimental music.
• Slapback Delay: Has a very short delay time, is punchy, and immediate; perfect for rockabilly, country, and punk.

Where Delay vs Reverb Overlap

In a textbook, reverb and delay are called time-based effects. Their major difference relies on the time it takes for the individual reflections to happen. A reverb is what I could describe as packed reflections in a short amount of time. The initial sound of the reflections happens immediately.

Delays are more spaced out and are often synced with the tempo. You achieve natural reverb in a smaller room. But as you go up in scale, delay will happen naturally. Singing in a cathedral versus screaming on top of the Grand Canyon would yield different sounds. Consequently, this is why some people would opt for delay reverb pedals.

Versatility vs Diversity

Another key difference between reverb and delay is the controls on each pedal, as well as the number of variations on each effect. Delay is best known for having 3 controls (time, feedback, mix/level) that provide a ton of sonic versatility. You’ll have control over the number of repeats you hear. A smaller number would be something like slapback delay, a sound that repeats only once or twice in quick succession. This is a popular technique for rockabilly style and sometimes country music as well.

Arguably more iconic is the use of many repeats, which is a sound that The Edge from U2 popularized in songs like “Where The Streets Have No Name”. In addition to repeated sounds (also called regeneration), you’ll find a control for the delay speed or time, which shapes how quickly or slowly the pedal will repeat the audio signal. This can be from milliseconds to seconds after you hit a note or chord. Much of the best delay pedal’s sound comes from using this control in combination with the regeneration control, letting you dial in a wide variety of sounds with only two knobs. Lastly, you’re likely to see a level or volume knob, which controls the volume of the effect. This means you can pick how loud you want the delayed signal to be in reference to your original input signal. Oftentimes, this is set to be a bit quieter so that players get the sound of notes layered on top of each other.

Reverb effects get way more diverse than the versatile delay controls and sounds. There are several types of reverb for guitar and bass. In fact, I could have written a whole article on just the reverb settings found on my Boss RV-6 reverb pedal! Spring reverb is one of the most beloved and well-known variants, and got its start in old Fender amps. Fender would install a tank with a spring in it, whose vibrations would mimic the sound of the guitar amp bouncing off of the walls. When this spring setting is pushed to its limits, you get a sound called “drip reverb” which is an essential ingredient to surf guitar music. “Hall Reverb” is another popular take on the effect, which instead focuses on capturing the sound of a guitar resonating throughout a huge concert hall and slowly fading out. My personal favorite is shimmer reverb, which adds an almost synth-like crescendo of sound in the background of your playing. Check out the examples of those three below!

Reverb or Delay Pedal? Where To Put These Pedals In Your Signal Chain

Do you put delay before or after reverb? While many guitarists like me don’t care much for signal chain specifics, there are some general rules to follow when running these pedals into your amp. A delay pedal should be the last pedal on your pedalboard, unless you have a loop pedal, then delay should be second to last!

For reference, the first one in your signal chain is what your guitar cable runs into, while the last has a cable running into your amplifier. This is because you want delay to generally repeat all the sounds that come before it on your signal. If you have a drive and a chorus pedal running, you want to repeat that tone. If the chorus is after the delay, you will add a chorus on top of the delayed signal. Some experimentalists may enjoy messing around with that idea, but most stick to this basic format.

Reverb generally goes right before your delay, towards the end of your signal chain. Some will place it behind their delay pedal, but it doesn’t really matter all that much, as both work together to create ambiance and textural space. If your amp has an FX loop – delay and reverb can certainly run into it if you want a real pristine delay. This means no interference or buffering from your other pedals to get in the way of your pedal’s natural tone. One big rule to remember, though, is never to put reverb before overdrive, distortion, or fuzz. You’ll thank me later, it just doesn’t sound good at all.

Reverb vs Delay Final Thoughts

But guess what? Rules were meant to be broken! Delay or reverb first will ultimately depend on the sound that you want to achieve. These are two of my favorite effects, and I consider them incredibly inspirational. Grab a reverb and delay, and figure out how they work for you and your musical goals. I’m sure someone will run a distortion right after reverb and create some type of sweet, sonic madness on the next lo-fi indie hit. These are two very different pedals that can work together to do a lot of the same things. They make your guitar sound bigger and thicker and give a three-dimensional, spacey feel to your tone.

Delay and Reverb Pedal Buying Guides

To help you find the best reverb and delay pedals for your musical style, take a look at these Gearank Guides:

• The Best Delay Pedals – Analog & Digital
• The Best Reverb Pedals + Delay Reverb Combos