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Best Reverb Pedals with Modulation or Fuzz/Distortion

Updated on April 28, 2023

Defining “Hybrid Reverb Pedals”

In the recent past, our blog covered in-depth the best reverb pedals available on the market, organizing them in several categories: Best Spring Reverbs, Best Multi-Mode Reverbs, Best Ambient “Shoegazer” Reverbs and gathered all these articles in this Best Reverb Pedals article.

However, some of the best reverb stompboxes out there are not “pure” reverb circuits but feature other effects that are often used with it – without necessarily being a “do-it-all” reverb workstation like the Strymon Big Sky.

For example, when you think of vintage ambiance, it’s impossible not to conjure up thoughts of spring reverb combined with tremolo, vibrato or fuzz, and some guitar pedals specialize in recreating those sounds.

The Best Pedals with Modulation and Distortion/Fuzz

If you lust for those classic modulated and dirt-encrusted reverb tones or are looking for something edgier than a clean reverb, the lists below should help you. Here you’ll find reverb mixed with tremolo and other forms of low-frequency modulation, and with old-school fuzz, distortion and EQ filtering that lets you emphasize bass or treble frequencies. While many of the entries here feature both classic and modern styles of reverb, a few are satisfyingly spartan, allowing you to conjure up vintage ambiance by turning just a few knobs.

Reverb Pedals with Tremolo

This combo is too classic to be called “hybrid,” we have a dedicated article for it here: Best Reverb Pedals with Tremolo.

Reverb Pedals with Modulation

Reverb in tandem with vibrato remains a popular way to emulate the classic late-’60s and early’70s sounds of swirling Leslie rotary speaker tones. In delay pedals, modulation is often used to mimic the irregularities of the old tape echoes but can add a pleasant character to reverb as well. The pedals in this list marry these two effects.

As always, a click/tap on the pedal’s thumbnail will open a video.

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Strymon Cloudburst
An ambient reverb effect followed by a particular effect that goes beyond modulation (referred to as an “Ensemble engine”) that continuously analyzes different frequency bands of your signal, generating upper harmonic partials of what it finds in each frequency band. A 3-way toggle switch lets you set the effect to Off, Mezzo Piano or Forte, with the latter being more intense. A Mod knob increases the effect’s actual modulation.

Old Blood Noise Endeavours Procession
A haunting and creative reverb featuring three modulation settings: Flange, Filter and Tremolo). Hold switch is a momentary footswitch that when pressed, will lock in whatever note is being played through the reverb effect. The Mix and Reverb knobs control the mix of dry/wet signal and the decay of the reverb, respectively, while Speed and Depth control the modulation.

JHS Hall Reverb
An affordable and simple take on the ambient, modulated reverb. The amount and size of the reverb can be controlled through the Verb and Decay knobs, while the effect can be darkened via the Dampen one. The modulation can be turned on and off through a toggle switch.

Vongon Ultrasheer
Based on the 1970s Lexicon 224, this is a stereo reverb and pitch vibrato with trails and separate footswitches for each effect. Two toggle switches trigger random LFO for the vibrato (rather than the regular cyclic sine waveform) and trails for the reverb. A third one on the top switches the order of the effects. The vibrato can be edited through two simple knobs for Rate and Depth, while the Reverb features Mix, Decay and Brightness controls.

EarthQuaker Transmisser
The Transmisser is a modulated reverb with an extra-long decay fed to a highly resonant filter. It does not do subtle, but if you’re looking for warm modulated reverb, look here. There are controls for Decay, Darkness (tone of the reverberated signal), Freq (frequency of the resonant filter), Rate (modulation speed) and Mix (blend). The key here is the Warp control, a slew control that makes the filter deeper and more resonant, the decay longer and the modulation wider as you turn it up. An Expression input lets you ride the Warp with your foot.

Big Ear Albie
It delivers a “less is more” approach to reverb by limiting the control knobs to one (Blend) but expanding the sonic palette through eight modes, selectable through the Effect knob. No editing of the parameters is allowed. Built in collaboration with Joe McCaffrey (of Nightmare of You), recreates the jangly, shimmering, modulated sounds of the Post Punk music of the ‘70s & ‘80s.

Keeley Vibe-O-Verb
Featuring a four-knob interface with controls for Depth, Rate, Blend and Decay, the Vibe-O-Verb combines reverb with modulation to let you summon uncommonly deep sounds that are fresh,  yet recall the vintage tones of yesteryear. The pedal offers three modes: Harmonic, Vibrato and Phaser reverb. Harmonic is like a vintage Fender brownface amp, delivering choppy waves of reverb-drenched tremolo. The Vibrato mode creates everything from mild chorus to spacey bayou tones, making it perfect for modern psychedelic rock, while the Phaser modulated reverb gives the illusion of the reflecting wall morphing from carpet to wood, then to steel and then glass and back again. The Vibe-O-Verb is a wild way to put a new spin on vintage tones.

Mr. Black SuperMoon
With a reverb tail lasting from 300ms to more than 30 seconds, SuperMoon has a perpetually deep ambience. The pedal evokes the sense that your sound is drifting through the galaxy as millions of microscopic echoes converge into a fluid dark matter, whose trajectory is then warped by the gravity of orbiting planets. Controls consist of Reverb (mix), Sway (modulation) and Decay (length of reverb tail), making it easy to dial in exactly what you need in seconds.

Caline Mariana
Super-affordable, it offers seven different types of modulated reverbs (or delays), and three knobs that control different parameters depending on the selected mode. The modes include modulated reverbs with different types of modulation, some with adjustable EQ, and also a pitch-based modulated reverb All the knob functions are spelled directly on the pedal’s case.

MOOER Modverb
An affordable mini-pedal that offers Flanger, Vibrato or Phaser with a clean digital reverb. Tap tempo button allows to quickly dial in the modulation speed. Holding down the footswitch activates frozen mode causing sustained feedback.

AC Noises AMA
An ambient reverb followed by a switchable Bitcrusher (Crush toggle) and a modulation section (OSC knob). The Reverb knob balances both the amount of reverb and the length of the decay. The musical bit crusher gets things grainy and gently noisy, with knobs for Resolution (bit depth) and Sample Rate. A RAMP footswitch speeds up the OSC settings.

Pladask Elektrisk Draume
A reverb pedal built on the premise that digital reverb is not supposed to recreate the sound of a space, but should be a creative effect in itself, free from real-life emulation constraints. Includes controls for tremolo, vibrato, saturation, and sample rate (for lo-fi/pitch variations), all placed AFTER the reverb. The left footswitch sets the Decay to maximum, triggering momentary swells.

SolidGoldFX Ether
A cavernous, ambient reverb followed by a 3 mode modulation circuit (Vibrato, Tremolo and Harmonic Tremolo). The reverb has controls for Level, Decay, and Color, and an optional Shimmer mode that – in this pedal – sounds less angelic and slightly more dissonant, devolving with the reverb’s decay. The modulation can follow thre LFO shapes: Sawtooth, Sine and Special.

Hungry Robot Borderland
A complex, creative reverb pedal with a modulation section controllable via Tap Tempo and a resonant low pass filter. The modulation modes include vibrato/chorus, tremolo, three octave tremolo, and a mode that crossfades between a processed signal an octave up from the input signal. An internal dip switch allows the algorithm to be changed from reverb to delay!

Champion Leccy The Skitter
A reverb pedal with a unique routing section that lets you apply modulation either to the wet or to the clean signal only. It features 8 LFO tremolo waves. Space and Time knobs controlling, its depth and speed. The reverb is fixed in size but features a three-way toggle switch that can tame its high end for warmer, “vintagey” tones.

Lichtlaerm Audio Untiefe
A hand-made modulated reverb with 3 modes: PHASE (Large Room + Mu-Tron-style phaser), SHIVER, (alarge plate with tremolo) and SIREN (based on the shoegazer Soft Focus patch). Rate+Depth knobs control the modulation, Decay+Dampen the reverb, Mix+Level the effect blend and output. The right footswitch can do momentary effect applied to feedback (swells), rate or decay. It also has an FX loop and ins for Exp and Ramp.

Hungry Robot The Starlite V2
Features an atmospheric, present reverb with self-oscillation capabilities and thick, pulsating modulation whose speed can be set via Tap Tempo. V2 incorporates a fully redesigned LFO section with smoother modulation and quieter operation as well as the addition of a ramp-up/ramp-down knob.

Haunted Labs Dark Aura
A streamlined ambient modulated reverb delivering anything from short, subtle reverb to drawn-out, spacious and washed out ones. The knobs are for Mix, Decay and Evolve, which controls the amount of modulation. Cranking this knob creates spooky, almost shimmer-like effects.

Big Ear Elle
A three-knob modulated reverb that can cover everything from a spring-esque slap-back to a full-on shimmering, ringing, and huge-sounding hall reverb. With the “DWELL” knob all the way up it will ring out infinitely.

Holy Island Audio Tides
An atmospheric pedal featuring a reverb followed by two gain stages, creating over-the-top fuzzy walls of sound sprinkled with interesting harmonics and sonic artifacts. The momentary footswitch makes the pedal self-oscillate, feeding the reverb signal into itself. An effect loop lets you place any effect into your reverberated signal.

Velouria FX Nebula
A rather obscure but intriguing reverb + modulation pedal from Brazil. It includes knobs for Pre-Delay, Gain, Tone, Feedback, Recycle, Chaos and a Dry Kill switch. The Chaos knob is linked to the left footswitch and gets the effect to self-oscillate.

Lastgasp Art Laboratories Transroom
A warm, stereo reverb with modulation based on an (analog) BBD chip, it can also deliver rich multi-tap chorus and winding vibrato sounds. An EXP jack allows external control of the “D.TIME” (length). Modulation has controls for rate and depth.

Adventure Audio Whateverb V2
The Whateverb provides three usable and unique reverb options. It has modes for This (chorus/flange reverb with depth and rate controls for the modulation), That (room hall reverb with high- and low-pass filtering) and Otherb (shimmer reverb with dissonance and volume controls). There is a dedicated Decay control and two controls that change function according to the mode selected. In addition, the two LEDs are actually controls that govern the amount of Warp and Blend. If the Whateverb tickles your fancy, move on it fast: Adventure Audio has no plans to continue making it after the company runs out of enclosures.

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Reverb Pedals with Distortion or Fuzz

Psychedelic groups and garage rockers used reverb with fuzz and distortion pedals to create their spaced-out guitar tones, here’s a selection of pedals that combine these effects in one box.

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Keeley Electronics Loomer
The Loomer is a wall of fuzz-drenched in a wash of reverb. It has modes for Focus, Hall and Reverse reverb and Flat, Full or Scoop fuzz. The Hall setting adds octave regeneration in a feedback loop for “ascension shimmer” effects, while the Reverse mode works with the Decay control to create rhythmic reverse reverb. Soft Focus features a dense reverb with two parallel delays. The Tone control is loosely based on the Fender Jazzmaster rhythm tone control with a low-pass filter centered at 156.6Hz. Controls for Warmth, Depth (modulation), Filter (cut-off frequency) and Fuzz give you everything you need to sculpt a vast range of fuzz reverb tones.

Caroline Météore
The Météore (pronounced may-tay-or) is inspired by Line 14 of the Paris Métro and its sleek platforms of glass, steel and tile that add all kinds of cool sonic artifacts to the space. It features controls for (counterclockwise from upper left) Level (Mix), Attack, Size and Regen. Attack sets the amount of gain in the preamp, allowing you to overdrive the reverb, Size establishes the initial reverberation, and Regen extends decay and adds overtones. There is also a Dark/Bright switch to set the pedal’s voice, a Bypass footswitch (left) and a Havok footswitch (right) that can create extended or abrupt decays and gradual runaways, depending on the Size setting.

JPTR FX Kaleidoscope
A very unusual reverb circuit with a Gain & Compression circuit placed after the reverb, which can squash your tails prolonging them for an ambient sustain and even producing fuzzy results. Two of the three footswitches have momentary functions: Hold will trigger self-oscillation, while the Dry-Kill will remove the clean signal and only leave you with the effected one.

Death by Audio Reverberation Machine
Death by Audio refers to its Reverberation Machine as “a synthetic atmosphere creator.” Its minimal knob set makes it possible to quickly change the character of the reverb to simulate different environments as well as add a degree of dirty gloom or pristine shimmer. The pedal has controls for Volume, Altitude (denoted by a triangle symbol) and Verb, as well as a Dark/Light switch. Altitude is similar to gain and can be used to create a more wide-open and distorted sound. Verb controls the reverb level, and the Dark/Light switch can take the ambiance from cavernous to brightly shimmering in an instant.

Walrus Audio Melee
A routable distortion + reverb pedal with a hidden modulation effect added at the end of the chain. The joystick controls the blending of distortion and reverb. The 3-way Tone and Decay toggles have low, medium, and high settings, while the Sustain footswitch increases the reverb to maximum settings.

Keeley Electronics DDR
Designed to be the only pedal you’ll really need for the gig, the DDR combines two styles of overdrive (Crunch and Lead) with delay and reverb in one unit. Crunch has a dimed British combo flavor while Lead is a thick, mid-focused sound perfect for solos. The WET side of the circuit offers 2 types of reverb (Spring or Plate) and 2 styles of delay (analog or digital) selectable by switches.

Beautiful Noise When the Sun Explodes
It features a Reverberation section with a master volume and spring-voiced reverb (controls for Colour and Decay) and Feedback section which gathers a Gain knob and a Feedback/Rate effect. The gain can produce from a slight crunch to a fuzzed-out drone. The Feedback footswitch creates momentary swells in the reverb’s feedback that can optionally also go through an LFO.

Rainger FX Reverb X
Subverting pedal routing commonplace, the Reverb X places an overdrive and a gate AFTER a reverb, rather than before. Both effects only affect the reverb sound, not the clean signal. The results are very intriguing, in particular when operated with the Igor expression controller to momentarily trigger the gate open. There are two reverb modes (bright and dark).

Electronic Audio Experiments Beholder
A pedal for sonic explorers, the Beholder features a mostly wet reverb circuit going into a dark, high-gain fuzz circuit, with the Dwell knob driving the input of the reverb circuit and a filter taming the highs as needed. A Feedback knob routes the reverb back into itself to increase sustain or achieve self-oscillation. The Drone footswitch increases the feedback loop gain for greater sustain or chaotic noise. Internal trimpots let you adjust the wet/dry ratio and the Drone footswitch ramp value.

Anasounds Element
An all-analog spring reverb transducer unit, which connects to one of three different real spring reverb tanks. The Element’s main box give you the front end of a Fender Twin Reverb, for a super-clean pedal platform with tons of headroom, while the three tanks give you varying size/decay time options. The Spring Saturation toggle creates a unique fuzz/overdrive sound.

Industrialectric RM-1N
A reverb + gain pedal where each circuit can deliver a wide variety of tones, from subtle to catastrophic. The reverb can go from light spring/room to huge and ambient or even infinite, and a toggle switch can highlight high or low frequencies. The gain section has a pre- and a post-reverb stage and can do boost, drive or distortion. A Drone knob adds modulation, while the Momentary footswitch triggers self-oscillation and can be used to control the reverb’s decay.

Pladask Elektrisk Draume
A reverb pedal built on the premise that digital reverb is not supposed to recreate the sound of a space, but should be a creative effect in itself, free from real-life emulation constraints. Includes controls for tremolo, vibrato, saturation and sample rate (for lo-fi/pitch variations), all placed AFTER the reverb. The left footswitch sets the Decay to maximum, triggering momentary swells.

Fowl Sounds Echonomicon
A parallel delay/reverb + distortion. The signal is split in two and sent, on one side, to the delay and then the reverb and, on the other, through a high headroom overdrive. The Mix knob then lets you balance how much of each side you want to set, while a Cut knobs lets you darken the wet signal to your liking.

Noisemaker Industries Loveless
With its name and graphics obviously inspired by the legendary My Bloody Valentine second studio album, the Loveless is an explicit homage to the shoegazer genre. It consists of a fuzz fed into a washy reverb/delay, and a mix knob to balance the amount of the latter. If  your goal is to create an otherworldly wall of fuzz, look no further.

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If your budget allows it, you may also want to look at this list of Multi-Mode Reverb Pedals – many of them also feature a Modulation setting.

by Christopher Scapelliti and Paolo De Gregorio


Did we forget something? Use the comment section below to suggest pedal additions for these categories!