Biyang RV-10

Biyang RV-10 Tri Reverb

I have to admit that, having been disappointed with - or underwhelmed by - practically every guitar reverb pedal I've ever used, which includes several expensive/boutique pedals, I really didn't expect much from The Biyang RV-10. My preconceptions turned out to be well wide of the mark.

The Tri Reverb has a very basic feature set: three modes (Hall, Spring and Room), with two variations for each (A and B) and finally, blend and time controls. The build quality seems fine - although only time will tell on that score.

How does it sound?

In a word: excellent.

The sounds from the Tri Reverb are on a par with those from many rack processors and plugins I've used. It's really - and I mean really - quiet; I haven't noticed any extra noise whatsoever.

True, the Spring mode is hardly authentic or believable, but it's still a good sound in its own right. The longest settings (in Hall mode) maybe aren't quite long enough for those of you who make ambient music, but they do verge on being cavernous as far as I'm concerned.

What I really like, is that it actually sounds good when combined with distortion/fuzz: it neither changes the tonality of the distortion,nor does it swamp your distorted tones; I can quite happily have a nice wet reverb sound for cleans, kick on a fuzz and it still sounds 'right'. I often find reverb can wash out fuzz and distortion, or seem like too much so I always have to make compromises on settings. Not with the RV-10.

For what these pedals cost and how good they sound, you'd be silly to ignore it if you're in the market for a simple reverb pedal.