Today, I wanted to talk about a couple of new pedals for JHS. This year’s NAMM 2015, they introduced the JHS Alpine Reverb and Twin Twelve Overdrive to the fine people at Premier Guitar. Even though these were present at NAMM, these pedals were available for purchase prior to the convention (normally, pedals at NAMM are a sneak peek as to what will be coming out in a few months).
For this, post I wanted to focus on the JHS Alpine Reverb. The people at JHS really put some thought into this reverb unit. At first glance, you it appears fairly standard. Standard reverb controls – Reverb (which is the mix), Depth and Length. But, there are 2 footswitches and 2 knobs – Highs and Shift. The first footswitch is standard on/off, and the second is for the ‘Shift’. I really, like the idea of the shift. Basically, the shift knob is an additional reverb mix control, so you can 2 reverb settings in essence. The shift footswitch activates that knob. The High control is a high-pass filter to change the ‘tone’ of the reverb. Some people like a bright reverb, while others like a dark reverb. You can dial it in.
The next cool item about this pedal is a effects loop input (via TRS / Stereo cable – tip/ring/sleeve). This allows you to effect the reverb effect with an external effect. So let’s say you like shimmer.. high shimmer / low drone ‘shimmer’, you could drop a POG or another octave pedal here to pull that off. Additionally, you could tweak the reverb tone further with a EQ, or possibly get it to be gritty with an overdrive. Awesome. Out of the box, the EFX loop is only associated with the shift, but this can be changed via dip switch inside the unit to be ‘always on’ vs ‘shift only’.
I have a couple of reverbs, and one thing that always bums me out about them, when you turn them off.. they shut off harshly because they’re true bypass. Because of this, I need to think about how I need to use them and how I need to turn them off so it’s not noticeable. The guys at JHS added a buffered bypass to this pedal. First off, buffers (as long as they’re good).. are great to have, and finally, with a buffered bypass, this means that trailing reverb will remain after the pedal is deactivated.
Check out this episode of Livingroom Gear Demos
As you can see, it’s a pretty bad-ass and versatile reverb unit. If you’re interested in picking up a reverb, this might be a great option for you. The JHS Pedals Alpine Reverb is currently available for $249 at Amazon.com
If you own the Alpine Reverb, please let us know what you think of the pedal by commenting below!
