tc electronic Skysurfer Reverb

It's amazing that you can get such a rich sounding reverb at such a low price - of course it's no Big Sky (15 times the price), or even a Hall of Fame (three times the price), as you're very much limited in the sounds you can coax from the pedal, but for a set-and-forget live pedal, it's hard to beat.

One thing that's not clear without reading the manual (and who does that..?) is that with the Mix knob dialled up to the max you're getting an entirely wet signal, making this super-useful in your home studio, either as an aux send, or by recording the wet reverb signal on e.g. your guitar as a separate track, giving you much more control over the sound when mixing. Of course you're not going to get from it what you would from pro outboard gear, but the pedal sounds great, and you have to keep coming back to the price.

It's also worth mentioning that the build quality is top-notch - it's built like a tank, and the knobs have a great feel to them.

Brilliant pedal - you should get one!

Reviews about sound are not really needed, just listen to the soundbytes here and on YouTube, the clearest tones will be obvious. The chassis is all-metal with grippy sides, nice ergonomic touch. The knobs are oversize and knurled, another cool handling touch, but the overal shape does not handle as well as the less flattened Boss pedals. Just a detail, we don't manipulate the pedals for long, we put them on the ground and stomp them. The knobs are not too close to one another, you don't turn a knob by accident when touching another knob. All three sounds are very pretty.

The on/off switch makes a little mechanical noise but it's electronically silent, that's what matters. At first I thought the tone knob on a reverb was not needed but I changed my mind. When your guitar has a trebly tone the long repetition of that tone can make it seem like there is too much treble in the echo sound even if there is not too much in the basic sound.

So now I like that feature a lot. The battery compartment is rubberized and tight, it won't jiggle inside. The circuit board is clean with a clear layout, all the soldering points are clean. Steel studs reinforce the pedal close to the switch. The input jacks lock firmly on the Planet Waves, Klotz and Neutrik plugs, same for the 9 volts input.

The paint job is done right without the distasteful and sometimes gory visuals that are the fashion now. I listened to tens of reverbs here and on YouTube, the one offering the best clarity is this one, and by a wide margin, to boot. Plus it's among the least expensive reverbs, so it's a winner's winner, and I recommend it above all others of any price.

I suggest if this is your 1st pedal, that you watch a tutorial 'cos it can be a bit confusing, in fact I still haven't grasped the understanding of this pedal yet, and I am now ready to follow my own advice.

Other than that I'm pretty happy, just beware that if you've got a crappy combo and you wanna play with distortion while having this turned on, it's gonna sound pretty bad.

I've recently bought Joyo VIVO banTamP and it sound pretty good even with distortion.

Have a nice day...

TL;DR : Pretty good for a begginer, but can be confusing to work with.

TC's cheapest pedals are some of the best budget pedals on the market and the Skysurfer is a great example. This pedal is sturdy, built really nicely, with grippy, good-quality knobs and a nice switch. The reverb sounds are really nice, with a lot of option despite just 3 reverb types, with all of them having a wide spectrum of tone and depth. This isn't some uber experimental ambient dream machine, but it's got all the reverb a player would need to do a pretty decent job of any style, ranging from wide, open hall reverb, right down to twangy, tweedy spring reverb. It's got it all there.

For a starter reverb pedal, I can't recommend it more, and it's built very well, so this thing will definitely last you.

I now own 2 of these pedals. It's bulky and simple to use. I have this on my board as a reverb that I don't adjust or mess with but I always go to as my standard reverb sound. I bought a second one to have for the studio and for my dads odd gigs. He too loves how easy it is to use. If you just want reverb and no hassle, this is the pedal for you. Or if you want an extra standard reverb sound to add to your pedal board, this is great - and you cant go wrong with the price!
The only thing I will warn you about is its a little bigger than you might think (check out a video) . It surprised me when it first arrived and if youre tight for space on the board it might not be the best option.

My amp has a physical spring reverb, which in itself is very nice to have. It’s two springs with a signal coil and a pickup coil, a bunch of magnets to magnetize the springs and make it work, and you can control the amount of reverb mixed into the signal. Pretty cool.

What it doesn’t have is the option to adjust the stiffness of the springs as in the decay time. It also doesn’t allow you to fix the tone of the reverb by allowing more or less high end. This reverb pedal does. You can also place it after the Laney IRT Pulse that I bought and run it into your mixing panel and you have your amp with reverb to record. (The Laney comes with cab simulation.)

You can also run it into your regular amp. I really bought this reverb pedal to use it with the Laney, but you can also use that adding another layer of reverb to your now tube amp, maybe a plate reverb before a spring? Or if you’re like me, you might also like the mellow tones of the hall reverb.

It’s affordable, sturdy, offers three distinct types of reverb, proper tone, decay, and mix control. It’s just an awesome pedal and that’s all there’s to it. If you have a Laney IRT Pulse, you do need to consider that if you want to use switches, you have no other option other than to put it after the preamp.