Boss RV-5

This pedal takes a long time to really figure out. My first big hurdle? Realizing I needed to turn the tone knob COMPLETELY OFF. Don't use it at all, EVER. I'm all for personal opinion, but boss pedal tone sucks for some reason. Once I got beyond that, I started to figure out how to get all the sounds I wanted fairly easily.

I have the following chain:
Boss turbo overdrive, electro harmonix minipog, line 6 dl4, and then boss rv-5. The rv 5 is great for blurring the line between delay changes (I switch between them frequently. Think any sigur ros song where the guitar goes from prominent and perticular to downright "stringy" or "blurry"). The gate sound is great for any kind of droning noise. I haven't found much use for the modulation reverb sound, but it's still nice to play with every once and a while. I never use plate or spring simply because I'm not a fan. Hall, room, and gate all sound fantastic. yeah they sound digital and cold sometimes, but I like having a heavy effects presence in my music, I'm not one for being subtle. I play alt rock in a similar vein as bands like dinosaur jr, sonic youth, pavement, pixies...

aside from the age old boss problem of inputs coming loose (or maybe it's just me), never ever had a problem with this pedal.

I've never had to contact boss

In the end, this pedal is still a boss pedal, which to me means it's a solid pedal. It's not the greatest thing ever made, obviously, but it's much better than most of what is out there. The only other pedal within a similar price range that I could think of recommending over this is the electroharmonix holy grail. For it's price, I'd say it's well worth it. The more you use it, the more uses you find for it, and it's much more powerful than some people let on. I've given it a ten based on it's usefulness compared to it's price.

Very easy to use. Self explanatory controls knobs: effect level, tone and time work well and have good sweep. Also a six-way selector knob for the reverb modes, arranged effectively enough.

I use Fenders and the like (such as Gretsch) through the RV-5 and a few other pedals (delay, overdrive). I like to keep the effects to a minimum and currently only use delay and the reverb. This goes into My Dr. Z Maz 18 Junior. This setup is stunning and is a true experience in great tone. I favor the "Plate" and "Room" settings most, though I use some of the others regularly enough. The Tone on the pedal is not oppressive and actually enhances the sound of my setup. Does not color in any negative or obtrusive way. I use it to brighten the sound up just a bit. The reverbs are warm and professional sounding. "Hall" and "Modulate" are great - give you anything from a "Twin Peaks" tone to a My Bloody Valentine sound. I have stopped using my Boss chorus because when I want a lush, ethereal sound, the "Modulate" setting on this pedal can't be beat. "Plate" and "Room" particularly give my sound a tough, mean garage-y snarl. Perfect compliment to the Maz, and that's saying a lot. Yes, the "boing" on the "Spring" setting is a disappointment. Is just too sensitive. You have to play at very low output for it to work rigt on this setting. But even if they got it right, I'd be sticking with the ones I've already mentioned, 'cause I love 'em. Also, there's a "Gate" setting that is just edgy and strange! Somewhat "Room-ish" but almost backwards sounding. Less uses, but it's cool and is actually great for lead. I like to mess with it from time to time!

Totally reliable. In my experience, Boss just has a perfect track record. Built very tough.

I have played for about 25 years. I like rock, indie rock etc. Edgy stuff, sometimes. Has slowly changed over the years. I wish this pedal was around since I started playing - I am finding it invaluable. Brings my Fender Strat and Jaguar to life. Ditto my Gretsch! Total compliment to my awesome Dr. Z Maz 18 Jr. amp. Takes care of all reverb needs that my amp reverb doesn't. Is easy to use and has a very useful selection of sounds. Incidentally, you could pretty much get a spring-like reverb sound by messing with the settings on "Hall" and "Plate," I think. Would replace this pedal immediately. I like some of these distinct settings so much that trying to find another pedal to do them would be a waste of time. If I was wealthy, I'd get extras so I could have dedcated pedal for my fave settings. A real value, and the sort that one expects from Boss! Try one out - tons of fun! Too bad about the Spring setting - they should fine tune it.

There is more than 1 knob on this so you will have to experiment with it to get use to it. Makes sence right?

The Mode Settings I "Like" are: Room, Hall, and Modulate

The Mode Settings I "Do NOT Like" are: Spring, Plate, Gate

"Important" When adding this to your pedal board, make sure you put this "AFTER" your distortion type pedals or it will sound like crap! The general rule of effect placement is always in this order: Guitar to Distortion to Clean to Filter to Amp. (For those who don't know this already of course)

So far so good.

Never needed them

I'm 46 and have been playing for 32 years (for what it's worth).
Like most things, "before you buy it - try it"
But if you don't get that luxury to try it first then all I can say is if your just looking to add some or some more reverb to your sound, this should do the job. If you???re looking for a certain special type of sound, then really, how can you expect to magically find it by just reading? Everybody???s taste is different and this will never change!

The Boss RV-5 is easy to use and pretty much self explanatory. E.Level is a Wet/Dry Mix. Tone cuts highs in the counter clockwise position, cuts bass in the clockwise position. Time knob increases or decreases your decay time and the Reverb Selector, is just that.

I particularly like the way this pedal sounds in the the fx loop especially if you plan on using your amps distortion, but it sounds alright at the end of your signal chain. I'm going to echo some of the same sentiments as the previous posts: The Spring Verb is crap. That little sound that it makes, again is useless. The Room and Hall Verbs are much better, With Hall being my most favorite. Contrary to other users, i find the Modulation Effect to be quite pleasing, and kinda goes with my dreamy pop guitar sound. Sinking 150 for just that effect sounds kinda steep to me, but the five options made versatility a selling point, but i'm just dissapointed in 3 out of the 5.

switches clean and easy. a little noisy if the time knob is dimed

never was an issue

This pedal fits my reverb needs, but if it suddenly disappeared or exploded, i don't think i'd hurry out and get another. The useful reverb tones are okay, but the others are horrid.

RV-5 is just like all other Boss pedals: buffered, silent JFET bypass, tough construction, small package, clean sound with little noise. It's super easy. Mode selects reverb type, Time sets reverb decay length, Tone controls the brightness of the reverb sound, and Level controls the wet/dry mix. Stereo ins and outs, 9V power, etc. Nothing challenging here.

Overall the pedal sounds pretty good. I liked most of the modes, but the gate reverb is a useless novelty and the spring reverb is absolutely horrible and un-usable. I used this pedal in the FX loop of my Boogie Mark IVa combo (which has a beautiful spring reverb, but it's not footswitchable and I hate reaching behind the amp to adjust it). I got this pedal to expand my reverb options and to allow me to footswitch it on the fly. As for guitars I use both a Strat and a Les Paul. The RV-5 is a bit thin sounding. Lowering the tone control helps, but only slightly. I really like a great spring reverb, but Boss dropped the ball on this one... Big Time! The tone of the spring verb is close, but it has that aweful spring slapping sound like when you bump your amp with the verb turned up. That pretty cool and authentic sounding, but it is so sensitive that even a moderate pick attack causes it to bang away like crazy. It makes it completely useless. It's more like a novelty springy noise maker. I though that maybe my FX Loop's level was too hot, so I tried it in front of the amp... no change. Even with my Strat's single coils I couldn't pick even remotely hard without that horrible BOING!!!!! happening on every note. Accutronics?... I think they modeled this on a broken reverb tank! That said, the rest of the modes were pretty good, especially the Hall... very smooth. So if you don't care for spring reverb, give this pedal a try. However if you're looking for that sweet Fender tube reverb tone, this pedal is NOT for you. I ended up taking it back and getting a Line6 Verbzilla instead (which I liked much more BTW). I'll give it a 6 simply because the other reverb modes were still pretty good.

I've owened quite a few Boss pedals over the years and they have all proven to be very reliable. I have a Boss DD-20 on my pedal board too (great delay - check it out too). I don't see any reason why this one would be any different.

Never had to deal with them. Their website is quite good though with lots of samples, demos, manuals, etc.

This wasn't a bad pedal. It just wasn't for me. I was VERY disappointed in the Spring mode, but the rest were pretty good. Once again, if you're not a spring reverb cat, give this one a try. It might serve you well for more "studio" type reverbs. I did like the Hall reverb a lot. Just don't expect that sweet smokey Fender tube reverb tone to come from this box.

Well, the pedal is easy enough to use in terms of twisting knobs the way they're supposed to be twisted. It's not difficult to understand the instrument at all.

It IS difficult to get a satisfying reverb sound when using distortion, though.

CLEAN: The sound quality of the RV-5 on clean sounds great. I run the pedal from a Fender Stratocaster American Deluxe to a B-52 AT-100 Half Stack and I get enough warmth out of the pedal for my settings. I don't really seem to lose much of any tone on the clean setting, and there is little noise.

DISTORTION/OVERDRIVE: On these settings, the pedal sounds significantly noisier (which is pretty ridiculous, considering I have noiseless pickups) and has an unbearable tinny sound. I've tweaked with the sound and the knobs the best I could and couldn't remedy this. I think this is the greatest downfall of the pedal, and a big one at that.

It's also inconvenient that the reverb kicks in AFTER you've played your lick, not during.

EFFECTS: The effects sound nice enough, for what they are. The spring reverb has a nice authentic sound, but it's not really for me. The hall reverb is a little to strong for me, and the room doesn't seem to adjust much when modified by the knobs. The gate reverb doesn't sound pleasant, as it cuts out sometimes before you even have the chance to mute the strings.

The pedal is reliable, as long as you carry your AC adapter. The batteries run out quickly with it.

The frame is well-built and sturdy, so I can't imagine that it would break any time soon.

Considering that I play every style from Metal to Bluegrass to Jazz to Blues to Pop to Techno, this pedal has some useful applications here and there. The biggest downsides are that the reverb does not kick in until after the notes have been played (no immediate playback) and the distortion sound is too tinny, regardless of how much equalizing I try to do.

If this was stolen, I'd probably just be upset that I was out of the money, not the pedal. The pedal is easily replaced with a better pedal. I'm going to return this pedal as soon as I get to the music store.

Overall, I'd say it was a waste of money and that it destroyed my tone.

Very easy to use pedal. straightforward controls, no programs to surf through, easy.

I am confused by some of the reviews. i try to keep in mind that its all about preference, but some of the things people are saying are just flat out wrong.

anywho, it sounds great. the gate reverb is probably best used for precussion instruments.

heres my intial reactions:

b:Spring[/b]: very well done. warm and lush sounding, and i love that "boing" water drop sound at high volume or if you play hard. i will probably use this setting alot.

b:Plate[/b]: interesting sounding. sounded really spacious. im gonna play with it more.
b:
Hall[/b]: very nice. sounds like a huge church. this one will get used a lot as well.

b:Room[/b]: also really nice. sounds insane at long time settings.

b:Gate[/b]: what the hell is this. i am gonna play with this more, see what i can do with it.
b:
Modulate[/b]: my friend madison told me i should buy it for this setting alone. that kids knows a thing or two about cool sounding stuff. super lush, awesome modulation, and freaking dreamy as hell. im gonna use this alot, too.

all in all this thing sounds fantastic. ive used it in front of my friends fender roc pro 1000 combo and in the effects loop of my vox ac30cc. sounded great with both.

its boss.

never had to use it. good online support.

i got it for a great price, and its fantastic. people bash on it for sounding too metallic and tinny, but thats what the tone knob is for. its doesnt sound too digital either. the spring setting is warm an lush, and its for sure my favorite, followed closely by the plate setting.

i play energetic indie type stuff. if you are into newer brand new, manchester orchestra, death cab for cutie, and the like you would probably dig my band.

anyway, great pedal.

It Is Easy.

In my opinion spring rev. sounds just bad, absolutly unuseful because that kind of spring noise - making amplifier only if you kick it, but not when you play, but in case with that pedal spring noise follow your pick.Just rubbish.Yes it possible to adjust and almost get rid of that noise, but real spring rev. do not sound like it.
Another thing i do not like is By Pass- It is not true bypass and pedal changes real sound of the guitar when rever is not in use.

Modulate - another unuseful effect - what is? It is not chorus, it is like kind of lightly untuned guitar.

Hall reverrb is best in that pedal.

30 minutes of " jamming" with that pedal enough for me,tomorrow i will i ask for my money back from shop i bought it.

If you have enough mental stability to plug a cord in this thing and turn it on, you can get a great sound out of your guitar. I strongly disagree with some of the comments posted here. I say that because I came to this review forum hoping to find some helpful information, not hype or negative propaganda. Anyway, I had an RV-3 once upon a time and hated myself for selling it. I tried a real tube reverb unit which sounded more lush than anything I've ever heard, but it sucked out my mids bigtime and was too bulky. Then, a Dano that broke at some point when I stomped on it (I thought that's what stomp boxes were for). The case was pretty weak on the DE, but it sounded good. Then a Holy Grail, which was ok, and I gave up after that until I got this RV-5. A very familiar layout and the sound I missed was there again. I've used rack mounts and this box comes pretty close. A rack mount is hard to beat, but this box fits on my pedal board nicely and that pushes it over the edge for me. One guy who rated this at 1's straight across said that maybe he should "go back to playing golf". You know what? Go back to playing golf and leave playing guitar to real working musicians if you feel that way. I've been involved in show biz for going on 4 decades and this is a great pedal.

The pedal is pretty quiet, for a pedal, and it has several great reverb sounds. I agree with most reviewers that the spring reverb isn't that great. Ok, it sucks, but who says I have to use it? My amp sucks if I dial the treble, mids and bass down to one, so I don't do that. I don't use the spring reverb, but the Hall reverb is great. I've been playing around with a few other sounds, but the Hall seems to be the best overall sound for constant use. I normally use it with my delay for slower songs - gives a very eerie/romantic sound to the guitar. You can probably get better reverb devices, but for me this is the easiest way to fatten up my sound. Just plug and play with it for a few minutes and you'll find your sound. Simple.

Very reliable. Never had a Boss pedal fail me.

I play lots of rock, original and classic, blues, and lots of country style chicken pickin' depending on who I'm with and where I'm playing. I've been playing for about 45 years. I typically play my Les Paul Classic with pafs and my trusty stock Telecaster on gigs. I fiddle around with a jazz box and a few others at home, but I can't take all that stuff on the road. I compared this to other pedals such as I mentioned above, and for the money and portability, this one seems to do the best job. I haven't the time to try everything out there, but Boss always seems to be a safe bet. I own a few other pedals, such as an Ibanez TS9, an Ernie Ball volume, a Zvex SHO at the end of my chain, and an Ibanez delay. I'm currently in the process of reducing the number of pedals I have on my board, but this RV-5, the Ibanez delay, my Dunlop Crybaby, and the TS9 will stay aboard. If you are seriously thinking about getting one of these but have been turned off by a few of the reviews, keep this in mind: there are lots of wanna be's out there who feel that since they've noodled around with guitars for a few years they're somehow experts on tone and effects. Playing live is a different world (any professional musician can tell you that) and that's the best place to test your gear. That's where I've tested this pedal and it works for me. Take it with a grain of salt, but this ain't a bad pedal for the bucks. Maybe you'll like something you like better, but this really is a good pedal.

Very easy to use. I bought it used, without a manual and I didn't have any problem figuring it out. The one problem I had was figuring out how to get rid of the "boing" noise in the spring reverb setting and I doubt that was in the manual anyway

This is a great sounding pedal, except for the "boing" noise in the spring reverb setting. But with a little experimentation, I figured out how to get rid of the noise.

Actually, the "boing" noise sounds just like a real spring reverb does when you tap on it lightly, or when you give your reverb amp a little kick. I also noticed that the noise was controllable by how hard I picked a note - light picking gave no "boing" sound, heavy picking and the "boing" was there.

What I realized is that if I turned the volume down at the guitar, that would keep the noise from happening. I had to turn my amp up to make up the difference. You could also use whatever boost pedal you have after the RV-5. I also found I could actually put a little of the "boing" back into the sound to simulate the sound in some old surf songs by adjusting the volume on the guitar up or down a little.

Now that I figured that out, I really love this pedal.

It's normal Boss quality.

Never used it

Quiet, realistic sounds, good selection of sounds - what's not to like?

Its relatively easy to use. The knobs are self-explanatory. Just fiddle around a bit with the various types off reverbs this pedal has and you'll probably find the sound you want easily.
The manual you get with it is pretty clear, but a bit summarized, so no great details.

Most reverbs on this pedal are very good, you really get the feeling your in a large stadium. Only the spring reverb is pretty bad because you hear a weird klik when you hit your strings. It sounds a bit like drops off water falling in a pool in a large hall, it echoes. I don't really like that. But it has five other reverb modes, so I don't really mind. I wasn't a big fan off spring reverb anyway.
I use this with my Lakland 55-02 bass, or my fretless bass on an swr amp.
Its dead quiet, no hums or anything.

Its a tank!!!

never dealt with them

I use this pedal when I have solo's or when I'm playing crying ballads (usually with a fretless bass). When I play fretless I use it with a EBS Unichorus and they work great together.
If it were stolen I'd save up the money to buy it again.
What I love abouot it is the quality off the sounds and the reliability.
It sucks up a lot off power, so BUY AN ADAPTER!!!!!
I compared it to a digitech reerb and a line-6 reverb and this one sounded best and looked the most reliable and durable.
I can't imagine some off my songs without this thing anymore.
Again: Buy an adapter, batteries last only for a few hours, six I beleive maybe less. So three practice sessions and you need to repplace it again.

seemed somewhat easy to get the sounds I was looking for. I think the pedal came with instructions and settings but I didnt look to see if thats true or not. Easy enough I didnt need any

For a digital reverb I hink the pedal does just fine. I use the pedal in the effects loop of my boogie rectoverb and it seems to work just fine. I bought the rv5 because believe it or not,even with an amp called rectoVERB, the built in reverb of the amp is a bit weak.
I set out to purchase a reverb pedal but because I dont use it with all my playing I knew I didnt want to spend some ungodly amount of doe on one. I decided to go digital so I knew this pedal would never totally compare to a tube driven unit. For what I use the rv5 for it does very well. There are some nice sounds on it and some weak sounds also. I enjoy using the spring,hall and room reverb. The others like,modulation I cant see why they would even add that to a pedal. I guess someone may want it though? The unit does not create any noise with my setup. Ive enjoyed the pedal since I got it.
If you decide to buy this pedal you must not compare it to anolog/tube reverb. Its a digital,,it even says that on the pedal..compare it to a digitech or something

its a boss

never spoke to them

I play everything from blues to rock to metal. Like I said above,,when buying this I went in knowing that it was digital. I accepted the fact that it will never sound like a $400 unit. Therefore
comparing it to other digital reverbs I think its about the best Ive tried. I cant think of anything I really dislike about it. But it blows the built in reverb of my rectoverb away.

The pedal is easy to use, just play with the various modes and twist the settings so you understand what they do. Place it last in the chain...after your noise surpressor.

The sound is great. The qulaity is great...very adjustable.

I had a Digitech but found the sound to be dull and the adjustment knobs didnt seem to be linear enough...the effect level would jump.

New. No problems.

New. No problems.

Great pedal. I play rock, metal, alternative etc...

My settings are:
E level - 10%
Tone - 50%
Time - 50%
Mode - Hall

This pedal has a lot of great reverb options. Easy to use...

This reverb pedal sounds a lot better than the EH Holy Grail. I had that pedal but returned it because it made my amp REALLY noisy. This Boss pedal has alot of great sounds from the Spring to the Modulated reverb. Surf, shoegaze, chicken pickin'...this pedal covers it all. Some reviews said this pedal sounds thin. I'm running mine through a Fender Blues Jr. and it sounds nice and fat.

It's a Boss pedal...built like a tank.

Had to contact Boss once about a problem with another pedal. A little hassle but in the end they took care of it.

A good value for so many quality reverbs...

Really esay to use. No need to use the manual.

Great sound. I use it with both my bass and guitar.

I would bring this to every gig I go to.

Never dealt with company.

I love this pedal! It has great sound compared to other reverb pedals I've tried.

simple to use,tone knob really helps warm up the decay.

these reviews crack me up! one guy says its ok with the exception of the warp mode!other folks put it before their dod distortion metalizer!still others say it makes there valvestate sound ''fake and digital''.i happen to really like this pedal.i know one long time nashville slide player who's played in town 3x a week for years.he uses a vibro-king onstage that has a built in 3 knob spring reverb but has opted to use this instead.i love the stereo ins and outs!ive got three stereo boss pedals[dd-5,pn-2,rv-5]all bouncing around between two fender musicmaster bass amps and it sounds cool!i will say the spring mode does have a weird boing to it,though.doesnt drastically alter my guitar tone either.i mean unless your eric johnson and can hear the number of wraps in your guitar cord then this will cover your reverb needs.

yup!

been playing 20 years,finally learning that low watt amps and a few good stompers are all you need.keep it simple,save your boutique amp/pedal money for whats important in life:women,cars,kids & beer[not necassarily in that order]
oh,i forgot the rv5 review.
the stereo ins and outs did it for me.had the rv2/rv3 in the past.none drastically different in tone.get a dedicated delay pedal if you want delay!

Couple of knobs and that's it. No rocket science here.

If you realize that this unit has tons of headroom and you're conservative with where the knobs wind up, it sounds awesome.

As sturdy as they come.

I play country, rock, blues, and some jazz. My son-in-law plays metal. We both like this pedal.

Easy to use. I mean does it get any easier? The sounds are good. No problems.

First off... I can't understand what all the bad reviews are here. I have a ton of effects ranging from Zvex, to Digitech, to Keeley modded stuff.

I think the thing that people do with this pedal is put it in front of your amp. It's sounds cold and harsh and just flat out ugly in front of your amp's distortion. I am thinking that most of the people are probably using their amp's distortion and because of this, can't get a decent sound.

I think alot of effects loops don't do what they are supposed to.

I use all pedal distortion, expect in very light drive situations. I don't think I've heard too many reverbs that were "warm sounding"... I always thought the Fender reverb sounded kinda cold. I guess I don't understand what people expect out of reverb.

My chain is as follows - Digitech Whammy, Zvex Wah Probe, Maxon AF-9 Filter, Hughes & Kettner Rotosphere, Maxon DS-830 Distortion Master, Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde Ultimate Overdrive, ISP Noise Decimator, Maxon PH-350 Rotary Phase, Keeley Modded Line 6 MM-4, Boss RV-5 Digital Reverb, Boss RV-3 Digital Delay/Reverb, Keeley Modded Line 6 DL-4.

That is the stuff I use on stage, but I have a ton of boutique overdrives, analog delays, synth pedals, and even a tape echo, vintage Fender amps, etc...

This all goes into a Hughes & Kettner Duotone thru a Orange 4x12 cabinet with Celestion Greenbacks.

I like this reverb, yeah, it sounds digital, do you see the word "DIGITAL" right next the word "Reverb"?.

I can get some really long trails, some more subtle verb, and some kinda cool room sounds. It integrates pretty well with my other effects. Sounds FINE with distortion. I get some pretty clear and crisp sounds out of it. I like to consider my rig the best of old and new.

Some of the sounds are kindy cheesey, but for the most part I think it's a winner.

I have never even HEARD of a Boss pedal dying.

Never dealt with them... which is probably a good thing.

I am a young guy... some old heads would say I don't know anything about tone. The truth is... I can afford mostly anything I want, and I choose this pedal in my chain. I own 10's of thousands of dollars worth of stuff, and I think I've got a pretty good ear. I have been playing for about 15 years and I have been thru 100's of pedals. This pedal is really is worth the money, if you get one, make sure you use it right, and you will probably have good results. Keep in mind, it's a digital piece of equipment, and will never sound quite the same as some of the vintage stuff, or a blackface's reverb.

I think Boss did a pretty good job on this one.

it is easy.
the manual gives you a few examples of how to use this pedal.

I use it with electric violin (yamaha ev205), a yamaha strings amplifier and DD-20 gigadelay. and an LRbaggs para di.

the great thing about this pedal is that it can handle the input signal coming out of my violin and preamp.
The Holy Grail reverb pedal could not do that. It resulted in a somewhat distorted tone.

The pedal is very versitale and I am really really happy with it.
Its not true bypass, like the holy grail, but my ears cant tell the difference in this case. Moreover, unlike the holy grail, the tone is not being sucked when the pedal is ON.

I also compared this pedal with a Verbzilla and some other pedals (glx, I had never heard of it). The reverb of the rv-5 is also better then the one on my old roland re800 and the 24 bit reverb on my phonic mixing desk.

Some reviews below are very negative about the rv-5.
Of course I did read them and they almost had made me buy another pedal without even trying the rv-5!
But all I can say is that its a really good product.

I dont expect any problems.

In order to keep a rich tone I try to use as little effects as possible.
I only use the digital delay (I need a few different types of delay in several songs) and a touch of reverb, but only in places without natural reverb.
Most of the time I use a modest amount of hall.

As I said before, I compered it to holy grail and verbzilla.
In my case, Verbzilla is simply not as good as the rv-5 and I get some sort of mandoline orhestra sound when I use the octo mode. I dont want that.
I completely fell in love with the Holy grail, with its excellent Hall and great Flerb effect sound. But it distorted my tone. Something to do with impedance or input volumes I guess.
But I liked the rv-5 also. Very clean reverb, very versatile.

It could have been a 10 but I am sure there will be even better reverb pedals within ten years.

I wonder why Boss does not sell a reverb twin pedal.
It could be a winner.

This is a decent Reverb unit...it's fairly easy to use, level, tone, (amount of reverb), and selection of what reverb type.

I'm sure there is manual , if you purchase it new.

After playing with it , you'll figure it out...

The sound quality is very good. It's not noisy. And , it's nice to have a level and a tone adjustment. I'm primairly using this in the studio and before I go to a direct box to the soundboard. This unit has stereo ins and outs, so you can achieve a nice stereo mix if you're going into a soundboard mixer.

Boss makes fairly reliable stuff, it's a quality product. You can buy this stuff used too, I did and saved a little bit of money.

Well, I've dealt with Roland before and their support is some of the best out there, I'm sure Boss is the same.

Overall, great effect if you need some reverb. The only thing I don't really like is the spring reverb is a little too sensative on the spring side...the tone is good , but you get a little "quack" when you pick hard, I think the dynamic is off somewhat. Every thing is great, hall, room , plate, and the modulation is really neat for that "Eno/Lanois/Edge" sound, it's really cool in stereo. I actually choose this effect becuase I wanted to find that type of processing, well it's nails if you want that. I think it's difficult to replicate any real tube drivin spring reverb, so I'll cut them a brake , but everything else is really , really good and high quality. Stereo ins and outs are a nice feature, I wish more effects had this capabiltiy.

Very easy to use. Input and output and turn some knobs.

I see a lot bad reviews on this product and I have to feel that some of these are negative because of where the reverb is in the pedal chain. Just like an amp with built in reverb it should be at the end of the chain. The guy at GC that sold me the unit tried to tell me it should be up front. I don't think you want to use reverb before your distortion. Some of the review say that clean sounds great but distortion is God awful,I wonder why.

Built like a rock.

None at this time.

All styles for many years.

Sooner or later you will stop tweeking the knobs and realise it is futile to try any more to get a good sound out of this.

I concur with others that have rubbished this pedal. I have learned the hard way NOT to believe a word I read on Harmony Central.However in this case I wish I had. There are a number of bad reviews on this pedal and they are spot on, unless there are good and bad batches of the RV-5.I got rid of an RV-3 that was just bearable and got an RV-5 because at the time I needed stereo inputs. Well what a piece of crap the RV-5 that I got was. I had the tone knob all the way off ie. fully counter c/wise but the thing still was too tinny, I found that the only thing to do with this pedal was to inflict it upon some other poor unsuspecting chumpa like myself. Well I had to try and recover my money didn't I. Stay away from this joke. Shame on Boss.

I'm sure it would go on sounding terrible for the rest of time.

Well they won't give you you're hard earned back will they. Spread the word on this ripp off pedal. Boss should discontinue this now and make a reverb pedal that is usable. The RV-3 that I got rid of was usable, but really, I think it was only just OK for reverb.And the reverb and delay together settings were horrible as the reverb was far too loud and you could not adjust the levels for reverb or delay. How makes these stinking things.

Absolute trash. A product like this deserves to be taken off the market. As a matter of fact.The whole pedal industry needs to have a damn good look at itself really. Stop giving them your money and maybe they will all start making guitar amps that work without having to turn them up to 11.Did you ever get a pedal that made you sound like a Marshall opeded up, of course not.It's not possible.
I think guitar players are like golfers,there are far too many of them and most of em can't play to save their lives and this is why the pedal industry has thrived and will continue to thrive. Please don't take offense, I ain't that good either.
I have had a total gut full of thinking I can get my sound using noisy expensive pain in the ass pedals. I used to just plug straight into my amp and use the volume knob on the guitar for dynamics, hell, that's what it's there for, but I got caught up in the pedal debacle for a couple of years and right now I'm realising the error of my ways. So what now? Spend another huge fortune on different amps? Maybe I should go back to golf.

Easy to understand, but not easy to get that "just right" setting.

Very disappointing! For the price I should get something much more concincing. The effect does not melt into your playing - it follows it, or adds to it, but is definately not smooth and lush like, say, a Lexicon rackmount unit. Of course you will say that a MPX-1 or G1 is four times the price - well, you get ten times the flexibility, endless preset tweakability, and five other pro-quality effects on board. So for 1/4 of the price, Boss should at least give us a single comparable reverb algorithm, which does not exist on this unit. It's not like Boss/Roland can't out with anything better; give me a break! This pedal is a ripoff.

You can never question this aspect of Boss.

If you MUST have reverb in a pedal, go ahead. It will satisfy you immediate need for reverb. Otherwise, get TC Electronic or Lexicon (MPX-1 or go cheap with LXP series and be very surprised).

Easy to use. No problem there.

Ugh... sounds beautiful on clean tones, but on distortion/overdrive. My god. It's audible vomit. Absolute crap in my opinion. The only thing keeping from bringing this sucker back is that I recieved it as a gift.

COMPLETELY !@#%$ up my tone. It's ridiculous how badly it screws it up.

It's built like a rock, but I sure wouldn't rely on it to sound good.

Didn't have to.

I play alot of rock. It's an awful match.
I've been playing for a while.
If it was stolen, I'd be delighted.
What I hate about it: Everything.
One thing I wish it had: something good about it.
It definitely gets in the way.
It just sucks. Please do not buy this. More suitable for an ashtray than anything else.

Relatively easy to use, it will take you some time sitting on the floor with it to dial in the sweet spots. The manual is easy to read, but I didn't need it.

Use reverb pedals last in your effects chain to get the best sound. This peadal does not make any noise at all! it's silent on and off. I use this in front of a Marshall JCM-800 with a 4 speaker cabinet, and I got the reverb sound I wanted, anywhere from surf, blues to metal. This peadal does not ruin any other of your effects, it has a nice clean sound

Its a Boss, it's built like a tank. If it were lost or stolen I would get another one.

Boss has been making pedals forever, I've never had one break! Never had to call them.

I play blues to metal ,this does all of them well. I only use two settings on it, spring and hall, they're my favorite. I compared this with Digitech Digiverb, E-H holy Grail, and a Danelectro pedal, I don't remember which one it was .