Marshall RF-1 Reverb

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This in response to my earlier post. This is now pedal #3. Crap. Someone below described my symptoms to a Tee. LED on...no sound. Was great at practice and sound check...gig time...no sound. Like I said, pedal #3. The only reason I have had three, is because the shop I deal with will replace with the same pedal model. So hear it goes 2moro...PEDAL #4!!@ ARGH

Never dealt with Marshall. My store is great.

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Using a Brand New Blackstar 100 series one with a PRS and a US Strat, This pedal is an absolute waste of money. Get an Electro Harmonix Holygrail if your using Pedals or a Rack Reverb and save yourself a lota trouble. Only good thing about it is the expression pedal input. However even this is on the wrong side as reverb is best via your effects loop, hence last in the chain on your pedal board, Marshall have put the expression input on the right hand side, hence more wires making a nice tidy board a mess.

No. Id have more confidence in using a vintage spring unit balanced on top of the amp head hooked up with some rusty jump leads and a bito gaffa tape to hold it togeher.

Didnt even take it back after the 3rd time it was replaced. Just put it on ebay as spares or repair

I play in a covers band doing mainly pop (girl group) and shred at home when im not working. This is the worst reverb ever made. Its sounds nice when it works. The reverbs are long but thin and grainy. big mistake buying this crap.

Bought it for a small group after liking the sound of the rehearsal studio's amps (which had reverb. Gig was coming up and I was planning to use a small amp which didn't have reverb.

Bought a used one from a local guitar shop. No box or manual, but had no trouble getting lovely sounds out of it. After thirty minutes or so of fun, I felt that I new the pedal well enough to use live.

at the gig, however, it was difficult to see the setting on the knobs - had to set to zero and tweak, so...lose two points.

No complaints. Great sounds, most of them very useable to my ears and guitar style. Yes, I've had better reverb sounds, but for the money I was not disappointed.

Ouch! This is where it all goes wrong. Got to the gig, dialled up my sounds and was happy. Waited for the keyboard player to arrive from his previous gig then a quick sound check. It was at this point that the pedal began producing hissing and spitting noises. Stomped it off then on again and the hissing etc. was gone, but so were all the reverb noises! The LED goes off and on as it should, but I was only getting the dry signal and no effect whatsoever.

That was last night. Tried it again today and still not working (apart from the light, that is).

I should have paid more attention to these reviews and bought something more reliable. There must be a design fault or something. It sounded nice when I got it, but never even got an hour's worth of use out of it.

Gig went OK. Miked up the amp and added reverb at the desk.

Don't know. Bought it second hand. Will take it back to the shop. Surely even used gear should last over an hour.

I can't give this a good rating. I read the reviews and still bought one, but it proved to be useless.

I've been playing guitar for over thirty years. to be honest, I'm not a huge pedal fan although I've picked up a few over the years. I prefer simplicity and am very happy taking an acoustic - and maybe a mandolin and a few harps - to the pub for a good old acoustic jam. With electrics, I usually like to put a guitar and amp together and find a really good sound and stick with it.

For this gig I was using a US'52 Tele RI into a Cornell Romany amp (hand-built English valve amp at about 10 watts). The band was really to back up a friend and we were playing a mix of materials, drawing on country, blues, Irish, etc. I planned using the pedal on clean country tones. The only other pedal I used was a Bad Monkey overdrive (which did its job admirably, by the way).

Amongst my other guitars are a Martin D-18 (current acoustic workhorse), a Gibson J-40 (my much used and now semi-retired acoustic workhorse), a Martin 000-15 slothead (mainly for home pickin') and a Resound resonator for slide. As well as the telecaster, I've got a late 80's US Strat, a faded double cut gibson (les paul special - great rock 'n' roll guitar / great price)and a PRS SE soapbar singlecut. My usual amp is a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (which does have a reverb), but was using the little Cornell as this was a drummerless gig and I didn't need too much volume.

I'll see what the guitar shop has to say, but I wouldn't rush out to replace this. Nice sounds, but not reliable so useless to me. I like stuff that lasts - I've still got my old Big Muff Pi and Cry Baby from the 70's - and does the job it's meant to.

Not sure if I even need a reverb pedal now as it sounded fine through the PA without it.

This pedal is easy enough to use. Four simple knobs. I would say the challenges are that with the bright chrome knobs, you can't really see where the line is on the knob to tell you how much of that knob you are using. In other words, you can't tell if you're on 1 or 10. Hard when you're playing a gig.

I bought the Reflector for the sound byte I heard on Musiciansfriend.com. The reverb in my Mesa Boogie F30 wasn't to my satisfaction, so I picked up this pedal.

As for sound quality, I'm generally happy with it, but it has a few drawbacks:

1. Definite drop in signal/volume when turned on. I solved this by putting an Electro Harmonix LPB-1($39) after it to boost the signal. Tried putting it before the Marshall, too. Worked for me best after.

2. Didn't sound as good as the sound clip on Musiciansfriend.
But I'm only running it mono, so to be fair, it sounded damn good when I first tried it stereo. But, who wants to lug around 2 amps?

On the positive side, it adds a nice, 'larger' sound to lots of parts I use it for.

We record almost all our gigs, and on some songs it added an indispensible element of personality to the solos. Made some of the notes sing. Both low and high notes.

Because of the drop in volume, I have to deduct a point. But, I have had ABSOLUTELY NO problems like some of the other reviewers have had. NONE. I have used this pedal for literally HUNDREDS of gigs and thrown it around with the other pedals on my board and I have had ZERO problems with it.

I may bring it to my guy and have him upgrade it and see what happens then. I'll let ya know.

Never dealt with 'em. Never had to.

This is not the perfect pedal. It ain't boutique quality. You want great reverb, you'll have to spend more money.

I just got the MXR Carbon Copy Analog Delay for $150, and am very excited about it. Nice warm, long echo.

I'm still keeping the RF-1 on my board, for a reverb sound, but if I find a better reverb pedal, I'm retiring the Marshall. But I would do that with any effects pedal, so it's no 'reflection' on Marshall.
If it were lost or stolen, I'd probably shop around. But the pedal would have to have at least several reverbs on it to compare to the Marshall.

My Gear: Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion/American Lone Star Strat/American Tele into Teese Wah/Boss CS-2 Compressor/Fulltone Full Drive 2 Mosfet/Modded Boss Blues Driver/Boss Flanger/MXR Carbon Copy Analog Delay/Marshall Relector...all powered by Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus into a Mesa Boogie F30 Tube amp.

Rock on...live to play live !

Six modes, three controls, all of which are pretty straight forward and self explanatory.
Overall the Reflector is easy to use. The manual comes with some decent " suggested " settings if you want to dial and play as quickly as possible but if you have the patience to play around with it for more than ten minutes you can get some really great sounds out of this pedal.

I play a Fender Standard Telecaster into a Vox Valvetronix practice amp.

Before buying this pedal I was somewhat put off by all the negative reviews it got. Other reviewers claims of popping and/or crackling when they use the Reflector. I, however have had none of these problems.

No tone coloring or popping of any kind and not a crackle to be heard and the effects sound incredible. The reverse reverb is an excellent touch for shoegazey tones (for all you MBV fans out there)
The only problem I encountered with this pedal was when I had the settings on full and added some fuzz...not exactly pleasing on the ears..For use with distortion or fuzz, the reverb needs to be subtle. Hall reverb + Proco Rat = Bleeding ears

I play all kinds of music,some of my favourite artists being Radiohead Jeff Buckley My Bloody Valentine Godspeed You Black Emperor and Placebo to name only a few, and I can get just about any sound I want out of this pedal. I didn't want to buy a small computer when I wanted a reverb pedal (I know some people go crazy for the T.C Electronics pedals) but this is a simple pedal that gets the job done.

I presume I must be one of the lucky ones with this pedal as mine survived the apparent " two day lifespan " some other reviews claim it has =D
I've been using this pedal for a number of weeks now, maybe even a month and a half and it has never failed me.

I have never dealt with Marshalls customer support.

This pedal is perfect for my style of playing. I can replicate many sounds from my favourite bands with ease.
Ive been playing for three years now, self taught and have only recently began to obsess over my tone. Having reverb at my feet has opened alot of new possibilities for me. I own quite a few pedals including: EHX Small Stone,Small Clone and Big Muff, Boss Super Overdrive,DD6,Tremolo,
Proco Rat (my favourite) Dunlop Crybaby and a Digitech Whammy.
I love experimenting with sounds and having reverb added to the mix has added a new element to my playing. The reverse reverb is tricky at times but I personally love how eerie it sounds.

My advice is to try the pedal out yourself and don't be swayed by the reviews you read. Even ignore my review! Go out and try it out, if its not for you then at least you know.

fairly easy to use, knobs are labeled well. The manual, if you need it, is helpful.

I give it a 4 because it sounds fine when it actually works. The other half of the time this crazy distortion comes out of it...or nothing at all.

I would give this category a 0 if I could. If you've read any other reviews, you get the point. The first one I owned worked for about a week and then, like other reviews stated, it stopped working. The only sound that it would make was this horrible digital distortion...terrible. The second one I got worked for even less time. Now, the light comes on but no reverb. What a piece of garbage. I will not be trying a third Marshall reverb pedal. I will never ever use any Marshall pedal again.

The music store I purchased it from was very helpful. They did all the work and sent it back.

I give it a 1 because the pedal is worthless if it doesn't work. Piece of junk. Do not buy Marshall pedals. The Marshall reverb pedal might sound good, I'll never know.

easy if you know what good verb sounds like. tried to replace the stock verb in my crate V1512T. the 6 options are ok.

not bad at all. sounds quite convincing when it works properly. this is rev #2. send the other home.

this is the 2nd pedal of the same name, same unreliable piece of crap. no dependence. sending this one back and getting the holy grail by EH. even that one has had problems though. i was a guitar tech at a store and seen many problems with all kinds of pedals. some are just under better scrutiny at the QC center. remember folks, most people putting this jap crap 2 gether are not players or even musicians. just joes trying to earn a dollar.

never dealt w/ marshall. just the store i shop exclusively with. they'll hook me up right. customer support at the shop is spot on.

play everything that pays the bills. music is my job and my life. lost or stolen i'd be pissed cause i'd be out the 120.00. i wish it had quality. try out gear. this was an impulse buy. we are all guilty. every age and playing ability. try b4 buy. ask to try it for a few days b4 purchasing.

Good to use, knobs seem sturdy. Designed almost like an amp. There is great weight to this pedal, giving you a sense of quality.

With the various settings, this is a versatile unit. However, I found myself sticking to the 2nd spring setting as I have a VOX AC30 and i avaoid the reverb on the amp because it is useless, I just want to have a decent amp reverb sound and the spring setting seems to do the trick.
It sounds very warm, almost like a Fender Twin reverb sound, very lush.

Like so many other reviewers, I got this pedal on Thursday,
Plugged it in on Friday night, jammed for a couple of hours, played about with the sounds, dialed in a tone I liked then went to bed, very happy with my purchace.
Saturday afternoon, I stuck on 'From the Cradle' by Eric Clapton, plugged in my Strat, ran the lead into the VOX AC30, and began to play along. The sound was great. Played along with Eric until the 4th or 5th track then URGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! The reverb signal became distorted very badly. I unplugged the guitar, checked the amp, checked the leads for faults and then re-plugged in the pedal. Same thing again.
I then wrote a cold email to the online music store that I bought it from demanding they pick this bit of trash up from me and give me my money back asap.
FOR ANY OF YOU THINKING ABOUT BUYING ONE OF THESE PEDALS DO NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NO MATTER HOW GOOD THEY SOUND AND HOW WELL PRICED THEY ARE, THEY ARE GARBAGE!!!!!!!!1
I have always used Boss effects and have found them 'spot on' all though slightly expensive, well guess what??? YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.
THE MARSHALL REVERB IS CHEEP FOR A REASON... BUY CHEEP, BUY TWICE!!!!
AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why bother???
I had a Marshall delay about a year ago and it broke very quickly too. I took it back to the shop and they sent it back to be fixed. It came back 6 weeks later then broke again, so i binned it and moved on. I should have learned my lesson and never bought another marshall pedal again, but I bought this piece of rubbish based on the price. I am ashamed...

I play blues / blues rock.
I have a Strat and use a VOX AC30 which I love.
I am a 'pure' player and don't like many effects (if any) on my tone. However I did need a reverb unit as the reverb on the amp is poor, but hey?? VOX is not known for reverb.
So while this sounds good when it is working, thats not the point. If it doen't work the only thing it is going to do is annoy you, hell it may even break down at a gig.
Do your self a favour and stick to a Boss. In fact I am away to order one now!

Great ease of use, standard, self-explanatory controls, Marshall even list some recommended settings in the handbook.

I use this in the effects loop of my JCM 900 SLX, and its sounds great with my Les Paul, especially for soloing, no hums or buzzing, an overall good sound quality.

As many other users have discovered, this is where it goes wrong. After only two days of use, the unit broke. It would not produce any effect, and would not produce any sound with the effects engaged. Occasionally, the LED would come on, but still no sound would be produced.

I don't really want the fuss of changing the pedal, so i won't contact them, however i think that as i am not the only one having problems with the unit, Marshall should have at least recalled the product, or offer better assistance on their website.

I play anything from Jazz to Metal, and this pedal was great (when it worked). I think I'll leave reverb alone for a while, but if I decide to get other effects, Marshall won't be top of the list.

Controls are easy to use and self-explanatory.

It sounds very good for a ~$100 stompbox. My favorite modes are Hall and Spring 2, which is a combination of a hall and spring reverb. The Damping control is nice for controlling how much high frequency is present in the wet signal.

This is where it gets bad...like many other users, I experience an issue where no reverb comes out when the effect is on. The LED is lit, everything is connected properly, but the dry signal is just passed through to the amp with no reverb. It's an intermittent issue but it happens a lot - at least half the time.

I gave them a 1 because, as common as this problem seems to be, there should be some sort of a solution to it in the Support section of their website, and best-case there should be a recall. I recently submitted an email support request, so we'll see what happens with that.

As other users have said, it's great when it works! I do NOT recommend it, it's just not reliable. Cool features and sounds are meaningless if the thing doesn't work when you need it.

knobs are easy to underestand, no rocket science over there.

DEAD QUIET, DOES NOT COLOR MY TONE, Bypass mode is very transparent (although it is probably not really TRUE true bypass:) )!
People who say it is noisy or smth, BUY yourself a proper regulated PSU!

When that said, i found spring reverb modes superb, others were ok and i could'nt find any use for the reverse mode as well as other reviewers.

Definately one of the best reverbs out there in it's price range. I'll rate it 8, because you can always go and buy a REAL spring reverb...

no problems for me.

not needed

I play blues and rock music mainly. I am using strat, tele and SG with Epi VJ as an amplifier. The pedal works fine with all of them. really nice piece of equipment from marshall.

Easy to use for the brief time it worked!

While it worked it made popping sounds and crackling like rf signal.

This thing died after only a few minutes use -it would lite up but nothing esxcept bypass mode.

Had chance to trade for another but refused and got different stompverb.

From my experience this pedal looks good on paper but totally sux in the real world.

It was pretty easy to get a good sound out of it. 4 knobs, two inputs (2nd is for expression pedal), 2 outputs (when effect turned off, on first output it turns off abruptly, but on second it can fade reverb -- very nice).

Nice, when it worked. 6 modes of reverb, stereo output -- it even sounds pretty terrific into line-in of my laptop - just like a good studio reverb.

Died on me after 2 days. Bad digital distortion and no reverb happens now when i turn it on. Will replace it soon and see if this thing can really work at all.

Also placed on tube amp it shows big amount of digital RF hum, which is strange, cause it's case is soooo strong and must be a good shield.

Dunno, never dealt with them.

Well, i'd really like to like this pedal. You see, all that i need when playing, is a small amount of reverb on solos to wet my sound a little, and i even don't care about all those modes on the thing and whatever. Also i really like design of Marshall pedals and it's casing which loks like it will last forever.

Badly this is not the case, but maybe i get faulty unit.
I'll get another one and see how it work thought -- if it turn out to be fine, i'll update my review

It was as perfecttly straight forward as any boss unit i have ever used so in other words not exactly rocket science to operate. I could find the desired sounds i wanted with ease.

At the time of trying out this pedal i was using a Fender Jazzmaster and a Vox Transistor amp. IMO it sounded dreadful. Not a great piece of kit at all. It was very very noisy. There was a great amount of hum from the unit when in operation. And it popped. Dear god did it pop. Really badly. Basically i dont think it was built too well.

Its house very well. Ive used Marshall pedals in the past and unless you talking old vintage units like Shredmasters and Drivemasters your not really gonna have an issue with it breaking down on you.

Never had to deal with them.

I dont rate this unit at all. I think this unit could be used for pedal head minimalists who like their effects there in the background. But if you want great ambience im afraid you shall have to elsewhere. This just is not the correct unit for you.

Features 6 modes of reverb,
Manual is good

Im using mine with a Marshall 1959 100w hand wired plexi and 1969a cabinet.
I use strats with low output dimarzios.
I thought it was much better than the Boss RV-5.
I can get a descent spring reverb sound out of it.
Its still a little digital but hey.. what can you expect from a cheap pedal.
The digital reverbs on this pedal are fairly out there.
Theres a selection of dig/spring which I tend to use sometimes.
The reverse mode is terrible though.

I bought one and it sometimes would show the red led but would not be submitting any reverb..
I swapped it for another and my new replacement does the same thing on occasions....???
I dont know whats going on with it.
I tried bashing it a few times but this doesnt work very good.
Its temperemental to say the least.

Marshall is not renowned for the best customer service around.
I live in Australia and the wait for any type of Marshall part is a reeaaallll long one.

I use it because it was cheap, does a descent job because my amps have no built in reverb.
I wouldnt complain about it except it is a little digital sounding but has some good features like passive and active outputs and a high frequency cut pot.