MR. BLACK
AMBIENCE
REVIEW BY YOEL KREISER
STREET PRICE $179.95
If there is one thing I love
about this job, it’s being
able to try all manner of
stompable sonic delicacies.
Behind my pedalboard I
feel like a chef, concocting
flavors of many different
sonic varieties to create the
perfect blend of tone for
me, to inspire my playing
and create sounds that
nobody has ever heard of.
Thankfully, what fell into my
sonic kitchen this week was
an intriguing new offering
from Portland, Oregon
based effects outfit, Mr.
Black Pedals. What we have
under the knife is a fairly
straightforward combination
reverb and delay. Let’s see if
it makes the cut.
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GEAR REVIEW
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The Echoverb on the
surface is a quite the eyecatcher. It sets itself apart
from my typically primary
colored pedalboard, and it
catches the light just right
to create a little spice in
my pedalboard aesthetic,
which was a nice touch by
our mysterious Mr. Black.
On the front we have three
simple controls for Level,
Decay and Span. Level
is the mix knob, which
adds more or less of the
effect to your dry signal;
an invaluable control for
reverbs and delays (of
which this is both). The
Decay is where things
start to get interesting. It’s
a strange, pitch shifting
Mr. Black Ambience
reverb that sits nicely under
your signal, kind of like a
rocking ocean. It adds a bit
of unpredictability to your
tone, and (admittedly) can
get a little seasick at times.
Turned all the way up it can
self-oscillate into the point
of distortion; unusable
practically but good fun to
experiment with. I found
that setting the Decay
around 9 o’clock and setting
the Level fairly high created
quite an ambitious clean
tone, with a disorienting
texture underneath the
wash of chords and
arpeggios that flowed out
of this thing.
The Span control is a
rather odd syncopated