Keeley Caverns Reverb / Delay V2
Beautiful tones – very versatile
A great pedal isn’t going to sound good if its being fed from a poor instrument or into a terrible amp. So, let start off by saying that I tried out the Keeley Caverns Delay Reverb with a 1965 Fender Jazzmaster, and a 2019 Gibson SG tribute, fed into either a 1964 Fender Princeton Reverb amp or a newer Boss Katana Mark 2 with a 12″ speaker. I also plugged my Moog Grandmother and Vox Jaguar organ into it and played it through a Roland KC keyboard amp. The results varied widely depending on the specific combination. In my opinion, this is a much better keyboard effect pedal than it is a guitar pedal. The shimmer setting sounded amazing with the Vox organ.
The only downside to using this for keyboards is that the warmth feature can muddy up the mix if turned up too high. For guitars, I think it sounds better with brighter pickups going into a solid-state amp. Tube amps will expose the synthetic quality of the spring reverb. Even though some people called this a pedal board “space-saver” for live performances, I think the lack of a tap tempo feature on the delay side makes it a little less convenient. It’s not easy to make quick adjustments to this pedal in a live setting. Also, when the reverb side is set to “Spring” it is easy to knock the little switch left or right to the shimmer and modulation setting if you’re not careful.
Killer Reverb/Delay Combo
Overall, pretty good pedal. I actually bought it because I needed a Spring reverb and a delay that could self-oscillate, for a gigging board. I ended up not liking the Spring as much. There is a weird artifact in the signal. It almost sounds like tube rattle/or a loose screw. I thought it was what I was playing thought but the pedal is definitely causing it. Luckily, I bonded with the other reverb types and the delay so I’ll still be keeping it. Disappointed about the Spring though, it is so close to what I wanted except for that weird noise.
The Keeley Caverns Delay/Reverb V2 does it all, without being overly complicated or confusing like some of the more expensive, more overrated, (*cough*, bluer, *cough*) reverb pedals. The three reverb modes are all equally useful and sound fantastic. The tremolo in the “spring” mode is one of my favorite parts of the pedal. As a worship guitarist, I found that the modulated reverb mode is perfect for that spacey, ambient tone (play Hillsong’s So Will I with a long decay, the blend knob at noon, the warmth knob around 10 o’clock, and the modulation rate around 9 o’clock.
You’re welcome) that most worship lead guitar parts have nowadays. And the shimmer mode of course, turns lame attempts at swells into beautiful, ambient washes. However, I also love using the delay side only, especially for lead lines and solos. It adds just the right amount of space to what I’m playing without getting in it’s way. I rarely use the “deep” modulation , but the “light” and “none” modes are absolutely fantastic.
The one thing that would make this pedal absolutely perfect is a tap tempo for the delay. However, I think that stacking this pedal with a different delay pedal that DOES have tap tempo, and leaving the Caverns at a constant time would make for some mind-boggling ambience as well. All around a fantastic pedal, made even more fantastic by the low price point for the level of quality that the pedal offers. Seriously, whether you’re looking for subtle reverb or ambience for days, this pedal does it and does it well.
An amazing 2-in-1 pedal!
Right off the bat you can easily cover common case of uses with this pedal. The delay is voiced toward an analog(ish) delay and there’s a spring reverb on the other side. If it’s all you want, buy the pedal and stop reading here. That being said, the tricky part is when you want to use it for ambiant purpose. It’s more natural to use big hall reverb with clean long stereo digital delays or ping pong or reverse. You don’t have that with the Caverns. I personally don’t like spring reverb that much in this situation. The shimmer and modulated options are ok but not as polyvalent as hall or plate ones. BUT –> With some knob tweaking you can get super interesting and usable ambient tones (at first glance the two sides does not seems to fit that well together for that stuff.
This pedal gives you a very accurate sounding blackface reverb sound (plus some shimmer and chorus sounds that I personally don’t care for, except for on bass, where the alternate modes shine) and a tremolo that is plenty but doesn’t really sounds like the old school optical units. The delay has the echoplex quality, especially with a ‘clean’ boost or low gain OD in front of it. The Caverns doesn’t have tap tempo, subdivisions or stereo outs; but it has a modulation function that sounds like old heads or stretched tape depending on how you set it.
This pedal is super fun to play with and has a very unique effect. This is the first pedal I’ve ever purchased, and I have to say that it was a great first choice. Important to note that you need to buy a 9V power cable SEPARATELY, this package does not come with a power supply.
Reverb and delay in one box. Top mount jacks and option for trails or true bypass make this a very flexible combo pedal if you need delay or reverb. Lots of options, lots of sounds, all of them good. Closest competitor is the Dispatch Master, and compared you get more options on the Caverns to tweak both the reverb and delay, as well and switch them independently.
Versatile and great sound
This pedal will achieve that sound, and then some. It doesn’t take up a whole lot of real estate on my board. The shimmer and modulated reverbs are extremely fun. I really like the modulate function on the reverb side. To me, it has a phaser type sound. Not so univibey or chorusy, but phasery. I can’t find much use for the warble sound in the delay; I keep the switch set on regular sounding delay.
The only con I have for this pedal, and it’s a first-world problem, is I wish the delay were a digital delay instead of an analog sounding delay. Again, first-world problem. However, it is an AMAZING analog delay. And quite possibly the reason why I love this pedal so much compared to some of the other reverb/delay combo pedals I’ve seen and heard is it has the two independent switches, so if you wanted only delay, you can have that, and same for reverb. I am quite happy with this pedal, and I believe it will stay on my board for a very long time. If you are looking for a reverb/delay combo stompbox, look no further than the Caverns.
