Mad Professor is a synonym for sound quality, and the Silver Spring Reverb is a great example of it. It has been designed to sound great with both clean and distorted sounds, something that is difficult in stompbox-size reverb pedals. In this article, we’ll cover a review of Mad Professor Silver Spring Reverb guitar pedals, their features, and how they work.
The dry signal stays fully analog, and only the reverb is digitally filtered. It’ll be killer when placing it within your FX loop, but it won’t get nasty if placed before the overdrives and distortion pedals. It is super easy to use, and you won’t get mad just trying to sound great.
Built the Mad Professor way: small footprint and big tone.
This is what Mad Professor says about this guitar pedal:
The SSR’s sound is exceptional with a clean signal but was specifically designed to work equally well with the tougher performance requirements of distorted tone. The SSR can be used before distortion, although it was primarily designed to go after. If you use the SSR before distortion, you may want to use a lower Reverb (Wet/Dry) setting.
Features and Controls
Like most spring reverb pedals, the Silver Spring Reverb is mono, so you’ll only see single input and output connectors. On the other hand, this stompbox is powered with a 9V negative power supply, requiring at least 80mA of current.
The controls of the Silver Spring Reverb are pretty standard too. It has 3 knobs: Time, Tone, and Reverb, and the true bypass stomp switch. This is how the knobs will affect your sound like:
- Time sets the length of the reverb.
- Tone control adjusts the high-frequency response of the reverb. It’ll get darker counter clockwise and brighter when rolling it clockwise.
- Reverb controls the amount of reverb mixed with the dry signal. You’ll get the dry signal when all the way down, but it won’t get up to a fully wet reverb if rolled all the way up.
Sound
I’ve already said that the Mad Professor Silver Spring Reverb sounds great. It’s capable of recreating studio-quality room reverbs of different sizes: from a small warm studio and a plated bathroom to a big church.
But here comes something that some people may argue about. Despite including the Spring word in its name, I don’t personally think that you’ll get a spring reverb sound with this pedal. At least, not the sound of the old school, vintage tube-driven spring tanks.
I didn’t have the chance to enjoy playing with it for a long time, but I wasn’t able to hear those characteristic sounds of springs anyway.
You won’t get disappointed if you’re looking for a simple reverb that just sounds great, is simple to use, and can get along perfectly with your amp and distorted sounds.
Should you buy this pedal?
Now this question is a little tricky in the case of the Silver Spring Reverb. If you are looking for a vintage spring reverb sound, you have better options than the Mad Professor. On the other hand, if you’re looking for natural reverbs, you have better options, too (see the alternatives section).
But, if you are looking for a reverb pedal that does not color your sound and recreates small to medium natural ambiances, this pedal is great. It is the perfect solution to tune the knobs the way you like and just leave them there. You’ll see how it’ll just make you sound better.
Mad Professor Silver Spring Reverb Pros and Cons
This is the summary of my review of the Mad Professor Silver Spring Reverb:
PROS
- It sounds really warm.
- It is true to bypass
- The dry signal stays fully analog.
- The sound quality is great; the pedal is noiseless.
- Very easily tunable, the knobs will just make what you want them to do.
CONS
- It doesn’t really sound like a vintage outboard spring unit
- It’s not capable of extreme reverbs
Alternatives to the Mad Professor Silver Spring Reverb
The Wampler Faux Spring Reverb is a very similar pedal within the same price range. It’ll be a matter of personal taste if you prefer one over the other.
If what you really like is spring reverb, you have better options that recreate vintage sounds of outboard spring tanks. In my opinion, the best of those is Catalinbread Topanga Spring Reverb. It is pure old school. On the other hand, you also have the Mr. Black Deluxe Plus; this one is great for surf music and looks so cool.
On the other end, you have one of the beasts of Strymon, the blueSky. This one will allow you to recreate the best reverbs you can imagine. You may think it’s a pricy guitar pedal, but will change your mind if you have the chance to play with it.
Conclusion
I love spring reverb pedals because they are simple to use and because I love the feeling of vintage spring tanks of the early sixties. You won’t find that stuff in the Silver Spring Reverb, though. It sounds great, but too HiFi, although this pristine sound is great for recreating natural reverberating ambients too.
