Line 6 ToneCore Pedal Verbzilla review

  • £112
  • $279.99
The Line 6 Verbzilla pedal (back-left)

MusicRadar Verdict

A very handy reverb pedal, suitable for a range of applications.

Pros

  • +

    Sensible range of reverbs to cover lots of styles.

Cons

  • -

    Slight harshness on some sounds, easily tamed with the tone knob.

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As we racked our brains trying to think of an effect type not covered by the ToneCore range, we pulled the Verbzilla out of the box.

Of course, reverb! In typical Line 6 style, there's plenty to choose from. Eleven tends to be the magic number on the more complex ToneCores, and there are 11 reverb algorithms here, selected via a rotary switch.

The standard types (spring, plate, room, hall) are all here, along with some more ambitious choices, including the dense, harmonised Octo. There are global controls for time (specifically the pre-delay time), decay (controls the length of the reverb tail), mix and tone.

Finally, when the trail switch is engaged, the echoes will decay naturally, even after you've switched the effect off.

Sounds

There's a good mixture of reverbs here, some obvious (the '63 Spring setting is based specifically on surf guitar sounds), others more open to interpretation.

Some of the settings have a slight digital brightness or harshness on the repeats, but the tone control is useful here; we managed to coax pleasantly warm sounds from all of the algorithms.

There's enough flexibility from the time and decay controls to fine-tune the sounds to most requirements, and the trail switch is a very effective addition; reverb just sounds so wrong when it suddenly dies in its prime!

Unlike most of the other pedals in the ToneCore range, the Verbzilla is something of a 'blank canvas'. Rather than being obviously guitar-specific, its stereo inputs and outputs make it suitable both for keyboard or outboard recording duties.