Electro-Harmonix Oceans 11 Reverb pedal review

You might have noticed it’s been a while since EHX launched a new reverb pedal, but last year’s release of the Canyon delay paved the way for the Oceans 11, which follows the same pedalboard-friendly compact form factor. 

11 different types of reverb can be selected using the rotary switch, some of those having up to three variations on the theme, and accessed by pressing the Mode button linked to an LED, which will light up as green, red or orange to signify the active mode. 

Besides that, you get knobs to control the reverb level (from totally dry to totally wet), the reverb time (infinite reverb when fully clockwise on some types) and the tone for a brighter or darker sound. The Time and Tone knobs also have a secondary function of controlling a stored hidden parameter, different for each reverb type, like pre-delay time and pre-delay feedback for the Hall and Plate reverbs and Spring Length and preamp Drive for the Spring reverb.

In use

That Spring seems to be based on a vintage Fender outboard unit and its authentic sound will not disappoint surf guitarists in any way - it has that ‘drip’ that you hear when palm muting.

There are some very nice-sounding reverbs here, covering just about all the options you could wish for including modulated, pitch-shifted and dynamic types plus a practical combined reverb and delay. Reverb with tremolo is another great addition, particularly the smooth sine wave mode, and you can turn the reverb down for just trem. There’s some cool performance features too, including footswitch-operated infinite reverb, which is really a ‘freeze’ type function - play a chord, hold the footswitch and it’ll hang in the background swathed in reverb while you play normally over it, until you release the switch. 

This EHX take on the multiple-program reverb pedal doesn’t have preset switching or stereo operation, but how difficult is it to twiddle a few knobs if you want a different sound for a particular song, and how many of us use a stereo path anyway?

Fact is, this is a very efficient way to put some reverb on your ’board both in terms of cost and size. It would be worth it purely for that spring to release your inner Dick Dale... but you’ll be getting so much more than just that.