Alesis Microverb 4

For anything to do with guitars, amps, effects units and any other music making accessories

Moderators: David Martin, dave robinson, Iain Purdon, George Geddes

Alesis Microverb 4

Postby dave robinson » Mon Jan 06, 2020 4:05 pm

Just because I'm inquisitive, I checked out my friend's Microverb 4 to see if it offered anything 'Shadows like' for us guitarists.
Stan is our lead vocalist and when I used to watch his band 'Magic' back in the 70s, they always had a vocal sound to die for, much of that of course was that they were all good singers and their harmonies were second to none. But that aside, they had a fantastic PA sound and only recently did I get to know some of the secrets.
Fast forward to today and Stan maintains that great PA sound within his own act, even as a soloist. Gone are the Binson and Davoli type PA systems though from back then.
He now uses a Spirit Folio mixer with his Alesis Microverb 4 as his effects, these fed through his RCF or Wharfdale active speaker systems that he uses for different sized rooms.
The point here is, he still has that 'Magic' sound on his vocals and further investigation revealed the modestly priced Alesis Microverb 4 as a big part of this great sound.
I borrowed it to try on guitar and was pleasantly surprised at the great sounds I could use, some which were very close to our Shads sounds, leading me to believe that I could do a job with one of these machines. I found one on eBay for £50 and it works great in the guitar chain, simple to use, not spot on, but a fantastic guitar sound. I've got Apache about right and saved it, along with usable Kon Tiki, Flingel Bunt and Shadoogie patches with a slapback thrown in for the rock & roll. I can gig all night with it and nobody comes and says 'You're using the wrong echo' - utopia !
Add to that I used my Squier Classic Vibe 50s Strat too with my new Fender Tone Master amp, it's just more evidence that the playing and performance outweighs the gear - every time. ;)
Dave Robinson
User avatar
dave robinson
 
Posts: 5937
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 2:34 pm
Location: Sheffield
Full Real Name: David Robinson

Re: Alesis Microverb 4

Postby dave robinson » Mon Jan 13, 2020 2:05 pm

I had no idea that this humble little machine possessed a lovely generic Shadows echo.
When I look back at some of the videos of The Shadows where you can clearly hear that Hank's echo is totally alien to his recorded sound, it makes me wonder why somebody didn't tell him that this kit was available. OK maybe not this particular machine, but there were FX boxes from Yamaha, Ibanez and one or two others that did the job better than what he went with at the time, I know because I found them for myself. I can only assume that no one advised him that they existed, unless of course he didn't want the tunes to sound authentic. :idea:
Dave Robinson
User avatar
dave robinson
 
Posts: 5937
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 2:34 pm
Location: Sheffield
Full Real Name: David Robinson

Re: Alesis Microverb 4

Postby fenderplucker » Tue Jan 14, 2020 3:33 am

Hi Dave,

I too have often wondered why Hank put up with some of the less than ideal sounds following the Meazzi and clean Burns eras. But I have come to understand that he is first and foremost a musician concerned with making music: playing, technique and his characteristic exquisite phrasing. As he has often said, he plays as though he were singing the song, not just stringing together notes on the guitar. As such, the technology has never been his primary focus and he usually just went for "plug and play" equipment solutions: off the shelf guitar, echo and amplifiers. In a way the drum Meazzis were just a happy coincidence. When they died he just went to the next available echo units: Binson, Roland, Echoplex and so on, with somewhat variable results. While some programmable units did appear by the 1980's (and he did use a couple like the MXR and Roland RE3), nobody had programmed them to emulate the Meazzi's and furthermore they really didn't offer much in the way of vintage tones and by and large he stuck with the Rolands. Similarly with the early non-programmable digital units. That changed when Charlie Hall figured out how to analyse the echoes of the Meazzis in the mid 1990's and program a facsimile into the programmable digital units like the Alesis Q2's and later Q20's (and also others like the Zoom and Magicstomp). This gave Hank a better plug and play option with an acceptable sound and he used them until the TVS3 came along with a more vintage sound.

So I think that the short answer to your question is that during that "later-middle" period when the early programmable digital echo units became available, nobody (including Hank) had the interest or skills to program them to give a more authentic Shadows sound until Charlie came along.

By the way, the humble Alesis Wedge also has a multi-tap option and can be programmed to give usable Shadows echos (but without the refinements of W&F etc.).

Paul.
fenderplucker
 
Posts: 275
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 1:51 pm
Full Real Name: Paul Rossiter

Re: Alesis Microverb 4

Postby Didier » Tue Jan 14, 2020 9:45 am

fenderplucker wrote:I too have often wondered why Hank put up with some of the less than ideal sounds following the Meazzi and clean Burns eras.

I remember an interview in which Hank said it had not been a good idea to drop using echo...
When I saw the Shadows at the Paris Olympia in 1964, they were playing Burns guitars, and there wasn't any noticeable echo on Hank's guitar. I remember having been disappointed. Although the playing was perfect, the sound wasn't as good as the first time I saw them at the same place in 1961...

Didier
User avatar
Didier
 
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:57 am
Location: West suburb of Paris, France
Full Real Name: Didier Parot

Re: Alesis Microverb 4

Postby bor64 » Thu Jan 23, 2020 7:57 am

Paul, your right!
In the 80's Hank told me, when I ask him... why he's not using the old type echo and amps...
I used always the most reliable/modern gear at that time, to get a good sound on stage .
All the trainspotters are more nostalgic then I'm!

Didier, yes no echo is disaster!
Years ago my mate and I, sitting first row exactly in front of Colin Price Jones amp.
Knowing what was coming, we were happy as Larry, until CPJ starts playing with a sad face.
His Meazzi look a like Atlantis wasn't working and his spare was stolen....
So the show wasn't the high standard what the Rapiers normally deliver.
The bare sound was killing the mood of all guitar players in the theatre including Colin's!

Cheers Rob
"afterwards everyone is clairvoyant"
User avatar
bor64
 
Posts: 529
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 10:22 pm
Location: The Netherlands
Full Real Name: Rob Aartsen

Re: Alesis Microverb 4

Postby Didier » Thu Jan 23, 2020 10:16 am

bor64 wrote:Didier, yes no echo is disaster!
Years ago my mate and I, sitting first row exactly in front of Colin Price Jones amp.
Knowing what was coming, we were happy as Larry, until CPJ starts playing with a sad face.
His Meazzi look a like Atlantis wasn't working and his spare was stolen....
So the show wasn't the high standard what the Rapiers normally deliver.
The bare sound was killing the mood of all guitar players in the theatre including Colin's!

Cheers Rob

I saw the Raper twice on stage some years ago, in Paris and in Calais, Colin has indeed a very good sound.
When he came in Calais, he asked to be lended an Atlantis echo unit, as for some reson he couldn't bring his own. I was part of the chain who brought one to him !
It didn't take long for him to get the right settings...

Didier
User avatar
Didier
 
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:57 am
Location: West suburb of Paris, France
Full Real Name: Didier Parot

Re: Alesis Microverb 4

Postby dave robinson » Thu Jan 23, 2020 11:53 am

fenderplucker wrote:Hi Dave,

I too have often wondered why Hank put up with some of the less than ideal sounds following the Meazzi and clean Burns eras. But I have come to understand that he is first and foremost a musician concerned with making music: playing, technique and his characteristic exquisite phrasing. As he has often said, he plays as though he were singing the song, not just stringing together notes on the guitar. As such, the technology has never been his primary focus and he usually just went for "plug and play" equipment solutions: off the shelf guitar, echo and amplifiers. In a way the drum Meazzis were just a happy coincidence. When they died he just went to the next available echo units: Binson, Roland, Echoplex and so on, with somewhat variable results. While some programmable units did appear by the 1980's (and he did use a couple like the MXR and Roland RE3), nobody had programmed them to emulate the Meazzi's and furthermore they really didn't offer much in the way of vintage tones and by and large he stuck with the Rolands. Similarly with the early non-programmable digital units. That changed when Charlie Hall figured out how to analyse the echoes of the Meazzis in the mid 1990's and program a facsimile into the programmable digital units like the Alesis Q2's and later Q20's (and also others like the Zoom and Magicstomp). This gave Hank a better plug and play option with an acceptable sound and he used them until the TVS3 came along with a more vintage sound.

So I think that the short answer to your question is that during that "later-middle" period when the early programmable digital echo units became available, nobody (including Hank) had the interest or skills to program them to give a more authentic Shadows sound until Charlie came along.

By the way, the humble Alesis Wedge also has a multi-tap option and can be programmed to give usable Shadows echos (but without the refinements of W&F etc.).

Paul.


I've only just seen this Paul, thanks for posting.
Thanks for the heads up on the Alesis wedge.
I totally understand and agree with Hank's point of view there and I experienced very similar circumstances back in 1979 when our group split and I began a solo career.
As we were a comedy show, we had long discarded the echo boxes as we knew them in the early days, but I decided I wanted to go back to playing some Shads stuff and singing rock & roll hits, Beatles and everything sixties, so I needed the echo again. There was the Copicat, but I eventually had two Roland Space Echo machines, a 101 and a 201 which were big and bulky, before discovered an Ibanez digital machine that had two separate taps - or heads, which I could roughly make sound similar to a Shadows echo. I used this successfully for quite a while until the Yamaha FX-550 was introduced, which had better options. By then I had bought a powered mixer with built in effects for vocals so my set up was largely more portable. Because of the need for me to do it, I found a way by trying all this kit, but in Hank's case the need wasn't as urgent, as he wasn't touring the country trying to make a living. So there you have it - necessity is the mother of discovery, or something like that. ;)
Dave Robinson
User avatar
dave robinson
 
Posts: 5937
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 2:34 pm
Location: Sheffield
Full Real Name: David Robinson


Return to Gear

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 17 guests

Ads by Google
These advertisements are selected and placed by Google to assist with the cost of site maintenance.
ShadowMusic is not responsible for the content of external advertisements.