UNDER CONTROL
Decay, pre-delay, tone and mix controls populate the top of the pedal along with a switch that flicks between ‘hall’, ‘shimmer’ and ‘modulate’ modes. Side mounted jacks are again the go with this particular Lovepedal model. Decay controls how long the reverb effect hangs around for, whilst the mix control blends your original tone, with the HSR 3 allowing you to add anything from a hint of verb through to everything you’ve got.
LOVE THE TONE
Starting with the hall setting, I could dial in a nice big verb for picked arpeggios and open washy chords. The mix control is handy for reducing the effect to almost a hint of verb, or opening right up for boomy cathedral type tones. Modulate adds some warble and pitchy movement that cops 80s ballad sounds and modern electro funk very nicely. The inclusion of the tone control on the HSR 3 needs to be mentioned as a handy addition that is quite sneaky in application. Allowing for some extra bloom it can help the effect cut slightly more or sit back into the mix.
PRE AND SHIM
Pre-delay can yield some interesting results too, with that slight gap adding some bigness and then a spooky effect with a silence and then boom the verb sets off. Cool with big hall settings for a small then huge effect, it sounds artificial in a really cool way when used as an effect but can also be backed off to work into your normal tone. Shimmer adds that sparkle on top with some added octaves and can be subtle and ambient for chords and picking or more in your face. Again the mix, delay and pre-delay work beautifully as one to sort the wash and blend of the sound. I could see the HSR 3 being popular with ambient and indie users but also a great tool for those wanting moody scapes and haunting splashes of verb. Another cool effect from the Lovepedal peeps that adds some extra sparkle whilst remaining usable.
