Corium_AZ said:
Ok ,well I picked up a used Stonerverb by way of buying an entire loaded RM4, lol. Came from Australia, and it's the 'De Large' version - which means that it's got a 3-way mid-shift switch and 3-way 'pre-bass' switch (bass boost/cut as far as I can tell). It retains the clean channel as well. And, tonight I had a chance to A-B it with my R'Verb (which I also had a 3-way 'tight' switch added (bass boost/cut)).
The Stoner's clean is nice, but not compelling enough to use in lieu of my Vybe Deluxe (the Vybe sounds better). It is nice to have there, as it makes the mod more versatile, and it does sound nice, but not near as nice as an actual Rockerverb's clean channel IMO. The 'clean' channel is a little bit hairy, even with gain at 7 o'clock, when playing full chords, but gets crystal clear/clean with the guitar volume turned down a bit. Though, it's better to keep gain up a bit closer to 10 o'clock so as to not completely lose the bottom end. Kinda clean Plexi-ish to my ears. The clean side does take OD/TS pedals very well, and I actually prefer the pedal-driven 'clean' channel over the drive channel of the Stoner. It's less 'fizzy'.
The drive side of the Stoner, I'm not quite sold on yet. It is very 'fizzy', which I suppose I should expect to a certain degree with an Orange mod. It sounds good and toneful, with a very 'woody' thump when chugging/palm-muting. It is somewhat versatile here, but as I said, I prefer an overdriven clean channel on this mod. No fizzyness there...
R'Verb - Only hairy cleans can be coaxed from this, but that's by design I suppose. You can get awesome low/mid-gain tones from this guy though, which is what I like best about this mod. And, with the gain up, or hit with an OD/TS it gets straight into SLO territory. It doesnt have as nice of an organic, woody nature as the Stoner, but it's close. However, the R'Verb is MUCH more harmonically rich, IMO. Full chords strummed at high gain just sparkle, and every string can be heard ringing through. This is not nearly as apparent with the Stoner, at least not in my rig. This is the best trait of the R'Verb IMO, and the real Rockerverb exhibits the same - also it's best trait IMO.
So, the Stoner wins on versatility, and the R'Verb takes it on harmonic complexity and overall tone.
I need to spend more time with both of them, but as of now I think the Stonerverb may go up on the block soon, as I'd have no use for both.
Ok, well I had several hours just to demo/test my R'Verb vs the Stonerverb, this time at full volume. The above was with me playing the RM4 straight into my DAW using RedWirez speaker cab IR's. I only had a few minutes through my RM100 last time to make the comparo. I swapped pre-amp tubes, tried a JJ, Tung-Sol, Ruby and EH in V1, to see what positive effects I could conjure out of the Stoner. No major improvements there. I preferred the JJ's, but then again I seem to prefer JJ 12AX7's in all of my modules. They just seem to be a bit warmer and promote the 'shimmering' harmonics that I like.
I will have to 'take back' the comments on the fizzyness of the Stoner, and the inability to dial out the hair on the clean side. Neither of these traits were apparent through a power amp into a real speaker cab. You could detect some fizz with the noise gate switch turned to off, but it was very subtle. And, the clean channel remained so all the way to gain at about 10 o'clock - making it a very useful clean.
However, I maintain the rest of the previous comments. The R'Verb is more harmonically complex, and just has a sweeter tone to my ear. The Stoner seems a bit more sterile in that regard, but does have a nice, woody kind of overtone, especially when palm muting. If I could get that in my R'Verb, there really would be zero contest IMO.
The Stoner is far more versatile with the clean channel and all the switching options, with a much wider gain range. So, if I had only one mod slot, it'd probably be filled with a Stonerverb - as it has pretty good cleans, that overdrive very easily and nicely with pedals. But, I have 3 slots. And, my Vybe Deluxe has a much better clean tone, and is itself extremely versatile in the clean/lo-gain/mid-gain ranges using pedals or not, and with more harmonic complexity (this apparently is very important to me, lol).
I should note that I had Rob install (by his suggestion) a 3-way 'tight' switch on my R'Verb soon after buying it. This really beefed up the low end, and makes it into a much, much better module. Without this addition, I'd definitely favor the Stonerverb, as the lack of bottom end is less favorable than lower harmonic complexity, for me at-least. So, I recommend anyone considering an R'Verb get this $40 addition. It's 100% worth it!
So, I sold the Stonerverb, as I have no use for both. I was actually really expecting the Stoner to be noticeably better, just based off of comments on this forum. I kinda had myself convinced even before playing it, lol. But, after a ton of time with them side by side, the R'Verb is tops for me!
