T‑Rex RoomMate D’Luxe

Reverb pedals for guitarists are in no short supply, but in this third generation of their RoomMate reverb series, Danish company T‑Rex promise analogue warmth courtesy of a dual triode valve placed in the audio path before the digital reverb engine, to offer a more organic‑sounding reverb than you’d typically get from a conventional digital reverb pedal.

Physically, the unit is built into a folded‑steel chassis that sports five rotary controls and one footswitch. A small window shows the valve glowing away inside the case. Apparently the circuit runs the valve at a full 250 Volts, which allows it to work in its optimum design range. This pedal can accept mono or stereo inputs and also has stereo output capability, for those who need it, so there are definite studio applications in addition to a place on live pedalboards. An expression pedal jack is also fitted. Valve circuitry demands more in the way of power than solid‑state analogue circuitry, of course, and in this instance it uses a 12V, 600mA supply, which is included in the price. It ran fine from the 12V output of my Strymon Zuma PSU, though, and that’s rated at 500mA.

A Reverb control governs the wet/dry balance, while Decay determines the...