Review – Biyang TriReverb

Biyang Tri-Reverb

Purchased from Aliexpress for $63AUD

This reverb is great and has an awesome resonance for such a cheap pedal. Settings are relatively uncomplicated with blend and reverb controls along with mini-switches for Room/Hall/Spring reverb and an A/B switch setting. The A/B switch seems to be a dark/light control with B being on the darker, gruntier end of the spectrum.

Overall the build quality is quite good with a solid enclosure and a thumb removable screw for the 9V battery (so no need to remove the whole back with a screw driver). The mini switched feel a little flimsy and will probably loosen over time, but for the price and the build quality otherwise, I am OK with this.

This pedal would be brilliant, unless that is, it breaks after the first week of use. I am very gentle on my pedals and this one got the same treatment as all of my pedals. However, after only a week of light use (on battery) it started to work intermittently and then not at all. Given the risk there is with AliExpress I tried for a refund but my options were to pay $40 postage to China or to accept a part refund and keep the pedal.

So I looked a little more into it and it looks like there is a pretty high failure rate, some people I talked to saying that they have experienced maybe 1 in 3 pedals that fail within the first few weeks. Then there are other people who say that they have used their pedal for years without and issue. So the best advice that I have for this pedal is that you buy it on Ebay or Amazon (or locally if you can) because then you will have the recourse through those companies for refunds for faulty merchandise. Opening the enclosure is no help, as the components are quite complex in a reverb and you will highly likely not be able to complete a self repair.  

For what it’s worth, here is a video review of the Biyang TriReverb