1776 Effects

The Belton brick is the reason these kits exist at all. It is a self-contained digital reverb module, small enough to sit on a pedal-sized circuit board, that does the actual reverb generation. The builder's circuit around it handles the input and output levels and the wet/dry balance. Mod Kits DIY describes its own kit of this kind simply as a "Reverb pedal kit based on Belton Digi-Log module"¹, and General Guitar Gadgets' D-VERB is "Based on the Belton BTDR-2 or BTDR-3 Digital Reverb Brick"². The same approach shows up across the small-maker world, which gives a player comparing circuits a lot of reference points.

How a Belton brick reverb works

The brick is a sealed module containing a digital reverb processor. The pedal circuit feeds your guitar signal into it, and the module returns a reverberated version that the rest of the circuit blends with the dry signal. Because the reverb algorithm lives inside the module, the kit builder does not need to build a reverb circuit from scratch, only the supporting electronics. Dr. No Effects uses the same approach in its Moon Canyon⁶⁷⁸:

Different makers choose different bricks and different amounts of control around them:

The amount of control varies with the design. Jeds Peds' Fluster Cluck puts "3 pots and a toggle" around its brick, which the maker says gives the unit "masses of versatility"³, while Dr. No's Moon Canyon keeps it to a single knob⁹. CopperSound went further with the Daedalus, building it "off the newest Belton 3 brick" rather than a chip⁴. Enclosure choice matters to builders too: the Fluster Cluck "fits inside one of our excellent JP1590BB enclosures" and supports right-angled pots for a tidy build³.

What a builder gets from a brick-based kit, in practice:

• A reverb circuit that does not require designing or debugging a reverb algorithm, since the brick handles it
• A control set that depends on the maker, from one knob to three pots plus a toggle
• An enclosure and finishing choices left to the builder, including right-angled pot options on some kits³

Decay and the Deluxe question

A decay control, the knob that sets how long the reverb tail lasts, is where simple brick-based designs and fuller reverb pedals separate. MOOER's R7 X2 gives an example of the control in a compact digital pedal, with "Decay and Pre-Delay knobs for adjusting the intensity of each effect"¹². On the kit side, Mod Kits DIY offers a step-up build in the same family as its brick-based Verb: the Verb Deluxe, a "Reverb Pedal kit" aimed at the builder who wants more than the basic version¹³.

Wet/dry range is the other dividing line. Old Blood Noise Endeavors' BL-37 Reverb shows the full version of the blend control, with a Mix knob that sets "effect blend from 100% dry to 100% wet"¹⁴. A brick-based kit with a simple blend pot typically does not reach that full kill-dry to all-wet sweep, which matters if you want the pedal for ambient swells or for use with an expression rig.

Where to read next

For the broader picture of the effect itself, see the reverb pedals page. Players who enjoy building may also want to look at the other kit makers listed in the table above, since the Belton brick design is shared across all of them and the differences come down to the control set, the enclosure, and the support each maker provides.

Questions