Steve Neville Roller Buzzer

RRP: £79.50

It is not very often that a piece of angling equipment reaches cult status and also stands the test of time with very few tweaks being carried out over a period of almost two decades, but the Steve Neville roller alarm is one such product. I have used Steve Neville alarms for a good number of years now, and fleeted between other alarms on the market, but always ended up going back. Why? Read on to find out.

The Steve Neville Roller Buzzer is one of the most simple design alarms on the market, with a single on/off switch, roller wheel, two LED's and a speaker. Due to the simple design, the size of the alarm can be kept to a very small size. The main body design has not changed much at all since the alarms inception and is very small compared to other alarms on the market.

Looking at the alarm, you wonder what has changed, and these changed will be described later on, but the latest alarms look identical to the earlier versions. The roller wheel is the same as before, but instead of being fitted with two magnets, the alarms are now fitted as standard with a black four magnet roller. This allows for less movement on the wheel to set the alarm off. Some anglers like to use less sensitive rollers and rollers with less magnets are available from Steve Neville stockists. Replacement four magnet rollers are available from Matrix Innovations who do other colours than black to match the LED's. There are other smaller companies out there who also produce replacement rollers for the Neville alarms, but I have not used them so cannot comment on them. Some anglers seem to think that the roller wheels require modification to allow them to turn under slack line conditions, but with the latest alarms, I have not found it necessary to put a bait band onto the groove or make any other modification to allow them to be used with slack lines (and 99% of my fishing is done with slack lines). Changing the roller wheel is the same as before, and is done by using a baiting needle to push the centre pin out of the wheel, replace the wheel and then push the pin back through again.

The shallow "ears" on the rod support section do require the use of snag ears when not pointing the rod tip directly at the baited rig and when fishing with a tight clutch/free spool, and any of the available snag ears on the market are suitable to be used.

The LED function have been changed slightly from previous versions in that instead of latching on for 10 seconds, the lower LED now flashes. This makes it easier to determine which alarm has gone off in darkness, especially if you like to use a lot of high power isotopes in your indicators. The flashing LED also has a secondary function which is explained below. The upper LED indicates when the roller wheel is moving.

The latest inception of the Steve Neville Roller Buzzer has now been fitted with a simple volume control system. Previous alarms have had a single volume which has been described by the advertising and other anglers as "f***ing loud!" and relied on anglers plugging the speaker hole with various products from hand rolling cigarette filters through to BIC biro ends to bona fide speaker plugs from Steve Neville himself and later Matrix Innovations and AGT. The latest Roller Buzzers have been fitted with circuitry that allows the alarm volume to be set between Silent, Low and High through clever utilisation of the the on/off switch. To change the volume on the head is a simple process of turning the alarm on and the lower LED will flash. Whilst the LED is flashing, switch the alarm off and turn it on again. You will then hear a loud bleep, low bleep and no bleep but the LED will flash. Once you have heard (or seen) the setting you want, switch the alarm head off to set this until you repeat the process to change again. This stops the requirements for speaker plugs for those that use remote systems or not want the volume of the alarm to disturb others (I still use a speaker plug to stop any ingress of water or spiders, bugs, etc).

On the reverse of the alarm is a sounder box extension socket. This 2.5mm jack plug socket allows a wired or remote system (using 2.5mm connectors such as the ATTx system) to be plugged in to the alarm so the sound reaches the bivvy.

Power to the alarm is supplied via a 12v 23a battery that will give the average angler at least a seasons worth of usage before requiring a change. On my older Neville alarms, I cannot ever remember changing the batteries mid-way through a season (I always change batteries on June 16 as a "tradition").

Final Thoughts

I have used many alarms over the last two decades, and as previously mentioned, I always end up returning back to the Neville Roller Buzzers. I cannot offer any explanation other than I know that they have never let me down and confidence in your equipment is poosibly the most important factor after location. Some people have said that they have had the roller freeze up in the Winter but I cannot ever remember this ever happening to me regardless of if the original or a third party roller has been used. They have been subjected to some of the worst conditions that large open waters can throw at them such as breaking waves throwing water all over them and remained fully operational through out. In my opinion they are probably also the best looking alarms on the market (come on, I have to have some pleasures when angling!!!).

If you have never tried the Steve Neville Roller Buzzer, consider them highly when looking for a new alarm as there are thousands of very happy anglers out there using them. They may not have all the gadgets and functions of some other alarms, but unless you have OCD and have to change the settings every single time out regardless of if they need changing, you will not miss most of them with the Steve Neville Roller Buzzer.

The Steve Neville Roller Buzzers for this review were supplied by Johnson Ross Tackle.