let's talk spring reverbs

rty5150 · Post by **rty5150** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 8:09 am

yeah, i am going to mount mine in a 2U rack shelf and just hide it behind a 2U blank. if i get a wild hair was going to build a blend circuit with a little cheap preamp circuit i had laying around to blend it. as of right now, it just pass signal through, record and blend with the original. rolling off the top and bottom seems to focus the verb more, too.

rich

mattcastore wrote:
rty5150 wrote:i am using an accutronics reverb tank pulled from an old polytone and WOW!!! how cool and boingy that tone is. needs a bit of tweaking to make it multipurpose, but that boing of the spring is hard for digital to copy.

rich
i'm about to buy an accutronics reverb tank and try this. i'm considering screwing it down to a 19" piece of plywood to make one of the ugliest pieces of rack gear around.

i had an idea to wire two different models (short decay and long decay i guess) together, with a knob to blend the two (far left sends all the signal to one tank, far right sends it all to the second tank, middle is both, etc). i'm not quite savvy enough to put it together, but it seems like a simple way to get more flexibility out of these things.

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 10:02 am

what are youguys driving/receivingyour accutronics with? They arent exactlly line level, and I am sure they aare an odd impedance as well.
I am interestedin going this route as accutronics are super cheap and after all are the springs in most spring reverbs.

rty5150 · Post by **rty5150** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 10:51 am

calaverasgrandes wrote:what are youguys driving/receivingyour accutronics with? They arent exactlly line level, and I am sure they aare an odd impedance as well.
I am interestedin going this route as accutronics are super cheap and after all are the springs in most spring reverbs.

funny you ask...i just ran it straight in from the output of my firestudio 2626 via a 1/4" unbalanced to rca and out of the tank with a rca to unbalanced 1/4" back in. with it so short(<6' round trip) no problems. i plan on a DI/preamp rig later on, but right now, it just works...

rich

doc · Post by **doc** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 11:51 am

I've got a Demeter and really like it. The studio I work at also has a Mic Mix Master Room vertical spring that's about 3 1/2 feet tall, non-adjustable, and absolutely amazing sounding. There's also a BX-10 that no one ever uses. Maybe it's broken, but I don't think so. I think it just sounds hollow and lame. I've tried to convince the owners to sell it a few times but for now it sits there looking somewhat impressive but turned off and unused.

-Doc

Matt C. · Post by **Matt C.** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 1:51 pm

calaverasgrandes wrote:what are youguys driving/receivingyour accutronics with? They arent exactlly line level, and I am sure they aare an odd impedance as well.
I am interestedin going this route as accutronics are super cheap and after all are the springs in most spring reverbs.

my plan (i haven't actually set this up yet), is to just use an aux out (or channel direct out, giving you the chance to EQ the signal pre-reverb) from the mixer, then back in to the line in on a free channel. (like it was detailed in that "shitty is pretty" article that was posted recently)

you can order the accutronics tanks in all sorts of different input and output impedances. the one i was going to order had an input (load) impedance of (i think) 10k ohms, and an output impedance of around 2k ohms (it is model # 9GB2C1B). i'm no expert, but i'm pretty sure this is adequate for hooking up the mixer in/outs.

it sounds like people are already doing this successfully (maybe even with weird impedances?), but i'll report back when i have mine set up.

Matt C. · Post by **Matt C.** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 1:58 pm

rty5150 wrote:if i get a wild hair was going to build a blend circuit with a little cheap preamp circuit i had laying around to blend it.

how complicated does this circuit need to be? in my extreme ignorance about electronics, i was hoping it was as simple as adding a 500k pot with the input of each tank hooked up to opposite terminals. probably not the case though.

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 1:59 pm

I'm surprised that works like that. The spring reverb is essentially a microhone used as as speaker driver hooked up to one end, with a microhone like device at the other. I would assume you would need to drive it with a pretty robust signal and amplify it with a mic pre. I guess I assumed wrong? Or maybe it would sound better that way. Are you guys getting "boink" out of your springs that way?

rty5150 · Post by **rty5150** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 2:50 pm

mattcastore wrote:
rty5150 wrote:if i get a wild hair was going to build a blend circuit with a little cheap preamp circuit i had laying around to blend it.
how complicated does this circuit need to be? in my extreme ignorance about electronics, i was hoping it was as simple as adding a 500k pot with the input of each tank hooked up to opposite terminals. probably not the case though.

i was going to try to build something like a "reamp" style rig with an "atty" style attenuation and a blend knob. right now it works like a champ, but wish i could control it just a bit more. less on/off, more blend. i might even put in caps to rolloff top and bottom, too. most of this stuff is in the pile, but right now it's all theoretical. i am NOT an electronics guy, just an overall tinkerer.

rich

rty5150 · Post by **rty5150** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 2:52 pm

calaverasgrandes wrote:I'm surprised that works like that. The dpring reverb is essentially a microhone used as as speaker driver hooked up to one end, with a microhone like device at the other. I would assume you would need to drive it with a pretty robust signal and amplify it with a mic pre. I guess I assumed wrong? Or maybe it would sound better that way. Are you guys getting "boink" out fo your springs that way?

from what i found with mine was the line level from the outs was more than enough to drive it. i had to full the faders down to keep it from becoming overly boingy. had no noise either.

rich

tdbajus · Post by **tdbajus** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 4:33 pm

rty5150 wrote:
calaverasgrandes wrote:I'm surprised that works like that. The dpring reverb is essentially a microhone used as as speaker driver hooked up to one end, with a microhone like device at the other. I would assume you would need to drive it with a pretty robust signal and amplify it with a mic pre. I guess I assumed wrong? Or maybe it would sound better that way. Are you guys getting "boink" out fo your springs that way?
from what i found with mine was the line level from the outs was more than enough to drive it. i had to full the faders down to keep it from becoming overly boingy. had no noise either.

rich

What was the model number on your tank? I might borrow some from a friend of mine who fixes amps...

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 4:44 pm

wow, this changes everything. I was holding off on playing with a spring racking project because I am so behind on my website, preamps, synth and fuzz box projects. I anticipated building a driver and preamp in to the box. If all it takes is line ins and outs than Iam gonna have to try this.
Though something is nagging me that it just has to be better with some active circuits. Well there is always room for a MKII version later right!

rty5150 · Post by **rty5150** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 7:09 pm

tdbajus wrote:
rty5150 wrote:
calaverasgrandes wrote:I'm surprised that works like that. The dpring reverb is essentially a microhone used as as speaker driver hooked up to one end, with a microhone like device at the other. I would assume you would need to drive it with a pretty robust signal and amplify it with a mic pre. I guess I assumed wrong? Or maybe it would sound better that way. Are you guys getting "boink" out fo your springs that way?
from what i found with mine was the line level from the outs was more than enough to drive it. i had to full the faders down to keep it from becoming overly boingy. had no noise either.

rich
What was the model number on your tank? I might borrow some from a friend of mine who fixes amps...

1DB2C1C

stamped:
made in usa by
accutronics

rich

Liv Pooleside · Post by **Liv Pooleside** » Sun Feb 07, 2010 3:19 pm

I also have one of those 3 1/2' tall Master Room units. One input, two outputs, used to be a touring unit and had a nice road case. I wish now that I had also bought the taller one.

It's a bit noisy, so I can't let the tail hang on the end of a song as I might like, but otherwise it's wonderful. Mono guitars get wide with a touch of this. Drums/percussions sound much better through it than any digital unit I own. I use it a lot to take the edge off of that digitalness I get using the Yamaha AW4416.

I used to own one of those skanky Realistic reverb units. I could not like it in any application, but I wish I still had it- I never tried messing with the guts. It was so dark and nasty. The front panel light/depth indicator was nice...

I just bought a cheapo guitar amp with a tiny little reverb tank in it. It sounds OK, but it really sounds great on bass guitar. I never put verb on the bass before, but this adds snap.

Recycled_Brains · Post by **Recycled_Brains** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 9:00 am

Anyone using the Fender '63 reverb "head"?

I tried one out last weekend on guitar, and thought it sounded really nice, but I wonder how it is in the context of a mix on things like vocals, acoustic instruments, etc.....

sean k · Post by **sean k** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 4:42 pm

This is something I've had on my bench for a while now and want to get back into finishing.
Basically the signal goes to some LM386's then drives the speakers with the cones removed and the tongues added and this drives the springs. At the other end the plastic spring is wrapped with guitar string, steel, and an inductor with a neodenium magnet on top will be the pickup and it goes out to the world via a regular opamp preamp.

I got this far and realised the tongues needed to be supported vertically as the spring sagged and that would make the coil drag on the magnets of the speakers.

Theres also a world of plate reverbs out there these days that can be easily driven by speakers suspended above the plate and piezo's mounted on the sheet and because you want a roll off of lows you can use the piezos straight into a low impedance and those lows won't get in.

My friend did it and published it on his blog bsidebeats.

Also the valve wizard has some tube drivers for various impedance inputs to suit tanks with inductors... if you even feel the need to get signal in electronically....?

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