Reverb tank

[helstab]

I recently came across a free Hammond reverb tank. It has RCA in/out. I have never used one and don't know how to.I tried hooking it up to my aux and of course there isn't enough power. I don't have much outboard gear so next I tried aux out into my microverb for a boost. I turned the mix down and the input and output all the way up. Then I ran to the tank... Still no control. next I tried the same thing but went out from the tank back to a input on the board and turned it up. It worked ok. I just threw it each guitar just a little and panned to the opposite side.

My question is. How do I get move control over the reverb. And what should I mount it to?

[winky dinglehoffer]

Basically with a spring reverb the input signal is translated into motion in the springs which is then translated back to signal. So you need some sort of amplifier to juice the output of the reverb back up to a respectable level.
So getting decent results by patching it into your mixer makes sense, since you're using the mixer to amplify the reverb's output. (I think I got all that right--not completely sure.)

As for mounting: a simple strategy would be to mount it to a piece of wood with a chunk of foam rubber between the wood and the spring tank. The foam will help isolate the springs from vibrations caused by footsteps, falling mic stands, etc.

For further info you might look at the spring reverb project at paia.com or go to http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/epe ... rings.html

[leigh]

Try some Google searches on this subject. Search the web then also search the rec.audio.pro group. There are some circuits out there (one is the Craig Anderton "hot springs" paia kit) based around cheap audio IC's, so if you want to dive in and build a driver/amp circuit, go for it.

My quick solution was this: take an old boom box with an aux in. Run your effect send to the boom box's aux in. Run one the box's speaker wires to the tank's input. The impedance is all wrong, but at least it's got some drive to it. Then run the output of the tank to an input on your board. Use a line input if you can, but you'll probably need more gain than that, so you might have to use a mic input.

Leigh

[ciminosound]

Get all your reverb info here....

http://www.accutronicsreverb.com

[rhythm ranch]

Hi,
This came from (I think) somebody on this board, but I didn't save the link. I just copied and pasted the info into a long file of interesting audio tid-bits. I haven't tried it yet, so you're on your own:

Get a couple of old spring units - yeah the ones from guitar amps, hammonds, whatever. You want one long (3 springs) and one short

These babies usually have phono cartriges for pickups on the springs so you've got to pad the input down to about -20dB (also best if slammed with a comp to remove transients)

The output is where folks run into trouble... Remember that they are Phono cartridges... So what do you need? A radio shack phono pre to bring the signal back up to line level while maintaining the correct impedance.($30)

Springs are really cheap so try lots of them until you find the one that sounds cool for you... I keep about ten on hand and just patch them into my spring Gizmo.

Now you've got something no one else has... And the possibilities are endless

Good luck!

[NewYorkDave]

The "phono cartridge" info is erroneous. See my reply in this thread:

http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopi ... highlight=

[helstab]

Thanks for the responses. i know I should start searching through the boards before asking.

sorry