Talk to me about spring reverbs...

[PeteeBee]

The only dedicated spring reverb I've tried is the spring chicken. It is also the only pedal I have ever tried I like so much I have never considered flipping or anything. Everything else comes and goes, the chicken remains forever.

[zeravla]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nIMKzU5Dko[/youtube]

Someday.
Someday I will get one of those.

[BassIsBad]

Malekko Spring Chicken yo.

[penelope tree]

I would recommend the Supernatural's spring mode too.

I owned a Ghost Echo for awhile and found it to produce a lot of hiss. The effect was good but it couldn't replicate a spring sound and was very limited in scope.

[Gone Fission]

It's funny to me that all the digital sims are chasing the ugly twangy, sproingy artifacts that I hated about real Fender reverb. (If I had that amp back, I would so tweak that part of the circuit.) My favorite actual spring unit (two-pan unit in early Boogie Quad preamp) is light on those bits. I never linger long on digital spring emulations. Ghost Echo demos have a certain pull for me, though.

[K2000]

The Ghost Echo is great, I wouldn't call it versatile though. It's sort of good at one thing IMO. I also find it dark and murky (a plus for me). Good with fuzz too, IMO.

The Line 6 Verbzilla is really versatile. I haven't really tried the spring reverb on that, to be honest. I use the Cave setting mostly.

[Exclaimed]

The Cathedral's spring modes are pretty good, plus having the delay time and feedback tweakable gives it a lot of flexibility and potential for weird sounds.

The spring is probably my least favorite of the Cathedral modes, but a) I'm not a spring guy unless it's a real outboard tank and b) it's still miles above any of the other EHX spring reverbs. Plus you get the footswitchable infinite reverb/hold/drone thing, and it's a discreet 4-holer so you can run stereo, do feedback loops, cascade one channel to the other, run it in multiple places in your chain etc. If you've got a local store that carries EHX, it's worth sitting down with one and seeing if it'll roll you socks up and down.

I really regret selling mine.

Especially after reading this

I do too, but I sold mine mostly because I have super clumsy size 14 feet and would always accidentally hit the preset button / selector wheel whenever I tried to press the bypass. Drove me crazy.

[Televator]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the Catalinbread Topanga reverb. It seems like one of the best spring reverb pedals around.

http://www.catalinbread.com/topanga-chrome.html

[whiskey_face]

currentlty using a 64 fender blacklface unit,l
]

it wins SO HARD.

[lordgalvar]

Has anyone tried those Van Apps Sole-Mate spring reverbs? I was a bit curious of how they sound in person a while back.

[myrrh]

Has anyone tried those Van Apps Sole-Mate spring reverbs? I was a bit curious of how they sound in person a while back.

I have one (the two part one), and really like it. I did not end up on my board though as it is a bit too big to fit together with my power underneath.
Also it is not quite as deep as I need sometimes.

[Uncle Grandfather]

I have one too and really like it. Also +1 on the Knas moisturizer.

[retinal orbita]

The Cathedral's spring modes are pretty good, plus having the delay time and feedback tweakable gives it a lot of flexibility and potential for weird sounds.

The spring is probably my least favorite of the Cathedral modes, but a) I'm not a spring guy unless it's a real outboard tank and b) it's still miles above any of the other EHX spring reverbs. Plus you get the footswitchable infinite reverb/hold/drone thing, and it's a discreet 4-holer so you can run stereo, do feedback loops, cascade one channel to the other, run it in multiple places in your chain etc. If you've got a local store that carries EHX, it's worth sitting down with one and seeing if it'll roll you socks up and down.

I really regret selling mine.

Especially after reading this

I do too, but I sold mine mostly because I have super clumsy size 14 feet and would always accidentally hit the preset button / selector wheel whenever I tried to press the bypass. Drove me crazy.

Oh fuck. You're right. I forgot about that part actually. The presets were kind of a pain to dial through, and every time I got a setting I liked at band practice it would sound like a dogs butt at home. And then vice versa. I kind of hate presets on pedals.

I also felt like with a lot of EHX pedals there is just too many controls. Knobs are great or whatever, but sometimes it just makes dialing in things a chronic pain.

I sold it and got a Hall of Fame, and I really do love that.

[rfurtkamp]

I'm happy with the Boss FRV-1 (fake spring tank, not the Deluxe Reverb in a box).

I cut my teeth on real outboard tanks and the only one I ever loved was the actual Fender one - I don't think I ever used a SS spring outboard cheapie that I kept more than a night.

When the Boss came out and the comparison videos started between it and a real tank, I couldn't justify buying a real one again.

It's close enough when I want a couple of my typical sounds, and while no ILFindiecred involved...it does exactly what it says.

If I want anything else in verb, I want old rack stuff. I'm using both a Quadraverb+ and a Midiverb 2 still because well, they're gnarly and nasty and *not* spring.

But if I want faux spring, the Boss makes me happy.

[Gone Fission]

Rob, since you've got other Boss/Roland stuff in spades, is the FRV-1 reverb significantly beyond/different from the spring emulation in their other gear? Curious because I know Raveonnettes is all RV-5 spring all day long, and they seem like they're serious about such things sounding right. At the same time, I hear about flagship multi-effects units like the GT-100 and 001 not having all the algos, bells, and whistles that are in some of the individual pedals.