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Has anyone built a spring reverb unit before? I’d like something I can put on top of my amp that I can smack and hit to make noise.

Just wondering how hard it’d be to convert a standard reverb tank into a stand-alone unit.

I built a Ruthenium, it sounds pretty rad. Uses a 1054 to drive a small accussonic real spring tank. It gets pretty big hall sound easily. If you want a big spring reverb like out of a fender twin you're going to need high voltage DC (a transformer or 2 and some big caps) and some tubes. The "Revibe" is quite possibly the finest (Imo) stand alone reverb/vibrato a man can clone these days.

ancientbones wrote:Has anyone built a spring reverb unit before? I’d like something I can put on top of my amp that I can smack and hit to make noise.

Just wondering how hard it’d be to convert a standard reverb tank into a stand-alone unit.

Do you hope to run signal through the reverb, or just use the the tank as a mechanical sound effect?

If you just want to bang on it and make noise, grab an RCA to 1/4" cable and plug that fucker into any old thing with moderate gain you have lying around and on into a spare amplifier channel. Done deal.

If you want to feed signal through it in the classic reverb application, then yeah, you'll need something to drive the springs. A headphone amplifier will work in a pinch.

For real reverb though, nothing beats a stand alone build with controls/etc. My comments above, while functional, are only using half your ass and tend to get finicky after a while.

There are some schematics out there that will work with a low ohm tank, I think I found them at Rod Elliot's page, ESP-Elliot Sound Productions or something like that. Or you can do the Surfy Bear DIY kit. It's like ~$60 I think. You still need a tank, 12v supply, enclosure, and if you want to add a bypass switch, you'll need that too. Barring that, there's always the old Danelectro Spring King pedal which has a "kick pad" for making the "crash" sounds.

You might also look into the Pioneer home stereo reverbs. They tend to be cheap and work fine in the loop of an amp.

If not in a loop, they just need a little extra gain going in.

man this sounds like it would be so much fun

I've got an old Carlsbro valve PA with a solid state spring reverb that sounds really really good. Planning to build a standalone reverb unit using this...

http://schems.com/bmampscom/carlsboro/60par.jpg

Dr Satan wrote:there's always the old Danelectro Spring King pedal which has a "kick pad" for making the "crash" sounds.

Which also has a PT2399 delay inside that you can mod for control over depth and feedback.

Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D. wrote:man this sounds like it would be so much fun

https://www.prosoundweb.com/channels/re ... te_reverb/
This too and my dad has a welder.

If your looking for a diy project I have some spring reverb driver/recovery PCBs still kicking around from an old project. It's designed to to a buffered effects loop + spring reverb module to go in a tube amp but could easily be adapted to make a stand alone reverb unit.

made this one a few years ago





The circuit is nothing special. Just a few opamp buffers and boosts/gain into the spring drivers. Some minimal tone control, and wet/dry blend. I didn't really look into driver impedance at all, so it's probably sub-optimal. Just used my ears. The bigger challenge was the construction.

Gorgeous

made this one a few years ago

Got a schem for that unit?

Ben79 wrote:

made this one a few years ago

Got a schem for that unit?

Sorry I don't anymore. It was just a quick thing I breadboarded with some tl074's and bog-standard opamp buffering/boost. I didn't keep the files.

I said it above and I'll say it again.. that Ruthenium is amazing for like 12$ in parts. I boxed mine up and it's really lush. I mean it's a real spring reverb so it doesn't do digital pad stuff obviously.

Looks good, along the same lines as Cloudscape's design. I was in an abandoned factory with a screwdriver on my person the other day and happened to find a very nice old 24v transformer so I'm gonna go big and build the Carlsbro.

Are the Rutheniums available to buy anywhere?