I use an accutronics spring tank as a dubby reverb. It costs about 30 bucks and you don’t need a preamp when you have a mixer with enough gain. You can hear it in the video:
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I had mine on an aux too, but routed it back to a channel for feedbacks. super nice in combination with the resonant filter.
so you can dial in musical notes
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I have one. Strictly for studio/home use. With a band, the pickups for the springs pick up sounds from the drummer, the guitarist, etc.
I love the filter but it is admittedly on the aggressive side.
Sounds fine with guitar, but introduces overtones that I don’t like with electric violin.
My favorite all around spring reverb is the one built into my QES Roadtripper MCM guitar amp - sounds great with electric violin, all my guitars, synths, etc. It does however impose a guitar amp sound on everything - even when the line out is used, there’s speaker simulation circuitry.
Damn, that seems like the way to go, even if you end up needing to get a cheap preamp to drive it.
I use the Moog Grandmother for it’s spring reverb alone from time to time. I routed an aux out from my mixer to the audio input, so when I don’t use it as a synth I just put it in drone mode and open it’s channel to send stuff throught the reverb (and filter hehehe)
If you want something inexpensive (but good) there is lots of information online on DIY spring reverbs.
But if not, on the high end, Gamechanger Audio, who also make the Motor Synth, is just about to start selling their Light Pedal. It costs $300, i think. They have changed the design of the spring reverb to improve the harmonic response. I posted about it before in the NAMM 2020 thread.
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Yes, this thing sounds very good although it is a bit noisy without preamp. I was never happy with most spring emulations in reverb pedals. I route my spring tank back to a line input for additional eq.
You would never buy it for just the spring reverb, but I have found on the Syntrx that the spring reverb in conjunction with audio routing, feedback and reverb mix modulation, it really is a great on the master bus. You can still send your signals through dry at the same time in stereo or effect them in other ways with the Syntrx. Expensive but great.
This one seems like it could be a great option for a lot of people, if they are after some extras also.
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If you include the Dust Collector (there’s a thread for it too) then for completeness let’s also add the Dreadbox Hypnosis.
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I just picked up The Dust Collector and I’m using the spring reverb a lot with my synths. It does the trick for me. I prefer very mild spring reverb settings and combining a small amount of this mixed with the right setting of the tone knob makes it really easy to dial in. It can also do extreme settings. I haven’t really found much use for scraping the springs and whatnot. As an added bonus the phaser on the Dust Collector sounds extraordinary on synths. I’m running the Prophet 5 Rev4 through it and it sounds really superb. Honestly, every effect on this thing is pretty usable. The delay is dirty as hell though (in a good way IMO).
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Also interesting: Benidub Spring Amp
a bit pricey and comes without tank, but seems to be pretty good/flexible
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The best spring reverb I’ve used is in the echofix EF-X2. It’s better than my previous standalone vermona spring reverbs and IMO way better than the grandmother spring reverb. Funny, because I bought the unit for the tape echo but the spring reverb is insanely good. I spoke to Shane the owner of exhofix and he said they custom designed the tank with accutronics.
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For those who might wonder how the Moog Grandmother sound when used as the main reverb in a track, check out this little jam:
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you can open up the Grandmother and put in a larger tank for more springiness…
I think I have to open mine anyway as it seems the springs are getting blocked on some frequencies since a few weeks. Might need some cleaning inside …
I made a no solder DIY spring reverb. It’s not very pretty, but this is MKII - by far, better than my first attempt (sound wise).
A little taste of a 707 rim hit while slowly adding the FX send.
The trick is really 1. getting the agitator to properly move the spring which probably requires a bit of extra amplification, and 2. getting a good signal from the spring.
Anyone know a super small/compact amplifier? Currently using a little amplifier effect box I had lying around.
My first attempt had way too much noise. The pickup was too big. I went with a much smaller one this time. The signal seems really nice.
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Dat sht be dope.
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Some people use headphone amps or record preamp. I have used one channel of a mixer with the gain high and the fader low and then out of the direct out into another channel.
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Huh that is sweet! Pretty smooth sound for a spring actually
What kind of agitator/transducer/make-spring-vibraty-thing did you use? How much watt is it receiving? How are you picking up the signal from the piezo?
Sorry for blasting you with questions hahaa. Played with the idea of making a tiny plate reverb for metal clangs, but haven‘t gotten around to it
I‘ve read – or heard on some video? – that reverse-using headphones instead of piezo pickups makes a smoother treble for some electrical reason.
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I’ve been wrestling with this idea of getting a spring reverb for a while now. I was on the verge of selling most of my equipment to fund a Syntrx because it simply has one integrated. But my desire for digital synthesis cordoned off too large a chunk of my budget to manage it.
I really wish that The Dust Collector had a more robust overdrive/saturation section. If it did, it would be the perfect option. Having distortion, delay, phaser, and spring reverb all in one analog unit (with CV control) would be outstanding.