Spring reverb (Anderton's Stage Center)

[WormBoy]

A friend gave me a nice set of Accutronics spings, so I needed to build something with that. Doing some research, I learned that this particular tank is best used in connection with op-amps, so I settled on Craig Anderton's classic: the Stage Center Reverb. Doing some more research, I found discussions on DIYSB on the 'Mark Hammer mods', and implemented those in perhaps a bit extreme form: I used two modboards with rotaries from Nucleon FX (thanks Rockhorst!) to switch between alternative caps before and after the tank. This is a very effective way to change the sound (the tone knob doesn't do much).

There's a LT1054 to make a split power supply, extra filtering so I can use a salvaged 12V power supply, extra outputs (incl. regulated 9V) to power pedals from the reverb, and LM833 opamps which are comfortable driving the reverb tank (and can take higher voltages). The enclosure is from Musikding ... it is sold as a looper enclosure, but when I received it I found out it is actually a piece of wire gutter cut to size ... Kind of unexpected, but it actually works pretty well.




Gut shot (built on a prototyping board and some stripboard for the power filtering; not the cleanest build but I was making it up as I went along  ):


Action pic in front of my Champ (built from a kit), with a modified Timmy (real mosfet clipping rather than the body diodes that are so often used  ).


The sound is pretty okay, with some nice sproiiing and boiiing going on , though I wouldn't mind having a bit more sparkle in the highs. Low on hiss and hum, unless you turn it all the way up (which sounds horrible anyway). Nice extra: you can kick the tank to get a nice clang without hurting your amp. It's a different sound than the brick-based reverbs, which I would generally recommend for your pedalboard (though this spring reverb is more fun to build  ).

[stringsthings]

That's an excellent build!

I was a huge Craig Anderton fan back in the pre-internet days.  I did buy one of his reverb kits
from PAIA and I wasn't really impressed.  I'm sure yours sounds much better with the mods
( and a better tank )

I'm old enough to remember the days when a spring reverb was the cheapest available choice.
It was either springs or huge, expensive plates.  ( Or bathroom reverb )  Then digital devices came along
and now we can get a pretty decent reverb from a Belton brick.

[WormBoy]

Thanks. My guess is that the key to getting a good sound with spring reverb is in the combination of tank choice, opamp choice, and pre- and post-tank bass cut. Mine does sound pretty good, though it is a very looong reverb, so more useful for the sperical soundscapes and not so much for a touch of reverb on distorted riffs. It also does a nice surf sound. Need to play more with it to really get a good picture of what it's capable of.

Yeah, the bricks are way more practical for the pedalboard (and cheaper), and they sound really good, so the spring reverb is old fashioned. Nevertheless, I am also of a certain vintage, so I appreciate having one around now that I built myself  .