As promised,,Demo of my PhAbb Maxiverb.
Recording process;
Direct Record (no mic) > normalize > convert to low quality MP3.
So wipe off some treble above 4kHz to replicate the sound through a Guitar speaker.
I hit the foot switch in a couple of places so you can hear the dry sound to make comparisons.
The dwell and Depth are set at 1 O'clock which is done to show the ability of the effect but for normal playing I only use it on 1~2.
At max it gets pretty crazy swimming which would rarely be used but nice to know it's there for some crazy surfin fun.
The reason I built this is simply because most Amps on-board spring reverbs are average at best and some are just worthless.
Even some Valve rigs today have barely working reverbs and they do not come close to the old units of years past.
The key to reverb (for guitar at least) is the freq response of the reverb unit/circuit itself. Most opamp powered units around are current drive and this seems to flatten out the response but I found you need a lot of voltage swing to get the *Driver end to push hard enough* to replicate the old Valve units. Opamps are incredible things but are limited when BIG swings are needed.
The Tank itself does play a large part in the final result but if you are using Accutronic type tanks with the right transducers then you will
be saving a lot of stuffing around. If you are lucky you may find some odd ball tank that works fine but some are really bad and resonate badly when driven hard like mine.
Remember the tank is purly mechanical and once the signal is converted to vibration on the spring the sonic result is totally dependent on the quality of the spring and the way it is designed.
Another subtle point that most miss is that more rows of springs will be of little use,,
You don't need many rows of springs for a good reverb. Most of them have the transducer/coil at one side of the iron core and the
spring closest to the transducer passes 80% of the sound so more than 2 rows of springs is overkill and wasting money.
With the top off it's easy to prove this by gently muting the springs one by one while passing a signal.
Note on digital reverbs;
Most can produce *longer reverb time* but very little effort is placed on frequency response.
Sure they claim 20/20 bandwidth but therein lies the eFup,, way too much bandwidth is most of the problem with modern digi gear.
That said the digi Belton brick setup has impressed me and might be easier to implement.
But hard to beat a good analog Spring Reverb
Anyway you folks can judge for yourselves if it's worth the extra effort,,
The Maxiverb unit is deathly quite and has given me trouble free use for close to 10 years now.
Have fun, Phil.
These were never really meant for anyone besides me, but you'll get an idea what it sounds like. 