If you’ve been reading this website for a while, you will know that I really dig old spring reverb units. At Gold Coast Recorders we have an Orban 111b, a SoundWorkshop 242B, a a DIY’d mono tube unit based on the classic Fender tube 3-knob, and we recently added a mod’d Pioneer RS-101 stereo tube reverb to the lineup. In addition, I use a built-out Fisher Space Expander in my lil home studio. But there is always more out there, and ain’t that true. Above: the Master Room series C, the Quad-8 RV-10, and the Sennheiser (!!!) CV-571. Anyone using these units for music production these days? Drop us a line and weigh in on ’em.
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7 replies on “Obscure Mechanical Reverbs of the 70s”
Quite a few spring reverbs here at our studios from the likes of AKG, MasterRoom, Furman etc. The title of the most obsure spring reverb though has to go to the Great British Spring Reverb, it’s housed in a long black drainpipe and sounds excellent.
I’ve got a “Great British Spring Reverb” here, it sounds very nice, but the housing fools you a bit. I thought, off course, that it contained some custom long springs, but it is just two Accutronics tanks with a not too impressive gain and amplifier circuit built in.
Can’t go wrong with two accutronics tanks though, sounds like nothing you can get in digital.
I’d love to get more spring verbs, I’m really hooked and I regret the day that I decided not to buy an Orban 111b for 100$. Sorry self, didn’t know better at the time!
I even had a dead cheap Danelectro spring king some years ago, and even though it sounds very hard and metallic, it was amazing on some sources like synths and dirty vocals. Shouldn’t have sold that.
I’ve started buying parts though to build a stereo spring verb, but I haven’t decided yet if it should be tube or not.
if u combine the Pioneer SR101 (with the channel swap and bypass mods that I describe) with one of those-directional balancing amps, it can be a pretty sweet deal… could also be a nice summing effect for BGV buss. I had always planned on DIYing a stereo, line level I/O tube reverb, but its just soooo much cheaper to get one of those pioneers and then repair+mod it. SEE: https://www.preservationsound.com/?p=5906
Cool. There’s actually one on German ebay right now. Maybe I should throw in a bid.
I’ve got a Sennheiser CV-571. It has a nice warm sound and the reverb time is adjustable! There’s a crank-handle damping the spring. Great for dubby snares…
Actually it’s an RCL Electronics CV-571…
Hiya. An Orban 111B and AKG BX-5 have been permanent residents of our studio since the mid 80s. Regards. Ton