hey lads. i just finished my 5g15 reverb unit and now i got some questions i hope you guys can answer.

1 is it normal to get slight drop in volume going trough the unit
compared to plugging right into amp?

1. im kinda bummed over the reverb. didnt get the drip i was hoping for.got an danelectro spring king and its almost the same thing?
   could this just be the 3spring belton pan or am i missing something
   

thx

gui_SURF_tar
hey lads. i just finished my 5g15 reverb unit and now i got some questions i hope you guys can answer.

1 is it normal to get slight drop in volume going trough the unit
compared to plugging right into amp?

1. im kinda bummed over the reverb. didnt get the drip i was hoping for.got an danelectro spring king and its almost the same thing?
   could this just be the 3spring belton pan or am i missing something
   

thx

Re:1 Yes, the higher you raise the Mix knob, the more loading occurs with a small drop in volume.

Re 2: A two spring reverb pan will be capable of a more dripping sound. The 3 spring is more of a washed out sound, not the sound of a trad Reverb Unit with the "ping". Finding a decent new pan may be a challenge. I was surprised at what Dario could pull out of a new pan with his reverb unit, so, there is hope!

PS: The guy who made my 2nd Slacktone made a Weber reverb unit, it sounds really good, so stay with it!

I have 3 old ass accutronics pans and 1 MOD.. i keep the MOD in my unit.. very happy with that pan and the quality is damn nice..

I wanna play just like him when i grow up...

i dig the boink , and the glassy shimmer of moderate reverberation...

and when you get them to feedback ever so slightly, you open up the heavenly chorus...but, that's getting into hearing damage sound pressure levels for sure...

Icetech
i keep the MOD in my unit.. very happy with that pan and the quality is damn nice..

I love the MOD tank too. Beats the hell out of the new Belton-made Accutronics tank.

Icetech and Dannylectro are right about the better quality of MOD vs. Accutronics.

Having said that, though, I followed some advice found elsewhere on SG101 and shimmed the transducers in my Accu pan. (I think it was Danny who described the procedure.)

These alterations did a lot to make the Accu about as responsive as the MOD pan. They still sound different; the former is more 'tinny' and the latter is a bit darker-sounding. I've got the Accu in my outboard unit and I'm pretty happy with the sound these days. The MOD just went into my amp as part of an overhaul, but it's still in the shop -- can't get it back till Lunar New Year is over. Hmm... It would be more sophisticated if the pics were interspersed with the text, but I can't get it to do that. This'll have to do!

image
image
image

DannySnyder
I believe the theory behind the 2 pairs of springs is that each spring is slightly different and coupling them eliminates the tendency to ring at a resonant frequency.

Yes ... but the left hand/right hand is to counteract twisting. A difference between the single spring and the 2 piece "single spring is you lose a lot of highs because of the mechanical coupling.

dboomer

MissingLink
I followed some advice found elsewhere on SG101 and shimmed the transducers in my Accu pan. (I think it was Danny who described the procedure.)

Can't quite see what you mean. Is this the equivalent of "potting" a pickup?

Well, for me it was about removing the physical play at the transducer attachments. I sliced matchsticks and shoved them into the gaps to prevent the excess movement that results from the modern-day Accutronics method of construction. According to MOD's own blurb, their vintage-style manufacturing reduces signal interference:

"Some of the major differences between the MODs and other reverb tanks are that the transducers are wired directly to their respective RCA jacks as opposed to current production tanks where transducers are connected by a detachable plug to their respective RCA jacks. This makes the tanks less receptive to any outside interference. The original Hammond Accutronics tanks from the 1960's were also wired directly to their respective RCA jacks."

Does that mean the shims also have a shielding effect? Maybe. My reasoning was that since transducers change kinetic energy into electrical, any wasted motion could harm the process. The obvious experiment would be to make metal shims and see if they effect the same improvement as wooden ones.

Here's the vintage Accu pan from my amp (yeah, I know, it's only got one spring). You can see what the quote above is referring to in terms of direct connection. With the MOD, there was no need to shim anything, as its construction resembles that of the vintage pans.

It should be made clear, assuming it isn't blindingly so already, that I know next to nothing about this stuff! I just learn by reading and then doing. What is certain is that shimming the transducers in the Accutronics pan helped enough that I came to slightly favor it over the MOD pan -- which was itself a big improvement over the stock Accu.

Edit: Having had another look at the photos above, it seems that the tiny slivers of wood being used are hardly going to provide a comprehensive shielding effect.

thx for all the good tips guys.

but i had time to test the tank alittle today and im now pretty sure theres
something wrong with the output level. i played it trough my amp and
usually i set the volume to about 2. but with the tank plugged in i had to
set the knob to about 6 or 7 to get the same volume?
any ideas on where to start looking??

thx