~100$ for the Surfy Bear + pan...the rest depends on what you want.

The Hicadoolas

$86 for circuit shipped
$20 – tank
$10 – vintage toolbox
$8 – 3 Fender Brownface knobs
(already had hi-fi RCA cords)
=
$124
...but it's worth a lot more to me – satisfaction of beating the high cost of great reverb using a little craft enabled by SG101 to find Bjorn's Surfy Bear.

Squink Out!

Ok, now is the website finally updated with info about the new R4 version of the Surfy Bear FET Reverb! A lot of work, but fun
The new SMD board is smaller in size and price.

As usual, let me know if you have questions!
My english is far from perfect...please contact me if you find errors or info is missing.

/Bjorn

The new R4 looks amazing in form factor. Björn managed to reduce the board size from 100˟70mm to 80˟35mm! And get rid of the heat sinks. That's a major difference which opens up for us much more creative enclosure possibilities.
Also, the new dwell gain trim pot definitely seems like something beneficial to experiment with.
I'm excited to try this one, this time with an Accutronics pan. Maybe even mount the SMD PCB on the reverb pan itself, with proper shielding. I have an idea in the works

Great work, Björn, thank you for keeping improving on an already incredible solution!

bjoish wrote:

Ok, now is the website finally updated with info about the new R4 version of the Surfy Bear FET Reverb! A lot of work, but fun
The new SMD board is smaller in size and price.

As usual, let me know if you have questions!
My english is far from perfect...please contact me if you find errors or info is missing.

/Bjorn

Last edited: Dec 04, 2014 06:58:16

It's going viral now!

The Kahuna Kings

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Kahuna-Kings/459752090818447

https://thekahunakings.bandcamp.com/releases

I've just ordered a kit .
I'm going to start looking for enclosure ideas. Do reverb tanks come with mounting hardware ?

DreadInBabylon wrote:

I found this page:
http://fuzzkaizer.tumblr.com/tagged/FET-reverb
It features pics of cool builds and links to this thread. Nice!
Lots of other inspiring stuff there if you wanna have a look.

That was nice, collecting all those pics on one page.
Inspiring!

warioblast wrote:

Do reverb tanks come with mounting hardware ?

Anchor springs
Extension springs

I sourced the mounting screws that support the anchor springs from a hardware store. I didn't make a note of their size but they should fit tight enough that you need to 'screw' the springs on to the bolts.

Or, as Bjorn suggested, you can just fit some rubber grommets on the Accutronics tank and save about US$25.00. DIrectly mounting the pan to the front plate works as well as the spring method and the tank doesn't rattle as bad during transport.

If I recall correctly, someone showed pics of a cool, less expensive mounting system earlier in this thread.

Speaking of tanks, I have both current models and would recommend the MIK Accutronics. It has a shorter decay rate than the MOD and doesn't sound echoey like the MOD. Looking at the two springs sets on the MOD, it looks like one set is sretched out more than the other set and I think this causes the echo. Can anyone confirm that theory? Anyway, The Accu sounds warmer -- very much like my US-made Accutronics.

Good luck with your build warioblast and be sure to post pics of your project!

cambeezy wrote:

DIrectly mounting the pan to the front plate works as well as the spring method...

From limited my experiments, I wouldn't say as well, but well enough for most home/studio circumstances. For live use, the spring method still seems preferable, since a lot is going on on stage. It's effectively double absorption (or triple if you hang it from a string like DD...)

cambeezy wrote:

Speaking of tanks, I have both current models and would recommend the MIK Accutronics. It has a shorter decay rate than the MOD and doesn't sound echoey like the MOD. Looking at the two springs sets on the MOD, it looks like one set is sretched out more than the other set and I think this causes the echo. Can anyone confirm that theory? Anyway, The Accu sounds warmer -- very much like my US-made Accutronics.

I'll take that recommendation. We're talking vertical, right? My MOD seems to display the same characteristics that you and others have described. I still like the sound a lot, but chasing the reverb dragon is a worthy endeavor, and so much more fun when it's an analog one!
So. Which one of us is the first maniac that starts winding his own custom Reverb springs?

From Accutronics website:
In addition to the coil and magnets, the transducers also contain DAMPER DISCS within the BRASS SLEEVE assemblies. The SUPPORT WIRES, to which the magnets are mounted, pass through the discs, which results in a controlled application of friction, or 'braking' action, on the twisting spring assemblies. The DECAY TIME performance specification of a reverb unit is dependent on the choice of material type and thickness of the DAMPER DISC; the TRANSMISSION SPRINGS are the same for all the available decay time ranges for any given model.

If the input of a single-spring reverb assembly was driven with a single pulse-like signal (an amplified 'snap'), a series of delayed output pulses would result. The first delay would represent the amount of time the sound required to travel through an equivalent of the uncoiled length of the spring. Following this, the pulse would be reflected from the output side, travel back through the spring, be reflected by the input side, and return through to the output side. This results in subsequent delays having a length of twice the initial DELAY TIME.

When the spring is driven with a sustained audio signal, the delayed reflections overlap the incoming sound. Depending upon the frequencies found in the incoming signal, the reflected sound can interact to result in a series of RESONANCES.

To avoid this unevenness over the frequency response range in an actual reverb unit, two or three spring delay paths are used, each with a different delay time rating. The Type 4 (full-sized two-spring) reverb unit, for example, provides DELAY TIMES of 34 and 41 milliseconds, chosen for the fullest and most even overlapping of delayed sound.

Last edited: Dec 06, 2014 12:07:15

DreadInBabylon wrote:

From Accutronics website:
In addition to the coil and magnets......

I diddnt know that. Very interesting, Ariel!
So the decay time is all about those damper discs.
I wonder if it possible to modify the decay time or the delay time...

Last edited: Dec 06, 2014 18:14:13