morphball wrote:

Bad-ass tank, Chris! These great looking enclosures are so motivating for me to finally finish mine...

Thanks! All the other great builds motivated me to build mine. I played it at band practice the other night, and I was super happy with the way it sounded. So was everyone else. Honestly, in that setting, it was hard to tell the difference between a real Fender style reverb unit, and this one. And I say that as a die hard tube reverb lover. I can see this unit getting quite a bit of use in the future.

I'm ashamed how long mine has been sitting on the workbench.

It took me a lot longer to build than I thought it would. Lots of little steps. The tool box build looks like the easiest way to do one in a short amount of time.

I'm thinking about a pedal board build for the next one - I don't have a pedal board, and this might be just the thing to make me build one. I'm thinking about a several preset sounds using a footswitch or two for the presets, and maybe making them changeable via extra pots. should be simple enough. Although I have to admit that I had an issue with mine just getting the light to work.

"You can't tell where you're going if you don't know where you've been"

busse wrote:

I have done all wiring with shielded cable to avoid hum and noise and I will also make a relay conected to a foot switch to turn of the reverb inesead of sending the signal to the foot switch. Mabye I will have two relays one that turn off the reverb and one relay for "tru bypass" and a switch on the backside of the chassi to choose between a "tru bypass" or "reverb mute" function of the foot switch.

Good idea! I'll copy this one for my tank.
Why didn't you use a bridge rectifier for the power supply but just 2 diodes? Aren't you worried about hum?

Gilette wrote:

busse wrote:

I have done all wiring with shielded cable to avoid hum and noise and I will also make a relay conected to a foot switch to turn of the reverb inesead of sending the signal to the foot switch. Mabye I will have two relays one that turn off the reverb and one relay for "tru bypass" and a switch on the backside of the chassi to choose between a "tru bypass" or "reverb mute" function of the foot switch.

Good idea! I'll copy this one for my tank.
Why didn't you use a bridge rectifier for the power supply but just 2 diodes? Aren't you worried about hum?

I got an 2x12V transformer or if you will call that 24V with center tap at home, so in my case it was easier and cheeper (two diodes ) to build the rectifier like the way Björn show in the picture, this type of rectifier are common in old tubeamps.

Slowly but surely.

I havent tried.
Might be a good idea!

Since I built my FET Reverb I have been running a MOD pan in it and have been overwhelmed by the long reverb tail. To remedy that, I purchased a lot of 3 NOS Hammond Gibbs tanks on ebay for $15 (!) + shipping. I auditioned all 3 tanks in the unit and each one was preferable to the MOD, producing relatively more sproingy drip with shorter decay time (tail).

Probably one of the best things about the Surfy Bear, as compared to Fender RI or other devices, is that tank impedance values I/O matter so little to its circuit's performance. This means you can afford to experiment with any number of new or used tanks. I've been able to fine-tune my Bear at minimal cost and virtually no hassle. This is hugely advantageous and needs to be part of the marketing description of the kit.

Since I have 4 pans now, I am thinking of purchasing the new build from Bjorn and installing it on the other side of the same toolbox lid my extant board lives on, simply stacking a second pan on top of the first one in the capacious hull below. A binaural spring reverb unit!

Squink Out!

Shake,
One here reads
AO-23580-10
1122-6807
Another has inked on the bottom
061507(top is covered with rubber sheet)

Squink Out!

wfoguy wrote:

I went to Wikipedia and read the page about FET. I still don't understand the options for choosing it but I faintly understand it's operation. The only thing I'm positive off is this knowledge will in no way affect my playing ability.

jFETs are similar to tubes in many ways. The biggest differences is that jFETs cannot handle the same supply voltage and do not age in the same way as tubes.

In this article you can read about how jFETs can replace triode tubes in amplifier circuits:
http://www.runoffgroove.com/fetzervalve.html

bjoish, thanks for the info. I'm about to formulate a logical progression to be able to explain this to my friends.

ludobag wrote:

Snufkino wrote:

Sorry if this has already been discussed, but I'm on the verge of ordering the kit: Can it be wired up to include a footswitch like the fender tanks?

Thanks.

read the all thing there is the answer hiden in the fews page of the thread
i have already said but no need of this swith cause if i not use the surfy bear (never i think)i will not plug in cause is eat the sound like a real tank (volume drop)

Yes, thats right.
In this document you can see how to connect a footswitch: