I haven't looked at any other posts...

A Surfy Bear
B FRV-1
C Gomez
D Flint
E Fender

DGG wrote:

I only install my products. Sorry for any confusion.

Dario G. Gomez

Sorry, I thought you were the guy associated with Surfy Bear. I guess you are the owner of Gomez products?

MooreLoud.com - A tribute to Dick Dale. New Singles "Finish Line" and "Paradiso" on Bandcamp and website.

I thought that the strymon sounded very sterile and cold. Something like the original hardwire reverb (rv-7) sounds much more convincing and can be had for around $70 on eBay.

Onslow_Beach wrote:

This test definitely proves that with some not-insignificant modification (more than a tube swap), the Fender RI can sound really nice.

Also, an interesting observation if my count is right: the Flint was picked as what turned out to be real tubes & pan 4 times (twice as the modded Fender RI, twice as the G-Spring), and once noted for 'tone a plenty'. Strymon have clearly developed a fantastic brand image.

Not to put too fine of a point on it (because I'm sure it's a great product) but I am one of those who picked the Flint in slot A which was actually the Fender RI.
As I mentioned, I have never heard a single one of the units tested in person. My guess was driven purely by the hype and reputation of Strymon. I reasoned that their digital modeling might give one the convincing pan drip and the extreme clarity I heard in that sample.
The Flint actually had the most strident sounding and least convincing Fender tube reverb sound.
I'm pretty sure that the Flint is intended to model a Fender onboard reverb, so I think that is a significant difference to note. I'm sure it does what it does well, but it didn't seem the best at replicating a vintage surf drip sound.
In hindsight, the reverbs with tanks are very obvious for the drip factor. The fET preamp seems to give enough characteristics of the originals to render it totally convincing in this context.
Nobody without a pan had a convincing drip and it was just marketing that fooled me into rating Flint more than deserved.
Maybe that was the case for others as well?

http://blueruins.bandcamp.com

Onslow_Beach wrote:

^^^ Agreed. That was kinda my point though. Strymon's brand image precedes them, meaning people expect and believe they make incredibly realistic, rich and natural sounds from their highly scientific and complex algorithms and modeling. I don't have any other way of rationalizing the samples that really were tubes and a pan being tagged as the Flint by several listeners. I'm not bashing Strymon at all - a lot of what they make is pretty incredible. Maybe just not everything they do is otherworldly though based on this test, that's all.

Actually I think your previous comment to this was spot on. Those who actually took the test blind heard it, liked it, and weren't influenced by the branding, so it's possible the reverse is true. Possibly not as discerning as those who've been around reverb for a very long time, but this happened to me. I heard (what turned out to be the Flint), liked it (or at least those passages at those settings), and possibly was influenced by a tank's reputation, e.g., Gomez - i.e., "that's really nice, that must be a Gomez." Good things there are pots & adjustments on these things 'cause, fortunately, we're not all the same.

Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel

DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.

Ah - right. See it now. Hey, all good! If we all only heard/liked the same one thing this place would be pretty lame.

Fady

El Mirage @ ReverbNation

Hey, right on, Wes! Honestly, I'm slightly envious and jealous that you and several made quick business of listening and posting your assessments.

File the following under #BlindThoughtsAfterTheReveal #akaLame-o-rama

My initial objective was to bucket the samples into 2 categories - think it's a real pan and think it is not a real pan. Truthfully, I was right with those groupings from the start.

I then focused on the group I thought was the real pan. My hunch was the Surfy Bear was C because it seemed to have a bit more treble-y slightly longer tail to my ears and of the few samples I've listened to from the build thread, that seemed to fit.

From there, all bets were off trying to discern the G-Spring from the modded Fender RI to me. And I say that as only having Dario's G-Spring for the last few years, having owned the FRV-1 for a couple months before that, and never owning a Fender RI unit.

I was actually leaning towards A maybe being the G-Spring but then I saw Sancho's photo of the settings and a bit perplexed seeing his Dwell set so high and Tone relatively low given what I was hearing. I never got a chance to to back and re-listen before the reveal was posted.

So there you have it, no shot at guessing FRV-1 vs. Flint and too slow to post pre-reveal guesses at the others.

Fady

El Mirage @ ReverbNation

I liked the tank, Flint and Surfy bear.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/722422647891279/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnZbVMwSVp2QM0kbnT7FGVQ

This is a great thread!

After reading this i got myself a Catalinbread Topanga Reverb. I know it wasn't in the test but i found out about it here and liked it better than the others being demo'd. That said i'd rather a real tank, but i can't afford that right now, so a pedal it is. and this is the best sounding one to me.

i played with it all weekend and it really sounds good!

like a few others here i was a bit disappointed by the Flint. I have an El Capistan and it's amazing at what it does. I've heard the Flint in other demos and it does sound great... but for surf type stuff, it doesn't move me.

thanks again for doing this shoot out!

I think it's great that so many people like fairly different things. That's what I carry away from it. There is no one, sacred sound.

Next a test that shows that what actually matters is the guitarist and what they had for breakfast.