Hey guys,

I am kinda not good at searching this forum, so if this has been covered, I apologize. I also have a couple other questions as well regarding the unit:

1. Do any of you guys kick it during performances, and if so, has it been durable? I've always been afraid to because of the pcb.

2. My unit always sounds so modern, like a plate reverb. No matter which pan I've tried. I've already done all the mods to convert it to "vintage specs" and while it sounds better, it still seems like plate reverb in the decay. My dad has a 66 and it is far more drippy and shimmery. My question is: Is it possible to get the decay to oscillate (flutter) at a faster rate? I hope that makes sense, but for example, when you do a quick palm mute and strike a note, the decay has that sproingy "delay" effect, right? But on my dad's old tank, it will flutter rapidly and sounds great. On mine, the flutter in the decay is really slow. Like, if it were a delay pedal, it would be set to a long delay time, when I really want it to be quicker like 100ms or so. I don't know if this would be considered pre-delay, but hopefully I'm making sense here. I wonder if this has something to do with the springs and how quickly they flutter? Is there a pan you'd recommend that flutters more rapidly? And to be clear, I'm not talking about 'drip', although I feel this is a big part of getting better drip and making it sound less modern/plate-like. Because just playing and holding a chord sounds fine and just like the old unit. But playing dynamically, it's hard to get 'surfy' sounds, although the MOD tank I have does seem to flutter the quickest and produces more drip than the Gibbs and accutronics that I have.

3. What is that 1/4" jack for that I see in the rear panel, right near where the RCA jacks connect to the board?

I really appreciate your answers and I love this forum!

Last edited: Feb 07, 2020 04:17:27

Six years for a first post! Impressive.

I don't kick the tank (it's above my head!) but I do tilt it and let it bang back down (against rubber feet) - and that produces a massively loud crash. It weirdly sounds louder than when I used to kick it when it was on the ground. I just tilt it up by one foot and then let it drop back down.

Man, I'd love to be updated on your Journey To The Drip. Best of luck with that!

Daniel Deathtide

DeathTide wrote:

Six years for a first post! Impressive.

I don't kick the tank (it's above my head!) but I do tilt it and let it bang back down (against rubber feet) - and that produces a massively loud crash. It weirdly sounds louder than when I used to kick it when it was on the ground. I just tilt it up by one foot and then let it drop back down.

Man, I'd love to be updated on your Journey To The Drip. Best of luck with that!

Right on man, thanks. Yeah when I say kick, I really just meant exactly what you do. Not trying to get all Ray Finkle lol. Well cool, that's good to know. Especially because when I do trem picking, I like to put my foot on top of the so I can better control the guitar and make my pick attack evened out to sound better. But I never rock it to splash the tank because I'm afraid I'll screw up the board.

And yeah, first post lol! I'm what you call the Lord of Lurkers haha. Na, but really I do love this site for all its insights and shared passion for the greatest guitar style ever.

Thanks for the response!

If a Gibbs pan doesn't sound good, you got one of those crappy reissues where there's nothing you can do except use the enclosure and rebuild the rest...

http://www.satanspilgrims.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Satans-Pilgrims/8210228553
https://satanspilgrims.bandcamp.com/
http://www.surfyindustries.com

Last edited: Feb 07, 2020 21:00:00

FelixB wrote:

My unit always sounds so modern, like a plate reverb.
the decay has that sproingy "delay" effect, right?
But on my dad's old tank, it will flutter rapidly and sounds great.
My dad has a 66 and it is far more drippy and shimmery.

Maybe I don't understand it correctly but those statements seem contradictory.
Or maybe it's because I have never used a (real) plate reverb.
I would expect a plate reverb to sound more dense and smooth, without repeats in the decay.
But you seem to be saying that your spring reverb tail has repeats, yet you find it sounding like a plate...

A lot of pans have repeats in the decay. On some they stand out more than in others.

If you're lucky and have a pan with two springs with perfect length differences and perfectly oriented magnets you get a very smooth and shimmery decay, even when palm muting.
If you're not, then there will be repeats that are more or less audible.

If your pan would have only one spring you would very clearly hear the individual repeats.
Here's the reason why and how it works:

The signal starts at the input transducer by wiggling the spring and 'the wiggle' travels trough the spring and after about 30ms it arrives at the output transducer. This is the pre-delay.
Then it travels/bounces back through the spring to the input transducer and there it travels/bounces back to the output transducer. This is the first repeat (after 60ms), and after 120ms the second repeat and so on...

But if you add a second spring with a different length (with different tension) it will do the same thing but at different time intervals.
Its repeats will fill the gaps, the time it takes for the 'wiggle' on the other spring to travel back and forth.

This way you don't have repeats every 60ms but at shorter intervals.

It's these reflections with minimal time difference between each other that gives the impression of reverb rather than echo.

There's nothing in the electrical circuit you can do about it.

Another factor is the magnets:

I've been tinkering with a pan that I took apart and after putting it back together I had very distinct repeats.
I found that the way the magnets are oriented also plays a big part in the repeats.

Without springs attached the magnets should be in their ideal position, but when you hook up the springs, the magnets may rotate a little, depending on how the hook of the spring interacts with the hook on the magnet. The spring may turn/rotate the magnet a bit (or more) out of its ideal position and this results in repeats being more clearly audible.

In my 'tinker-pan' after attaching the springs, I can turn the magnets to put them back in their ideal position, counter-acting the rotation caused by hooking up the spring.
I can tune it for pretty much no repeats resulting in a very smooth, shimmery decay.
Curiously this also seems to give the most drip but I don't know why.
Unfortunately this is not something you can do on your pan because the brass sleeves that contain the magnets are glued stuck.

I can only suggest to keep trying pans until you found 'the one'.

And if the springs on your pan become unhinged, put them back in their most 'natural' position. Don't turn the spring before you hook it onto the magnet because that will rotate the magnet out of its ideal position.

Last edited: Feb 14, 2020 19:09:47

DannySnyder wrote:

Make sure the seller checks the impedence for you.

I listed a lot of Gibbs codes + impedances in this thread: https://surfguitar101.com/forums/topic/32671/
It will help in avoiding the wrong pans (when the seller can't or won't measure the input/output impedance).

Last edited: Feb 15, 2020 04:49:13

I don't kick it cos I don't own it. ;)

The bandmate/leader does and occasionally kicks it.

It is excellent showmanship, and I like seeing it done, but I wouldn't kick one or throw it unless it is still under warranty
Or, you are also excellent at repairing cracked PC boards and replacing circuit board mounted pots and input jacks. It's funny because a lot of the posts about reverb units are because somebody is having trouble with one, a tiny part is broken inside, or it just doesn't sound right.

I have an original 1965 Fender Black-Face Reverb Tank. Everything is in excellent shape and still has all the original components. I don't think I want to be kicking something that nice and retro but I do enjoy titling the tank to get the surf splash.