There is so much info in this one thread it's unrealistic to think everybody will read through it before asking their questions. I mean I did, but it took a while... So yes, if questions are asked it seems those willing to help in fact do. Unlike other forums where there is always that one guy that says use the search bar.

Surfing Sam you do still need a pan with the Surfy bear. The circuit board is literally just a copy of the Fender circuit with fets instead of tubes.
No emulation is going on, just real deal spring reverb!
If you spend around the $120 mark to buy the parts and build one of these you are saving a ton of money vs the Fender units available, and most pedals that even dare come close I feel are in the $150+ range.

To bring up something else, somebody asked why this needed to be discussed for 112+ pages? Why? Beacause people have gotten creative with it. Custom enclosures, tool boxes, enclosures that include quilter amp head Surfy bear and various other pedals. People have done different mods, dual units with different mods to each side or different pans. Combo units with reverb and trem in a single enclosure. And true bypass. Through all these different scenarios people run into issues somewhere and come here to ask questions to help trouble shoot their problem, and have gotten legit help. Include all the newcomers, like I myself was at one point, and this thread will just keep growing.

If you can find the time it's an interesting read and wealth of knowledge to go through the entire thread.

Last edited: Jan 25, 2019 12:12:12

This thread has definitely been invaluable for knowledge and inspiration in equal measure.

I wonder though - could there be scope to produce a summary of the main troubleshooting points in a separate article? A few recurring questions have been popping up in this thread plus it can be a bit tricky to navigate through the whole thing to find a quick answer, even with the search function.

Apologies if this should have been submitted through the site suggestions thread instead. Hey, I made a rhyme.

DerJuicen wrote:

There is so much info in this one thread it's unrealistic to think everybody will read through it before asking their questions. I mean I did, but it took a while... So yes, if questions are asked it seems those willing to help in fact do. Unlike other forums where there is always that one guy that says use the search bar.

Surfing Sam you do still need a pan with the Surfy bear. The circuit board is literally just a copy of the Fender circuit with fets instead of tubes.
No emulation is going on, just real deal spring reverb!
If you spend around the $120 mark to buy the parts and build one of these you are saving a ton of money vs the Fender units available, and most pedals that even dare come close I feel are in the $150+ range.

To bring up something else, somebody asked why this needed to be discussed for 112+ pages? Why? Beacause people have gotten creative with it. Custom enclosures, tool boxes, enclosures that include quilter amp head Surfy bear and various other pedals. People have done different mods, dual units with different mods to each side or different pans. Combo units with reverb and trem in a single enclosure. And true bypass. Through all these different scenarios people run into issues somewhere and come here to ask questions to help trouble shoot their problem, and have gotten legit help. Include all the newcomers, like I myself was at one point, and this thread will just keep growing.

If you can find the time it's an interesting read and wealth of knowledge to go through the entire thread.

Dear Juicen, et al:

Threads like the Surfy Bear thread are great fun. I know why I’m here at Surf 101, and that’s because I enjoy talking about guitars, amps, reverb, Surf music, etc. Discussion is the lifeblood of any forum. If it turns into a reference library, the fun goes away, and the membership dwindles. A Wiki page for the Surfy Bear might be a good idea, but I hope this thread goes on for years. Even if I didn’t like the Surfy Bear, I’d still like the thread, because it boils down to people sharing info, doing a bit of Snaw and Tell, and enjoying the company of others with similar interests. For the record, I am quite impressed by the Surfy Bear.

Nearly non-stop home repairs have taxed my finances and I eschew debt, so I’m holding off for the moment, in favor of remaining liquid. However,I may build one soon. I’m pondering ideas of how to proceed. I want something compact, yet attractive. For me, it all comes down to enclosure and packaging.

I’d also like to chime in about the costs. If you think about it, most pedals cost $150 and up, and “up” can go way up the scale from $150. It would be hard to spend much more than $150 building a Surfy Bear, unless you encrusted it in diamonds. From what I can tell, the Surfy Bear project is one of those rare times when a great idea works out to the benefit of all involved. My hat is really off to the people that have made this possible.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

It was 4 1/2 years ago I started this thread and it would hard to pinpoint a specific search but if you type it into google with a specific question and finish the question with "surfguitar101", you "can" get a little more detail onto what page you can choose from. Not always the case but...…...

The Kahuna Kings

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

https://thekahunakings.bandcamp.com/releases

To follow up on a couple of recent posts regarding grounding schemes of pans, I can report that I recently got a new Accutronics 1AB2B1B to compare with the 8AB3C1B I was using with my SurfyBear. They are both short pans due to constraints of the enclosure I am using. The relevant specs are:

1AB2B1B - 2 springs, input grounded, output insulated
8AB3C1B - 3 springs, input insulated, output grounded

Turns out that the grounding scheme makes no difference (as j flanders and bjorn suggested would be the case).

Furthermore, switching back and forth between the two (I only had to switch around the RCA cables to A/B them), I really could not tell much difference in the sound of the reverb effect. Maybe my ears aren't so well trained and I should test them out some more. And there was plenty of drip available from both. So if anyone else is weighing the short pan options, I'd say either one would work well.

Another technical question:

I've got too much reverb with my SurfyBear build. I know it's totally blasphemy because you can never have too much reverb. But I do. Turning up the mixer pot just to 2 or 3 makes it totally saturated and anything beyond that just washes things out so there's mostly reverb and hardly any guitar notes. So to put it another way, there's loads of reverb, but not enough of a usable range.

I'm not sure why it's this way, whether it's because I'm using a short pan, the board has something wrong, my wiring is screwy, or maybe that's the way it's supposed to be.

Anyway, I'm wondering if there's a way to tame it to allow me to more easily dial in lower amounts of reverb. In particular, if I change the mixer pot to a different value, say 500k, would that help? Or would a lower value like 100k be the direction to go? Or would adjust the trim pot have any effect? The latter would be easiest to play around with.

Once I get that sorted, I can finally get the whole thing assembled and post pics of my never-ending project.

Pan size is not the issue. I'm using a two spring short pan that meets the specs in terms of impedance. A number of other people have used short pans as well but have not reported the same issue. And Pans with higher impedances tend to give a lot less reverb, rather than more.

Long and short pans with the same specs are pretty much inter-changeable, and I've got a type 1 tank, which has identical impedance to type 4. The main differences people report between long and short pans have to do with the sound (lushness, drip, etc.) rather than the amount of reverb reported.

j_flanders, he is using a 2 spring short tank.

Edwardsand, while theoretically what you said should be true, troubleshooting will be a lot harder without eliminating this finicky component. Have you measured your pan's input and output impedances? They can be off the charts (though reasonable to assume it will give less reverb, not more), or other part of it could be defective/incompatible.
Bottom line, with type4 you'll have a better picture.
Other than that, maybe Bjorn could chime in with advice.

Last edited: Feb 12, 2019 11:39:25

I'm not 100% sure either but I usually (not always) call the whole unit a 'tank' and inside the tank you have a pan or can.

Wikipedia disagrees:
" The spring reverb “tank” is mounted on the interior side of the front baffle in a vertical position. Tanks were supplied by Gibbs and Accutronics in the original version. "

Last edited: Feb 12, 2019 11:53:24

Hi edwardsand
Its difficult to say why you have this much gain.
Reverb pans can have different gain. Maybe this is the case here.
Normally, when Dwell (and Tone) is set to 6 the overall output signal level should be ‘close to constant’ when you increase Mixer from dry to wet.
In your case, you probably need to lower Dwell, right?

I usually don’t recommend adjustment of the little trimmer, it’s factory set to the same gain as 6g15. But in your case it might be a good idea to lower the gain. Please be careful, the trimmer is a fragile.
/B