SpaceTimC wrote:

Gilette wrote:

There's no other scenario I can imagine that can explain your problem, apart from reversed polarity of the power supply.

WELL. What I learned is... ya gotta set your multimeter to the proper setting in order to correctly determine polarity. And, yes, once I swapped the wires on the DC jack, I got glorious wet drippy reverb from my fully-functioning Surfy Bear FET Reverb!!!

Easy mistake to make. Could have happened to anyone. (in fact it did, to me. Multiple times) Great build by the way.

When I built the duel reverb quilty bear I had a reversed wire on both circuits. It's an easy mistake to make and easy to remedy!

The Kahuna Kings

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

https://thekahunakings.bandcamp.com/releases

dripdripFL wrote:

If somebody could answer a couple questions I'd be forever grateful. I've got a Surfy Bear Reverb kit on the way and I'm trying to get all the parts together.

For what it's worth, you don't absolutely need the switch and the pilot light. You plug in the 12v adaptor and you (should) have power. The switch and light are cool, though.

As for the reverb pan grommets, I don't use them on mine; it just rests in the toolbox top tray. I don't have rubber feet on the bottom of my toolbox, either. YMMV.

The Reverbivores - we're local favorites!

dripdripFL wrote:

SpaceTimC wrote:

dripdripFL wrote:

If somebody could answer a couple questions I'd be forever grateful. I've got a Surfy Bear Reverb kit on the way and I'm trying to get all the parts together.

For what it's worth, you don't absolutely need the switch and the pilot light. You plug in the 12v adaptor and you (should) have power. The switch and light are cool, though.

As for the reverb pan grommets, I don't use them on mine; it just rests in the toolbox top tray. I don't have rubber feet on the bottom of my toolbox, either. YMMV.

Thanks! I'm just doing the light because it looks cool. As for the rubber feet, I just wondered if the tool box would be better off not potentially sliding around. What benefit would the grommets serve?

They can reduce potential coupling of the pan to the box that could cause ringing or other resonances on a loud stage (or if close to speakers). The foam rubber strips you see on top of vintage Fender amps' tanks were used for that reason - it really can help clean up the sound to deaden the pan a bit.

Redfeather wrote:

I'm currently assembling my Surfy Bear and Trem parts to construct a two-in-one box and I want it to have a footswitch. Probably the old Fender VIB REV two button type.

I'm just wondering if incorporating relays inside the Surfy unit is worth the effort, rather than sending the guitar single out to the switch and back twice. I might be overly concerned with noise interference but relays are quite appealing to me, in theory. Anyone tried this?

It isn't worth the trouble. If you use a quality cord it'll be silent as a mouse.

Here is mine.

Last edited: Apr 06, 2017 00:58:41

That switch can bypass the Trem. I figured it would eliminate another source of noise or compression when I didn't need it. The fact is: I keep the trem on all the time. You know when the 'brown' trem is selected, even when you haven't activated it, it colors the tone in a very pleasant way. Not so much on the 'black' setting, I might add. The circuit adds very little if any noise. It is important to keep the leads to the 'brown/black' selector switch as short as possible.

mike_fried wrote:

dripdripFL wrote:

SpaceTimC wrote:

dripdripFL wrote:

If somebody could answer a couple questions I'd be forever grateful. I've got a Surfy Bear Reverb kit on the way and I'm trying to get all the parts together.

For what it's worth, you don't absolutely need the switch and the pilot light. You plug in the 12v adaptor and you (should) have power. The switch and light are cool, though.

As for the reverb pan grommets, I don't use them on mine; it just rests in the toolbox top tray. I don't have rubber feet on the bottom of my toolbox, either. YMMV.

Thanks! I'm just doing the light because it looks cool. As for the rubber feet, I just wondered if the tool box would be better off not potentially sliding around. What benefit would the grommets serve?

They can reduce potential coupling of the pan to the box that could cause ringing or other resonances on a loud stage (or if close to speakers). The foam rubber strips you see on top of vintage Fender amps' tanks were used for that reason - it really can help clean up the sound to deaden the pan a bit.

Thank you for the explanation.

dripdripFL wrote:

I have a Surfy Bear Reverb kit on the way and I've tried researching here but I still have a problem wrapping my head around the polarity of the Surfy Bear. My experience with diy has been with negative center pin guitar pedals and positive ground fuzz(which I've only ever wired with batteries-never a DC jack).

If someone could set me straight on the Surfy Bear I'd appreciate it. I see in the manual it says to check the polarity of the power supply with a meter before wiring it up.

So what I've gathered so far and please correct me if I'm wrong...

Most 12v power supplies appear to have a positive center, so if that's the case of your power supply, you wire the DC jack of the SB for positive center tip.

If you found a 12v power supply that was center negative, could you wire the DC jack on the SB center negative then? Or does the SB have to use a center positive tip only by design?

Is the actual Surfy Bear circuit a negative ground or positive ground like a Fuzz Face? I think that's what's confusing me the most.

You did not check on our web site... for SurfyBear the polarity is + in the center. Most 12V power supplies are + center. Make sure if you want by checking the power adapter we resell in the ACCESSORIES page. The Deltaco power supply.

Lorenzo "Surfer Joe" Valdambrini
(www.surfmusic.net)

warioblast wrote:

dripdripFL wrote:

I have a Surfy Bear Reverb kit on the way and I've tried researching here but I still have a problem wrapping my head around the polarity of the Surfy Bear. My experience with diy has been with negative center pin guitar pedals and positive ground fuzz(which I've only ever wired with batteries-never a DC jack).

If someone could set me straight on the Surfy Bear I'd appreciate it. I see in the manual it says to check the polarity of the power supply with a meter before wiring it up.

So what I've gathered so far and please correct me if I'm wrong...

Most 12v power supplies appear to have a positive center, so if that's the case of your power supply, you wire the DC jack of the SB for positive center tip.

If you found a 12v power supply that was center negative, could you wire the DC jack on the SB center negative then? Or does the SB have to use a center positive tip only by design?

Is the actual Surfy Bear circuit a negative ground or positive ground like a Fuzz Face? I think that's what's confusing me the most.

The Surfy reverb has negative ground. Don't bother with the polarity of your power supply because "there is no standard for polarity of the DC connector."

"The easiest way to get the polarity right is to connect the power supply connector to the DC jack and measure the pins on the jack with a volt meter, before connecting the wires to the board."

NB: Quotes are from http://surfybear.weebly.com/fet-reverb.html

I agree with all you say. But I still suggest you to simply get a regular 12V power supply with positive center. Don't complicate easy things There are no standards of course, but "in general" 12V power supplies are sold this way. While the 9V are negative center. The problem is that doing it wrong you will burn it. So better keep things easy:

• (positive) is in the center.

Lorenzo "Surfer Joe" Valdambrini
(www.surfmusic.net)

Yes, you got it right!
A voltmeter is a very good tool to get the polarity right.

Thanks for posting about this!
We have now improved the info on the FAQ to explain this more in detail.
http://www.surfyindustries.com/faq