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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Gear »

Permalink Splish Splash

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Ah, my eternal quest for nice, wet, drippy, splashy reverb has been frustrating. I've changed reverb pans, I've changed tubes, I've changed amps, but I can't seem to get that short, snappy, splash I'm looking for. Right now, my set up is Fender Twin Reverb (silverface, '71, w/12" Jensesns), re-issue Fender tank, American Fender Strat, and a DiPinto Galaxie IV.

I lose a lot of the splash when I play at jamming levels. Doe anyone have any tips or tricks on how to get a nice, drippy splash? It's been a frustrating experience for me and am looking for ideas.

I know there are a lot of factors at play and that there's no one solution, but what do you guys do for that Astronauts-type splash?

The Men in Gray Suits (Montreal, Canada)
Facebook: The Men in Gray Suits
Instagram: The Men in Gray Suits

Some good advice in this thread that might help - worked for me!
A new drip tip!

Bill S._______
image

HELLDIVER on Facebook

I'm with you..

I think a lot of the recordings we here are heavily compressed. So yeah you hear a perfect Astronauts-type splash in a recording, and sometimes get it live, but consistently live quality sound where all the parts are heard and sound good is really really hard.

I've found a comp helps, but it's a balance between squashing dynamics verses a good quiet palm mute pluck. My strums are soooo much louder than a palm mute line. A lot of comps can help as they bring out the initial attack in a note, which is good, and you can use the comp as a boost, which boosts the attack of the note as well. If I'm just playing single note palm mute parts, then right now I tend to have a comp first all the time live for this reason. And a comp allows the quiet to stand equal with the loud, which can help control the overall sound. But then again I don't like losing dynamics when recording so I don't do this.. but live it can help a lot. Comps are an "effect" and should be used as such IMHO.

I've found treble boosters ok.. remember most treble boosters are not really "treble boosters" but more general boosts. I'm not sure drip is all treble caused? I think too much high end almost oversplashes the boing (like running the tone control on 10 is not really all that great IMHO). It would be great for someone to really figure out what the BOING frequency was, then make a good comp/boost specifically for that frequency (call it the Boinger;;profit):->.

and that thread talks about the tremulator pedal bringing out the sound, which IMHO sounds like the effect a buffer has on ones signal. i.e. my friend always used pedals that were meant for one thing, he'd turn that thing off (like turn a phaser pedal depth all the way down) and then remark how much a "tone sweetener" the pedal was. He finally just got a good buffer (Sarno) in his chain first and all the rest of the "tone sweetener" pedals went away. YMMV, but IMHO so much of the "voodoo" around tone is basically just eq in some way.. and if possible keep it KISS and address that kind of thing up front.

Also, live & loud, you run into things like phase cancellation, being drowned out etc.. A lot of people don't like bright fender tones solo... people like bass, but live everything needs to have it's place and that high mid treble sound can fit right in. You can use your ears pretty well with a band and try to get rid of the mid mudd. It sounds like you get what you want sometimes? just not at volume? Each probably has different solutions.
Oh boy, I'm sick today.. and turning into an overly type happy forumite it appears. Take it easy!

Last edited: Apr 25, 2017 13:07:22

The best tank I've heard, and I've heard a lot of them, comes from Reverb units with a Gibbs pan, and not all of those have the great drip either so it's a crap shoot. It was explained to me that there was an effort to remove the drip at some point so more modern pans do not have it. Doug Forbes who posts here occasionally built his own Fenderesque tank using the best Gibbs pan selected from a batch. That was the nicest, drippiest reverb I've ever heard live and he used it for bass.

Thanks all for your input! I've come across this a few times, but does the reverb pan impedance have a play in this? The pan I have is rated at 10ohms, but have seen some pans listed at 8ohms. I'm know little about electronics, but does this affect things?

The Men in Gray Suits (Montreal, Canada)
Facebook: The Men in Gray Suits
Instagram: The Men in Gray Suits

Something I've discovered recently is that if I record my reverb tank straight into my digital interface, it retains a ton of drippiness but when it's run through my 100W Carvin amp and a Bassman cabinet, a lot of that splash gets lost. My smaller practice amp (which is actually an Acoustic B20 bass amp) seems to retain a little more splash than the big amp. I don't know what the mechanics at work there are. But if you have a way to record direct and are okay with that methodology, it might be a high-drip option for you.

So, I took the advice of many here (and also did a lot of research) and a treble booster pretty much fixed my lack-of-drip issues! I ended up buying the Naga Viper by Catalinbread and all I can say is WOW! This pedal is making my sound come alive with wonderful, splashy, drippiness! It's pretty much exactly what I was praying for.

The Men in Gray Suits (Montreal, Canada)
Facebook: The Men in Gray Suits
Instagram: The Men in Gray Suits

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