Is the Topanga reverb pedal still the pedal to beat?

I'm just talking pedals (not including surfy bear, spring rever pedals only)

Last edited: Jul 01, 2017 01:25:30

Regret selling mine, perhaps not the ultimate but it worked well for what I was doing.

What's best is subjective. I like it a lot. It has what I'm looking for in a reverb, without the bulk of a tank.

I've become a bit disillusioned with mine as a "tank replacement" pedal - I think it tracks playing dynamics too much, pretty much disappearing when playing softly. They really should've modeled that characteristic more closely on the real thing, IMO.

I really enjoy the Topanga and, until I got the heavenly Gomez G-Spring, it was my go-to "spring reverb" pedal. I used it rabidly for 6 months before ever having the pleasure of trying a real tank. With it, I made innumerable test recordings and/or passes on my ongoing homemade surf album.

I like how Topanga lets you hit the "tank input" pretty hard for some very raucous, and impolite, distortion that flavors its intriguing "spring" crashing sounds. (YMMV depending on input strength, I guess. I use single coil Fenders and they all react nicely, though differently.)

Still, I always doubted whether the high-end springiness was realistic. It errs on the warmer/darker side of how I imagined a real spring reverb would sound (then, known only from my favorite surf recordings).

It's got some of that clatter and definitely has the 'surf attitude' to tickle (or pummel) one's eardrums, but it's not super trebly and turning up the treble control doesn't magically add in the expected bright tingles of "spring."

I rationalized, "maybe this is not how EVERY reverb tank sounds, but surely this is how SOME reverb tanks sound, and that's good enough for my purposes." (I am clearly the Don Quixote of solitaire surf recording)

I even tried recording the lead guitar through the Topanga, and the rhythm guitar through the Flint, to make the recordings sound like two guys who own different equipment.

...Invariably, I found myself wishing my pretend surf band had two guys with REAL reverb tanks.

Indeed, its drip or overall 'wetness' did prove to be less inspiring than the real thing, but test recordings made after getting the G-Spring reveal that the Topanga still gets me 75% of the way to THAT raw surf vibe, if not the exact drip sound that I was after. Listeners' tastes are not likely as exacting as my own purist cravings - so in all likelihood, using a Topanga IS going to give a 'surf' impression. I daresay, in live performance, the Topanga would sound even closer to the ideal. It definitely gives something that's within the broad spectrum(s) of 'surf attitude.'

Mike_fried is spot-on in mentioning how the reverb almost goes away when picking very lightly. That always occurred to me to be unrealistic, and harmful to the surf happenings that one might hope for from a Topanga. Again, though, this deficiency might not rear its head in a live situation.

I tried every allowable voltage, by the way, and made test recordings. Depending on the whims of my tastes, I can't objectively say that 18v is BETTER than the others. I often prefer the minimum voltage, instead, because it strengthens that "input distortion" that really makes this pedal sound special in a mix.

Other Contenders

I found to my pleasant surprise that the spring reverb emulated in Zoom's MS-50G and G1on multi-effects pedals is actually really drippy - in a way that is kind of random, and pleasantly evident in a mix. There are some really interesting 'spring' sounds that appear to react to pitch & dynamics. This discovery gave me hope in modeled spring reverb and is what led me to shop around for a "real" fake reverb tank pedal before eventually lucking into a real reverb tank.

I never tried the ill-reputed Boss pedal, though I suspect I would have appreciated at least some things about its shrillness. Ugliness has its place in my music, for sure.

I also really like the Strymon Flint, though in fairness its reverb side purports to imitate an in-amp rather than a tank reverb; it's splashy and very fine-sounding, but is ultimately far too polite for my needs. (I just use the other two reverb types as an occasional effect - and mostly groove on Flints's fine, fine harmonic trem.)

Last edited: Jul 06, 2017 12:39:16

I had a Boss FRV a few times. I find it the best at drip and authenticity but it took away too much base guitar tone for me. I couldn't handle the hollowed out guitar tone and reverb splash (sample) that never changed key. Had a few where fender reissue reverb units that didn't do much for me either. I dearly miss my 1964 fender reverb unit that I foolishly sold.

The FRV, Topanga and reissues all have their quirks - finding one that works best for whoever using it is key. I had to tapanga before so I'm not sure how this time it'll be different but I'm gonna try different settings and mindset. I also thought about the Wampler Faux Reverb but chose the Topanga as it's a little bit closer to the reverb sound in my head. If I played surf it'd be reverb unit all the way.

Last edited: Jul 06, 2017 20:25:58

Tangentor_7 wrote:

I tried every allowable voltage, by the way, and made test recordings. Depending on the whims of my tastes, I can't objectively say that 18v is BETTER than the others. I often prefer the minimum voltage, instead, because it strengthens that "input distortion" that really makes this pedal sound special in a mix.

I agree, after trying both 9V and 18V operation for extensive lengths of time, 9V sounds better to me in a mix setting for its added harmonic distortion. And I say that reluctantly after building an 18V charge pump specifically for the Topanga...

Guess it's the matter if taste
Tried several pedals (topanga, spring theory, hooke reverb, faux reverb) and went out of the shop with Zoom MS-70. Just sounded better for me in Spring reverb mode plus a lot of other modulations as bonus)

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New Single is out!

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Waikiki Makaki

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Samurai wrote:

Guess it's the matter if taste
Tried several pedals (topanga, spring theory, hooke reverb, faux reverb) and went out of the shop with Zoom MS-70. Just sounded better for me in Spring reverb mode plus a lot of other modulations as bonus)

My MS-70 on it's "63 Spring reverb" setting sounded a bit crap with my Vox Valvetronix amp, but sounds superb with my Quilter mini 101.

Has anyone tried the BOSS RV-6?

All opinions expressed by this poster are well thought out and based on actual experience and/or scientific experimentation, except for those which are knee-jerk reactions or good sounding fantasies.