@surfridern, the Tonestudio is the software that works with the katana 50 to change and adjust the onboard effects. BTW, someone mentioned the behringer reverb pedal, I had one and liked it. I wouldn’t trust it for a gig since it is made of plastic, but for home playing it is pretty good bamg for the buck. Also check out the biyang tri-verb. It’s about the best of the chinese pedals.

PhantomOperators.bandcamp.com
Reverbnation.com/PhantomOperators

What we all think of as the classic reverb sound comes from the Fender stand alone reverb unit. Used reissues start at about $450.
The Surfy Bear is basically the same circuit using Jfets instead of vacuum tubes with a real spring tank.
There are a few pedals that come close, but most that do cost a little more than building a basic Surfy Bear kit.

JObeast wrote:

Dear O.P.:
If you live near Bjørn you owe his genius to buy his device! Shipping will even be negligible and its sound (with a reverb pan of choice) will never disappoint.
My advice to you as a musician - I’ve been learning to play guitar for 38 years now - is to LEARN BY EAR. Forget tabs of other people’s transcriptions: your own ingenuity is required to produce your own solution to the problem of interpreting existing music. This process involves approximating the original and judging your results. There is no shortcut to learning to play the guitar.
The method of learning by ear involves all your music-making faculties and teaches THE NATURAL WAY how to play music. It happens in the ear-brain-hand connection and there is no substitute.
Of course a grasp of music theory will probably help you but most classic surf has little of that going on - it’s an intuitive art not obsessed by self-conscious abstraction. But all music is math and teaching oneself to play an instrument engages, on an intuitive level, deep mathematical skills, as does dance and visual art. But the human ear may be the most powerful organ of direct apprehension of mathematics.
Trust your ear. It’s way more intelligent than any software or device.

+1000

One of the best posts I've ever seen on SG101. Kudos, JO

Jack Booth
(aka WoodyJ)

The Mariners (1964-68, 1996-2005), 2025
The Hula Hounds (1996-2000)
The X-Rays (1997-2004)
The Surge! (2004, 2011-2012)
Various non-surf bands that actually made money (1978-1990)

Thanks for all the input here. It will be a surfy bear reverb unit. It will be the best choice for me.

JObeast that was a good post! But I think I also need to read how to play as a start. I have just found some tabs and backing tracks at Martin Cilias website

Jimi Hendrix interview: “Is it true,” he is asked, “that you play guitar with your tongue?” “No,” Jimi replies, “I play the guitar with my ear.

Btw I ordered the surfy bear diy kit with reverb tank and a sticker. It was no SMD soldering and looked very easy to build I hope the jfets sounds nice as a ecc82 or ef86 tubes.

surfridern wrote:

Btw I ordered the surfy bear diy kit with reverb tank and a sticker. It was no SMD soldering and looked very easy to build I hope the jfets sounds nice as a ecc82 or ef86 tubes.

Guess it’s a nice choice) however you asked for a cheap reverb)
Nevertheless sure you’ve made a good decision, may be I’ll do the same sometime but I am so happy with my Flint and not ready for more reverb expenses right now.

Waikiki Makaki surf-rock band from Ukraine

https://linktr.ee/waikikimakaki

Lost Diver

https://lostdiver.bandcamp.com
https://soundcloud.com/vitaly-yakushin

to resume
tab ok for songs very complicated to your level (i think of solo part very speed or you need to learn the fingering to play it as fast as the original
it will help you to feel the way the artist play it (carefull lot of tab are wrong ,in tonality first but also in rythm ect...)

ears are good for your personnal goal to be a musicplayer ,cause at first you will play all you want and not the restricted catalogue of available songs
the more you re pratice by ear the more you recognise the intervall ,scale,tonality ,rythm and the next advantage is you can play what you heard in your head ,you connect the finger to the brain and it is the best thing to do (you re not become a reader but an actor of what you play )when you are playing in band you can tell the other member what you play ,no need to made tabs for all ,since a long time i play only by ear cause at first for what i want to play there is no tab available and now i like to search a song very much ,it is longer than taking a tab and working on it ,but what i am searching by ear i remember well ,rather than tab
also when i have totally find the song i tab it for me for memory cause if i don't play this song for long it will forget it
use you ear often as you can ,when listening radio for exemple sing the melody you find cool and after search it on the neck (sometimes the easyer to sing are the harder to play )
in music there is only 12 notes then you can be wrong 11 times only when you search it ,with times you catch the note the first time ,you listen a note and your finger go automatic to the good one ,the feel of the song tell you minor major or seven chord is used ,long times i try to understand of what is playing by the artist but it didn't work for me ,now i trust my ears only
it is a try to find each times but i find the song i can't play are more i don't really hear what is playing rather than technical things in fact ,then i listen again and again and one day it become easy cause i ear the the melody in clearly

@james14000 Thanks for the link Bruce Lindquist, Lindquist is a Swedish name Nice video too! I will add that to my collection!

Many thanks for all kind suggestions in this forum! I bought a surfy bear kit and it was very easy to assemble and I built this chassis to it. It sounds very great!!