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Hi Ralph,
Within my band, we have original brown-tolex, original black tolex, and 2
Reissue Units (like yours). No two sound exactly the same played next to each
other. Even the originals from the 1960's have their differences in tone and
degree of wet-ness, and they've all been recently serviced and declared to be
"in perfect working order" by our resident amp/electronic tech, Loyd Davis,
whose also one of our guitarists.
While not tonally exactly the same, the Reissue Units work perfectly well when
set at levels that might not sound "right" on the original units. In my
experience, they are capable of a very correct and appropriate splashy surf
sound, if you take the time to dial in their settings.
The best suggestion I can make, is to play around with different settings on the
knobs, until you have a sound that is pleasing to your ear, and appropriate to
what you're playing. I find that on one Reverb Unit, the sound is drenched and
saturated with the knobs set at 5-5-5,
while on another one, I've got to set them at 7-7-6 to approximate the same
sound, and what works for my ear might NOT be what you want! Most of the
surf-guitarists I've known, find that the tone control is best when set
somewhere between 5 and 7. The treble gets progressively more piercing and
damaging to one's ears, as that knob is advanced, and for me, a tone setting of
5-6 is usually about as much treble shrillness as I find comfortable, (just
enough to allow that "splash" sound when doing muted picking!)
Also, your amp EQ settings will play a role in the sound you get, so make sure
you have your preferred volume and tone settings on your amp, or you may get a
less optimal result from your Reverb Unit.
The "L" shaped "tank lock" is designed to push up against the outside wall of
the tank, when you're transporting the Reverb Unit, so as to lessen the
likelihood of damage caused by undue bumps, shakes and vibrations. When using
the Reverb Unit, the correct position for this lever, is pulled out ALL the way.
It might help if you pick out certain recorded songs where you especially would
like your 'verb to sound like that on the record, and then play with the
controls until you've gotten as close as you think possible. Also, the amount
of reverb you hear out of your amp speakers, will vary depending on the strength
of signal going into the reverb itself. The hotter your pickups, and the higher
your guitar volume knobs are set, the more reverby you ought to sound, at a
given setting of dwell-mix-tone.
This might be one of the factors that made Jazzmasters and Jaguars (with their
7.5-8.2 kOhm pickups) more popular as surf guitars, with the Strat (5.8-6.4 kOhn
pickups) slightly less favored. Of course, this can be corrected by installing
hotter pickups in the Strat, but this could bring on other issues, and it's a
matter of individual taste - so just go for what sounds best to you!
Bruce D
octavianrnr <> wrote:
I just bought a new Fender 62 reissue reverb and although I've owned
many reverb amps in my day I've never owned a stand alone unit so I
just have a few questions. The tank lock, what is the proper position
for this thing? Is it a matter of saturation taste or is there a
special place for this? The controls, I crank the tone all the way but
the dwell and mixer. Should I crank the dwell all the way and fine tune
with the mixer or should I crank the mixer all the way and fine tune
with the tone or should I just fine tune the both of them? Or am I just
being anal?
Ralph
.
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