Poulsbo Slim
New member
About a year ago, by accident, I heard back to back in comparison to my lexicon and tc electronics, the built-in spring reverb sound of a shoddy old Peavy PA head. By my taste, it sounded so, so, so much better than anything on my digital reverb units. This has opened up a whole new quest for a good spring reverb unit I can add to live sound mixing as well as tracking and studio mixing. However, there aren't a whole lot of companies marketing real spring reverb to the mainstream home recording market, and the few companies I've found making them are charging an arm and a leg for such a unit. My question is a two part question:
1. Why in the world are spring reverb units so expensive? You can buy a descent tank for under 50 bucks, so where is the other 950 dollars going? It seems like a relatively simple device compared to far less expensive equipment. Anyone know why they are all so expensive?
2. I have three different tanks (one I pulled from an old Hammond, one I bought, one from a Fender amp) and before investing a grand into one kind of reverb, I'd like to experiment with these first. I know I can't simply route signal from a mixer to a spring tank without first amplifying that signal. What kind of preamp do I need on the front end of a spring tank? Also, after giving the tank the proper amount of amplification it needs, can I then run the 'out' of the tank back into my board? Or am I missing something else needed there?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'd love to get started experimenting with this. Even if it's not quite as wonderful sound quality as the thousand dollar units, I mostly just want to see where I can use this sound, then maybe later I can invest in a great one.
Thanks!
1. Why in the world are spring reverb units so expensive? You can buy a descent tank for under 50 bucks, so where is the other 950 dollars going? It seems like a relatively simple device compared to far less expensive equipment. Anyone know why they are all so expensive?
2. I have three different tanks (one I pulled from an old Hammond, one I bought, one from a Fender amp) and before investing a grand into one kind of reverb, I'd like to experiment with these first. I know I can't simply route signal from a mixer to a spring tank without first amplifying that signal. What kind of preamp do I need on the front end of a spring tank? Also, after giving the tank the proper amount of amplification it needs, can I then run the 'out' of the tank back into my board? Or am I missing something else needed there?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'd love to get started experimenting with this. Even if it's not quite as wonderful sound quality as the thousand dollar units, I mostly just want to see where I can use this sound, then maybe later I can invest in a great one.
Thanks!