plate reverb

James John

James John

New member
While i'm waiting to calibrate my machine i've decided to build a plate reverb! i thought i'd post it in this forum cos you analog peeps know what your talking about. basically i read this great article

http://www.prosoundweb.com/recording/tapeop/plate/plate.php

but cannot get hold of the bloke who sells the parts. Getting hold of the steel and frame is fine, but its getting a good coneless driver that im having trouble with. i'm not really trying to emulate a classic plate reverb, just trying to create a unique sound and stay away from digital plugins. any help would be great especially in terms of sourcing parts. thanks
 
also, i just went to the local steel fabricators and the thinnest they do is 1mm - is that ok? i thought it might be too thick to generate enough vibration, so to make up for it i might make an even bigger plate than planned (maybe 1-1/4 metres by 2-1/2 metres...any thoughts?
 
I've been thinking about building one of my own for a long time, and that guide was my starting point. What turned me off of the project was the coneless driver. I thought about making my own by screwing a rod to the center of the plate, wrapping it in wire, then mounting a circular magnet around the coil. Then I would attach the wires that wrapped around the coil to the input jack. I gave up on those plans, though, since I had no idea how many times to wrap the wire.
 
Isn't the coneless driver the same as some other common device? What I'm saying is isn't there something else that can be used as a coneless driver that's not too uncommon? Sorry I forgot what it was.

I have those same plans but still haven't got around to it.
 
The hotsprings reverb from PAIA isn't half bad for a spring reverb, it does a lot to eliminate the sproingyboingy you get from springs, if the plate idea doesn't work out.

Also, occasionally you find EMT 140 or clones on ebay sometimes for a decent price too.
 
James John said:
Thanks for the link steve, i emailed vidsonix and i think it will work pretty well! gonna start building it next week, i'll post some in progress photos.
Click to expand...


Yes, please do. I've been wanting to build one for a while now too.

I might get a couple of those just to have them.
 
not yet, i'm having real trouble finding a steel sheet thin enough to act as a plate. the thinnest i can get is 1mm tho i really want to get closer to 0.5mm.
its annoying cos i've got the pickups and the driver, all i need now is a plate.
 
I've found someone who can get .7mm mild steel - i'm gonna make the plate a bit bigger to accommodate for the extra thickness. He's gonna build me a frame too - woopaa!
 
James John said:
I've found someone who can get .7mm mild steel - i'm gonna make the plate a bit bigger to accommodate for the extra thickness. He's gonna build me a frame too - woopaa!
Click to expand...

Cool. I thought of having someone else weld me one together too and I'd build the enclosure. So how big it the piece of sheet metal going to be?

Did you you try that driver on anything? Just wondering how it worked.
 
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