About amps with Reverb

[OldSkoolPunk02]

On amps with built in reverb. How do they make that effect? Digitaly, or some mechanical device? Like some amps say "Spring Reverb". Im thinking it's macanical, because older amps, 50's 60's I don't think they were to much electronic. Know What I mean?

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Is it just me or does life suck? Maybe I suck and it just life? We shall never know...

[Kevin Taylor]

Spring reverbs are exactly that... a couple of long springs mounted inside the speaker cabinet. If you kick the amp real hard you get an amazing crashing sound as they smash against each other. Fenter Twin Reverbs (70's models, at least) have em mounted on the bottom of the cabinet, below the speakers in a black box, covered in leather. Remove a coupla screws and you can see the springs for yourself.

[jake sommers]

yep, just like my Peavey Bandit 112 transtube amp, Mine has a leather cover over it. If somebody runs by it you can hear it idleing. When i first saw it i was trying to tear open the pouch like an idiot and decided to leave it alone.

[John O'Carroll]

I always cringed when I heard the reverb springs in my '73 Fender Super Reverb bouncing around in the back seat or trunk of my car. I knew it wasn't seriously affecting the amp (I get my reverb from an effects pedal now) but to this day that sound still unnerves me while driving (yeah, I still use that same Super) - what a great buy ($300 new) that turned out to be 27 years later !

[Fender1165]

Peavey Bandits have actually springs??? i have one and never knew that

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-ejd

email:
Fender1165@aol.com
Guitarbiz@hotmail.com

[jake sommers]

yep, take a look inside, it's under a black leather casing. at the bottom in the inside.

[Fender1165]

Oh... I always figured it was a block of wood at the base covered with leather. I never thought it was an actual component to the amp. thanx for the info http://www.guitarforums.com/gtubb/smile.gif

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-ejd

email:
Fender1165@aol.com
Guitarbiz@hotmail.com

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[Jon68]

The spring reverbs work by splitting your signal and sending part through a tube driver, then through a transducer to convert the electrical signal to mechanical energy, which moves down the springs. The mechanical energy moves slower than the electrical signal, so that signal is delayed. At the end of the reverb springs, the mechanical energy is changed back to an electrical signal with another transducer. The signal is pretty weak by this time, so it is amplified again and combined with the original signal to produce the reverb sound. Some real old units used an oil-filled tank instead of springs, which produced a similar effect (I've never heard one).
The original digital reverbs split the analog signal, converted one part to a digital signal and then stored the digital signal in a "Bucket-Brigade" memory bank for the desired time. The stored digital signal was converted back to analog and the two signals were recombined to make the reverb effect. I believe that a lot of stomp boxes still use this basic technology, but the manufacturer that makes the Bucket Brigade memory is stopping production. This may effect the price and availability of some stomp boxes.
A lot of new reverbs use a Digital Signal Processing (DSP) chip, which is a microprocessor similar to the processor used in your PC or Mac. The DSP system has additional circuitry and commands to handle analog to digital signal conversion and the return to analog. Once the signal is in a digital format, it can be manipulated by software programs in many ways - this is how the new modeling amps and pedals produce their wide tonal variations.
Hope this helps.

[This message has been edited by Jon68 (edited 09-08-2000).]

[OldSkoolPunk02]

Thanx I was wondering how all that work.

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Is it just me or does life suck? Maybe I suck and it just life? We shall never know...