Dont eat me alive, I have never done this! Reverb unit?

[Hella1hella]

Hello, let me first off saying, I have never built and amp or serviced an amp. I can solder very good, have built a fuzz pedal, a/b switch, and have modded wahs. I am not SUPER good at reading schematics but I can figure it out for the most part. here is my question. I really want a reverb unit with springs inside, but dont want to spend $400 and up buying one. I want to be able to turn it on and off via footswitch. I can build the cab and have heard the electronics are fairly simple. Am I realistic? Would this be something I could maybe do or are there too many risks doing so (even health risks). It doesnt have to be tube, although that might be cool, but seems harder. and I would like a dwell and reverb knob on it. Schreyer audio makes something that is pretty much exactly what I want to do. here is the link! Spring-Verb

[Gibsonman63]

It shouldn't be that hard to build a clone of Fender Reverb unit. Many people build a Fender Champ for thier first tube amp build and this would be on par with that as far as complexity. Google 6G15. Also search the forum. I have been doing a little research lately to build one early next year. There are several good threads on this forum for it. From what I have seen, most of the work is construction and not electronics.

[Hella1hella]

thanks that helps a lot! If I could find someone to build me the the electronics part/chassis for relatively cheap I would just do that and then build a cab to throw it in. However I have a feeling most people would charge me as much as it would be to buy one.

[Gibsonman63]

There are guys that sell kits online. I saw a pre-punched chassis on-line, but I did not bookmark it. To me the chassis is the hard part if you aren't tooled up for it.

[Hella1hella]

Yeah see for me thats the easiest, I have every tool I could ever want available, both my uncle and grandfather are master craftsmen so thats the easy part. For me it is wiring it all, and my knowledge on capacitors etc is not as good as it should be.

[Hella1hella]

how does this look?

How does this look? its very easy for me to read, and I can buy the printed PCB from the website. Is this not considered analog though because of the IC chip? If anyone has a picture similar to this that I could look at then this will be a very easy build for me. I would rather do point to point rather than printed board, and true bypass.

[dchang0]

Well, it's not technically digital without any logic chips involved, so yes, it's analog. But you will have to decide whether op-amp-based reverb sounds good to your ears. If done right, they can be very compact, low heat, and noiseless, but they always seem a bit sterile-sounding to me.

That said, I ran several truly digital effects for a long time, running them through a super-clean blackface Fender tube amp to warm up the tone.

Personally, I recommend that you go with a clone of a Fender 5G15/6G15 standalone reverb. They aren't hard to build, and there are several people who have posted detailed photos of their builds in progress.

Fender Reverb 6G15 Standalone Reverb Clone Build - My Les Paul Forums

And check out the level of detail on this more advanced reverb+tremolo build:

WeberVST ReVibe version 1.4 Reverb and Tremolo Unit Build Project

Hope that helps you make your decision and build your reverb unit!

[custom_amp_30]

ZENITH FV20 REVERBERATION AMPLIFIER PHOTOFACT - eBay (item 380180458006 end time Dec-17-10 05:51:31 PST)

[Hella1hella]

I THINK I have decided...

I think I may go the route of the analog type reverb that I showed. I think it will be a little bit easier for me to build because I am not super experiences and it is ALOT less money, if I mess up the tube reverb I could be out hundreds of dollars. I am mostly looking for a nice little project so I can start learning more about capacitors etc. I think I might take that layout I posted and make it into true bypass, and build a cab for it. My theory is I could buy a reverb pedal that is "mimicking" a spring reverb, or I could build an analog spring reverb with an actual SPRINGS! If I want it to sound like real springs I should use real springs right ? ;] what I am doing IMO is pretty much the same as the Van Amps pedal, as far as I can see thats exactly what there's is only in pedal form. I was thinking about building a bigger enclosure and putting two tanks, a shorter decay like 9" and a longer decay 17" But I cannot decide whether I like this idea, seems like it might be stupid when you can swap out the tank with RCA jacks. ALSO instead of using 2 9v for this I am going to just throw in a jack so I can use a 9v adapter. (I would like an actual power cord but I think this is beyond me). Am I being ridiculous for throwing this into an actual cab? I dont want it on my pedalboard, and figured I can just sit it on top of my blackface bassman and have it always on. HMMMMM.....

[dchang0]

Hey, many of us went through the same decision. I eventually decided to build the reverb into my combo rather than have it in its own cabinet. Wanted true spring reverb and tube tone, but with as few things to carry as possible le. No pedals, cables, wall warts...

What you want will likely be different, but that's why you're here, considering building a custom solution to suit you.

If it helps you decide, nothing but spring reverb sounds like a spring reverb. You can go op amp or tubes and still get that spring magic.

As for two tanks, usually you settle on one specific setting and forget about it. I recommend you just swap tanks in and out because you're likely going to settle on one over the other.

[tboy]

...instead of using 2 9v for this I am going to just throw in a jack so I can use a 9v adapter.

The two 9v batteries are wired in series to provide 18v, so you'd need an 18v adapter, or you could build an 18v power supply into your cabinet.

[Hella1hella]

Yeah I meant 18v! what would be the difference in using a jack for an adapter or putting in a 18v power supply? would the power supply make is possible for me to be able to use an actuall 3 prong power cable? I dont really want to power a bigger unit with a little wall wort power supply seems like it would be a little/look funny. I decided I am going to make a box about 11" length around 5 or 6 inches high and not sure on a width, its going to look sort of like a smaller fender type deal also, I read somewhere that changing some of the values will make it more custom for your guitar/amp so you can change the amount of headroom, Using different pickups etc I want to be able to control that, I was thinking of just installing another pot to control the "headroom" sound like a good idea?

[Hella1hella]

So... I can just substitue the two 9v batteries for 18v bipolar power supply? I have no experience with building a power supply but think it would be great to put one with this circuit rather than a little wall wart. Any easy schematic layouts that a noob can read? anyone have any advice or can help me learn more about them?

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

I thought they dropped this reverb circuit from their website for some reason...?

[Hella1hella]

yeah you cant buy the pcb anymore.