Guitar Gear Forum

I've got an awesome Carvin amp head that currently has a broken reverb channel. I've tried fixing it but nothing seems to work. However I got the idea today that maybe there is a way that I could build a custom spring reverb unit. I've got an extra reverb tank, and I figure if I wire the two input and output RCA cables to 1/4" jacks and add a volume pot and a tone pot maybe I'd have a little reverb unit to place in my amp effects loop. Is this at all doable? I know people have taken those Epiphone Valve Jr. heads and turned them into reverb units. I don't see any reason why this shouldn't be feasible. Thoughts on how I should go about this?

I'm not super-knowledgeable with spring reverb design, but I am pretty sure that some form of buffering / amplification / mixing circuitry has to be created that'll form the signal and make it workable as a standalone unit. Probably not that overly complicated, but surely more so than just the reverb pan and a couple of pots.

Maybe Mortatone or one of the others here has a schematic that might be useful

Good luck!

Sounds like a cool project. I would have no idea how to do it myself. I imagine getting the impedances right gets complicated quickly.

You might look into a Danelectro Spring King or Vanamps Sole Mate if you want something already built.

Lookup the schematic for an old Fender reverb unit and go from there...

GRIMESPACE wrote:I'm not super-knowledgeable with spring reverb design, but I am pretty sure that some form of buffering / amplification / mixing circuitry has to be created that'll form the signal and make it workable as a standalone unit. Probably not that overly complicated, but surely more so than just the reverb pan and a couple of pots.

Maybe Mortatone or one of the others here has a schematic that might be useful

Good luck!

In sure you're right... Most of the ones I've seen online are tube driven though and that's gonna get more complicated than I'd like.

Wayne wrote:Sounds like a cool project. I would have no idea how to do it myself. I imagine getting the impedances right gets complicated quickly.

You might look into a Danelectro Spring King or Vanamps Sole Mate if you want something already built.

Sweet, I'll check those out. I really like the idea of a spring reverb unit not part of the amp because it might give me a few more tonal options. Maybe I'm crazy and should just get my amp verb fixed

Spring reverb drivers are a pain in the ass

Zozobra wrote:Spring reverb drivers are a pain in the ass

Why is that?

You've either got to stick with the power supply you have and use a tube driver to buffer the tank which might not be of suitable impedance so things will have to be fudged to work or you have to use opamps and find a suitable voltage rail to work with. I'd just buy a reverb pedal and use the loop.

This might be useful to you:
http://www.valvewizard.co.uk/reverbdriver.html

Gotcha. Thanks... I'll probably just go ahead and spend the money to repair my reverb channel

Here's another alternative... http://www.radialeng.com/tankdriver.php

ajaxlepinski wrote:Here's another alternative... http://www.radialeng.com/tankdriver.php

I like the idea of that!

mrfret wrote:

ajaxlepinski wrote:Here's another alternative... http://www.radialeng.com/tankdriver.php

I like the idea of that!

Me too... I'm gonna check it out!