DIY Reverb! Now with added Tremolo

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bender
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DIY Reverb! Now with added Tremolo

Post by bender »

I've been trying to find a good backup option for my Fender '63 Reverb (which is a 6g15 standalone spring reverb unit) for a while now. I've tried a whole bunch of pedals and none of them quite do what I want them to, so I decided to build one of these excellent Surfy Bear FET reverb kits.

http://www.surfyindustries.com/surfybea ... -faceplate

They sell complete spring reverb pedals, tremolo pedals and a DIY kitset version of each. The board comes pre-assembled (it's all SMD so is tiny), and all of the bits you need apart from the chassis, reverb tank and power supply are included.

Here's the board fully assembled and installed in an offset from some cable ducting that I found at work. The FETs are on the back of the board and have adhesive backing so they hold it in place.
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I bought an adhesive faceplate with the kit. Looks great!
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It normally powers off a standard DC socket, but requires 12v 600mA. I didn't want a wall wart so I'm using this neat little open frame PSU from Meanwell so I can power it off an IEC socket. It's 12v 1.3A.
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I've built a little cab for it out of pine. It's the same form factor as the 6g15 cab, but I've made it as small as I could:
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For scale.
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Gave it a final sand and a couple of coats of tinted varnish today. It's going to look awesome!
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I'll hopefully be able to give it a couple more coats and then buff it tomorrow, then I just need to figure out what to do about feet and a handle. I have a tremolo kit too so I might even rehouse it so I can put both in the one enclosure at some point.

It sounds great too. It's a really cost effective way to get a genuine spring reverb for that great surfy drip! I'll try to set up a decent A/B test at some point.
Last edited by bender on Thu Aug 10, 2017 8:38 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: DIY Reverb!

Post by Kev77 »

That's plenty chic
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Re: DIY Reverb!

Post by Jay »

Looking good Ben, what material is that front plate?

No shielding required?
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Re: DIY Reverb!

Post by Single coil »

That's pretty fuckin cool.
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Re: DIY Reverb!

Post by GrantB »

That's cheeeoice! Have you tried the sound / tone? Up to spec?
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Re: DIY Reverb!

Post by bender »

jvpp wrote:Looking good Ben, what material is that front plate?

No shielding required?
It's fully enclosed in some steel cable ducting so all shielded.

The front panel is an offcut of some ply with whit laminate front and back that I made some trestle tables out of for my wife.

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Re: DIY Reverb!

Post by bender »

GrantB wrote:That's cheeeoice! Have you tried the sound / tone? Up to spec?
It's pretty damn good actually. Need to find a loop switcher pedal of some kind to properly AB it with my Valve one.

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Re: DIY Reverb!

Post by Mini Forklift »

Looks amazing, nice job. Hopefully it sounds as pleasing as it is to the eye! :-)

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Re: DIY Reverb!

Post by StrummersOfThunder »

Very pleasing to the face

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Re: DIY Reverb!

Post by jeremyb »

Awesome project!!
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Re: DIY Reverb!

Post by Jay »

StrummersOfThunder wrote:Very pleasing to the face
Must say I quite like that feature with the screws sticking out a bit...
When faced with quality, I recognise it every time.

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Re: DIY Reverb!

Post by AiRdAd »

Well done!!!!

It's screaming for the 'Bullkelp Surfers' logo on the front - or a cutout from one of your cool posters
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Re: DIY Reverb!

Post by bender »

AiRdAd wrote:Well done!!!!

It's screaming for the 'Bullkelp Surfers' logo on the front - or a cutout from one of your cool posters
I have a plan for the logo...

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Re: DIY Reverb!

Post by Bg »

Image
So, is that low alcohol or no alcohol at all? mmmm, no alcohol, do you want to try it? Noooooooooo.

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Re: DIY Reverb!

Post by bender »

I made up the Surfy Trem yesterday to see how it sounds and help make a decision on whether to put both in the same chassis.

http://www.surfyindustries.com/surfytrem-pcb-diy-kit
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These kits are super easy to make- all you need to do is solder the jacks, DC socket, pots, LED and switch and it's done. This one has the added benefit of being less power hungry so can power off a standard 9v pedal PSU or battery.

The only bummer is that the board is quite big so it would be tricky to fit in a smaller enclosure, but it could be done with a bit of care.
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Such an awesome sounding tremolo! The 50's setting is Brownface (Harmonic Tremolo) and the 60's setting is Blackface (probably optical but sounds more like the bias trem mode on a Flint). I sold a Flint recently and this plus the reverb is an awesome replacement!

I'd highly recommend these kits to anyone wanting to dip their toes in DIY FX, or anyone wanting a killer sounding reverb or tremolo.

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