Bruce,

Every once in a great while Peavey makes something worth having! My find was a unit of theirs called the "ValveVerb." I got it very cheap as the original owner, who spent $500 for it, had no luck and it sounded thin. I scored it for $175 with an eye toward cannibalizing it for another project. It's a pretty unit. Well, turns out that the problem was the "size" of the 1/4" receptacles. They weren't connecting properly. It was a quick fix for which I used some switchcraft females. Voila, +great+ spring verb (with 3 band EQ on the verb) and it does cool things to stuff fed through it with the verb off, too. If you can find one, check it out. Instant twang.

:D Cheers,

Tonebarge

....don't forget the trippy trem.
It's a low fi thing but that's usually what I look for in a spring.

D'oh, you're right! And I just used it on a lead part. Super shimmer. Tres cool!

Tonebarge ;)

If you can find away to land on a Fairchild 658, do it. Don't let the "F" word scare you, this is a "squalid state" thing, with 3 'reverb spring tanks'. I don't think I've ever paid more than $2-300 for one.

They are the absolute balls on a guitar part, or the return from an echo unit.

Hey Bear,

I just dug out my old RE-201 that's not been used since 82-83 "It still works"!! Seems like I remember this thing being very noisy but it is fairly quite in my "good gear"Do you have any suggestions for any mods etc. I will be doing the normal cleaning of pots, heads, etc. but wanted to know if you or any one else have any ideas.

It uses Cart tape and be sure to keep the tape off the heads when not in use. Where's Scott Dorsey when you need him?

Bear, leaving the tape pulled tight across the heads can put a crimp in the tape. It used to be that leaving the tape in contact with the heads also could cause some permanent magnetizing problems, but that hasn't been a problem for quite a while. But humidity can also cause some tapes to stick to the heads and glog them.

Anybody know of a good source for cart stock to fit the Roland Space Echo and Korg Stage Echo? In what way is it "lubricated"?

Fostex made a spring reverb for awhile, and I thought it sounded pretty smooth. Don't remember much about it, but I'm pretty sure it was a dual mono, -10 unbalanced thing. Sold it to a folksinger about 13 years ago. Wish I had it back!
Cheers,
Ed

I've owned a Master Room XL-305 since the early 80's and recently purchased another, for $100. These units sound fabulous, they have a totally unique sound that requires a lot less return level to be audible in the mix. The shine of course on guitars, but I have had great results on vocals also...
Highly recommended!

I have the Fairchild unit that Fletcher wrote about. Its a beautiful sounding reverb. I like it quite a bit on snare drum. I paid $200 for it. I bought it from an NBC affiliate and was told it originally came out of Stax....I thought it smelled a bit like Marvin Gaye......

cww2