A SUPER CHEAP DIY Spring Reverb YOU Can Make Yourself!

Here at PresentDayProduction we love a bit of DIY to save some money, so we thought we'd show you the best way to get a spring reverb sound for cheap! Subscribe to our channel to watch the subsequent episodes explaining how to make a home-made one from a Slinky!
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[@error8418]

The idea of using a headphone amp is simply amazing! Even the most basic and crappy sounding one should work absolutely fine for this, making a stereo spring reverb very affordable.

[@shardsrecordingstudio-matt2247]

I use an old harmon kardon hi fi amp's headphone out to split a stereo signal to two units, also using its speaker outs to power a plate. It's nice because I can use the amp's bandaxall eq on the way in as well as drive it into saturation. rad as hell sound!

[@Dave-Rough-Diamond-Dunn]

At the studio I learned in, the spring reverb was a 6' length of PVC drain pipe leaning in the corner of the control room! Hitting it with the chair was a memorable experience!!! 😁

[@lcuxi]

Hey! Since I am trying to build an acoustic reverberating object that does not require any electricity, I wonder how this pvc pipe reverb that you mention was built. I am curious. Can you please give me some detail?

[@Dave-Rough-Diamond-Dunn]

@@lcuxi I didn't build it of course, I just had it explained to me, and used it in recording. There was very little to it, it was basically a piece of PVC pipe with a spring in it! The wiring was in the end caps, you can buy them from the hardware store that sells the piping, and they'd hooked it up to the patch bay so you had 1/4" TRS input and output sockets. What they did for a spring, I don't know, I assume that they bought wire, and made a spring to fit. It's just an oversized version of what you find in the bottom of an amp, or what's described in this video. 🙂

[@jonathanboyce7438]

I bet you’re going to use a plastic drain pipe and stick a slinky in it, if not you should. When I were a lad, it was called a GBS (the Great British Spring). I used one for years and it was wonderful. I very stupidly gave it away to a mate, when I got my first digital reverb, the original Alesis Midiverb, the one in the weird little plastic box. I’ve always regretted it, they go for about a grand on eBay, these days and nobody with any sense wants an old Midiverb. Keep up the good work, chaps, I’m loving this.

[@no_direction2303]

Thanks for this. Little bit of a tip for the recovery circuit I came across whilst experimenting. A cheap phono preamp (I'm using a behringer pp400 for £20, plenty of others out there), designed to boost/convert phono signals from a turntable to line level seems to work really well, and is a really cheap way to get a decent gain boost with correctish impedance without noise. The connections are all RCA, it's all stereo, the impedance of the input of phono preamps is relatively high compared to the spring tank output, the gain boost with them is decent/gets it up to line level - with an output impedance designed for connecting to line level equipment. Only *slight* drawback is these preamps have RIAA eq baked into them, but that's not neccesarily a bad thing as it seems to help with high end noise - and besides you're just going to eq the verb in the DAW anyway. Currently doing this and it sounds fab. Hope this helps someone.

[@raycochrane3971]

I had an enormous Spring Reverb pedal. Well, actually, it was an ancient Eminar six channel 200w powered mixer with a spring reverb tank inside. The mixer was nice but a little noisy and VERY heavy. I hadn't used it for a couple of decades and then decided to try to use the reverb signal for guitar. It worked using the available ins n outs of the old thing and sounded pretty cool BUT was a lot of effort to set up and being large as well as heavy was quite cumbersome. I As we moved states recently I gave it to a gigging musician who planned to use the mixer for foldback. Had I seen this video 12 months ago I'd have stripped out the reverb tank and followed your instructions. Timing is everything.

[@kadiummusic]

There is definitely something magical about making something yourself and the more Heath Robinson the better! Does anyone else remember making those DIY fx kits that companies like Maplin used to sell? You'd get a small pcb board, a load of components and a photocopied sheet of instructions. A few hours and a couple of solder burns later and you'd have a phaser! 😃

[@trevfisher]

At 13 years old I had a H&H PA Amp. If you bumped into it.the spring reverb inside made a fantastic noise, so we used to do that on purpose. There were only 3 TV channels in the UK at the time and the internet hadn't been invented.

[@untruenorth]

As they say on the internet: “Today I learned…” And my first thought when you said “but what if you want a bigger reverb, a much bigger one” was “slinky, LOL”. I really did not expect to be right. Very much looking forward to *that* video!

[@fortheoneswhocare]

I've been toying the idea of building myself a spring reverb exactly as you described for a long time. I guess it's time to finally do it. Thanks for the push !

[@jjcale2288]

Where's the DIY spring reverb? Disappointing!

[@manoir_blues]

Thank you very much. Now, i have a very cheap spring reverb!

[@galgogergo]

Thank you guys for the very informative, straight-to-the-point video. 'twas a pleasure to watch! Looking forward to the next one on the bigger spring :)) Thanks for making these, highly appreciated!

[@Markherczeg]

Look forward to the DIY plate reverb build!

[@squoblat]

This is the best thing I've seen since the day James became a verb

[@glaubergarcez5182]

Another thing you can do as well is put some cotton balls on the springs to tame the tail of it and you can really exaggerate the reverb on the mix without drowning in reverb.

[@brunoromiti7708]

you won me over with “professional level boing ➡️”

[@reread2549]

This is great! I never knew the history of spring reverb. I just always knew that I really hated it 🤣. Seriously thank you very much for this video. I learned something today 👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@murraywebster1228]

My first reverb was a Great British Spring, a small extra function was if you needed a thunder sound just give it a slap, hours of fun with that hitting it with different objects, being a piece of drainage pipe it was nearly indestructible, oh the memories, we eventually covered it with material, well it looked like a bit of drainage pipe screwed to the all after all, and our studio cat used it as a scratching pole, that sounded quite interesting sometimes and it did land on some records and even a couple of radio jingles

[@valleywoodstudio7345]

Love it. I had an old Korg rackmount stereo spring years ago. leant it out and never got it back. The reverb/amp and little 10"speaker in my old Hammond M100 sounds great, and it is fun sometimes to run a line level through that via the little phone on the swell pedal housing and mic up the speaker - use a ton of electric tho...

[@nigeltedbury5805]

Got an acutronics 9EB2C1B tank providing spring reverb on my modular synth and always wondered why it was so quiet. Output ohms! Not what I was expecting to learn from this video, but so glad i didi! Thank you.

[@millennialanimal]

Perfect, I pulled one out of an old organ and kept it. Now to see if I can do it! Thanks!

[@felixdorn21]

great! Just ordered two Reverb tanks and will be recording some crazy dubstyle thunderclaps with them soon 😊

[@joaoantoniovione484]

At the start of the pandemic I went full-on guerrilla and built one of these from an old 4" speaker and a shower heating resistance attached to it... on the other end of the spring, earbuds as pickups. All housed into a DIY wooden box, built to the 70s dbx decilinear series style - even the paint was DIY, powdered graphite mixed with glue. The sound was pretty boxy, sig/noise ratio was narrow but it was fun nonetheless. Your video inspired me to do it again, properly this time.

[@user-ub1rl9mv9r]

THAT SOUNDS AWESOME

[@Beorninki]

This is amazing. Thank you.

[@DamnHeadHumpers]

I really love your DIY videos!

[@SonDaLagoa]

Thanks for the useful information!

[@LondonSteveLee]

I made a dual mono spring reverb using a small and large tank (I like the shorter 'verb on the left) I used an off the shelf £5 2x5W stereo amp circuit to accept my line signal and drive the spring tanks - I played with the amp's input voltage until I got the best sound.

[@michaeltablet8577]

What a great idea!

[@philthompson5968]

Thanks so much for this, I've had a pair of Accutronics type 4s in a drawer for ages. Number on one of them is not entirely legible but thanks to your PDF I now know they are completely different. One horizontal & one vertical + plus massively miss matched input impedance. Both long decay though. So mono it is then!

[@axilleas]

That’s one of those things us guys who have learnt the trade in the box would never come up with. Amazing!

[@DEEP_PRACTICE]

This is such an informative video, thank-you. I picked up a 1970s Yamaha mixer upon using I discovered it had a spring reverb tank within it! I loved the sound so much, but the mixer is too big and heavy to lug around easily. Thanks again for this video!

[@SleepingLionsProductions]

I thought about making an amp separately but I already have a headphone amp! This is amazing. Gonna go get a spring tank now

[@unclemick-synths]

Good video 👍. My first reverb was a Great British Spring Mk2 - a 3-foot drainpipe with a pair of spring units inside. Made a great thunder effect if I gave it a gentle kick. Smooth sound for a spring but I could get it to boing if I wanted.

[@AcousticWisdom]

🤯 amazing!

[@FLH3official]

I still have an old Torque spring reverb in my rack, bought for cheap in the late 80s.

[@kerracoustic3607]

Awesome!!

[@thequietproject]

love this

[@magnuswootton6181]

thats pretty good! and no solid state circuit requirement!!!!

[@lotekpro]

The like button doesn't do this video justice! You covered everything!! Like EVERYTHING. I thought i got the gist about halfway thru...but glad i didn't click away... the breakdown of the meaning of each digit of the tanks has saved me weeks and £££££ Subbed and coming back for more real soon...thanks a million!

[@peterbrandt7911]

Awesome! I love diy, now I need rackspace first :).

[@ronmoes42]

the part that makes it difficult is the sway of the reverb, you will hear it when the signal goes through is. If you were to side chain the spring reverb so that it ducks the reverb when the vocals are not singing, then the sway of the reverb could be audible on the release or gate rather said... I think that does not sound very appealing. But for many applications I do like the thickness and texture of the hardware spring reverb tough! As any reverb type, it is coherent to the style and era of many genres of music imho..

[@MrBigbird1987]

Really useful video

[@bbmusic4983]

Love this track you guys have been using! The vocals harms remind me of Crosby, Stills, and Nash = awesome

[@PresentDayProduction]

Thanks! The singer is Andy Platts, check out his bands Mamas Gun and Young Gun Silver Fox 👍

[@ylanstockholm]

Love that I have two headphone outs on my Clarett! 😀

[@justaguy2365]

I've got a reverb tank from a twin reverb. Been wanting to put it in a stand alone console for the home studio.

[@Aqua_1014]

Hell yea, I've been thinking of building a spring reverb (and a plate) for a while now after hearing Squarepusher's track significant others

[@allen394]

"That splatty sound?" Great stuff! I have finally joined your discord, just need to find the time to spring into it!

[@PresentDayProduction]

See you there!

[@secretelitemusic]

I have a couple of 4-way headphone amps I'm not using, so the madness is well within reach. Now I just just need to find four slinkys, some blutak, a cooker exhaust that mum's finished using, some butterfly nuts n bolts, and bob's me ankle. I used to love the spring in my careworn JC120 that would sproingle any time the cat sat on it.

[@Jrscarratt]

I do a similar thing but just use a small behringer mixer to drive and amplify the spring!

[@matsukadub-official]

i think I am going to try that...

[@jacquithurgood1682]

Evening guys

[@alexandre7634]

My favourite reverbs 💖 it's not a bx 20, but it's still really cool !!!

[@fleewithin]

Found a forgotten tank while clearing for a house move. Gonna be part of my setup now!

[@hoofbags]

A reason why many, and most of the ones I've encountered, have low impedance "send" transducers is owing to valve tech. They used a small valve output transformer for anode matching and the send part is seen by the driver stage as a 3 ohm speaker. I've KZbins a reverb spring driver circuit of my own design, although I should submit an improved update. Whenever I've got around to using a reverb, I resorted to Zoom rack effects unit that does the same job to my ears but I still have a fondness for the old style tech. Nice upload. 🙂

[@troeteimarsch]

oldschool yeah \m/

[@mattrobertson_music]

ha! such a good idea using a headphone amp! nice one.

[@JoaquinGonzalez2014]

Floppy does reverb! :)

[@PrinceWesterburg]

I have three 17" Gibbs reverb tanks laying about doing nothing. I was going to build a Dr.Z style reverb unit bu the input imedance with a valve circuit was impossible to find a transformer for so i was going to use the amp board from an old mushroom white, 90's Sound Blaster set of speakers!

[@biggestelk]

sproing indeed! :-)

[@LoveGuitar63277]

I just threw out a ton of RCA cables! But prob can find some in a drawer. Will try this with the large spring 'verb from a dead Vox Buckingham solid-state head I have laying about.

[@bigbasil1908]

My Park G10R combo amp had 2 springs in the reverb tank. Back in the 90's I did mess about with the springs a bit and damaged one of both, so a couple of years back I put a new reverb tank in the amp which has 3 springs. To be honest I don't think there was anything wrong with the old reverb tank as it sounded alright, but I think the new reverb tank is probably better with the 3 springs.

[@pnutbuttajellee1394]

Splatty, pingy, chunky!

[@1337murk]

This is cool, but think I'm going to go the for the slinky option

[@thirfytash7286]

Can the headphones out from an analog synth drive the spring reverb enough? And if so can it then be rerouted back into the synth's input or should it go through a DI first before going back into the synth's input? Like the old minimoog trick of feeding its headphones output back into itself but then instead also inserting the reverb tank into that feedback loop?

[@chickenlickin3820]

i love this great idea, how did you know i had a spare Hammond spring tank handy? oh, wait a minute where did i put it 7 years ago?

[@chickenlickin3820]

oh Mark feel my pain its not in the box in the loft where i thought it was, oh well i'll be scavaging one from my deluxe (now non reverb) lol

[@CheapoCardCompany]

As 4-sprung dork techniques go, a ‘spring’ reverb is all very well... but a ‘summer’ one sounds warmer. For those who cannot afford those full-on large neckless affairs, try asking your paramour for a quick back alley fumble, in return for a bag of chips and the bus fare home.

[@PresentDayProduction]

4-sprung dork techniques… I laughed so hard I let out a little bit of wee 🤣

[@CheapoCardCompany]

@@PresentDayProduction “You’re in” luck, if it was only a piddling amount... I’m off now to write a book so I can use that quote on the cover.

[@trevfisher]

@@CheapoCardCompany #dadjokesrock

[@CheapoCardCompany]

@@trevfisher As opposed to dada jokes which fish bicycle hat-stand.

[@marcustopple4202]

Super fab! Surfs Up!

[@jakobole]

I want one! I mean 2!

[@spacebwoy]

I have an old type 8 tank unit from a vox by another name that sounded absolutely lush as fuck. It's my goto reverb if I can't tell what it needs.

[@nightspidergoha]

I just watched a video with the same title made over a year ago on a channel called No Fixed Tribe.... Tho tbf your video does offer alot more info

[@chrism2135]

Brilliant, really keen to have a go at this! Very confused though?? In this video you suggest that a 4B/CC… is the preferred tank but the pdf states that a 4EB… is the one to get?? Struggling to get my head around impedance numbers so could you please clarify which tank is best for a headphone output driven tank returning to an interface mic pre as in this video?? Thanks!!

[@almightytreegod]

Nice! I’ve considered doing something similar with a file cabinet for plate reverb using piezo sensors but I don’t really know the specifics of how to put it together.

[@PresentDayProduction]

Video on that coming very soon!

[@peppoz88]

@@PresentDayProduction hello! Did it came out?

[@goodun2974]

​@@peppoz88, Somebody on KZbin build a plate reverb with metal ikea shelving

[@j.p8806]

Hi, could I use Tone beast 12 pre amp to go through this then back in to my interface? Also could you recommend a code that would work with that set up please? Great video as always 👍

[@Tulishow]

Good sproioioing! This might work on small reverbless mixers too. Ps. Have you tried other Tascam mics besides TM-80. (TM-180 for example).

[@PresentDayProduction]

I haven’t, no…

[@paulhemmerling579]

That all makes sense if your plugging it into your studio rack gear. What if I want to use it outside of another amp like a traditional pedal? How do turn the reverb up and down?

[@kurtloderlovespie]

Now how to get a wet/dry pot to work nicely with a headphone amp for a standalone unit?

[@equaleyez]

6:09 this image is better than any of the Cats On Synthesizers In Space photoshopped images :)

[@robynwilliams3028]

Hi what was the track you were playing please??

[@CarstenGoeke]

Geil ✌🏼

[@bootjord]

I'm a little confused, in the video you note a type B or C (150-240 ohms) input is ideal for feeding from a headphone amp, but the in PDF it's noted that a type E (600 ohms) is highly suitable for feeding from a headphone amp. Would both of these input scenarios work sufficiently? Thanks.

[@Dirge4july]

Is it possible to plug it into an amp?

[@TheLivingStrange]

can you use the headphone out of the apollo twin to do this?

[@EchoReverb6]

omg I love the song & vocal u r logic playing ? what that song name . where can i listen that song ...its like D:angelo stuff

[@PresentDayProduction]

Thanks! It’s a song we produced for our channel for demo’s :)

[@Roboami]

I just found an Accutronics spring reverb on the side of the road! Judging by the pile of junk which it was sitting on top of, it came from an old Hammond organ. However, the code is nowhere to be found on the unit... I'm just going to experiment with synthesizers that have a headphone output for now. Any cues from you guys? Thanks!

[@Hoptronics]

I want to use a slinky..

[@thirfytash7286]

In the video you mention that the second digit in the model name should a be B or C but your PDF recommends a model where the second digit is an E, which option should I go with?

[@ezgoen3882]

Hmm, thought I commented already, maybe I didn't hit 'comment' or I said something wrong? I was thinking that an external soundcard like the Behringer UFO202 would work as an inexpensive headphone amp to run the reverb. I have an old non-working amp that I put a spring reverb into years ago that I will cannibalize for a test. I'll use an old USB 5.1 external Creative Sound blaster to provide the headphone amp and a usb power brick to power it. Should be fun

[@PresentDayProduction]

We never delete any comments, but sometimes they do disappear! And yes, that would work a treat - pretty much any headphone amp we’ve tried, even that in a cheap interface, has worked a treat 👍

[@DavidStockden]

Sounds great! ls it the great Andy Platts from Mama’s Gun?

[@PresentDayProduction]

It is!

[@leonardovalvassori]

Brill

[@doctorscoot]

Ok, are there ones with impedance code for standard 600Ω line levels tho? Or does it mean too much signal level required (i.e way more than +4dBu?)?

[@PresentDayProduction]

Type 4 E have 600 Ohm impedance, but I think you’d need a beefier signal than line level to drive it

[@bwhog]

"No unit leaves the factory without each one being expressly cat tested and cat approved. Accept no imitations. If it isn't stamped paw certified on the box, bury it in the sand box with the rest of the refuse."😀

[@andypandy321]

I've got a spring tank in my eurrack but its mono, whats the best way to get in stereo ? also its intellegent kit and instead of moving it right to left it's moving it back and forth ... any difference? kind regards

[@PresentDayProduction]

Two units is the answer for stereo

[@TheChocDonk2000]

How do you find the Clarett? I'm in the depths of trying to make a decision on an 8 pre interface and I'm parallelized by it.

[@PresentDayProduction]

We love it - the converters are among the best we’ve heard, the inputs are pristine, and it’s just generally a very reliable workhorse.

[@TheChocDonk2000]

@@PresentDayProduction nice one!

[@chromaticabberator]

Amazing info, this could stop me from spending hundreds of pounds on a Vermona rackmount. Is the tank used in the video a 4EB2C1B?

[@PresentDayProduction]

The model number has long gone! But as long as the impedance roughly matches with what you’re driving it with you’ll be ok. Check our free PDF in the link for the necessary specs.

[@ricarcorpse]

What song is that BTW? Cheers from Chile!!!

[@PresentDayProduction]

It’s a song we put together for our 1176 and Pultec shootout videos

[@user-cq2gm6eh9k]

What if i have the tank but no input and output? How do i make a tank out of a spring (+ transducers) obviously

[@PresentDayProduction]

Run an unbalanced connection with the signal connected to the spring, and the ground to ground.

[@adrianallen623]

What about the spring reverb out of a 1952 Hammond organ?

[@mercerfamilyadventures4613]

Been trying to get it to work for about 5 years now.. still lost.

[@-______-______-]

"You can easily do this yourself" Proceeds to take the spring reverb unit out of a Hammond organ.

[@troeteimarsch]

crappy speaker, metal plate, electret mic -> plate reverb. these old days were full of advaantures people with great electronics knowledge. nice to see someone living it up again. on the next episode: build your own 12v single stage tube saturator for less then 50 bucks :>