How To Use This Spring Verb

[Samuel Groner]

I got a strange Rehdeko RA 28 spring verb speaker; have a look at the pics [removed].

Any hints on how to use this? Either feeding it with an amp and micing it or exciting it with a speaker and taking the output to a mic pre?

How about damping? Reverb is pretty long, more than 10 s I guess.

Thanks for your help!

Samuel

 

[gyraf]

That's the classic eastern-german way of making spring reverb. It's simply what it is - a speaker with built-in reverb...

Used for "live" purposes, not as a studio effect.

But you could always mike it...

Jakob E.

 

[PRR]

I bet it IS a speaker. You connect it to a guitar amp and play. The springs do a non-electric reverb that eveybody in the room hears. It isn't made to make an electric signal to mix into the amplifier.

 

[Samuel Groner]

Thanks for your answers!

Hm, the speaker is rated for 30 W; not much for live use, is it?

If I connect it to an amp, does the reverb time drop? It seems way too long for any reasonable use...

Samuel

 

[Scodiddly]

You'd probably mix it in with a regular speaker signal. My guess is that the original use was as an extension speaker for home use, to put in a corner and get a concert-hall effect.

 

[PRR]

> the speaker is rated for 30 W; not much for live use

??? Many many non-heavy-metal players live quite well at 30 watts.

If it sounds cool but does not fill the stadium, mike it.

> How about damping?

Why? Do you really think they gave you more costly storage/decay time than was useful?

Is there some reason you haven't put it on an amp and tried a few bars yet?

 

[Samuel Groner]

Is there some reason you haven't put it on an amp and tried a few bars yet?

I'm not a guitar player but I will put it on my hi fi ASAP!

have a look at the pics

PRR, I know that you hate long URLs, but I'll have to move all my files after I finished my studies (give me a year...). If you short the URL, I'll have no chance to find them with the search function, so we will end up with dangling links.

Samuel

 

[Consul]

You know, that thing is giving me some ideas. I just wish I could act on them right now. :?

I have a fascination with spring reverbs. Right now, I'm just thinking out loud.

You can buy nice, stiff springs at Home Depot. Combine that with the motor of a speaker, like what you have there, but without the cone (or without most of the cone, anyway, since you probably still want some mechanical resistance on the voice coil). Then, put some guitar pickups of suitable type right over the springs. Send that into a DI then a mic pre, and you'd probably have a very unique-sounding reverb unit.

Whether it's a good one or not is another question. :wink:

 

[Consul]

Okay, it just occurred to me that the springs would probably provide plenty of physical resistance to the drivers, so a coneless speaker would probably work fine. Or perhaps a heavily-damped one otherwise.

I found this at everyone's favorite electronic parts shop:

4.5" Full Range Speaker

This, four springs from Home Depot (I've seen 1/4" to 1/2" diameter springs about 6 inches or so long there) and an old guitar pickup, and I think you'd be all set, other than a box to put it all in.

Like I said, I wish I could try it myself. In a few months, maybe. (Money troubles, in a very bad way.)