Reverb tank out of a beer keg??

[loki]

Hi,
just today i stumbled across a guitargeek rig layout for a guitar player named ryan gururyan... here's the link:

http://guitargeek.com/rigview/630/

he uses a beer keg (lone star brand lol  ) as his reverb tank...
at first seemed to me as incredible as the time machine out of a delorean thing  
then i remembered i had maybe seen somewhere on the net tutorials about building reverb tanks out of cans... unfortunately i can't find them anymore... does anybody know about it? how can it be done?
thanks  :wink:

[petemoore]

'natural reverb...put your amp in a reverberatey hall, and put a mic in the hall too...reverb...>
 Take the 'hall' and 'fold' it into a large [you'll need something rather long, and reflective inner surfaces help..] can...put your output speaker on one end and the mic at the other...the sound bounces around and is delayed elayed so the mic gets a reverberated 'source'.
 say the speaker is
  HERE the sound goes through a 'hall'>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>then down>
  <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
  THen this way again >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>then   down<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<, so the long hall is folded...>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>then MIC to amp/board or recorder etc.
 Basically you want a reflective, 'long' [the longer the better till you get pretty darn long, at which point there will be less clear signal coming through] chamber

  the speaker sends waves into [soundpressurewaves in the air] the chamber which bounces them around, which causes many different length delays [reverb] and then picked up again [mic] at the other end.
 IF you get long enough delays and can get more reverb than is needed, a mix control of the bypassed [nonreverbed signal] can be mixed in as a reverb 'amount' control.

[Mark Hammer]

I seem to recall an oil furnace tank being used as a reverb chamber by someone, "back in the day".

The thing to understand about reverb tanks is that while there is nothing wrong with a reverberant space that is highly resonant and boxey-sounding, it can get really old really quick.  Ideally, you want something that is large and irregularly-shaped enough to: a) have a wide array of arrival times, and b) have a long enough decay time that you have something you can work with.

A beer keg likely has property 'a' (assuming it is somewhat barrel-shaped), reducing the standing waves that might result from absolutely parallel surfaces.  However, the walls are likely perilously close to each other (this isn't a 500 gallon barrel, is it?) and likely to yield a very idiosyncratic sound that will be interesting for the first 20 minutes, and annoying thereafter.

Whatever you use, there is the over-riding issue of mic-ing the whole thing, and how one would fill it with sound.  You'll need to provide a sound source inside that will result in sound waves bouncing off the walls.  What sort of speaker and amplifying system will you use?  Since the reverb inside is not exactly going to scream, you'll need a sensitive mic and a high gain preamp, with the sort of eq-ing that will let you cut out any annoying rumble coming from footsteps, random rattlings, and the speaker itself.  How will you do that?

[moosapotamus]

In that guy's setup on guitargeek, it says that he designed his custom two loop loooper pedal himself... and it looks like it's one of these...
http://www.loooper.com/
So, same guy? Maybe you could contact him through the loooper web site and ask him about the kegverb.

~ Charlie

[petemoore]

Like a talk box or any effect that uses the air to get the effect, how good your amp/driver [chamber] Mic/amp are will determine the outcome of the 'quality' of the effect.
 Short and longer type reverbs maybe could be chosen by starting with a large tank, and 'valving off' half or part of the chamber, thereby reducing the chamber size.

[Cabezahead]

I think it'd be hilarious if he just put a spring reverb tank into a keg.  Confusion to the enemies and enemas to the confused.

-CH

[SeanCostello]

My suspicion is that the metal tank itself is being used for reverb more than the very small quantity of air enclosed within the tank. Think of the keg as a plate reverb, wrapped into a 3-dimensional space. There will be a FAR greater mode density, and a FAR longer modal decay rate, within the metal of the keg than within the air within the keg.

There is a sculpture sitting by the law school at the University of Washington, made of a bunch of aluminum polygons that are attached to metal tubes. The reverb time that can be heard by shouting at the metal itself is really nice. Inside the structure, however, there is almost no reverb - the reverb is purely the result of resonant modes within the metal.

Sean Costello

[Ben N]

The key is getting that '93 Lonestar keg--later Lonestars are completely missing the mojo, although the Asahi "lawsuit kegs" from the late '90s aren't bad.  :wink:

[Hal]

http://www.antiquemystique.com/pages/6878_jpg.htm

[dr]

....made a dandy fog/smoke machine out of a beer keg once-cut out the top, found a bunch of stinky green slimy mold inside; cleaned it out,installed PVC sleeves in the sides,put in hot water,hooked up dryer hoses to the keg and a hose to each end of the stage-dropped in twenty pounds of dry ice and in two minutes managed to fill the room completely to the ceiling with fog....(wasn't asked back to play there anymore!)......

[troubledtom]

speaking of kegs............ i have to go get mine replenished right now!!!!!
:twisted:  :twisted:  :twisted:  :twisted:  :twisted:
             damn i'm thirsty,
                     -tt

[moosapotamus]

HERE the sound goes through a 'hall'>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>then down>
  <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
  THen this way again >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>then   down<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<, so the long hall is folded...>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>then MIC to amp/board or recorder etc.

WooOOooHooo... man, my head is spinning. If I could only capture that in a can, I'd be in heaven.

~ Charlie

[loki]

@moosapotamus
I don't think it's the same guy from Loooper.com, maybe he simply got his pedal made from them

@seancostello
if your suspicion is right then here would be no mic or speaker in the keg, that is it's connected the way you would normally connect a spring tank.. am i wrong?