fx pedal for "surf" music...??

[Bullet79]

if i play "surf" music... what is the most vital fx's stompbox i should use..??

delay, tremolo..?? reverb..??

[Scruffie]

I always think Slap Back Delay when I think of surf.

I did this project, you could be the first to try it  http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=87488.0

[petemoore]

  Heavy Reverb, like...thick, 'clickin' tank Verbage...has that click that sounds like a drop of water in a pool in a water tank.
  Single Coil, the oddball looking guitar or Fender.
  Super Reverb does that, Twins are just too clean.
  It can be digitally replicated and reproduced, to some extent.
  But in this particular case the sound wreaks of cab/speaker and a Preamplifier that is rattle-rocked by the cab and speaker, add reverberations to the reverb so to speak, those guys used otherwise basic high quality tube combo reverb amps, cranked enough that the output distorts and the speaker shakes the tube to distort, the tank springs also get some shakin' tones in 'em from the speaker/cab, a whole host of items [including the guitar strings] get to having some sympathetic vibrational influences on the overall tone/output.
   

[Bullet79]

mmm... basicly clean amp with fender tube reverb push to the max... with single coil guitar... welll skip that part..
let me rephrase my question...
   "i want to give a birthday present (stompbox) to a pal that play the surf and nothing but the surf"...  " so what should i look for/ build...

[Renegadrian]

A simple Rebote would help...

[Philippe]

mmm... basicly clean amp with fender tube reverb push to the max... with single coil guitar... welll skip that part..

That pretty much sums it up. Why bother with a trivial stompbox when all that's needed is a loud, clean amp like a Fender Dual Showman or Twin Reverb + the Fender Reverb unit?

When Jimi once mentioned that 'we'll never hear surf music again', he was probably referring to the limited application/usage of the Stratocaster at the time (aka the Beachboys type of sound...overly chimey & by today's standards, somewhat anachronistic & dated).

[Hides-His-Eyes]

I would put a slap back echo and a spring reverb into a very soft overdrive (stacked diodes)

The surf sound to me is the sound of an external spring reverb unit going into the input of a cranked fender-style amp so that the overdrive gets the reverb too

[Taylor]

I'm not a digital hater at all. I have designed and currently use several digital effects. I'm not a mojo-tone-golden ear type either.

But I haven't ever heard a pedal that sounded like heavy spring reverb, that wasn't a real spring reverb. Spring emulations tend to be too subtle for my taste. You can't get huge surf/secret agent/dub sounds with subtlety.

I will say that the spring reverb in Native Instruments B4 is really nice. I have played guitar/bass through the effects section and had really great results. But that's not a pedal and it's not DIY.

You can DIY a spring reverb. You could even do a tube one, but that's probably more than you were looking to do. A good spring sound won't fit in a 1590b, but you can do it. Check Soldersound's website for a nice reverb project.

[jasperoosthoek]

@Taylor

How about the Belton brick?

[Taylor]

I haven't played through one, but from the sound samples it's not very convincing to me. Not too surprising since it's basically 3 or 4 PT2399 chips with some filtering - a good digital emulation would need more delay lines, some allpass filters to smear things out, complex cross-feedback, some kind of dynamic side-chain for the sound of a spring being driven hard and "sproinging", etc. And you simply can't do all that with a circuit like that. DSP is needed.

The Belton brick is probably very good for guys who like a subtle amount of reverb just to liven things up, make their playing sound more epic, etc. but for surf the sound is all about the spring being driven hard, getting really twangy.

OCT-Distribution has a spring reverb in one of their FV-1 modules. They haven't released the code and I haven't tried the module, but it might be the closest you can get in a small pedal as far as DIY.

[Bullet79]

Hey Taylor...
   my guitar amp got a build in reverb/echo switch (single PT2399),... do u think it will work as a pedal..? since i've got the amp original schematic and it looked preetty easy,... (not too easy.. )

[Taylor]

If a single PT2399 does the sound you want, then I would just do one of the PT2399 projects that are available on this forum and on Tonepad, General Guitar Gadgets, etc. I have a PCB for the Echo Base delay at my website, but if you just want a pretty straight forward delay without special features, something like a Rebote might be better for your needs.

[Scruffie]

Who did that Sewer Pipe PT2399 project? That could be pretty good for this situation, can't beat it on simplicity.

[Brymus]

I was reading an old Guitar mag the other day and it stated that Leo actually made the stand alone reverb for Dick Dale.
They credited Dick Dale for the whole reverb fad along with creating surf music.
I would say a stand alone tube reverb will give you true surf sound.
But a pt2399 will be better on the wallet.

[blooze_man]

They say the Holy Grail sounded so much like a Fender tube reverb that Dick Dale couldn't tell the difference.

[trjones1]

Since reverb doesn't lend itself to a nice easy pedal build, I would recommend a good tremolo.  The tremulus lune instantly became my favorite pedal after I built it.

[Processaurus]

Spring reverbs get interesting when you can control the filtering going in and coming out.  Driving the tank with some treble boost seems to get the springs smacking around nice and surfy.  A little distortion/drive just going into the reverb can be  good too.

Danelectro's Spring King pedal has a PT based delay feeding a real spring reverb, which I thought was a really cool idea, I bet one of those pedals could be a great base for modding.

[Taylor]

They say the Holy Grail sounded so much like a Fender tube reverb that Dick Dale couldn't tell the difference.

The Grail is nice, for sure. But after 40 years of loud rock music, I'm not sure Dick Dale's hearing was in such great shape when the Grail came out...

[jrod]

if i play "surf" music... what is the most vital fx's stompbox i should use..??

delay, tremolo..?? reverb..??

Mosrite Fuzz Rite  

[Strategy]

I built a Stage Center Spring Reverb, which has a lot of easy/neat mods in the forum to adjust and refine the tone. Its nice and splashy and, using a Type 8  tank (about 8" long, 3 springs, very rich sound - Accutronics used to make them, now Belton makes them basically identical design) -- I got it into a pretty small box!

Now - Belton make an even SMALLER tank which is used in some modular synth equipment like Doepfer. You could make an even smaller one and those small tanks have a bright and saturated sound. if you made sure to get Belton's 3-spring, smallest tank model (I think they are around 4.5" long??) you could really do something cool.

I am building, but have not completed, the Gaussmarkov spring reverb at www.gaussmarkov.com which seems more robust - more headroom, better power supply, and Fender type "dwell" control.

I produce music with a lot of dub type effects and really see no replacement for spring reverb. I use digital reverbs for a different flavor, but not for a replacement.

Fortunately they are easy and fun to build.

Strategy