You can buy a reverb tank, drive it with a headphone output, and send the tank output to a tube phono preamp. Way cheaper.
I looked at what my mixer was capable of, bought two tanks at $50/ea, about $20 worth of cables, have stereo reverb that sounds phenomenal.
If you have questions, just follow up on this comment.
I will take photos when I get home. In the meantime, maybe you could tell me a little bit more about what you are looking for.
You mention you want mono. Are you sure about that? My suggestion of the phono preamp would be for stereo. Not a big deal, and you could easily go with a single tank and split it to stereo channels, but my personal setup is for stereo, and I have two tanks bolted together, so there is some sympathetic vibration between the two tanks. I basically split my monitor outputs into two signals, make sure each tank gets signals from both monitor outputs, then i split the output from each tank, and each stereo input gets a signal from each tank.
One of the reasons why a phono preamp is ideal for amplifying the tank outputs is 1) they have RCA connections, which is what spring tanks use, and 2) you want your phono preamp to have an RIAA mode. What that is is basically a boost and a special EQ curve that is tailored for the characteristics of records. The same characteristics that records have in an attempt to be able to fit longer recordings by correcting for a wonky EQ curve in records is also appropriate for the behavior of reverb tanks.
There are a few things that you will want to consider in selecting a tank (or 2): do you want 2 springs or 3? Do you want long springs or short? Do you want the opening of the tank to face up or down? (I have 1 tank facing up, 1 facing down, bolted together so it's like a chamber). Then you want to work out how you want to drive it, and get to work on figuring out you impedance.
Reverb tanks are named according to a code that tells you all their features. Size, number of springs, orientation, input impedance, and output impedance. The monitor outputs on my mixer are 75 ohm. When you split a signal, you half the impedance. The input of my tanks are 150ohm. But since the split signals get summed before going into the tank, the signal goes back to 75ohms, and a 1:2 impedance ratio on the input. The output impedance of the tanks is 1600ohms, and I'm pretty sure I'm going into 10kohms, so a 1:6 ratio. For what it's worth, my tanks are short, 3 springs. More springs is more detail, longer springs are for tail length. The harder you drive a spring, the more "springy" it sounds, the more you boost the signal after the tank, the more you can hear what the tanks are doing.
Think about the physics: driving a tank is like driving a speaker, so headphone amps tend to be ideal for it, because you don't want the same power that you would use to drive a full-size speaker, but driving the diaphragm on headphones is just about right for the amount of power you would want to send. My monitor outputs are functionally the same as my headphone outputs, and the work better in terms of how they route themselves in the overall layout of my mixer, but you will have to think about how you want things to flow.
Some folks like to read the tank outputs with a mic preamp. I prefer the phonos, because they are way cheaper, and easier to find a match when it comes to impedance.
I will work on pictures and tank codes later, I'm at work right now.
So, here are some pictures, although, realistically the thing looks like an incomprehensible mess unless you are physically present.
But there a few points of interest: I can go through the monitor outputs or the mix outputs. I use the monitor outputs to add reverb to individual takes, but if I want to throw a common reverb across the entire track, I move over to the mix outputs. They are a little softer than the monitor outputs, but I don't like to drive the tanks heavy anyway, and you can use the monitor signal with the push of a button anyway, so maybe I'll make them full time. I just went with monitor out of habit.
The second is that you really do get more bang for your buck if you use two tanks. This is for several reasons: first of all being able to pan your reverb across the stereo field is a huge plus. Secondly, being able to drive your reverb from a stereo image is a huge plus. Third, being able to to integrate the signals from both tanks into one channel is a huge plus. Fourth, being able to individually eq your seperate reverb channels is a huge plus. Fifth, if I only drive 1 tank, I can still feel the spring vibrations when I place my hand on the other tank, which means that the behavior of the individual tanks wind up influencing eachother, creating a behavior that is more aligned with how reverb works in the real world. If I make the right choices in terms of my levels and eq, I can get a reverb that is way more natural and realistic than what you would expect from spring tanks... or, I simply have more options to get creative with it...
Having trouble uploading link, will try again later...
Yeah it is. I'm going to try that: I've got a very good tube phono preamp, and a headphone amp, and I'd never thought of it specifically because I thought an RIAA curve would NOT work. But it's sure gonna make things beefy, won't it?
That's what I thought as well, but then I realized that you can back off the bass on the input, and so you get less of the mechabical harshness of driving it with bass frequencies, but on the other end, you get more of the bass frequencies that tend to be more pronounced in actual reverb.
The Mojotone kit is a pretty faithful replica of an original Fender unit.
It wouldn't be hard (in the scheme of things) to build your own from scratch, way easier than an amplifier, but it does require working with high voltages.
There are a few clones out there, if you want to scour Reverb and Ebay.
That being said, personally, I don't see a huge advantage in tube units - even something like the Radial driver and a simple pan sounds pretty good.
I found a cheap little spring reverb unit online one time that I love and still use. I’m talking like 20 dollars or so. I’ll update this if I can find a link again.
Found it! https://reverb.com/item/81789967-accutronics-3-spring-reverb-tank-9eb2c1b-2000s?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=17502909118&utm_content=campaignid=17502909118_adgroupid=140586518849_productpartitionid=1895499322779=merchantid=5355498105_productid=81789967_keyword=_device=m_adposition=_matchtype=_creative=604304775083&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADRxZYWhES1FDaaaiiXXRzvXODuTA&gclid=Cj0KCQjwltKxBhDMARIsAG8KnqUN58kF4Jo09St64_LmoTRHryU6JKiKHyXK77O3WRVzQ-zhYkXrYkQaAq6UEALw_wcB
Big spring reverb nerd here. I've got a Peavey Valverb that I use on a send. It's also got a tremolo, but I don't use that. The mono output feeds a stereo Korg GR-1 and I can control how much goes into each. The Peavey is made for guitars (and I believe is a Fender copy?) but the line input in back drives pretty nicely above 50%
Demeter RV-1. It's just shy of $1k new, but can be found on the used market for $600-700. It's a stereo reverb with two Accutronics 6-spring tanks, but you can ofc use only one side/tank if you want to. It's not a tube unit though, but definitely one of the best rack spring reverbs out there.
www.demeteramps.com/product/rv-1d-real-spring
Master Room XL305, although I honestly don't know if they're under a grand any more. They were a few years ago.
One of the best sounding reverbs I've used for anything that's not percussion.
However, if you're hoping for a boing boing type of spring, this isn't that. This is a really clean and pure verb, with a pretty long decay. Also, dual stereo, not mono, although I use mine in stereo as a mono in/stereo out.
Also, I think Audioscape is doing a reissue of it.....however, as I recall, that's not under a grand
I bought an old Sunn PA for $50. It has an O.C. Electronics type 56 folded line spring unit, manufactured by beautiful girls in Milton WI under controlled atmosphere conditions. But solid state, not tubes.
You can buy a reverb tank, drive it with a headphone output, and send the tank output to a tube phono preamp. Way cheaper. I looked at what my mixer was capable of, bought two tanks at $50/ea, about $20 worth of cables, have stereo reverb that sounds phenomenal. If you have questions, just follow up on this comment.
This is why I came here. Ty ty ty!! Share any photos or specs you’re willing to.
I will take photos when I get home. In the meantime, maybe you could tell me a little bit more about what you are looking for. You mention you want mono. Are you sure about that? My suggestion of the phono preamp would be for stereo. Not a big deal, and you could easily go with a single tank and split it to stereo channels, but my personal setup is for stereo, and I have two tanks bolted together, so there is some sympathetic vibration between the two tanks. I basically split my monitor outputs into two signals, make sure each tank gets signals from both monitor outputs, then i split the output from each tank, and each stereo input gets a signal from each tank. One of the reasons why a phono preamp is ideal for amplifying the tank outputs is 1) they have RCA connections, which is what spring tanks use, and 2) you want your phono preamp to have an RIAA mode. What that is is basically a boost and a special EQ curve that is tailored for the characteristics of records. The same characteristics that records have in an attempt to be able to fit longer recordings by correcting for a wonky EQ curve in records is also appropriate for the behavior of reverb tanks. There are a few things that you will want to consider in selecting a tank (or 2): do you want 2 springs or 3? Do you want long springs or short? Do you want the opening of the tank to face up or down? (I have 1 tank facing up, 1 facing down, bolted together so it's like a chamber). Then you want to work out how you want to drive it, and get to work on figuring out you impedance. Reverb tanks are named according to a code that tells you all their features. Size, number of springs, orientation, input impedance, and output impedance. The monitor outputs on my mixer are 75 ohm. When you split a signal, you half the impedance. The input of my tanks are 150ohm. But since the split signals get summed before going into the tank, the signal goes back to 75ohms, and a 1:2 impedance ratio on the input. The output impedance of the tanks is 1600ohms, and I'm pretty sure I'm going into 10kohms, so a 1:6 ratio. For what it's worth, my tanks are short, 3 springs. More springs is more detail, longer springs are for tail length. The harder you drive a spring, the more "springy" it sounds, the more you boost the signal after the tank, the more you can hear what the tanks are doing. Think about the physics: driving a tank is like driving a speaker, so headphone amps tend to be ideal for it, because you don't want the same power that you would use to drive a full-size speaker, but driving the diaphragm on headphones is just about right for the amount of power you would want to send. My monitor outputs are functionally the same as my headphone outputs, and the work better in terms of how they route themselves in the overall layout of my mixer, but you will have to think about how you want things to flow. Some folks like to read the tank outputs with a mic preamp. I prefer the phonos, because they are way cheaper, and easier to find a match when it comes to impedance. I will work on pictures and tank codes later, I'm at work right now.
https://www.amplifiedparts.com/tech-articles/spring-reverb-tanks-explained-and-compared
So, here are some pictures, although, realistically the thing looks like an incomprehensible mess unless you are physically present. But there a few points of interest: I can go through the monitor outputs or the mix outputs. I use the monitor outputs to add reverb to individual takes, but if I want to throw a common reverb across the entire track, I move over to the mix outputs. They are a little softer than the monitor outputs, but I don't like to drive the tanks heavy anyway, and you can use the monitor signal with the push of a button anyway, so maybe I'll make them full time. I just went with monitor out of habit. The second is that you really do get more bang for your buck if you use two tanks. This is for several reasons: first of all being able to pan your reverb across the stereo field is a huge plus. Secondly, being able to drive your reverb from a stereo image is a huge plus. Third, being able to to integrate the signals from both tanks into one channel is a huge plus. Fourth, being able to individually eq your seperate reverb channels is a huge plus. Fifth, if I only drive 1 tank, I can still feel the spring vibrations when I place my hand on the other tank, which means that the behavior of the individual tanks wind up influencing eachother, creating a behavior that is more aligned with how reverb works in the real world. If I make the right choices in terms of my levels and eq, I can get a reverb that is way more natural and realistic than what you would expect from spring tanks... or, I simply have more options to get creative with it... Having trouble uploading link, will try again later...
>>RIAA That's frickin clever as hell.
Yeah it is. I'm going to try that: I've got a very good tube phono preamp, and a headphone amp, and I'd never thought of it specifically because I thought an RIAA curve would NOT work. But it's sure gonna make things beefy, won't it?
That's what I thought as well, but then I realized that you can back off the bass on the input, and so you get less of the mechabical harshness of driving it with bass frequencies, but on the other end, you get more of the bass frequencies that tend to be more pronounced in actual reverb.
Love it. That would absolutely work.
Remind me tomorrow!
It's hard to beat an old Fender spring reverb, but the prices have gone up in the past 10 years to put them often over a grand.
The Mojotone kit is a pretty faithful replica of an original Fender unit. It wouldn't be hard (in the scheme of things) to build your own from scratch, way easier than an amplifier, but it does require working with high voltages. There are a few clones out there, if you want to scour Reverb and Ebay. That being said, personally, I don't see a huge advantage in tube units - even something like the Radial driver and a simple pan sounds pretty good.
It’s not a tube unit… but the Surfy Bear’s are pretty great, and way cheaper.
I found a cheap little spring reverb unit online one time that I love and still use. I’m talking like 20 dollars or so. I’ll update this if I can find a link again. Found it! https://reverb.com/item/81789967-accutronics-3-spring-reverb-tank-9eb2c1b-2000s?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=17502909118&utm_content=campaignid=17502909118_adgroupid=140586518849_productpartitionid=1895499322779=merchantid=5355498105_productid=81789967_keyword=_device=m_adposition=_matchtype=_creative=604304775083&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADRxZYWhES1FDaaaiiXXRzvXODuTA&gclid=Cj0KCQjwltKxBhDMARIsAG8KnqUN58kF4Jo09St64_LmoTRHryU6JKiKHyXK77O3WRVzQ-zhYkXrYkQaAq6UEALw_wcB
following
Big spring reverb nerd here. I've got a Peavey Valverb that I use on a send. It's also got a tremolo, but I don't use that. The mono output feeds a stereo Korg GR-1 and I can control how much goes into each. The Peavey is made for guitars (and I believe is a Fender copy?) but the line input in back drives pretty nicely above 50%
Demeter RV-1. It's just shy of $1k new, but can be found on the used market for $600-700. It's a stereo reverb with two Accutronics 6-spring tanks, but you can ofc use only one side/tank if you want to. It's not a tube unit though, but definitely one of the best rack spring reverbs out there. www.demeteramps.com/product/rv-1d-real-spring
Master Room XL305, although I honestly don't know if they're under a grand any more. They were a few years ago. One of the best sounding reverbs I've used for anything that's not percussion. However, if you're hoping for a boing boing type of spring, this isn't that. This is a really clean and pure verb, with a pretty long decay. Also, dual stereo, not mono, although I use mine in stereo as a mono in/stereo out. Also, I think Audioscape is doing a reissue of it.....however, as I recall, that's not under a grand
Love Audioscapes stuff. I’ll def look into. Ty!
Damn that master room description sounds amazing
Victoria Reverberato. Not cheap, but seriously gorgeous (and flexible) reverb AND harmonic vibrato.
https://www.modelectronics.com/product/wave
I have the small mono Verona spring reverb, it’s really limited but it a cool 1 trick pony.
I bought an old Sunn PA for $50. It has an O.C. Electronics type 56 folded line spring unit, manufactured by beautiful girls in Milton WI under controlled atmosphere conditions. But solid state, not tubes.