Turning a Slinky into a LoFi Spring Reverb
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- Опубліковано 2 лип 2024
- In this experiment I turn a mini Spring (aka Slinky) into a spring reverb using the very basic method of attaching two piezo elements to each end of the loosely suspended spring. One piezo is driven by a very basic LM386 based amplifier and the other is amplified by my small lab amplifier.
00:00 Introduction
00:02 Setup
00:43 Sound Demo with Guitar (Telecaster)
01:05 Explanation of Setup
04:55 How Could We Improve This Experiment?
06:00 Outro
I am no expert in electronics but I am a curious and experienced hobbyist with a passion for audio, and other fields of electronics and science.
If you're a beginner, welcome and I encourage you to give things a go, make mistakes, fry some components and keep trying. It's the best way to learn.
Electronics can be frustrating at times but it's always worth persevering and, above all else, have fun!
Oh, and yes, you can clearly hear that it does indeed "sproing"!
sweet! I made a plate reverb in the 80's a 1 x 2 meter 1mm steel plate, a speaker in the middle, mounted with a toilet paper roll and 2 cheap little microphones in the corners. mono in stereo out.
👍 DIY EMT plate. Awesome.
this is cool! I've been learning to build guitar amp for almost a year, thanks for this information i think i can implement spring reverb on my amp.
Sounds like a great amp project 👍. What kind of amp are you building?
Usually spring reverb is using rotations (twisting deformations) instead just pushing spring forward. It's because it's not winding that gives reverberation, it's the wire itself -- sound propagates along the metal.
Indeed. I might return to this and play around with some different drivers to twist this, in the future. I've seen various builders use the inner coil of a speaker (cone removed) or a small motor in their versions.
Lookmumnocomputer made a spring reverb using a spring from a Thunder toy made in Indonesia but instead of a piezo he used a DC motor to convert the audio signal into a twisting motion.
Ah, cool, that's an excellent way of approaching it, much more similar to the coil based spring driver in commercial reverb tanks. I'll check that out. Thank you 👍.
How about a wet/dry voltage divider. Mix in some of the unfiltered guitar.
Excellent idea 👍
Ok this is just a demo for fun .. but the next step is aleays to make it better, why is the sound so bad ? .. just idea's...(a) Using max gain seems suspect, is it just chipping like mad ? .. would be interesting to set the gain (even a control ?) So it doesnt clip (a scope so we could see would be nice).. and (b) the peizos have nothing to react against so are probably just shaking the other side of the peizo more than a spring .. if you eg superglue anything heavy on the back side of the two peizos ?
Thanks and all excellent points. I shall continue to experiment. I feel an improved slinky reverb video might be coming in the future 👍
It sounds pretty awful to be honest, but this video is great for showing people how a spring reverb works. But with a blend control you could mix the guitar signal and the spring signal together and maybe get much better sounds. I reckon a spring from a chest expander exercise thing might work a lot better. A garden gate spring would probably be too chunky to work well.
Yep, that and my playing 😂. My aim wasn’t sound quality here, as you can tell. A piezo probably won’t drive a much heavier spring, the slinky is really lightweight, but always worth experimenting. Blend control is a superb idea 👍
@@MusicTechknowledgy I don't think there's anything wrong with your playing