Post by Eddie on Feb 9, 2012 23:49:26 GMT -7
Hello all,
After reading the Doc's post about upgrading the reverb tanks in 2012 MAZ Jr.s, I decided to order one from Antique Electronics Supply. The part number is: P-RMOD-8AB2A1B and the cost is $16.50.
I received it today and wanted to share my thoughts on how it sounds and how the installation went. It does appear to be built a little better than the Accutronics one. It has a thick coat of black paint on it and it comes with a nice set of rubber grommets already installed. It will drop in perfectly to the old spot as the four corner screw holes line up with the Accutronics. Mine is mounted to the inside front of the head cabinet valance.
I wanted to give the new tank every advantage as far as noise is concerned, so I scoured the internet for tips about making sure they run as quietly as possible as you turn them up. There were two simple tricks that I used: first, I cut a piece of cardboard for the bottom, covered it in aluminum foil and attached it to the bottom of the tank. I scraped away some paint on the reverb tank and used foil tape to attach the cardboard and tinfoil bottom so it would be grounded to the tank. This is supposed to help the shielding. The second thing was to wrap the RCA reverb cables around thechoke(edit: reverb transformer). I used the 3 foot stock RCA cables which allow for about two turns around the choke(edit: reverb transformer)
Before doing these things, the new reverb tank added about the same noise as the old, maybe a tad less. After doing these two things, the reverb adds nothing but reverb. I couldn't believe it! No added noise even at 100% wet.
The tone of the new reverb is very good. It's an obvious improvement over the old tank, imo. The tone is slightly darker, which I like. Even at high levels, the verb doesn't get in the way of what you're playing. It just sits in the mix better. Also, there is much less of a metallic "boing" going on in this tank than the Accutronics. If you think of reverb EQ in terms of
"tile-plate-spring-room-hall"
with tile being the brightest and hall being the darkest, this reverb sounds closer to a good room reverb EQ wise and the old one was closer to a plate. I know all that is subjective and nearly impossible to put into words, but that's my feel on it.
Thanks to the Doc and crew for continuing to improve the line and for sharing the easy-to-do improvements with your users.
Eddie
After reading the Doc's post about upgrading the reverb tanks in 2012 MAZ Jr.s, I decided to order one from Antique Electronics Supply. The part number is: P-RMOD-8AB2A1B and the cost is $16.50.
I received it today and wanted to share my thoughts on how it sounds and how the installation went. It does appear to be built a little better than the Accutronics one. It has a thick coat of black paint on it and it comes with a nice set of rubber grommets already installed. It will drop in perfectly to the old spot as the four corner screw holes line up with the Accutronics. Mine is mounted to the inside front of the head cabinet valance.
I wanted to give the new tank every advantage as far as noise is concerned, so I scoured the internet for tips about making sure they run as quietly as possible as you turn them up. There were two simple tricks that I used: first, I cut a piece of cardboard for the bottom, covered it in aluminum foil and attached it to the bottom of the tank. I scraped away some paint on the reverb tank and used foil tape to attach the cardboard and tinfoil bottom so it would be grounded to the tank. This is supposed to help the shielding. The second thing was to wrap the RCA reverb cables around the
Before doing these things, the new reverb tank added about the same noise as the old, maybe a tad less. After doing these two things, the reverb adds nothing but reverb. I couldn't believe it! No added noise even at 100% wet.
The tone of the new reverb is very good. It's an obvious improvement over the old tank, imo. The tone is slightly darker, which I like. Even at high levels, the verb doesn't get in the way of what you're playing. It just sits in the mix better. Also, there is much less of a metallic "boing" going on in this tank than the Accutronics. If you think of reverb EQ in terms of
"tile-plate-spring-room-hall"
with tile being the brightest and hall being the darkest, this reverb sounds closer to a good room reverb EQ wise and the old one was closer to a plate. I know all that is subjective and nearly impossible to put into words, but that's my feel on it.
Thanks to the Doc and crew for continuing to improve the line and for sharing the easy-to-do improvements with your users.
Eddie