VintageKustom.com: Comment Board » tell me about reverb tank tones

Re: tell me about reverb tank tones [message #25088 is a reply to message #25085]

Fri, 17 June 2016 06:39

stevem
Messages: 4733
Registered: June 2004
Location: NY

Senior Member

I have found 3 things that make up the tone of the , 2 of which you can have a effect on, the third is electronic in nature and you can do nothing about.

The first thing that effects how nuch high end responce a tank passes / outputs is how tight the transducers are on there iron plate core.
These are the nylon coils that the wires go in on each end of the spring mounts.
All too many times even on new tanks these rock around and if they do they can not vibrate the springs like they should on the send end of the tank , nor pick up the vibrations on the output side of the tank.
If you have such loose transducers take a Coffee stick and cut it down into small slivers that you can jam inbetween the transducers and the iron core to tighten it up and then audition the sound of the tank.
If I then like the sound I then remove the sliver and I use my medium gel super glue to fill the gap and then hit it with a shot of super glue accelllerator to lock it up fast.

The second thing like Bill posted is the tension of the springs themselves , if they have taken a pounding and are stretched out there is nothing you can do but get another tank , or install newer springs, which if the latter you had better know what you are doing.

On all of the tanks in my personal amps ( other than metal face Kustoms with locks ) I have taken the time to make foam rubber shims that I glue into the tank near each springs center, both under And over them.
I set up the clearance of the foam so to restrict the movement of the springs enough when the amp travels , but not effect the sound.
The main reason these springs snap off at each end at times it due to accumulated travel vibration, and this mod greatly reduces that maylay.
For those of you who have vintage tanks with this broken spring syndrome please note that I can fix them should you want such.

I am assuming that in your tank swap from the 150 into the 100 , that the donor tank came from a plexi face k150 as the reverb tanks in the metal face 150s and 250 models use a different impeadance tank ?

[Updated on: Fri, 17 June 2016 12:43]

Report message to a moderator