An Interesting Gizmo

[newey]

Ran across this gizmo:

for those with Fender tube amps with internal reverb, who don't use the reverb much. Changes it into a gain channel- and completely reversible. Ingenious. Who knows what it sounds like, but for $10 it's worth a shot . . .

Studio Sound Electronics

[sumgai]

It sounds like a Fender amp without the reverb. And with a pretty goodly amount of gain and/or distortion.

The little "black box" in the middle between the two RCA plugs contains a 220KΩ resistor, that's all there is to it.

IOW, you can do the dirty work yourself for about 10% of their MSRP.... way less if your junk parts box is well stocked.

;D


BTW, you can go way overboard if you instead connect the resistor between the output (to the Reverb pan) thru the same resistor, and thence over to the input of the "Normal" channnel (and not back to the Reverb input, leave that alone). You now have not one but two stages of tube amplification to bolster your tone, plus that channel's Volume and Tone controls both to modify the resultant tonality. Happily, the two signals are in phase, so all's well in that department.

OK, OK, so you're greedy, and you want both Reverb and this "fabulous overdrive". Fine. Just insert a "splitter" or a Y-cable in the Reverb Out jack. That lets you feed both paths at the same time. And still no phasing problems, so you get the best of both worlds, without any tonal degradation. Wonder of Wonders!

;D ;D

HTH




sumgai

[newey]

Ah, so this is apparently a well-travelled road . . .

OK, OK, so you're greedy, and you want both Reverb and this "fabulous overdrive". Fine. Just insert a "splitter" or a Y-cable in the Reverb Out jack. That lets you feed both paths at the same time. And still no phasing problems, so you get the best of both worlds, without any tonal degradation. Wonder of Wonders!

Both at once, presumably, not either/or.

[sumgai]

Both at once. Each is controlled by it's related control. As expected, the Reverb pot does it's thing, and the increasingly mis-named "Normal" channel now controls the amount of gain, and the tone thereof.

Understand, the two signals don't mix until after all the controls available to you. You can't increase the Reverb this way, nor can you reverberate the gain in anyway. But even so, the two together will knock your socks off - ask me how I know! And don't ask me how come my feet are cold!! ;D

HTH




sumgai


p.s. If the gain overpowers the Reverb (IOW, you want more R.), then you can search out and remove a 220KΩ resistor located on the input line of the Reverb Driver (usually V3, in a standard 6 tube circuit, ala the AB 763 circuit, and others like it). That'll pick it up "just a tad".