RICHB555
Well-known member
- Build Rating
A few days ago, I was excited to see Amplified Parts latest DIY offering, a compact Spring Reverb for pedalboards. I’ve been really impressed with the Mod Electronics pedal projects on the AP site, and all have been successful builds so far with satisfying results.
This arrived this morning with USPS struggling to fit the very long box in my mailbox, so much they left the lid open
. Thankful it was a nice morning! With it’s early arrival, I decided to dedicate it as my Saturday project.
Same as their other kits, Mod Electronics again has brought quality components here. There are a couple of nit-picky opportunities to make things a little better, and I’ll include a few opinions below that I hope will be met with good intentions because this really is a great kit with detailed, thoughtful instructions and with everything included, you do get a lot for the considerably spendy $130 price tag. This was literally just released and Mod may understandably still need to work out a few kinks. Keep the new projects coming, AP! How about a talk box kit??
The kit comes complete with a spring tank, pedal enclosure with faceplate and a remote. You can make your own RCA cables, which I’ve done before so I opted not to today.
There are controls for reverb, dwell, wet (on,off, remote) and dry. The reverb is really splashy when you want it to be, and I really love all the verb options the controls offer with this unit.
The build is pretty straightforward, and even includes sorted, bagged and labeled resistors (a time saver!). Enclosure holes are precisely and correctly drilled and match perfectly with the face plate. I like the face plate design - it’s minimalist and I’m sure appeals to a range of tastes. Contrasts well with the matt black tank enclosure. Low parts count, fun build!
Now for Mod’s opportunity areas (again, I’m a little nit-picky here but there are a few areas of warning that I hope will help those interested in building this kit):
I’d really like to see painted enclosures, even if its just matte black. The pedal enclosure and remote switch under the face plates are bare, rough aluminum, and cost cutting here seems a little obvious IMHO. Also, the instructions note to solder the ICs directly to the board. No sockets are included, but I used sockets in my build.
The #8 screws (actually bolts) that fasten the spring tank to the enclosure are not long enough to fit through the tank enclosure, the aluminum pedal enclosure and the faceplate. When tightening the kep nuts on the inside of the aluminum enclosure, the tank enclosure bends. These bolts should be slightly longer to prevent this. Everything goes together ok, but kep nuts are just grabbing a few threads to secure the fasten.
Although instructions are top notch, two different power jacks are shown in the instructions. Experienced builders should be clear where power connections should be made here.
Also, in the diagram Positive/negative connections from board to RCA jacks are reversed. I knew how this should be wired, so I made the correction on the fly, but do watch out for this.
Overall this is a great kit and an amazing sounding reverb! Just a single star dropped in the rating for minor nit-picky items noted above. Highly recommend this kit build, as I have with other offerings in the Mod product line.
This arrived this morning with USPS struggling to fit the very long box in my mailbox, so much they left the lid open
. Thankful it was a nice morning! With it’s early arrival, I decided to dedicate it as my Saturday project.Same as their other kits, Mod Electronics again has brought quality components here. There are a couple of nit-picky opportunities to make things a little better, and I’ll include a few opinions below that I hope will be met with good intentions because this really is a great kit with detailed, thoughtful instructions and with everything included, you do get a lot for the considerably spendy $130 price tag. This was literally just released and Mod may understandably still need to work out a few kinks. Keep the new projects coming, AP! How about a talk box kit??
The kit comes complete with a spring tank, pedal enclosure with faceplate and a remote. You can make your own RCA cables, which I’ve done before so I opted not to today.
There are controls for reverb, dwell, wet (on,off, remote) and dry. The reverb is really splashy when you want it to be, and I really love all the verb options the controls offer with this unit.
The build is pretty straightforward, and even includes sorted, bagged and labeled resistors (a time saver!). Enclosure holes are precisely and correctly drilled and match perfectly with the face plate. I like the face plate design - it’s minimalist and I’m sure appeals to a range of tastes. Contrasts well with the matt black tank enclosure. Low parts count, fun build!
Now for Mod’s opportunity areas (again, I’m a little nit-picky here but there are a few areas of warning that I hope will help those interested in building this kit):
I’d really like to see painted enclosures, even if its just matte black. The pedal enclosure and remote switch under the face plates are bare, rough aluminum, and cost cutting here seems a little obvious IMHO. Also, the instructions note to solder the ICs directly to the board. No sockets are included, but I used sockets in my build.
The #8 screws (actually bolts) that fasten the spring tank to the enclosure are not long enough to fit through the tank enclosure, the aluminum pedal enclosure and the faceplate. When tightening the kep nuts on the inside of the aluminum enclosure, the tank enclosure bends. These bolts should be slightly longer to prevent this. Everything goes together ok, but kep nuts are just grabbing a few threads to secure the fasten.
Although instructions are top notch, two different power jacks are shown in the instructions. Experienced builders should be clear where power connections should be made here.
Also, in the diagram Positive/negative connections from board to RCA jacks are reversed. I knew how this should be wired, so I made the correction on the fly, but do watch out for this.
Overall this is a great kit and an amazing sounding reverb! Just a single star dropped in the rating for minor nit-picky items noted above. Highly recommend this kit build, as I have with other offerings in the Mod product line.
Attachments
Last edited:
