Spirit Box (EQD Ghost Echo)

MichaelW

Well-known member
Build Rating
5.00 star(s)
Been sitting on this one for a bit now. For one reason or another it just kept getting pushed to the back of the queue until yesterday.

We had another post-season hurricane here in my neck of Florida pass through yesterday and I didn't want to start a more involved project in case we lost power.
(Mostly it just flickered a few times, otherwise no impact to me, but some parts of the coast got hit pretty bad)

I've been using the Gravitation Reverb as my main reverb for my amp-less rig since I built. Absolutely my favorite reverb pedal ever, retail or otherwise.
I converted the previous reverb I was using (Spatialist) into a Daydream pedal and needed another reverb for my AMP rig so I wouldn't need to swap the Gravitation back and forth.

I toyed with the idea of just building another Gravitation, and I still might, since I like it so much, but I thought I'd try something different. Based on recommendations here on the forum, I decided to build the Spirit Box.

So this is a bit of an unusual reverb, there seems to be some slight modulation going on with this version of the Belton brick and as the EQD name suggests (Ghost Echo) there's a bit of a slapjack delay going on as well. Not quite what I was expecting. I am able to dial that slapjack effect out by turning down the dwell and attack settings. It's a nice sounding reverb but not as rich in features or capabilities as the Gravitation.

Straightforward build, used a PT2399 that came in a goodie bag from my neighbor @steviejr92, Thanks Stevie!!

It's sitting in my amp efx loop right now with my Hydra. Will mess around with it later today to see if it stays or I build another Gravitation.

For this enclosure, I stole the idea from @jjjimi84 to mask off the sides and only paint the top. What a great idea! I love it! I love the two tone color and certainly makes handling a lot easier for home painted enclosures. I used a new color, kind of a Seafoam Green "chalk" texture. But to be on the safe side I hit it with a very light coat of a satin gloss finish over the top. It does not seem to have impacted the "chalky" effect of the green. It's been a bit dicey trying to paint in the humidity of a tropical weather system, but it came out pretty good and dried in a few hours.

I'm liking how this turned out!

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I like the ghost echo, there is a specific type of person that likes them for sure every time I build one someone wants it… I have been recently looking at the levitation, but just haven’t pulled the trigger yet. How do you like your REVV G20?
 
Been sitting on this one for a bit now. For one reason or another it just kept getting pushed to the back of the queue until yesterday.

We had another post-season hurricane here in my neck of Florida pass through yesterday and I didn't want to start a more involved project in case we lost power.
(Mostly it just flickered a few times, otherwise no impact to me, but some parts of the coast got hit pretty bad)

I've been using the Gravitation Reverb as my main reverb for my amp-less rig since I built. Absolutely my favorite reverb pedal ever, retail or otherwise.
I converted the previous reverb I was using (Spatialist) into a Daydream pedal and needed another reverb for my AMP rig so I wouldn't need to swap the Gravitation back and forth.

I toyed with the idea of just building another Gravitation, and I still might, since I like it so much, but I thought I'd try something different. Based on recommendations here on the forum, I decided to build the Spirit Box.

So this is a bit of an unusual reverb, there seems to be some slight modulation going on with this version of the Belton brick and as the EQD name suggests (Ghost Echo) there's a bit of a slapjack delay going on as well. Not quite what I was expecting. I am able to dial that slapjack effect out by turning down the dwell and attack settings. It's a nice sounding reverb but not as rich in features or capabilities as the Gravitation.

Straightforward build, used a PT2399 that came in a goodie bag from my neighbor @steviejr92, Thanks Stevie!!

It's sitting in my amp efx loop right now with my Hydra. Will mess around with it later today to see if it stays or I build another Gravitation.

For this enclosure, I stole the idea from @jjjimi84 to mask off the sides and only paint the top. What a great idea! I love it! I love the two tone color and certainly makes handling a lot easier for home painted enclosures. I used a new color, kind of a Seafoam Green "chalk" texture. But to be on the safe side I hit it with a very light coat of a satin gloss finish over the top. It does not seem to have impacted the "chalky" effect of the green. It's been a bit dicey trying to paint in the humidity of a tropical weather system, but it came out pretty good and dried in a few hours.

I'm liking how this turned out!

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Dude i absolutely love the color! Im glad that PT2399 found its home! I agree the Grav reverb is my fave but now in might have to try the spatialist! Awesome build man as always!
 
I like the ghost echo, there is a specific type of person that likes them for sure every time I build one someone wants it… I have been recently looking at the levitation, but just haven’t pulled the trigger yet. How do you like your REVV G20?
Yah, I think it's well suited for a specific type of sounds but less so as a "general" reverb, which I think the Gravitation is better for.
I tend use reverb extremely sparingly, even more so since converting to running dual BBD delays, those give a lot of ambience on there own, so for me reverb is run after those very light.

The amp is actually the D20, not the G20. I love it, it's an awesome "neutral" pedal platform. It's my only tube amp at the moment, and you know me, I tend to have the attention span of a squirrel and get bored easily, I'm kinda bored with it hahahah. But the built in Torpedo makes silent recording very convenient, even though I'm not really using any of the Torpedo IR's.
 
Finish looks great! I've always thought of the Ghost Echo as trying to go for a spring-like reverb. It's unique but still very usable. I've been sitting on a Gravitation but definitely looking forward to it.
 
I have admit I don't know too much about the different Belton Bricks and what they do. But given these are both EQD based pedals, it makes sense that they occupy different spaces.
 
Enclosure looks great like that. When I’ve tried masking off portions before I feel like there’s always a ridge, never thought I’d doing the sides though. Always the simplest things we never think of.

Hmmm might have to build gravitation, to compete to my rv-6. Never realized change the fv-1’s is litterallt just changing the eprom.
 
Enclosure looks great like that. When I’ve tried masking off portions before I feel like there’s always a ridge, never thought I’d doing the sides though. Always the simplest things we never think of.

Hmmm might have to build gravitation, to compete to my rv-6. Never realized change the fv-1’s is litterallt just changing the eprom.
There is a bit of a ridge after a coat of primer, coat of color and a top coat. I thought about gently sanding it but it would probably make it worse, so I left it. It's not too bad on the radiuses edge like that. Would probably bug me if it were across the top though.
 
Sweet. I enjoyed this pedal. Ended up gifting it to a friend who was having a hard time and just needed a little magic box in his life.

Super tiddy as always. 👍🏼👍🏼
 
This came out great I love the paint job and color combinations. I have the same hang ups as you on this reverb and to be honest I never got in with it as my main always in reverb. I run a Specular Tempus and keeley hydra at the end of my chain for every possible sound I would need. So my spirit box sat for a long time unused until I decided to experiment with it.

I started putting it before fuzzes and distortions to get this really gnarly runaway feedbacking distortion that is really cool for making giant walls of distorted ambience. It’s definitely not something you use often but when you want to go nuts it’s always there. I’ll post some clips at some point but it’s breathed new life into this pedal for me. Here’s a pic of mine
 

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This came out great I love the paint job and color combinations. I have the same hang ups as you on this reverb and to be honest I never got in with it as my main always in reverb. I run a Specular Tempus and keeley hydra at the end of my chain for every possible sound I would need. So my spirit box sat for a long time unused until I decided to experiment with it.

I started putting it before fuzzes and distortions to get this really gnarly runaway feedbacking distortion that is really cool for making giant walls of distorted ambience. It’s definitely not something you use often but when you want to go nuts it’s always there. I’ll post some clips at some point but it’s breathed new life into this pedal for me. Here’s a pic of mine
Interesting, yah, it's definitely a cool pedal, but more of a quirky pedal for certain sounds and situations than a general reverb. (To me).

Well, I have the house to myself for a bit today and cranked up my tube amp with the Spirit Box in the fx loop. I'm definitely hearing some modulation. And that slapjack echo is a bit hard to dial out. Unfortunate that there's no "blend" control or Mix control on this pedal.
I'm probably going to build another Gravitation for the amp rig.
 
Interesting, yah, it's definitely a cool pedal, but more of a quirky pedal for certain sounds and situations than a general reverb. (To me).

Well, I have the house to myself for a bit today and cranked up my tube amp with the Spirit Box in the fx loop. I'm definitely hearing some modulation. And that slapjack echo is a bit hard to dial out. Unfortunate that there's no "blend" control or Mix control on this pedal.
I'm probably going to build another Gravitation for the amp rig.

Well, it is more of an echo than a reverb. It reminds me a bit of that one particular function of the Roland Spade Echo, which allowed you to add reverb. I would say it straddles the line between echo and reverb…

Also, I’m too lazy to scroll up, did you do the volume mod?…
 
Well, it is more of an echo than a reverb. It reminds me a bit of that one particular function of the Roland Spade Echo, which allowed you to add reverb. I would say it straddles the line between echo and reverb…

Also, I’m too lazy to scroll up, did you do the volume mod?…
No I didn't know where was a volume mod, heh.
 
I'll have to check mine but I think you increase the value of R4. I socketed it and tried a bunch of values. At the time I wasn't convinced it was absolutely necessary but I do remember I left a higher value in. Because there is no mix I think it's more of a perceived volume loss. If you don't love the pedal it's not going to make or break the it for you.
 
Interesting, yah, it's definitely a cool pedal, but more of a quirky pedal for certain sounds and situations than a general reverb. (To me).

Well, I have the house to myself for a bit today and cranked up my tube amp with the Spirit Box in the fx loop. I'm definitely hearing some modulation. And that slapjack echo is a bit hard to dial out. Unfortunate that there's no "blend" control or Mix control on this pedal.
I'm probably going to build another Gravitation for the amp rig.
Yeah I totally agree. I could never quite get the modulation out of the way and it never felt right to me unless the mix was super low.

All this talk of the gravitation has me thinking now though..
 
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