Tank fest - Short Medium Long

Dan0h

Dan0h

Well-known member
I was a little worried that I was being a little ADD about reverb. But I’m 100% glad I tried some options.

The stock reverb tank on the Supro Black Magick just wasn’t doing it for me. It was a Long decay type and for whatever reason just sounded like Poo Poo mud fest. Since tanks are relatively inexpensive and since I have wanted to build a 6g15 anyway, I thought I’d buy a couple different tanks and try them out. I ordered a short decay and a Medium decay. After swapping them in and out the hands down winner by a mile is the Short decay tank. Such a huge improvement for $25.95.

Decay impressions: Long was way too muddy, medium was lush and beautiful (going to use this guy for a 6g15 clone build) but the short has that perfect balance and sounds amazing, when cranked it has tons of drip. Reminds me of that Surfy Bear I had and the old school fenders I remember.
737B91A5-0F2B-4100-8E92-B28F20ED1D2B.jpeg
 
vigilante398 said:
I keep telling myself I'm going to do one of those and it still hasn't happened :confused: maybe if someone else did one first and posted pictures...
Click to expand...
It’s been a wish list item for years for me as well. I think the hard part is why not just build an amp because the 6g15 is literally an amp without the amp, component wise. I keep trying to find the schematic for those surfy bear diy kits because I thought they used jfets and I was totally happy with the surfy bear metal.
 
I ended up writing Supro support to ask about the input impedance mismatch. The original tank was 1925 ohm input but sounded like garbage while the best sounding tank is a 800 ohm input. I gave them all the details and asked if that would cause any issues and if I possibly just got a bad original tank and I asked for a schematic. Hopefully they can answer at least one of those questions. lol. I still think they knocked it out of the park with this amp sounds amazing (reverb issues aside).
 
Last edited:
Good news. Both Supro (support) and D-Lab (YouTuber) confirmed the 800ohm tank will work just fine in this situation and cause no issues. Just incase anyone is curious.
 
the long tank really only pays off once you get into something with a dwell control like the 6g15/surfy

I keep threatening to rehouse mine from a tool box to an ammo can but I can't commit to the smaller tank ... exactly just enough off that I know it's not that 6g15 sound
 
ICTRock said:
the long tank really only pays off once you get into something with a dwell control like the 6g15/surfy

I keep threatening to rehouse mine from a tool box to an ammo can but I can't commit to the smaller tank ... exactly just enough off that I know it's not that 6g15 sound
Click to expand...
Did you build the tube version or the surfy bear transistor version?
 
The overall build document should be available as well. there are some good notes about jfet parameters in there ... I will say the fets being used as drivers for the tank require heat sinks because they are running that hot
 
the challenge will be finding the right heat sinks for the drivers ... I think Tayda carries TO-220 heat sinks
 
ICTRock said:
the challenge will be finding the right heat sinks for the drivers ... I think Tayda carries TO-220 heat sinks
Click to expand...
My challenge will be learning how to up the ohms on the input side because both of my tanks are 1k+ ohm inputs versus what these boards are made for at 8ohms.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top