As my undying love of vintage effects units continues, I had the pleasure of trying out an extremely shoddily-built reverb I had bought the other day. My partner in The Laundry Rooms, the long-suffering Dave, looked despairingly at me as I wired it up to the desk. What new reverb? he had asked a few minutes earlier.
Fresh from it’s eBay seller, a Frontline Spring Reverb with EQ! Very low-quality build in a cheap folded metal case. After messing around with the crackly pots I had it working. This isn’t the lush reverb provided by such noble machines as the AKG BX20, no, this is something that when you put too much snare through it makes a strange boing noise – brilliant! If you are into dub reggae of a certain vintage you will know the sound, and it isn’t a sound a plug-in ever comes close to.
Dave wandered off sighing as I fed endless loops into my new toy…. bliss.