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Re: Fake spring reverb pedals



Danelectro Spring King is MADE for kicking. Pretty good, too.
I grew up using Ampeg amps (Reverb-o-rocket, Gemini I, II, and VI, etc.) and they had a reverb to die for. TO DIE FOR! I usta kick them all the time.
Favorite use of reverb:
Before Keith Emerson became the fake prog noodler with too many keyboards, too many notes, too many pairs of leather pants, and no edge, he had a little combo called The Nice. He used to have quite a time with a Hammond B-3, and there is an absolutely brilliant recording of him and the boys playing "America" by Lenny Bernstein on an album called Autumn to Spring. They're playing it live at the Fillmore East, and I know because I was there, all sixteen years of me.
So anywaze here's reverb trick #1: The song has totally fallen apart, like nobody can even remember what they were playing... wild drum rolls, feedback, blocks of arm-on-keys chords, chaos. Then Keith kicks and rocks the bejeebies outa the organ, rattling the reverb pan like hell, except the reverb tab is OFF. Then, while he's pushing and shoving the organ, he grabs the reverb tab and  taps out the duh-duh-duh, duh-duh-duh DUH DUH DUH rhythm of "America" like some kinda white noise Morse code. YEOW! (And of course the band kicks back in, but the song DOES NOT take the usual course and end in some triumphant closing cadence, but I know y'all will now FIND this great unhailed moment in live recording and find out just how it ends...)
Reverb trick #2 is also employed by Mr. Emerson in the same song. He reaches into the guts of the Hammond and PLAYS the reverb springs like a bass guitar!!! This is one you can try at home with your own unit. Hours of enjoyment!
 
Douglas Baldwin, coyote-at-large
coyotelk@optonline.net
 
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where pimps and thieves run free and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."
--- Hunter S. Thompson