Spring reverb into second reverb

  • After getting the new reverbs, I found that I don't really like the spring reverb. I think what I don't like is that it is so different from the reverbs I'm used to. There was just a large difference when changing from a slot with a hall reverb to a slot with the spring reverb.


    My "hack" is to use the spring reverb before the stack and then use my "normal" reverb in the reverb slot. That lets me get the "sprongy / vintagey" kind of sound of the spring reverb, but then the same sonic space treated by the second reverb later in the chain.


    Anyway, thought I'd share in case that is useful to anyone else.


    I would be very interested in anyone elses spring reverb settings if anyone has come up with something they like and would be willing to share.

    Be Thankful.

  • I feel your pain.


    I am new to the reverbs and am still feel it may be my lack of understanding that is preventing me from getting Fendery sounding reverbs without the harshness I am currently getting from the Kemper spring.


    I am actually quite fond of spring reverb as it exists in Fender, Boogie and Ampeg amps (My Ampeg VT 40 had a great spring reverb and I was used to hearing that for 20 years.) however my experience with spring reverbs has been confined to one and two knob options in amps.


    I also quite the enjoy the plate reverbs within the Kemper.


    If you go on to the gear exchange you can find under "ANDYS VIBROLUX" that, like you, rig author "ChuckC" has two reverbs settings set up which are pretty nice with a "Spring" which could be used going in the "Legacy" reverb - both are post amp though.


    But the Spring isn't very overt. The Legacy would be doing most of the heavy lifting for that one combined with a fatter blackface-ish clean sound. (Actually a Divided by 13 into a Riviera Cab).


    You might take a look at the settings there.


    It may not sound like a Vibrolux's reverb turned up (It doesn't.). But sounds pretty good to me and might give you some ideas of how someone else has dealt with using the spring combined with another reverb in a musical way.

  • Hi, I found the spring to be very dramatic change to my usual profiles, the band pass effect , the relative loss of gain and other factors really affect a profile tone, but in a good way , at least to me. I love how it transforms a given profile to a vintage version of it , like making a brand new combo to a 20 years road worn , broke'in version.


    But I tend to go for very low mix % , like 1 to 3 % and sometimes up to 7% for specific leads , surf or slide parts.


    I also use it in pre amp position , with a large hall verb post amp, just like you do. Sounds like a tube combo with authentic spring miked in a hall , but I really like this setup, and use it constantly on my recordings. I just locked my spring reverb in pos D and set it ON , on the fly while tracking.


    examples tracks : I used the exact same free AC 15 profile ( Mister May ) , with diff. gain settings


    hall verb post


    spring pre / hall verb post

  • Thanks. That spring reverb setting is MUCH better than anything I was able to come up with and sounds good on it's own.

    Here is a Legacy Reverb setting that I have used prior to the existence of a Kemper Spring Reverb that has worked for me to good effect.


    Mix - 25.5% Decay -1.910s Size - Large Room Pre-Delay - 106ms


    High Damp - 2.4 Bandwidth - 0.0 Mid Freq - 1.8 Ducking - 0.0


    I think reverb is a really personal taste. I was in my teens in the 80s when people were applauding the existence of these new digital reverb/delay units which came into fashion (Lexicons were king!), so even while many of my heroes might have used spring reverb sounds, their engineers were definitely using digital reverbs for specific instruments and for the mixes as a whole. When I think of great reverb sounds on guitars, I think of the early Dire Straits albums and Larry Carlton albums from that era. I think Steely Dan's "Gaucho" and "Donald Fagen's "Night Fly" were often put on the turntables to check out people's stereo systems in that era. ( We also used Seiji Azawa's "Four Seasons" as it got a very high rating in audiophile magazines of the time.) Anyway, the stuff we listened to coming up often establish what we are looking for in a reverb so it can really vary.


    Here is an interesting history of reverb that I learned stuff from: https://www.musicradar.com/tui…-history-of-reverb-602421


    I also think that the above reverb sounds real good on a solo guitar or a sparse mix but you are going to want to tame it down if there are lots of instruments in the same frequency ranges.


    I use that reverb sound with fender guitars with single coil pickups and a clean sound. Gain increases your perception of your reverb levels too and I think this might make for a 'soupy' mix if you did not make some adjustments to it.


    One sound I use it with a lot is John Tyler's "1962 Bassman" with 6L6s - a clean bassman sound which I add compression, treble boost and mids to. Once again showing that 80s influence.


    Studio ace, Carl Verheyen wrote an article in Guitar Player warning guitarists not to record their tracks with reverb as they may not fit in with the overall mix and the Kemper gives us lots of options for a 'dry' / 'wet' rig or even reamping to make sure our parts fit, so we are pretty lucky in 2019!