Surfy Bear - DIY Spring Reverb

I have been looking for a long time for a true spring reverb unit that sounds like a Fender one and finally, some months ago, I came across Surfy Bear (now Surfy Industries). I find this reverb effect to be absolutely the best and affordable you can find out there, with that drip that makes your guitar surf.
This unit does not have tubes but it sounds like it has them!


Items used:

1. Surfy Bear spring reverb kit
2. Spring tank reverb Accutronics 4AB3C1B
3. On/Off switch
4. 12V DC 1A regulated power supply adapter
5. Old Craftsman tool box that can fit the reverb tank
6. Black antique bakelite chicken-head knobs
7. Potentiometer dials
8. 12V LED pilot light model PL1601-R-12
9. Mini guitar pedal rubber feet
10. Water slide decal paper for laser printer
11. Satin lacquer spray paint

Tools needed:

1. 40W Soldering Iron
2. Helping hand soldering stand
3. Rosin core silver bearing solder
4. Electric wires
5. Electric pliers
6. Philips screwdriver
7. Wrenches
8. Drill
9. Multimeter
10. Laser printer

Once I got my Surfy Bear kit and my tool box I started drilling the holes and connect everything pretty easilyfollowing the instrucions. The only issue I had is to invert the power DC wires with a multimeter, as soon I finished connecting all the parts I turned it on and it was not working, so I check the polarity as written in the Surfy bear instruction and I solved the problem, it worked like a charm. Another small issue was that the first time I used a pilot light that you find in tube Fender amps were the light bulb has 6.3V , everything worked but the light bulb burnt out after a few hours due to the incorrect voltage, in fact was too bright when it was working. So I made my research and I found on eBay a 12V pilot light very similar to the Fender ones and, even better, I could use the old metal cap instead the new plastic one.
It looked awesome but I needed to make the labels for the pots and input/output so I got some water slide printable sheets, I then designed the labels, printed and sprayed with lacquer to protect the ink. I also made a personal Reverberation logo that I put on the back of the unit.

Useful links:

Pedal Heaven
True bypass switch diagram

When a 1975 Fender Bandmaster Reverb TFL5005D head becomes a combo

I wanted to find a good vintage Fender amp with reverb easy to move and fairly lightweight, well, there's none. During my research I came across the Fender Guru blog where I found this interesting modification you can do to convert a Bandmaster Reverb head into a combo amp because the head chassis fits two 8" speakers.
I read the procedure on how to do this mod and I decided to give it a try because it requires only a few basics electronic and woodworking basics, nothing advanced or dangerous. The only thing I had to be careful was to pick the speakers with the right impedance otherwise I could have literally put your amp on fire.

I took off the original baffle and save it, I got a pine wood board (16mm, 3/16") and cut it to fit the chassis, a tiny bit smaller to leave room for the grill cloth wrapping.

Once I was sure that the wood board was fitting it was time to cut the speaker holes with a router and a circle jig (Jasper 200J Model 200) and mounted the two speakers.

The speakers are: one Weber AlNiCo and one Warehouse ceramic, both 8 ohms impedance wired in parallel. I then stapled the grill cloth.

Finally I screwed the logo. On the left the original, on the right the one I made.

A view from the back without panel.

Bad news... I sold it.

Another example here.

Resources:

Fender Guru

Rob Robinette

Live4guitar