Using old plates and springs

[froombosch]

Anuone here using these old machines from the 60-ties? Or are they all left alone in dusty corners of the larger studios? Who can repair them? Or is it better to leave them alone and use the joy/easyness of our digital machines.

[staticinsect]

I have a DIY mono spring reverb that I use sometimes with my analog modular synth. it's a spring ripped out of an old Hammond organ, with a DIY I/O amplifier that was built by a friend to get singal in and out of the unit. it's pretty ridiculous looking, but I don't have to worry about any expensive maintenance and it does the trick

[froombosch]

I have an accutronics spring reverb inside my Fender Twin and combined with some tube circuittry its gives a lot of nice tones. Like it for soem aplications where I need a spring reverb... For convincing rooms I tend too use other things...

I kknow that a EMT 140 can produce very nice rolling like reverbs. But also found out that only few people still work with these old monsters...

[Guest]

"I know that a EMT 140 can produce very nice rolling like reverbs. But also found out that only few people still work with these old monsters..."

The reason only a few people still work with these EMT's is that they need alignment after transport and also regular adjustment of the spring tensions. A good alignment can really make the sound of these EMT's beautifull again.

Other thing is that the noise of the 140's is quite high for today's standards.
But there are modifications available that replace the old pick-up(s) by higher output pick-up(s). Also the gain(s) of the EMT amplifier is modified.
I did the modification on a few old plates already a long time ago and people started to use them again...

Dick Swaneveld
"vintage" recording engineer

[froombosch]

Hello Dick,

Nice to see you here!

[froombosch]

Dick Do you have a 140 or know one for sale? I would like to hear such a machine in real life. So many people I really like work with them and swear by them.......

[froombosch]

I bought the real deal and am working on tensioning the plate/ having the electronisc checked/ getting the remote / cleaning the plate..
A very large and heavy piece of equipment.

[zmix]

I have built several good sounding plates. The electronics are very simple, the tuning requires practice. Much easier than tweaking an algorhythm!!!

[froombosch]

I hope so I do not want to spend months on designing the tension strategy...

I got me a 140 stereo tube. The tube preamps are redesigned by Duende Creatura, a local tube preamp builder. Saturday we have a preamp shootout in our studio. I hope to have my 140 ready in time so I can show it.

[spencerlee]

Hi Guys
I rebuilt an old EMT140.
It was sounding dull and the actual plate was stretched and buckled.
So we went to a steel supply wharehouse and told them what we wanted.
I chose stainless steel.
We held the steel up and pinged it with a screwdriver till we found the thickness that really sung.
We had it cut to the right size and took it away.
We took the mountings of the old plate and I think we welded them to the new stainless.
As the 140 was mono I added a second pickup on the plate for stereo.
The tuning wasnt that hard.
I put a 1k tone into it pulcing every 3 seconds.
Then tuned it to where there was no change in the pitch or wobble of the resultant reverb.
I listened acoustically not through the amplifier.
It ended up being a very bright reverb but was still very nice, but that was 25years ago.
Spencer