Sansui RA-500


if you ever have $50 or so
                                     get one of these
                             decades and decades ago
                                                          before digitally modeled room reverbs
                 you could record in wide reflective spaces
                               like your garage
                                       to get echoes
                        bigger studios had wide plate reverb systems
                                  but if you were poor
                                                            you used cheap little spring reverb boxes
                                                            with real live springs inside
          they have their own sound
                                       the surf
                                              and rockabilly gods made it a signature
                            it may not really sound like a big room reverberating
                      but springs sound like springs                         sproing!
                                                                          accept no substitutes
             this one is even more fun
                                                   because of the psychedelic front end display
                                                      (not pictured)
                                    and like all good spring reverbs
                                  you can smack it hard
                                                  and it will jangle all by itself

        no, it's not a quality reverb
                                        and i don't use it like one
                                          but sometimes you want a spring reverb sound
                                                        and it's beauty
               pure joy
                        they can be noisy
                                         and a bit boomy and overwhelming
                                                but it's part of the cheap reverb sound

elmo oxygen

sound samples

light verb
heavy verb
all wet (AJ melody)
smack the reverb box

hybrids

cheeseball rockboy
(Digitech Whammy --> ProCo Rat--> DOD FX62 --> RA-500)

a sense of space
(Akai Headrush --> MF-103 --> RA-500)