Mysterious Spring Reverb - The Zoom Echo

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Drill
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Mysterious Spring Reverb - The Zoom Echo

Post by Drill » Fri Feb 02, 2018 12:33 pm

Hello everyone,

So I bought a spring reverb cheap (The zoom echo from John Hornby Skewes) that I tought it might be a cool weird thing.
It happens that it was indeed a spring reverb with a really small tank and loads of noise (more noise than reverb).
As i try to open it, and see the tank inside, boom something drops, can't find a way to open it (the tank itself) one of the springs was clearly loose and no more sound.
Gave it to a tech that tells me that there isn't much he can do, the white noise it's from the machine, it's a really cool machine with some good old components and changing it would ruin it.
My idea was - attach this reverb to another giant tank, make it low noise and rock on (maybe even using it with a footswitch between the original tank and the newer bigger tank).
So... What do you recommend:
a) Selling it as is
b) Give it a new life as I want it to be
c) Keep it as is (but really why? I think it's pretty cool looking, but I like to use the stuff that I have).

There's not much on the internet about this and I don't think it's collectible (although it seems pretty well made, and as if it was kept inside a closet for 30 years).

Image

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MechaBulletBill
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Re: Mysterious Spring Reverb - The Zoom Echo

Post by MechaBulletBill » Fri Feb 02, 2018 3:41 pm

If your tech won't fix it and won't buy it off you (coz apparently he likes the idea of looking at it more than using it) then he isn't a very good tech.

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Embenny
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Re: Mysterious Spring Reverb - The Zoom Echo

Post by Embenny » Fri Feb 02, 2018 5:13 pm

If he's saying that it's made of good stuff but there isn't much he can do, it means he doesn't know what he's talking about. It can't simultaneously be made of good stuff that is un-fixable. It literally means he can't or doesn't want to do the work. Take it to someone else and find out what specifically is wrong with it, and what it would cost to fix it.
The artist formerly known as mbene085.

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Drill
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Re: Mysterious Spring Reverb - The Zoom Echo

Post by Drill » Sat Feb 03, 2018 1:51 am

Thank you both for the answers!

He's saying if I don't want it like that I should sell it to some vintage crazy collector,
mbene085 wrote:
Fri Feb 02, 2018 5:13 pm
If he's saying that it's made of good stuff but there isn't much he can do, it means he doesn't know what he's talking about. It can't simultaneously be made of good stuff that is un-fixable. It literally means he can't or doesn't want to do the work. Take it to someone else and find out what specifically is wrong with it, and what it would cost to fix it.
The thing is,he would have to change this good stuff for "new stuff" not as cool.
He is not in fact an amp tech, but more of a pedal builder (and he told me so), so he was trying to help with what he knows and he fixed what I had done wrong, but not what it had bad originally.

My only question is: Should I, from an ethical/historical perspective, preserve this as is?

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Re: Mysterious Spring Reverb - The Zoom Echo

Post by MechaBulletBill » Sat Feb 03, 2018 8:41 am

Drill wrote:
Sat Feb 03, 2018 1:51 am
My only question is: Should I, from an ethical/historical perspective, preserve this as is?
If it's not a '63 Fender tank that Dick Dale used once, and it wasn't used in a famous studio at the time of a landmark recording, I don't see any point in preserving the worn out parts inside.

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Re: Mysterious Spring Reverb - The Zoom Echo

Post by Embenny » Sat Feb 03, 2018 1:29 pm

MechaBulletBill wrote:
Sat Feb 03, 2018 8:41 am
Drill wrote:
Sat Feb 03, 2018 1:51 am
My only question is: Should I, from an ethical/historical perspective, preserve this as is?
If it's not a '63 Fender tank that Dick Dale used once, and it wasn't used in a famous studio at the time of a landmark recording, I don't see any point in preserving the worn out parts inside.
Yeah, I could see something like a Dumble being a "Keep it like this or sell it" circuit, because it's worth a ton of money and the circuits are covered in epoxy so you'd have to absolutely butcher the thing to even attempt to reach a faulty component (which makes me realize that Dumble owners are probably going to end up having paid $40,000 for a giant paperweight when the electrolytics die).
The artist formerly known as mbene085.

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Drill
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Re: Mysterious Spring Reverb - The Zoom Echo

Post by Drill » Sat Feb 03, 2018 3:35 pm

Thanks everyone, It seems like I'm not alone.
I really like the idea of recycling vintage stuff, because (as mentioned) it uses high quality stuff, that today would most probably be made in China...
Let me see what I can do :)

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Re: Mysterious Spring Reverb - The Zoom Echo

Post by mgeek » Thu Feb 15, 2018 4:18 pm

Pretty sure that 1/ This is repairable, even if it means tracking down a new tank and
2/ It would sell for decent money either in non working or tastefully fixed state. That hammerite finish/late sixties look appears pretty similar to their fuzz from 67 or so, it'd deffo draw in the pedal geeks.

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