9 of the Best True Spring Tank Reverb Pedals

This is the largest spring tank featured here - as you can see in the proportional visual above. It does however have an ace up its sleeve in allowing you to set two different Reverb Tone/Level settings and switch between them via a second footswitch. The pedal can be activated remotely for both Bypass and Reverb Selection - but overall you don't have as much tone-shaping here as for the Anasounds Element - it's still a decent proposition though and lower cost.

By 2mm this is the most compact offering featured here - and is actually a combined Reverb Tank with analog Tremolo - so a slightly different proposition overall - with a form factor very similar to the Spaceman Effects Orion q.v., while its feature set is closer to the Gurus Sinusoid. As this article is on Spring Reverb we will just focus on that side of the pedal - both the Tremolo and Reverb can be activated independently - you have Tone and Dwell (Level) dials and a 2-way essentially EQ shift toggle where mode II is brighter with less mids and slightly less decay, while mode III is full tilt reverb. This pedal generally gets very good reviews - although for more complexity of tone it could probably do with a slightly larger spring tank.

The lowest cost option on the page is also one that has become particularly popular for surf-rock enthusiasts. We have 3 controls - Volume (Master), Tone, Reverb (Effect Level), a single Bypass footswitch and a sort of rubber 'Kick Pad' for clanging the springs. There are no remote inputs here - although I am sure you could rig something relatively easily. This pedal is about as simple as these True Spring Tank Reverbs come - and sounds pretty decent overall - while there are of course pricier pedals with a few more controls and slightly more richness of tone.

The Reverberator is actually a really unique execution of the True Spring Tank - as this pedal enclosure contains two separate and identical 3-spring spring tanks which are used singly for a short reverb, and sequentially/in-tandem for the long reverb setting - i.e. signal passes down length of both spring tanks. We have 5 controls on the front panel to accompany single footswitch - Spring : Long/Short/Both, Phase, Volume, Blend (Dry/Wet), Gain. This is a really smart studio tool which ingeniously gives the spring tank dynamics of a tank twice the size - by splicing those two spring units together. I feel this unit could also do with some remote trigger jacks - but again it shouldn't be hard to rig a remote switch for this pedal. Yes it is one of the larger ones here, but it punches way above its apparent dimensions - it sounds awesome.

Slightly larger in dimensions but functionally very similar to the CTC White Whale - for Reverb we have simply Reverb (Effect Level) and Volume controls - and separate footswitches to activate Vibro (Trem) or Reverb side. Obviously wholly analog with a proper Valve PreAmp too for increased warmth and gain. An elegant pedal for sure that could also benefit from a remote socket or two possibly. Certainly worth consideration.

This is a somewhat different execution of a Spring Tank - more for your mad scientists and experimentalists. Here the 3-spring assembly is fully exposed so that it can be bowed, tweaked and twanged directly. You also have a plethora of controls including - Input Gain, Filter Mode, LFO to Filter Mode, Frequency Cut Off, LFO to Frequency Cut Off, Resonance, Velocity, External CV Output Amplitude, Waveform, Reverb Mixture (Dry>Soup), Output Amplitude, and Filter Mixture (None>Full On). This is the Reverb you never knew you needed, and certainly well beyond the basic requirements of a surf-rocker. Would no doubt find a good home in the studio setups of Jonny Greenwood and Ed O'Brien.

This one looses the mantle of being the most compact effect by 2mm - to CTC's White Whale. Otherwise it's another really compact and bijoux true spring reverb box with 4 controls - Volume, Blend, Tone and Dwell (Sustain/Decay). On a solely Reverb basis this is probably the nearest competitor to the Anasounds Element, but each has slightly different settings, and overall I find the La Brute slightly warmer and richer sounding - while on some days I could really go in either direction.

This is again a slightly different execution of a Spring Tank Reverb - where Dry and Wet signals are split into two separate outputs for Wet+Dry playback and greater clarity of tone. The pedal also comes with separate Aux socket and footswitch which can be used to trigger a secondary effect - often an amp's onboard tremolo for instance. Beyond the two footswitches there are just two control dials - Output Level and Dwell (Sustain/Decay). This is a well-loved studio tool which seems to be in short supply nowadays. Creates unusually warm and lush reverb.

Reverb itself is an essential guitar effect which most players love and use pretty much most of the time. I have my own Reverb pedals pretty much permanently on. The original Guitar Reverbs were delivered as Spring Tanks in those original and classic Fender amps. And it is generally held that for Spring Reverb - those early Fenders, then slightly later Vox amps were the benchmarks and poster-boys for said effect. Following on from Spring, we had Plate and Hall Rack Processed Reverbs - and nowadays you can get reverbs in a thousand different flavours, mostly digitally processed.

If you want that original reference tone - you either get the complete amp solution - which can be heavy, ponderous and possibly impractical to a degree. Or you get one of these stand-alone Spring Tank units which offer a more practical and portable solution. I would say the key criteria come down to Tone/Sound and Practicalities. And most players are prepared to sacrifice some element of tonal fidelity for a more compact and versatile form factor.

The Anasounds Element is a great innovation in this space - in separating out the controls and giving you a choice of Spring Tank - it also provides that really handy unique feature in the Spring Saturation toggle-switch. I feel that the La Brute is the right mix of Tone and Practicality - but you personally might prefer the tone and timbre of one of these other units. Generally though the same logic holds - that for reasons of Physics! the smaller spring tanks will not sound as rich and full-textured as the larger ones - that said, you wouldn't really want a spring tank the size of an Olympic swimming pool.

I am fascinated by much of the scientific method here - all these units rely on the traditional 3-spring arrangement - why do these tanks not come with spring tension adjusters and say alternative springs in different materials - like guitar strings - cobalt, nickel and copper can significantly change the vibrational character and output of such an element / device. I would love to see further rationale on spring lengths and combinations - based on scientific method - as to what the optimal length is for certain resonant and standing frequency waves, and how the character is impacted by different materials, numbers of spring and spring-tension.

Anasounds should really do an additional experimental tank offering with those kind of options built-in! As for where I stand in all this I would probably go for the more compact executions here - the Element, CTC White Whale and Spaceman Orion. If I could only have one - I would undoubtedly go for the Element in its La Brute edition - and yes I would use the Spring Saturation option a lot - as another favourite sort of fuzz flavour.

We've had 3 recent really cool demo videos covering a lot of the same ground that I do above - so I thought it opportune to add them to this page for further reference: