[sdiy] Rising "Realsitic Electronic Reverb" prices and the urge to modify...

[anthony]

Hi guys,

So I have one Realistic Electronic Reverb: the greatest effect to use for 
not quite what it was intended for. This booger is a great noisemaker and 
lots of fun with it's slider controls. It's even better with a few tweaks to 
the circuit: more gain and high-end roll-off to the regen path, 471pF 
polytsyrene caps in place of the ceramic ones, JRC4558DD op amps in place of 
the AN6550's, socket for the timing cap to play with different values, 
adding 0.1 uF bypass caps here and there, and the latest greatest mod: 
popping in a BL3208A (normal 8-pin!) from Small Bear and WOW! I've thought 
about wiring 2 or 3 in series, the BL3208A being something like $3.75 in 
price. Next planned mod is making the "DEPTH" control into a true wet/dry 
crossfader, which is a non-trivial task, but not impossible: I think a 1 uf 
cap and a couple 100kOhm resistors to put the bias in the right place again 
and cutting the traces on the PCB and rewiring accordingly.

SO I've been trying to buy another one on eBay for what I got my first one 
for ($12.00) and it's been a daunting task. People are catching on to how 
cool these are.

I'm not one to care much for collectability in gear because I like to be 
able to use my gear to the fullest. But I'm planning some more mods that 
will actuall involve cutting into the unit and I'm beginning to wonder 
whether I should. I wanted to add a DP3T selector switch to select between 
various timing caps (if I can just find a good place on the front for a 
toggle switch to go...), and adding some brass body contacts to bring it 
(sort of) into the realm of circuit bending. I must admit that I don't 
actually hold to the philosphy of circuit bending although I enjoy hearing 
some of the results. I don't think wiring various contacts and capacitors to 
the timing cap connections could be considered circuit bending in its true 
spirit because they are not random bends, but carefully thought out 
connections. Putting your fingers across the timing cap terminals is very 
fun: it depends on the pressure exerted so it has a playability factor to 
it: you can quickly (or slowly) descend into the realm of 2 second delays 
and back again. With the increased number of stages in the BL3208A, it's 
even better: repeats just go on and on without sounding like an oscillation, 
but it'll oscillate too - and how!

So I'm wondering: should I do it? I mean even when they're going at $40 on 
eBay, it's not like I'm talking about circuit bending an Ibanez FL9 or 
something.

Also, if anyone has DONE the wet/dry crossfade mod and would like to share, 
I'd appreciate that a lot. Thanx...


Cheers,
Anthony