What's the Difference? Source Audio's True Spring v. Amp Spring Reverb | Reverb Tone Report 

Love the surf!!! To add apps with pedals even amps is a real treat. Lovin this channel.

How Soon Is Now should be mandatory for every tremolo demo, thank you.

Knowing the limitations of a real spring, I'm going to guess the bigger sounding "B" was the pedal. There are certain efxs that sound better as analog and certain ones that sound better fudged in the digital realm (IMO).

I hope the better sounding B was the pedal, because I'm baying one!

I'm thinkin' A was the petal on all of them.

A - Pedal (both verb and Trem) B - Amp (as above) I think 😂 maybe amp a touch warmer esp on the Trem. Actually preferred A though....

i like a bit more the pedal Boss Fender reverb 63 ,but is not bad ,maybe is less natural than the Boss Fender Reverb pedal

A is the amp and B is tghe pedal. that's what I hear ;)

What's the song in the beginning?

Cool!! What's The name of The first song ?

Best reverb pedal I’ve heard

It does sound really authentic, but Andy is so good he can play thru an old tuna-fish-can, and make it sound incredible. He is a Special player who knows how to dial-in pedals and showcase them to their full potential.

I had to go to the Wayback Machine to find the answer on an old Source Audio page, but *We've got this from Andy himself: Example A is the Fender Deluxe Reverb and Example B is the True Spring Reverb. Did you identify them correctly?*

Honestly, it is hard to tell which is which!

B was the pedal, because it had actual “drip” on the muted single notes. Amp reverb doesn’t sound like this-only the fender reverb UNITS do.

Was there ever a reveal? I looked through the comments and could not find one.

I think A was the Fender, B was the pedal. The latter just sounded a tiny bit more "artificial", or "slick", or something, to my ears, although both sounded great!

Thank you for the surf tunes !! Great pedal might go well with my beloved Mercury Flanger

Example A is the Fender Deluxe Reverb and Example B is the True Spring Reverb.

B sounded more driven to me in the examples leading me to think it was digital. Both sound great. I think B performed equally or better in all examples other than the last one (dirty into verb).

Dammit Andy! I'm trying to save money........ #GAS

B had more clarity with the tremolo and overdriven sounds. And I’m happy to hear that it’s the pedal. I’m definitely gonna get my hands on one

words words between the lines of age

B definitely the real spring, A the pedal. That’s my first instinct, having played a bunch of reverb pedals!

To my ear B was the Fender...

Thanks, Andy. This reverb pedal sounds really good - I think it could safely and effective add the blackface Fender effects section to any amp.

Won't guess which is which, but B had more "presence" or if you prefer, clarity and definition.

To be frank, I don’t care which is which, because they both sounded rad as hell and I’d get that pedal in a second if I didn’t already have a Keeley Caverns V2.

Very hard to tell the difference, which is why I own this pedal. It's great and besides tremolo you get a wealth of digital control options, including storing presets, if that's how you roll. Great price for a crazy versatile pedal.

Dope hair Andy.

I don't know which reverb was which. I just know that A seemed to have some unpleasant high frequencies that my ears did not like. My ears were fine with B.

I'm thinking B is the pedal. It's sounds a little more hifi to my ears.

How about compared to the excellent Hardwire Supernatural that you helped to voice?!

B is a real deal, but man, how cool that pedal is!!! I would say they nailed it. Few years for DSP guys to apply saturation on their algorithms and you'll tell an old tube reverb is a garbage

Both had an excellent sound. One clearly seemed to have more bite, as in some breakup, than the other. I'd love to know which was which during the tremolo segment, as that was the most dramatic difference, between sounds. The drips were there for both examples, and that's usually a spring connoisseur's first test of a digital pedal. Thing is, all the sounds were usable, and top notch, to my ears. The distortion was difficult to gage, because without hearing the sound with no reverb, I couldn't tell how much better or worse the sound was. Source Audio have wonderful algorithms, on all but their Fuzz and overdrive pedals, imo.

Hey Andy/Reverb, don't leave us hanging 10, which is which already??? Thank you!

A sounds like Fender to me. Either way, this is a great reverb pedal. Finally, one that can actually drip.

So how exactly do you control the tremolo effects? I must’ve missed it in the video if it were there

No way to tell which is which, and that's why I have this on order since last week !

I have their tremolo (SA)and the MXR reverb. Maybe this pedal could replace both? (And on the MXR I only use the spring, which is really good).

I find my Flint spring reverb is not as ‘drippy’ as i wanted. Thinking of this pedal. Anyone has both Flint and True Spring to compare?

D R I P P Y 💦🏄🏼‍♂️💦

B b a was the pedal?

not only did i not identify them correctly but the reason i got it wrong was because i preferred the pedal both times. admittedly that's partly to do with the settings; they aren't matched and I prefer the darker tone of the pedal in this example. just bought one and it's kicked the Flint, which I was previously pretty sure was the last word in spring/trem... off my board.

I can dial the SA True Spring in to where it sounds identical to the tank in my '74 Pro Reverb. Plus you get the extra control over the SA. Amp verb+term is practical though, so well worth having if given the choice

So, what would I need to do to put this in the weird/stupid (I still don't understand why they did it) "parallel" effects loop of my Laney Lionheart L5T-112 (original British version) ? Because, I think it uses the 'pro' level of that -10dbu vs. +4dbV thing. Do the Source Audio's input/output levels go that high, if I'm right about it being +4dbV, or is there some converter box I need between the pre-amp out and the power-amp in of the Laney? Thanks in advance, if anyone knows the mystery. Loved the surf and How Soon is Now!

At the 2:15 2:17 mark, the little plastic man figure standing on the shelf next to the reverb logo is changed... Maybe it's a hint letting everyone know which examples A and B are... or not... Check it out, decide for yourself.

\m/ waw perfecto beautiful rock \m/

Where is the results?

I thought A was a real reverb and B is the pedal.Still ...Very close to the real thing..

It seems that the tremolo cannot be switched on or off without an external pedal? The Strymon Flint is nicer in that regard, and also has plate and rack reverbs. On the other hand, the spring reverb on this one is more flexible.

Please do a follow up.....SOON! I'm very curious, as both sounds were nice. I'd like to hear the distortion again, except without reverb, before switching it on to hear how much it affected the effect. Affected the effect? Is that proper grammar?

I think Example A is the True Spring in all three trials. In the reverb trial, there is a smoother, more even EQ in the tails of Example A; Example B has more of a hump in the high midrange, a slight ringing in the tails, typical of the reverb tanks from Asia. In the tremolo trial, I hear more detail and uniformity in the repeats of Example A; Example B sounds slightly more lo-fi analog to me. Based on how I hear the reverb trial, I was probably bound to hear the overdrive trial in a similar way. Example A has a smoother EQ curve than Example B, where the upper mids are more biting. The True Spring pedal is the best spring reverb emulation I've heard in a video demo. I was a tube-powered spring reverb user for many years, favoring vintage blackface amps with RCA tubes and old Hammond/Gibbs or USA-manufactured Accutronics tanks. That was spring reverb! When tank production moved overseas in the aughts, spring reverb tone took a serious hit; since then I have been hoping a pedal this good would come along. Based on the clips, I would take a True Spring over the reverb and vibrato in any DRRI made in the last 10 years. Bravo Source Audio! Your mileage may vary. Andy could come back and say all the True Spring clips were Example B.

A=DRRI B=TSR

I vote for B

Well done video, sounds awesome!

Either way, I preferred B. If that's the pedal, then I'm sold.

I like B much better and think that was the amp as a result. But suspect they may have cranked the amp reverb too much and tried to make it sound not as good to sell more pedals and if that's the case then A was the amp.

Looking through the comments its roughly a 60-40 split with B having the slight edge on being the amp that says alot about how good this pedal is

So - publish which is which! I ask 1 1/2 years later...

B sounded more "compressed", if it makes sense. To me, that's the pedal.

I thought b sounded better, so my guess is that b is the amp's reverb.

tempting pedal

To me the Holy Grail has always had the best spring but HA not anymore

They both sounded great ... I liked B a little more in the verb and way more in the trem ... so I hope the pedal is B

So what’s the difference between the tremolo here and the green tremolo pedal from source audio?

Hey, Andy, give us an actual answers - so we can laugh at yourself :)

WTH is happening at 3:30? Great playing as usual

Pedal was B A B. Could be wrong though.

b Is the surf Buy It amp Is good. But.....

B is the fender. Now do I win something?

how does this compare to the boss frv 1 63 reverb?

Ok Andy, I'll give it a try.

I think the pedal was B, then A, then B.

You're a bad player, don't make demo you don't help the product.

A is the pedal and B is the amp.

Congrats on 666k subs :o

Either one or the other but not both.

Brand New Cadillac!

Can anyone tell me the name of the first song please?

My guess is that pedal was A, B, B

I think B was the Fender.

Absolutely fabulous tone either way you slice it!

sounds good

When's the reveal? I had a slight preference for B in all of them--I don't know if it was the same order each time, though. My strongest preference was B for the opto-tremolo shooutout. I could tell the reverbs were different but I barely had a preference. All of it was sounds I'd be happy to have, A or B.

Awesome - loved it ...

Words!

Looks like SA nailed this one. 🏄

what is the intro song?

Why would you call a pedal "true spring" when it doesn't have a spring in it? Like adding that "true" in the title is the exact opposite of what is going on. When words like spring and analog have come to mean dsp modeling, please don't make it more confusing by adding modifiers that are supposed to mean actually a spring or not just virtual analog modeling.

"A" was harsh. You either set up the actual reverb too bright so the other one sounds better, or the pedal has nasty overtones.

Best spring reverb I've heard on you tube. Doesn't Andy look like Mark Lynne Baker? You know the guy from perfect strangers, Larry Appleton was the characters name.

I remember listening to a demo of the boss fender reverb pedal and it was easy to tell which was which simply because the pedal was in the front of the amp and not in the effects loop. I couldn't tell you with confidence which clip is which but I think B is the fender. It's a great sounding pedal for sure.. maybe a little too pricey for me, I'm still picking the polara over this.

Me thinks B was the amp

I'm guessing B is the amp. When or how do we get the answer? Good darn vid either way.

No question this is an excellent sounding pedal, both the trem and the reverb. But the ergonomics don't work for me. You have to buy a separate footswitch to turn the trem on. To adjust the trem you have to hold a button on top and then use the knobs and toggle switch which now have different, unlabeled functions. Watch the Source Audio vid on hidden features. I'll stick with my Flint which has the same functionality in a more friendly format. If your a fan of deep tweaking, you would probably prefer this pedal.

arrggehhhhhh.. On the reverb I really think B is the Amp and A is the pedal. I can't listen to Tremolo as it makes me feel sea sick!

I feel some Dead Kennedys coming on.

The reverb knob is visible, 3rd from the right. The only time it's on is example b at end. The app is annoying but it has way more expanded parameters then the boss reverb 63. So I really like it.

Great vid but Have they added WiFi for the app? Hate the horrible 1/4 stereo to 1/8 cable for programming.