Audio Nostalgia 3 - The Great British Spring
We continue on my journey of stuff I’ve used over the years to make recordings, what is becoming apparent very quickly, just 2 parts in, is that we had to spend a lot of money to get very little.
So, for those who were not around in 1983 to witness the lengths we went to, then this one will really come as a surprise.
The Great British Spring was a length of plumbers grey pipe, to be exact it was;
stereo
made out of grey water pipe, length 110 cm
2 XLR inputs
2 XLR outputs
It was made by a company called Bandive, a subsidery of Turnkey who made a range of products from compressors, mixers (that’s coming later) and they were also importers of Fostex at the time. If my memory serves me correctly I think it cost £175.00 (about £400 today) for this reverb.
It’s sound was, let me put it as best I can, unique, or as some put it, it clanged like f**k! Be that true or not, this was way before affordable digital reverb hardware and the idea of a plug-in and the idea of presets, they are for wimps! Check out the video I found above.
It wouldn’t have never have been possible to use one today, not because of sound or even cost, but what airline is going to let you fly with what looks like a rocket launcher in your luggage? Joking apart, it’s a classic moment of British ingenuity, although one can’t help think Del Boy came up with the idea.