Benidub Spring Amp III review
Continuing the brand’s ongoing mission to bring dub-style effects to producers and DJs, this clever little box unlocks the wonderful world of spring reverb.
If you don’t already know Benidub, the quick explanation is that this boutique brand specialises in dub equipment, from echo effects to sirens, filters and more. We’ve long been fans of Beniidub’s output, but more generally in the creative uses of dub tools and techniques, which apply to lots more musical styles than just reggae. You’ll hear dub-inspired effects in everything from techno production to hip-hop DJing, and Benidub’s offerings help make quality dub techniques accessible and convenient. The Benidub Spring Amp III is the latest chapter in the story, an updated version of a clever product which brings flexible control of spring reverb and filtering to everyone from producers to DJs.
Spring reverb is one of the fundamental sounds and techniques of dub, literally using metal springs to create an artificial echo effect. It’s a distinctive and hugely characterful sound which became popular with guitarists and organ players in the 1960s. The Spring Amp is a clever little box which showcases the unique way spring reverb is used in dub, with a very hands-on focus. Effectively combining echo, modulated filtering and overdrive, the Spring Amp III allows you to get extremely hands-on while processing any mono audio signal. The unit is fully analogue, and designed to offer clean, hi-fi sound which can be pushed into gritty and grimy territory with ease.
The Spring Amp includes a UK-plug external power supply and optional rubber pads for the base of the unit. What’s crucially not included is the spring reverb tank itself, allowing you to choose your preferred option and experiment with different flavours of echo. Benidub list a range of compatible Type 4, Type 8 and Type 9 tanks (progressively larger and more complex tanks, respectively). A good starting point is something like an inexpensive Accutronics model, but a wide range of tanks are readily available, including more exotic options. Your reverb tank of choice is connected by the included pair of 1/4-inch to RCA adapter cables, making it quick and easy to swap them over in a matter of seconds.
With the reverb tank connected, we can consider the way the Spring Amp operates and the flexibility it gives us to experiment with echo effects. The input signal is fed through a gain stage which controls the level sent out through the adapter cables to the reverb tank. A multi-mode resonant filter (cross-fadeable between high-pass or low-pass) can be inserted before or after the reverb tank and modulated with a built-in low-frequency oscillator. Controls in the top right-hand corner of the unit allow you to adjust the amount of ‘dry’ (not reverberated) signal is fed to the output via the filter, and what level of reverberated signal goes to the same output. What the Spring Amp is effectively doing here is standing in for some quite complex routing you might normally set up with a mixing desk, a reverb unit, a standalone filter, plus maybe even some additional overdrive effects.
The Spring Amp III is, as the name suggests, a third-generation version of this concept, and the changes from the version II model are relatively simple but quite significant in terms of adding versatility to the effect. The control layout has changed, and the way to apply some of the same basic concepts has changed (like filtering and the ‘dry’/wet balance), but essentially the III does everything the II can do plus more. The big changes are the introduction of a push-button switch to change the signal routing, inserting the filter section either before or after the echo send, and both the input and output stages include soft-clipping circuits which can be overdriven to add warm saturation. The results, as you probably guessed by now, are superb: dial in lower gain settings to start with a cleaner sound, set the filter to a low-resonance setting with zero modulation depth and you’ve got a basic starting point for exploring the more creative approaches when you start to crank up the resonance, apply harsher filtering and modulate it with the LFO. Crank the input gain or build up the output and you can push some sweet distortion which only serves to emphasise the character of the unit and whichever reverb tank you choose.
What Benidub do so well is to find the sweet spot between dub heritage and modern usability. The Spring Amp III is no exception, building on the features of the previous model to create something even better. Like most Benidub releases, it’s a unit which encourages and thrives on experimentation; there are no bad settings, just different takes on echo effects from mild to in-your-face. Whether you’re a dyed-in-the-wool dubber or a DJ or producer open to creative possibilities, you can’t go wrong.
Greg Scarth
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