Crunchy Reggae Phaser & Reverb Sound

[Special Monkey]

I'm wondering how I can get the crunchy reverb & phaser sound heard here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay_PkoT23GY&t=56s

or here:

https://youtu.be/wSynp5sY5fU?t=371

but also on many other Lee Scratch Perry productions?

To me it sounds like reverb, phaser, and delay - but I'm not sure.

Thanks for any insights into what effects pedals + models, that are available today, would help to reproduce this sound.

[ken long]

LSP used an Roland RE-201, Mu-Tron Bi Phase, and probably lots of other stuff. Some hand made.

A good spring verb and a delay will get you in the ball park.

The desk is crucial when mixing it all together. I suppose you could programme it in the box but it probably wouldn't be as much fun and would take much longer.

[SecretSam]

It's really quite simple, as Mr Perry himself explains:

""It was only four tracks on the machine," Perry explains, "but I was picking up twenty from the extra terrestrial squad. (...) I see the studio must be like a living thing, a life itself. The machine must be live and intelligent. Then I put my mind into the machine and the machine perform reality. Invisible thought waves - you put them into the machine by sending them through the controls and the knobs or you jack it into the jack panel. The jack panel is the brain itself, so
you got to patch up the brain and make the brain a living man, that the brain can take what you sending into it and live."

Let me know if you have any questions.

[Sam Spoons]

Ah, right, piece of cake then

[Hugh Robjohns]

Let me know if you have any questions.

[Wonks]

Given the 1977 date of the 2nd one (1st video wasn't available to me) I'd suggest the phaser may be a Roland AP-7 Jet Phaser. This had a distortion circuit in front of the actual phaser, so it gave it a very whooshy sound, more akin to an aggressive flanger, but flangers didn't really appear in pedal form until 1978.

A demo of a Jet Phaser here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HygFy1A_hWc

Of course it may have been one of the other phasers available at the time, like an MXR Phase 45, 90 or 100, or an E/H Small Stone, used in conjunction with a fuzz pedal. or even just a hot signal overdriving the input to a tape echo. Any reverb on the guitar was probably from the amp used.

[Martin Walker]

Of course it may have been one of the other phasers available at the time, like an MXR Phase 45, 90 or 100, or an E/H Small Stone, used in conjunction with a fuzz pedal. or even just a hot signal overdriving the input to a tape echo. Any reverb on the guitar was probably from the amp used.

I believe LSP used a 1960's Grampian spring reverb as a fuzzbox prior to the Mutron Bi-phase to get his characteristc crunchy phaser sound:

“Creating some of those sounds was really hard,” Boyle admits. “That’s when I worked out that the distorted crunchy guitar skanks that Lee has on some of his songs — I mean this took me weeks to work out — were actually really simply done by using the Grampian almost as a Pete Townshend-style fuzzbox. Sending the guitar chops into the Grampian, crunching it up and then sending it straight into the Bi-phase and then through the Space Echo without the echo on and then back into the desk. A lot of stuff, Lee doesn’t remember how he did it.”

Martin

[Wonks]

That would work as well.

[Albatross]

I love this thread.

[shufflebeat]

I have no historical info but I had a Peavey classic 50 (iirc) which sounded very much like that.

I have no idea what I did with that amp but I wish I still had it.

[Wonks]

A site with lots of info on the Grampian 636 spring reverb unit.

https://soundgas.com/features/grampian- ... -type-636/

Germanium transistors, not valves, so driving it hard will give a reasonable fuzz effect.

[Special Monkey]

Thanks for the info!

[tea for two]

And the secret ingredient, gotta have sum of dat happy stuff that makes tings Irie.

Jah Bless Lee Scratch Perry.

[Dynamic Mike]

I have no historical info but I had a Peavey classic 50 (iirc) which sounded very much like that.

I have no idea what I did with that amp but I wish I still had it.

I had a Peavey Classic 50. Nice spring reverb iirc. But mostly I remember it was so heavy I could hardly lift it out of the boot!

[shufflebeat]

I have no historical info but I had a Peavey classic 50 (iirc) which sounded very much like that.

I have no idea what I did with that amp but I wish I still had it.

I had a Peavey Classic 50. Nice spring reverb iirc. But mostly I remember it was so heavy I could hardly lift it out of the boot!

The best electric guitar sound I ever had at a gig was my MIJ Strat into a Boss stereo chorus into a) the Peavey Classic and b) the Roland jc120.

Unfortunately, that would mean either only ever playing gigs in my front room or investing in a fork lift truck.

[Martin Walker]

The best electric guitar sound I ever had at a gig was my MIJ Strat into a Boss stereo chorus into a) the Peavey Classic and b) the Roland jc120.

Talking of Boss choruses, is this price realistic, a joke, or am I just wayyyyyyy out of touch?

https://reverb.com/uk/p/boss-ce-1-chorus-ensemble

£834 for a well-worn chorus pedal????!?!?!?!

Martin

[Drew Stephenson]

Talking of Boss choruses, is this price realistic, a joke, or am I just wayyyyyyy out of touch?

More than one of these things can be true!

[Wonks]

£575 seems to be the current Reverb guide price, though I think that is an international average, and the UK ones seem to be priced slightly higher.

Might be time to sell my one though...

[shufflebeat]

Strictly for collectors, and you know what they say about collectors?

One born every minute.

Ok, I know it's only the one that ends up holding the overpriced item when the bubble pops and price plummets that's the fool, but that's not quite so punchy.

In the meantime, sell, sell, sell!

[SecretSam]

I have no historical info but I had a Peavey classic 50 (iirc) which sounded very much like that.

I have no idea what I did with that amp but I wish I still had it.

I had a Peavey Classic 50. Nice spring reverb iirc. But mostly I remember it was so heavy I could hardly lift it out of the boot!

The best electric guitar sound I ever had at a gig was my MIJ Strat into a Boss stereo chorus into a) the Peavey Classic and b) the Roland jc120.

Unfortunately, that would mean either only ever playing gigs in my front room or investing in a fork lift truck.

I got a Peavey Classic 50 about a year ago. It's heavy, but not much different from the average bass cab. They probably should have put proper handles on the sides instead of pretending it's a suitcase, so you have to lift it by yourself and can't get a pal to take half the weight.

But it is axiomatic that one should suffer for one's art.

Don't you have gyms in the UK?