Danelectro DSR-1 Spring King Reviews

no brainer

a good quality analog spring reverb for an affordable price. don't think twice if your amp doesn't have reverb

Great sound - will break

Awesome sounding when it's working, very often made some pretty dang random sounds while on stage which sucks when I'm mic'ed up through the house.

Real spring reverb

A very good unit in combination with guitars and analog synths. I used it in conjuction with a Behringer Poly-D and I am very happy about the sound quality.

Excellent Reverb pedal

I believe this brilliant reverb has now been discontinued so if your after one?

I would grab one fast

Solid but not fabulous

It’s solidly built and the actual spring in it is great for analogue lovers. The sound is in my opinion only so-so. The effect can be very subtle even though spring reverb used to be quite in-your-face. If you expect a 50s style spring reverb for rockabilly you may be disappointed. It’s not bad, just not particularly good either.

Verb is very subtle

This reverb is quite subtle and I would have expected more.

Best spring reverb pedal You can get !

Pros :

Great, legitimate old spring reverb-tube amp sound

Very sturdy ! All knobs are great etc etc

Cons :

The size and weight are a bit uncomfortable. Because its an real SPRING tank ! When I bought a pedal bag there where no problems, but when I had to take it to gigs in a backpack it was pretty heavy.

Anyways if You are searching for the best portable spring tank or the most legitimate spring tank sound in Your non-tube amp, then this is the real deal. Would suggest this pedal to anyone, loving it !

Great Reverb pedal

Great reverb petal. Sounds Vintage and very solid

Best Surf pedal ever!

You basically turn everything at 10 and you've got the most accurate surf and 50s Spy movie sound you can find in the entire market!

The only drawback is that it's got a built-in echo with fixed delay and feedback which is annoying when you want a more bluesy, jazzy reverb sound.

Luckily, there are some mods you can find to fix this and you can turn the pedal into two pedals in one box!

I may try it someday, when I'm not too busy playing James Bond themes!

Great pedal

This pedal on its original for is really a one trick pony... a great spring reverb with a preset digital "analog" slapback delay and a kick pad for having fun. It's probably the best pedal you can get for surf/rockabilly kind of sounds and in general it's a fun pedal.

To be honest, one of the reasons I bought it was the possibility of modding it, in order to have more control to the delay time/feedback. After the mod the pedal was able to produce more "experimental" sounds. Great if you like dub, or post/psychedelic sounds.

Although I don't know if it'll ever replace the Hall of Fame on my pedalboard due to it being huge and mono, it's one of my favourite pedals, great for songwriting and recording,

surf!

Great spring reverb tank with the chilly old-school surf tones.

However you have to use and dial it cleverly, if you don't want to mess up the high ends.

On of the best: you can kick it as an animal, it produce a sound like in the intro of Wipe-out.

Real spring reverb, great vibe!

I bought one of these pedals because I wanted a real spring reverb, and I found that thing in this cool yellow pedal!

Of course, it isn't an expensive tube unit with springs like the most famous counterpart, but I can assure that this one is a fantastic sounding reverb with a very vintage surf-like vibe!

The price is very good for what this thing really is, and I think that the real springs inside this pedal are unbeatable indeed. It even has got a pad to push to recreate that spring crash you had if you kicked your old combos with spring reverb...much less dangerous though, isn't it?

A great spring reverb unit

I use this as my main reverb unit. It has a great tone and it was very easy to get the right sound for me.

Also, it's a real spring reverb, so might want to make some room on your pedalboard because it's quite big.

Awsome if you're into 60's surf rock or if you just want to make your guitar sound a little smoother.

"Unique" looking!...sounds quite good too...

Bit of a big bugger isn't it?...and there is I gather some digital magic going on in there though the springs are "real"....

I've only used it with practice amps as my bigger ones all have reverb trays built in or I'll take an FRV to save space but its a decent sounding unit for that purpose...possibly a little thin but then its being used with amps in the 5W Zone with cheap 6" speakers...

Get a PSU...but then that holds for any and all Reverb/Echo analogue or digital I've used..so I'm not counting that as a "con"

It takes up a lot of real estate,more than the size of the spring tray seems to warrant which could be an issue for placement in a live rig...

The "kickpad" is kind of a gimmick but may as well have it as not!...probably as much to prove to us the springs are working as anything else!

The folded steel case is rock solid and I've always liked the switching used by Dano on their older pedals...reacts to even a light touch and is very positive in action...

Overall its actually a more practical unit than the slightly cheesy looks suggest and more analogue than any others that I'm aware of at this price point if you're a digiphobe...

The best spring reverb pedal in its price range

Great pedal for blues, surf, shoegaze or any musical styles where some good spring-reverb is needed. it has real springs in it and if you kick it, the pedal makes a sound of thunder

it was a bit tricky for me to get the sound what i wanted from this pedal.

i think its sounds the best when you put a booster or buffer pedal before the Spring King.

Surf's up

I have had this pedal for a few years now (bought way back in 2009) and until recently its been a mainstay on my effects board, I say recently because I finally purchased a real Fender tube reverb unit making this little guy a bit obsolete.

However until the new unit arrived this managed to cover all the splashy surf spring sounds I needed and it did it very well at a fairly good price. Its much better than the digital pedals mainly because it has a real spring inside so every time its working its ever so slightly random and more organic sounding. Even the kick pad is a bit of fun when you want that thunderous crash sound effect so often used in surf music.

Good spring reverb

If you're after a genuine spring reverb at a good price you can't go wrong with this - it's probably the cheapest on the market. It's strength is also its limitation - it's a spring reverb full stop, however if you want to get an authentic 50s/surf sound, this does it, just don't expect anything else. There is a good level of control over the sound and its easy to see your settings, courtesy of the chicken head knobs. I feel that the Kick Pad is somewhat of a gimmick, it has limited use, though is fun to use occasionally and does give the effect it's designed to - the boingy sound of someone bashing into an amp fitted with a spring reverb. A problem I encountered with the Kick Pad however, was that if I used it a few times repeatedly, it set up a vibration in the spring which took some time to subside; meaning that I couldn't use the reverb normally for some time after. The build quality is good, having a solid steel chassis and should stand up to a lot of punishment.

Better than any spring emulation

If you need a consistent spring reverb that will always travel with you (so that you are not dependent on the built-in reverbs of the amps you play, and want to be foot-controllable), but you do not want to carry a pedalboard unfriendly reverb tank around, this is the best solution. The Danelectro Spring King is not completely analog, as it has a digital pre-delay chip, but it does not matter as long as the sound it produces is very natural and you can actually hear the srings vibrating in the sound coming out of your amp.

The footprint of the pedal is huge, but it has a real spring tank inside, so it is inevitable. The knobs are chicken-head, which makes it easy to control the parameters with your foot between or during songs.

The pedal is not very versatile, as it gets you only 1 type of reverb - spring - but if it is what you are looking for, you won't be disappointed, as it is better than digital any spring emulation in a reasonable price range, and has loads of decay on-tap.

I must admit though that I ended up buying a digital pedal with a smaller footprint and more versatility, though it cannot quite replace the Danelectro. I would still highly recommend this pedal for Spring reverb lovers, especially guitarists playing surf music.