Fender Reverb

The Fender Reverb is a stand-alone reverb unit released by Fender in 1961. Rather than building reverb into an amp, Fender put it in its own head-style unit, so a player could add spring reverb to an amplifier that did not have it. Josh Scott of JHS Pedals dates it precisely: "in 1961 Leo Fender leased the reverberation unit from Hammond Organ and put it in the fer Reverb head unit"¹.

What it does and how it is built

The unit is a complete reverb system in one box. Inside the housing sit tubes and the circuitry that drives them, along with a spring tank, the physical spring assembly that produces the long, boingy decay players associate with Fender reverb¹. Because the reverb lives outside the amplifier, it can be paired with whatever amp a player already owns.

It is also meant to be used on the floor as well as on top of an amp. A foot switch is attached on the back of the unit, so the player can put it on the floor and turn the reverb on and off while playing¹.

Where it came from

The circuit's origin is unusual among effects: rather than an original Fender design, the reverberation unit at its heart was leased from Hammond Organ, the organ maker, and adapted into the Fender Reverb head unit in 1961¹. That leasing arrangement is the starting point of the Fender spring reverb sound that later Fender designs grew from.

Fender reverb since then

Tonebox covers the Fender reverb family in more depth elsewhere, including the Fender 6G15, the Fender '63 Tube Reverb, the Fender Marine Layer Reverb, the Fender Dual Marine Layer, the Fender Tre-Verb and the Fender Acoustic Preverb, along with the wider field of reverb pedals.

The JHS Pedals video

Josh Scott of the JHS Pedals channel tells the story of the unit in a demo video, covering the 1961 release, the Hammond Organ leasing arrangement, and what is inside the housing, including the tubes, the circuitry, the spring tank and the foot switch mounted on the back¹.

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