Hawk HR-40 Stereo Spring Reverb

Rare Japanese stereo spring reverb. There is magic in these boxes – the circuit just eats up high signal and overloads so well. The ability to switch the input between three modes on this model (two mic and phono) allows you to quickly dial in different flavours of distortion. Demo below…

NOTE: photos are of another unit. Current one is being serviced and will be ready to ship within approximately one week of purchase. It’s in good condition with some signs of age (it is from the early 70s!). Photos will be sent before it ships if required.

We’re big fans of all these Hawk spring reverbs; this HR-40 appears to be an earlier incarnation of the fine-looking stereo HR-45 (the first one we got was promptly removed to the studio for ‘testing’ and still hasn’t been returned).

With a definite 70s Hi-Fi aesthetic, albeit with a fairly business-like diagram across the front to explain the signal path, this stereo unit takes mic or line in via front jack sockets or line via phono on the rear. You then have various controls over the echo, including “reverse” which sadly does not offer a backwards reverb, but switches the wet signal to the opposite channel. Output is via phono on the rear.

It’s a useful and good-sounding spring; where things get really interesting is how this unit reacts to being overdriven – pure magic when a guitar is plugged into the mic input, but also very usable on a whole range of sources. The flexibility offered by being able to just drive the dry or reverb signal, or a combination of the two makes this a very creative tool: the overdriven reverb sound from this unit is highly-addictive! With the added phono option on the input and a different circuit the HR-40 sounds quite different to the HR-45 when pushed – can get very crunchy and vicious indeed…

We keep picking up these vintage Japanese machines – read all about them in our Hawk/Mirano tape echo and spring reverb blog post.

Condition – good with some signs of age. Some knobs are replacements.

Price includes VAT at 20% (for sales in UK/EU) – buyers outside the EU please contact us for tax-free prices. VAT-free sales possible to businesses and individuals in the EU (outside the UK) with a valid VAT Number.

• It is a 100v Japanese model and will run fine on North American mains 115/120v without a transformer (we run all our tests using 120v power); however, a step-down transformer is recommended for extended use.
• A step-down transformer is required in the UK/EU.
• We do not recommend using cheap generic Chinese mains transformers and can supply a high quality UK-made unit if required.

Demo of the another of these we had for sale showing the heavy distortion when overdriven with beats:

So nasty. So much fun. Testing newly arrived Hawk stereo spring reverbs to see just how much overdriven distortion there is to be had from these 70s boxes. The answer is that, with the rare HR-40, there’s a truck load . Just listed the Hawks on the site. Drum machine, Teisco BBD box and PA mixer (adding more crunch & reverb) are all available as well. Bass guitar next… ~~~ #distortion #overdrive #beats #imakebeats #techno #electro #electronicmusic #factinstabeats #recordingstudio #vintagegear #geartalk #soundgas #supersonicgear

A post shared by Soundgas Limited (@soundgasltd) on Dec 13, 2017 at 6:27am PST