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Well, good luck finding anything else about this on the internet. This is one of two very rare/unusual Farfisa "rack" effects we discovered and had restored (the other being a G 42 R). Essentially this one combines a reverb with their attempt at a rotary speaker emulation, which (like many/most such effects of the era) doesn't do a great job of sounding like a Leslie, but it does do a great line in very interesting phasing. Whether this is the same circuit as the Sferasound pedal we are not sure - we assume they share a fairly close relationship but don't have one here to compare (and the pedal is mono)...
It's been restored and also modified to make it more useful as an effect. Essentially the reverb was very poor so our tech did various things to make it more usable as detailed below. Here, in his own words, is his report on what was done and what he thought of the unit:
Word done:
Notes:
This is the one with “Sferasound” and reverb….
Had a weird mains connector which I have not seen before, and I’ve seen a few… IEC socket fitted here. Needed some new pots, and sadly the tank was shot. I have fitted the innards of a modern one in here, but to be honest, it’s never going to be the best reverb in the world with the fairly basic electronics in the reverb circuit.
Sferasound thing is nice, however, and you can have this either as mono phaser, mono vibrato (much like a Univibe), or in glorious stereo. I only have half the schematic for this, and not the phaser bit so I have left the countless trimmers for this alone as it sounds pretty good.
It has a “stop/go” footswitch socket on the front. This is now a jack; before it was a Geloso. I even managed to find a vintage jack socket with the same knurled washer as used on the rear sockets...
There are many in and out options on the back. Channel B is somewhat pointless as it only has a level and two band EQ. The reverb is a bit underwhelming, and as the unit comes it is either on fairly quietly, or not at all. So, I though it would be a good idea to modify it a little…read the following carefully, it does make sense, honest...
What I have done is route the wet reverb to channel B, so if you put your input signal into channel A, you will get a wet only reverb out from channnel B output, with level and tone controls. This is independent of the reverb switch on channel A.
This also means you can have reverb mixed into the “mix out” output with EQ at a level of your choice.
And you can have the Sferasound or clean signal from channel A outputs and the reverb from channel B output.
If you plug a signal in to the high sens channel B input, this defeats the mod and all is back to stock. Clever, eh?. If this is all a bit confusing, try it and see... Certainly makes it a lot more useful.
======
Well, good luck finding anything else about this on the internet. This is one of two very rare/unusual Farfisa "rack" effects we discovered and had restored (the other being a G 42 R). Essentially this one combines a reverb with their attempt at a rotary speaker emulation, which (like many/most such effects of the era) doesn't do a great job of sounding like a Leslie, but it does do a great line in very interesting phasing. Whether this is the same circuit as the Sferasound pedal we are not sure - we assume they share a fairly close relationship but don't have one here to compare (and the pedal is mono)...
It's been restored and also modified to make it more useful as an effect. Essentially the reverb was very poor so our tech did various things to make it more usable as detailed below. Here, in his own words, is his report on what was done and what he thought of the unit:
Word done:
- Fit IEC mains socket and mounting plate
- Clean all pots, sockets and switches
- Recap power supply
- Replace reverb tank
- New pots x2
- Replace front panel socket with jack socket
- Replace electrolytic capacitors x3
- Modification for wet only output
- PAT test
Notes:
This is the one with “Sferasound” and reverb….
Had a weird mains connector which I have not seen before, and I’ve seen a few… IEC socket fitted here. Needed some new pots, and sadly the tank was shot. I have fitted the innards of a modern one in here, but to be honest, it’s never going to be the best reverb in the world with the fairly basic electronics in the reverb circuit.
Sferasound thing is nice, however, and you can have this either as mono phaser, mono vibrato (much like a Univibe), or in glorious stereo. I only have half the schematic for this, and not the phaser bit so I have left the countless trimmers for this alone as it sounds pretty good.
It has a “stop/go” footswitch socket on the front. This is now a jack; before it was a Geloso. I even managed to find a vintage jack socket with the same knurled washer as used on the rear sockets...
There are many in and out options on the back. Channel B is somewhat pointless as it only has a level and two band EQ. The reverb is a bit underwhelming, and as the unit comes it is either on fairly quietly, or not at all. So, I though it would be a good idea to modify it a little…read the following carefully, it does make sense, honest...
What I have done is route the wet reverb to channel B, so if you put your input signal into channel A, you will get a wet only reverb out from channnel B output, with level and tone controls. This is independent of the reverb switch on channel A.
This also means you can have reverb mixed into the “mix out” output with EQ at a level of your choice.
And you can have the Sferasound or clean signal from channel A outputs and the reverb from channel B output.
If you plug a signal in to the high sens channel B input, this defeats the mod and all is back to stock. Clever, eh?. If this is all a bit confusing, try it and see... Certainly makes it a lot more useful.