Motown Attic Reverb

This is one of mike s early banjos and was made in lebanon ohio.

Motown attic reverb.

The back of headstock has some screw marks from an old screw on capo with no pad. This is a very early custom made 12 mike ramsey open back banjo. Key to the sound of countless motown hits was the iconic reverb of hitsville s makeshift echo chamber located in the attic of the house. I am guessing that in the 60 s they just recorded the spring reverb that came straight from the amp but in the 70 s most records.

It also has a repaired side crack. In addition to the echo chamber motown also had an emt 140 plate reverb and an echoplex tape delay unit they d use from time to time. They d put a speaker and a mic in the chosen space to get the sound of the send bouncing around. The top has plenty of play we.

If you want to find. Like abigail washburns banjo. This wasn t a traditional reverb chamber it wasn t controlled from the board adjusted by positioning mics to pick up the desired amount of reverb. Motown records hitsville usa complex is rumored to have used a hole in the ceiling as a jerry rigged echo chamber.

Will kurk and joe shadid take a trip to rax trax recording studios to explore the musical must haves of the beloved moto. There is some touch up in that area. Hitsville s attic chamber was crude and not at all designed with acoustical perfection in mind but its ambience had a certain character that came to shape the iconic motown sound. Other famous reverb chambers.

Good player grade martin with some repairs. Gorgeous inlay and wonderful sounding instrument. It has a correct replaced bridge and saddle. Join millions of music makers all over the world on reverb.

At elliot hall of music on purdue s campus they have a whole bunch of speakers erratically hanging in the space above the back of the stage that used to be for a reverb chamber. Very rare moon and star pattern. What makes motown sound like motown. Early 1941 martin 00 18.

Motown used the attic. Underneath the makers name plate the wood rim is st. In our attempt at recreating the motown sound we used the audio ease altiverb reverb plugin universal audio s digital emulation of the emt 140 and a fulltone tube tape echo. Find your next favorite new used or vintage instrument or sell one of your own.