Bulinski Effects Pedals’ ASD-1 Is A Smart, And Thunderous Spring Reverb

The Analog Spring Driver uses an external spring tank and some clever controls to craft a range of tones.

What Makes The ASD-1 Different?

The Bulinski ASD-1 is not like other spring reverb pedals you may have seen me cover on this site or on Ultimate Guitar. It uses intuitive but creative controls to allow you to maximize tonal options. What do I mean by that? Well, you have a level control for both the dry signal and wet signal. This means instead of a traditional blend knob, you can actually tweak both the clean (dry) and reverberated (wet) signal, boosting and/or cutting each. This means you can dial in all sorts of creative tones while still preserving some of your clean signal and EQ. That Wet Tone knob only changes the EQ of the signal that runs into the spring, it doesn’t impact your clean signal. And oh that’s right, you run this bad boy into a spring tank via RCA cables!

Yes, that may make it less pedalboard friendly for some of you, but you can always buy the larger Bulinski ASD-2 instead, which has a built-in tank. I however am not that concerned about the external tank, because this pedal is good enough to warrant the concessions for board space. More likely though, I’ll use it a lot in my home studio for lead tones on guitar recordings. The last interesting feature to talk about is the Spring Drive control knob, which essentially is just driving the signal that hits the springs. I.e. you can use it to create a louder, more crashing reverb sound that creates natural overdrive and buzz. These are unique, and highly effective controls.

Demo Time

In this demo you’ll hear my Maybach Little Wing running into this Bulinski reverb, which then hits my UAFX Dream amp/cab sim, a TC Electronic looper, and then a Walrus Canvas Stereo DI box and my UA interface.

My Thoughts

It’s hard not to like this pedal for the creativity factor and unique controls. While a spring reverb isn’t necessarily a new idea, this one is executed really well, and allows me to use it very differently than I would other spring reverbs I own. It’s not drippy, like other surfy spring reverbs, it’s more lo-fi and vintage sounding, but in a great way. I totally feel like this should be layered on top of all sorts of garage rock and punk rock riffs.

Specifically being able to blend the dry and wet signals is a huge feature for me. You may remember I have fawned over many pedals in the past that had clean or signal blend knobs like the Blessed Mother, Science Fair, Gus Plus, or Gaia. This certainly is in the company of those highly ranked pedals, and it may do blender in an equally creative way. The type of reverb sounds that I found in this box could be everything from ambient to crashing, amp-in-room cacophony. I loved it!

Even better, the Bulinski ASD-1 isn’t all that expensive, at $140 USD. For a boutique pedal made in the US that comes with a 2-year warranty, that is not bad! Now that does not include the spring tank and cables to connect, so you’ll have to fork over another $40 to Bulinski for those, bringing the total to around $180. Which is still incredibly reasonable for a nice boutique reverb pedal. However, if you have your own spring tank already, you’re in even better shape. I still think this pedal is doing a great job differentiating itself from the other spring reverbs on the market, and I am excited to record some songs with it. It’s definitely worth a long look!

If you’re so inclined, go follow Bulinski Effects Pedals on Instagram! And me too while you’re there!