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Hi folks. I'm wondering if anyone can share any information on a reverberator option in 1965? I recently purchased a highly optioned 1965 Holiday coupe 442 at auction. The car has a reverberation switch in the glove box and what I assume is the reverberator in the trunk. Was this a factory option, dealer installed or something aftermarket. I am unable to find any information on this.
Very cool option if factory, which it looks to be. Cool option regardless. Reverb was “big” in the 70s and pretty much died out in the 80s - here’s a little background on home reverb, which never really caught on.
Here is a photo of the car when I picked it up on Thursday at the auction house in Wisconsin. The auction showed 3 photos of this car on-line. One photo of the left side, one photo of the right side and one photo inside the car through the open passenger door. The description of the car was "No title. Have keys." and that was it. I asked the auction house if the car had a motor and if they could provide additional photos of the quarter panels. The auction house did not reply. All I could tell from the photos was the car had a/c and was an automatic. I need body parts for another 65 442 I bought 4 years ago as a restoration project to teach my then 7 year old grandson (he's now 11) how to work on cars. Since 64-65 parts are scarce, I decided I would buy this 442 as a parts car and since it did not have a title I wouldn't feel bad cutting it up. While picking it up, I was pleasantly surprised to see the car has power windows. Back home in Michigan I saw the car also has power steering, power brakes, power drivers seat, power trunk release, power antenna, tach, clock, emergency brake warning light, the reverberator and several others options like courtesy lights and trim, not to mention many petrified mice! The engine compartment is complete and all engine component numbers are correct. The auctioneer told me to look inside the car for the title. He indicated that buyers of other cars that had been auctioned off that day as "no title" found their titles inside the cars they bought. Sure enough, I found the signed title inside the car. I supplied the tires that are in the photo as the car had 4 flat tires.
Car doesn't look half bad. Hopefully you can find a good home for everything. That reverb is super cool. I have only seen a factory reverb twice. Both GTO's.
UFB!!! Wow what a score! and what a stupid Auction house, Their loss, your gain. Wouldn't you be pissed if you were the seller! A guy asks if engine is there and it is but they don't answer! Don't care enough to look inside car for titles!! As I said UN ##### Believable!!! Well if that is a real 442 I would think about restoring that one!!! Keep us posted~
Factory installed reverberator was an option on the 1965 Olds full-size cars. U84 option that included a rear speaker. It was also available as a dealer installed accessory. The switch was mounted under the dash so it could be used by the driver. It was never factory installed in the glove box. The entire setup could easily be installed in an "A" body car that had a front and rear speaker. The under dash switch is correct for the '65 full size cars, but incorrect mounting screws. The rear box looks correct.
Last edited by BeenThere; Nov 7, 2021 at 04:46 AM.
My Dad's 1964 Buick Wildcat had a factory installed Reverb (group 9.665 part # 980869) under the dash. I began playing in a rock-n-roll band in the late 1960s, my amps (Fender) all had reverb. I recall it was the first reverb I had ever seen in a car. My Dad had the Wildcat when I began driving (1967). It was crazy listening to In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (1968) in a car w/ reverb. It only worked on the rear speaker. You'd turn it left for front speaker, right for rear speaker & pull it out for reverb. Reverb only worked in the rear speaker position. It was rather cheesy, compared to a true reverb in a guitar amp in which you had a rheostat to control the amount of reverberation.
Attached file demonstrates the wiring schematic for 1965 Buick models.
Last factory reverb I'm aware of was 66. The 67-later stereo radio option rendered it obsolete.
Radio Shack, Lafayette Electronics, JC Whitney and plenty of others offered aftermarket reverb units on into the 70s. As an example my blue 64 Starfire is a factory reverb car, the green one has a RS Archer brand. The Archer signal delay is adjustable whereas the Delco unit is not. The Archer doesn't "boing" over bumps like the Delco units do either.
My guess is your unit was either dealer installed or a junkyard salvage. It IS an Oldsmobile piece going by the switch. Pontiac used a different setup- instead of an integral fader with separately controlled reverb like Olds used, their reverb switch gave you choice of front speaker only, front and rear speaker together with no fader, or reverb.
I've salvaged both over the years and the Pontiac units especially brought good money, usually twice what I could get for an Olds unit. That's how I learned just how stupid an option-obsessed GTO guy could get. Olds guys generally don't try to slather their muscle car with every available weight-adding option. GTO guys are as bad or worse about that than Tri-Five Chevy crowd.
Back to the car itself: You have a title and an unusually optioned car with its original engine. If the body's good, please do not part this car. Find the missing trim and restore it. This one is a gentleman's hot rod. Atypical of a 60s muscle car with all those options, but it IS an Oldsmobile muscle car after all.
Last factory reverb I'm aware of was 66. The 67-later stereo radio option rendered it obsolete.
Radio Shack, Lafayette Electronics, JC Whitney and plenty of others offered aftermarket reverb units on into the 70s. As an example my blue 64 Starfire is a factory reverb car, the green one has a RS Archer brand. The Archer signal delay is adjustable whereas the Delco unit is not. The Archer doesn't "boing" over bumps like the Delco units do either.
My guess is your unit was either dealer installed or a junkyard salvage. It IS an Oldsmobile piece going by the switch. Pontiac used a different setup- instead of an integral fader with separately controlled reverb like Olds used, their reverb switch gave you choice of front speaker only, front and rear speaker together with no fader, or reverb.
I've salvaged both over the years and the Pontiac units especially brought good money, usually twice what I could get for an Olds unit. That's how I learned just how stupid an option-obsessed GTO guy could get. Olds guys generally don't try to slather their muscle car with every available weight-adding option. GTO guys are as bad or worse about that than Tri-Five Chevy crowd.
I'm a little guilty of the options things as I bought one of BeenThere's sales of an NOS unit to put on the 67. The wiring on the Olds unit is a switch that is either bypassed and power off (thus running the rear speaker out to the back like normal) or power to the reverb unit, and shunt the rear speaker to the unit in the trunk, through the unit, back to the switch in the front, then out the wire to the rear speaker. This double trip to the back might add to the springs effect. I'm not sure if it's going on the car in the resto. I may hook it up on bench and see if I like it.
I remember a few friends having aftermarket units that probably came from JC Whitney. I always thought they made the music sound like they were down in a well. They did not do that much for me.
Reverb was a GM option into 1968 in Pontiacs. I have a reverb in both 442's. When you go over a big bump, the springs will bang together and make quite a racket.
Ok, I'll be that guy. I get it was "new technology", but I don't understand why you would want to make an already crappy sounding radio sound worse. Now, quadraphonic is something I can get around my head!
Things were much different in the mid 1960's. Us baby boomers wanted to listen to rock and roll. There were not many stations broadcasting in FM, and they mostly played classical music. AM with a reverb was as good as it got. Olds did not even offer an "A" body FM radio until 1967. In 1969 they finally offered FM stereo in an "A" body.
