This article describes an economical short‐pulse ultrasound system with a goniometer stage, with which both compression and shear wave reverberations in thin ceramic or other material samples may be separately time resolved. Arrival times of individual reverberations are compared to estimates made by computer simulation of the wave system by means of a parameter fitting routine. The system output gives compression and shear velocities based on several reverberations in the test material. Wide frequency bandwidths are achieved by using acoustically thick PZT transducers in time intervals less than one half period of their fundamental compression wave frequency.