Twin Reverb practicalities?

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higgsblossom
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Re: Twin Reverb practicalities?

Post by higgsblossom » Thu Jan 25, 2018 1:57 pm

This thread got me thinking: Rowland S. Howard always used a Twin. Even at his smaller audience concerts. It must have been really loud...

https://youtu.be/18wTBLul8KI

I have questioned myself if it would’ve sounded the same or close or even better with a smaller Fender amp.
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Re: Twin Reverb practicalities?

Post by mackerelmint » Thu Jan 25, 2018 2:17 pm

Witchburner wrote:
Thu Jan 25, 2018 10:29 am
mackerelmint wrote:
Thu Jan 25, 2018 12:09 am
I had a twin for a minute, because it lacked in practicality, it had to go. What a pig that thing was.
In my opinion if there's room and you don't need the money why sell a good amp

If you can have more than one why not?

Some for the studio, some for at home, and some for gigs, and some to carry around to jam at someones house

one for the bathroom one for the kitchen one for the dog..... you know?
Because it wasn't the right amp.
This is an excellent rectangle

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Re: Twin Reverb practicalities?

Post by andy_tchp » Thu Jan 25, 2018 6:28 pm

higgsblossom wrote:
Thu Jan 25, 2018 1:57 pm
This thread got me thinking: Rowland S. Howard always used a Twin. Even at his smaller audience concerts. It must have been really loud...
It wasn't. I saw him during 2007 opening for The Beasts of Bourbon at a medium sized venue. It wasn't loud at all, to the point where I wished it was much louder. I've seen many more offensive sounding gigs where it's one person with an acoustic straight into the board, poorly EQ'd then out the PA.

Back to Twins, I mean obviously they're quite heavy, but you guys know they all have a volume control, right? And no sane person is using them for their 'great overdriven tone' (although Dan Auerbach was backlined with one at a small, multistory, glass walled venue when I saw Black Keys around the same period. Geez, didn't that sound great ::) ).

I gigged with a Vibrosonic Reverb (a Twin with a single 15" speaker instead of 2x12) post ~2005. Volume control hovering around 4 pretty much always, just loud enough. I'd love something smaller like a Pro Reverb or similar but they're pretty thin on the ground here in .au.


To the OP: If you need the volume and provided you can lift the weight, you should buy one. Try and get a Silverface instead of the reissue though.
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Re: Twin Reverb practicalities?

Post by Embenny » Fri Jan 26, 2018 7:30 am

andy_tchp wrote:
Thu Jan 25, 2018 6:28 pm
To the OP: If you need the volume and provided you can lift the weight, you should buy one. Try and get a Silverface instead of the reissue though.
I just realized that the OP mentioned in another thread that he's 14.

I'm not trying to be ageist, but unless you are the most hulking 14 year-old I've ever met, I'd have a hard time imagining that could be remotely practical to move, both in terms of physical size and weight, as well as for someone whom I can presume doesn't own a cargo van...

I know two people who injured themselves quite badly moving heavy gear. There are so many amazing-sounding amps these days that I would not even consider a Twin as someone's first gigging amp. Personally, I have gone with a Kemper and FRFR setup and couldn't be happier. I can go direct to FOH and monitor myself onstage or in-ear, or provide a backline capable of filling a room of 300 people more evenly with sound than any guitar combo or cab, and I don't carry a single piece of gear anywhere that weighs more than about 30lbs.

It took me many years to get over my tube amp obsession (I really do "get it"), but the current generation of Kemper/Axe II/Helix are honestly so great that I couldn't hold out any longer. Tweaking and recording with my tones direct, then being able to take those identical tones to FOH and onstage, scalable to any volume in any size venue, with tone and feel matching my best amps? The touch responsiveness of my go-to Marshall profiles (mostly JCM800's and variations thereof) are what prompted my fire sale of tube amps a few years ago.

TLDR: We are in a golden age where you don't have to injure your back carrying 100lbs of amp up and down stairs in order to get a great tone. Twins are great in studios and onstage when you have roadies, but there's no reason to risk your health over it!
The artist formerly known as mbene085.

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Re: Twin Reverb practicalities?

Post by cestlamort » Fri Jan 26, 2018 8:18 am

Depending on the situation, I'd still vote to get a Twin if you want one.

I know when I was in my teens I used to throw myself down huge sets of stairs on a skateboard, so heavy amps weren't a danger in comparison. That said: always lift with your legs. And get casters. When I was younger, the venues for shows certainly did not put the amps through the PA.

Like a car, once you get it to "cruising" volume (say 3-4), it doesn't matter how much headroom is still there if that fits your volume needs.

Also, like a car from the era, if you get an old SF one it'll outlive all of us with some semi-regular maintenance. That may not be the case with the 65RI ones, and I couldn't imagine buying a new one ($1449!) when a 70s one is a third of the cost.

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Re: Twin Reverb practicalities?

Post by Witchburner » Sat Jan 27, 2018 5:41 pm

HNB wrote:
Wed Jan 24, 2018 3:05 pm
Witchburner wrote:
Tue Jan 23, 2018 11:29 pm
This thread got me thinking;

Has anyone ever used the extension cab for their twin?
Here you go. :)

I'm just going to leave what I did this afternnoon here.. Image

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Re: Twin Reverb practicalities?

Post by OffYourFace » Sun Jan 28, 2018 11:14 am

I forgot to mention the Vibrolux but I think someone did earlier. I had a '74 Vibrolux and it was an amazing amp. I wish I still had it.
I was broke when I found it for $400 on CL. I did a full electronic restoration and flipped it for $1400... but man it sounded so good.
It's probably a better Twin Reverb alternative than a Deluxe Reverb.

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Re: Twin Reverb practicalities?

Post by derekstudt » Sun Jan 28, 2018 8:58 pm

OffYourFace wrote:
Sun Jan 21, 2018 9:12 pm
derekstudt wrote:
Sun Jan 21, 2018 8:29 pm
OffYourFace wrote:
Sun Jan 21, 2018 6:00 pm
If you must have a Twin:
-Remove two of the power tubes (pull the two outside tubes, leave the middle two in). The Output transformer wants to see 8 ohms now
-Remove the connection from one speaker so the OT gets that 8 ohms.
-the amp will still be loud but much more manageable.
I've not heard of this trick before. Does it affect the bossing of the amp or change the tonal qualities (or simply less volume?)
Bias setting will still be fine. It'll sound 'narrower' on stage due to the 1 missing speaker but still full.

Good to know. Thanks for the tip!

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Re: Twin Reverb practicalities?

Post by loudwizard » Mon Jan 29, 2018 4:55 pm

Another possibility would be say, a silverface Dual Showman and separate speaker cab.
Usually lacking 'verb, but you can always add a pedal.

I can't say anything about volume, though - perhaps my greatest joy is running TWO Super Reverbs fairly wide open. :-*

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Re: Twin Reverb practicalities?

Post by SadFuzz » Tue Jan 30, 2018 11:37 am

These have been really helpful.
If I was to get one I definitely wouldn't buy new.
I found an old Twin Amp on Gumtree for £500 how good a deal is this?
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Re: Twin Reverb practicalities?

Post by cestlamort » Tue Jan 30, 2018 1:52 pm

Depends on a few things:
year
Condition
Circuit (they changed to a more powerful ultra linear circuit in the mid70s that sounds good but isn’t valued as highly)
Amp type (is it a twin amp or a twin reverb?)
Local market

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Re: Twin Reverb practicalities?

Post by HNB » Tue Jan 30, 2018 3:13 pm

I love my UL Twin. :D Putting it in a head cabinet because the stock cab's mdf baffle has a crack and is missing one of the back pieces. Getting a custom head cab made with blonde and oxblood so it will match my Supersonic 212 cab. :D
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Re: Twin Reverb practicalities?

Post by Mojambo » Wed Feb 07, 2018 8:15 am

I've owned 3 Twin Reverbs, two of them were '65 Reissues and the last one was a '68 Custom Reissue.

Pros:

-Amazing Fender cleans
-Best built-in spring reverb outside of a real Fender outboard tank (on the '65...I found the '68s reverb wasn't quite as good)
-Good effects platform
-All the clean headroom you could possibly ever need -- Ever!

Cons:

-Weight (like someone else said, doesn't seem too bad the first time you lift it but it gets old after a while)
-Hard to transport (having only one handle on top is basically useless. I would usually just carry it from underneath or if I was feeling tired/lazy I'd get someone else to help me)
-Lack of useful modern features (master volume, effects loop, gain channel, etc. -- although some of the 70s/80s Twins did have MV controls)
-Impossible to get amp overdrive without someone screaming at you to TURN IT DOWN, whether it's the sound guy or your neighbors three buildings down
-They don't seem to hold their value as well as other Fenders, perhaps for the above reasons. Find a used one if you can (they're pretty easy to find)

I loved them when I had them, but I've since discovered I'm a Vox guy at heart. I'll still probably own another Fender amp in the future but it will be of the Princeton/Deluxe variety.

Still, for real-deal powerful Fender cleans, there's nothing out there that beats the Twin Reverb (except for maybe a Blackface Bassman, but good luck finding one of those)

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Re: Twin Reverb practicalities?

Post by Mojambo » Wed Feb 07, 2018 8:24 am

Logrinn wrote:
Wed Jan 24, 2018 12:21 pm
This comes to mind:

Image
Just saw this one! Hilarious and ironic.

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Re: Twin Reverb practicalities?

Post by loudwizard » Fri Feb 09, 2018 2:53 pm

Mojambo wrote:
Wed Feb 07, 2018 8:15 am

Still, for real-deal powerful Fender cleans, there's nothing out there that beats the Twin Reverb (except for maybe a Blackface Bassman, but good luck finding one of those)
I'll take Super Reverb cleans over the Twin, but they're both lovely.
Super has most of the same problems as the Twin, though, and maybe even more of a pain to transport.

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