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Re: Fender Twin Reverb VS Fender Deluxe Reverb? Your experiences?
I think the best answer is "both"! Not trying to be a smartass, but there it is. I own a Twin Reverb RI and a 68 Super. I think you can't go wrong with either the Twin or the Deluxe, but there are important considerations.
1. Twins are heavy. I have a road case for mine because it makes it very easy for two people to carry. Much better than a hand truck or just carrying it with the handle IMO.
2. Twins are loud, but they sound pretty darn good at lower volumes IMO. So if you are using a pedal you really like you should be good to go. A deluxe certainly can get nice verge of breakup at way more reasonable volume, but you run out of clean headroom much earlier. You won't run out of clean headroom on a twin. If you want that verge of breakup or breakup sounds, a Twin is probably the wrong choice.
3. Both amps have fantastic rich clean tone.
4. The Deluxe has a tube rectifier, I like this as even clean you'll get a nice warm "growl" in the lower midrange that is just awesome. If I didn't have the Super I would need a Deluxe for this reason alone. The Twin doesn't have the tube rec and sounds a little "harder". Still awesome rich deep clean, just a little different.
5. You may need to swap the speakers in either amp, I had to do so on my Twin as they were way too harsh and just made the amp sound all wrong. Went with Texas Heats that Gibson 175 suggested and I'm happy as a clam now. You can also warm up the low volume tone from the Twin by pulling the V1 tube if you play the vibrato channel, which I had good results doing. A 5751 in v2 also helped warm things up nicely.
6. The Deluxe has no bright switch, it's like the bright switch is always on. They can be a tad bright IMO, especially the reissues I tried. The early silver face ones seem to be mellower to my ears. Of course you can clip the bright cap like lots of folks on here have done. The lack of mid knob bothered me too but they seem to be voiced the way I like, so it proved to not be the deal breaker I expected.
7. Twins are easy to get good deals on. DR's not so much. In fact the silver face DR's are priced to the moon right now.
I love playing both my amps together in stereo. I don't use that for gigs but it is really fun when I'm just goofing off.
I think the best answer is "both"! Not trying to be a smartass, but there it is. I own a Twin Reverb RI and a 68 Super. I think you can't go wrong with either the Twin or the Deluxe, but there are important considerations.
1. Twins are heavy. I have a road case for mine because it makes it very easy for two people to carry. Much better than a hand truck or just carrying it with the handle IMO.
2. Twins are loud, but they sound pretty darn good at lower volumes IMO. So if you are using a pedal you really like you should be good to go. A deluxe certainly can get nice verge of breakup at way more reasonable volume, but you run out of clean headroom much earlier. You won't run out of clean headroom on a twin. If you want that verge of breakup or breakup sounds, a Twin is probably the wrong choice.
3. Both amps have fantastic rich clean tone.
4. The Deluxe has a tube rectifier, I like this as even clean you'll get a nice warm "growl" in the lower midrange that is just awesome. If I didn't have the Super I would need a Deluxe for this reason alone. The Twin doesn't have the tube rec and sounds a little "harder". Still awesome rich deep clean, just a little different.
5. You may need to swap the speakers in either amp, I had to do so on my Twin as they were way too harsh and just made the amp sound all wrong. Went with Texas Heats that Gibson 175 suggested and I'm happy as a clam now. You can also warm up the low volume tone from the Twin by pulling the V1 tube if you play the vibrato channel, which I had good results doing. A 5751 in v2 also helped warm things up nicely.
6. The Deluxe has no bright switch, it's like the bright switch is always on. They can be a tad bright IMO, especially the reissues I tried. The early silver face ones seem to be mellower to my ears. Of course you can clip the bright cap like lots of folks on here have done. The lack of mid knob bothered me too but they seem to be voiced the way I like, so it proved to not be the deal breaker I expected.
7. Twins are easy to get good deals on. DR's not so much. In fact the silver face DR's are priced to the moon right now.
I love playing both my amps together in stereo. I don't use that for gigs but it is really fun when I'm just goofing off.
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