Re: Fizz help!
are they the stock jensen speakers? They do have a prominent spike in the high end. There are much more pleasing sounding speakers out there.
Also, twins are naturally very scooped in their tone stack. There are things you can do to fatten and warm it up in the style of say a super reverb. One cap swap and you will get a much fatter and warmer sound.
In the meantime if you dont want to go modding the amp or shelling out dollars for different speakers you can do a couple of free and non invasive things to warm it up.
1. Remove V1...you probably don't use the normal channel anyway. This will give you a bit more front end gain in the vibrato channel.
2. Remove the PI tube which is the last preamp tube. It will be a 12AT7. Replace it with the 12ax7 that you removed from V1. This is a safe swap and you will get a slightly looser, slightly spongier sound that will begin to break up at lower volumes.
3. Check the bias is correct.
As far as tubes go, i like jj's in a twin but the tubes you have are still fine. If you really want to get new tubes, it can't hurt and you will be able to keep the reasonably fresh stock tubes (usually rebranded sovtek 12ax7wa's in the preamp) as spares. You will notice some changes but not as much as a speaker swap.
Check out this site too for some helpful hints and tips:
http://fenderguru.com/amps/twin-reverb
The other thing you need to bear in mind is this:
A twin reverb will amplify any shortcomings in any pedals. You said it has a great clean sound, but that it sounds fizzy with the dirt boxes. Given that is the case, then it is in fact the dirt boxes themselves that are fizzy. When all is said and done, they are only a couple of clipping diodes in a small box at your feet, trying valiantly to replicate the characteristics of various overdriven tubes. Your amp is just letting you hear everything that the pedals can do in minute detail. So....you might need to start looking for pedals that don't fizz (at least if trying different knob settings than you normally use with your Deville doesn't work). There are very few amps that as unforgiving as a twin on pedals. What dirt boxes are you using?
The good news is that once you find the right pedals, you can have a titanic sound because the twin has the power and headroom to bring out all of the characteristics of a pedal (both good and bad).
Just like spiderman: with great power comes great responsibility.
