Re: NAD Twin Reissue, couple of questions
Hey all, picked up as nice Reissue Twin with a road case and I'd love some info. This one has Eminence "special design" speakers. What are these all about?
Also, is it possible to put a tube rectifier in a Twin?
Would keeping the amp in the road case bottom affect the low end? I mean, if I take it out and use it on the floor, would I get more bass response?
I had a couple twins and this one seems brighter than I remember. Also, it has groove tubes in it which I am not usually a fan of them.
I think I may need to go to a warmer, lower efficiency speaker. Any suggestions?
Cool! im a fender twin devotee too and use one at a variety of gigs and for a variety of styles. Here is what i know that might help you out.
Emi/fender gold special design speakers are both flabby and unpleasantly trebly at the same time. even 15watt blues juniors can make them flab out in the low end. Swap them out for something fatter if you can afford it - texas heats are perfect for twins because the have heaps of headroom, and are fairly inefficient so you get nice warm fat tones and you can turn your amp up an extra half notch too without being too loud. Fat lows, girthy mids and smooth treble - i think these are so good it seems they were custom built for twins. Ive tried a few speakers in the twin (and other fenders) and they are my favourite for a twin by far.
I love cannabis rexes too but they are much more efficient (which is unneccesary in a twin) and they are only fifty watts. I love them in lower wattage fenders, but not in twins (they would be my second choice for twins and first choice for deluxe reverbs). Swamp things again are even more efficient (not necessarily a good thing in twins) with that massive magnet and are much more scooped in the mids with a clear present high end and huge bottom end. Probably more suited to modern style amps like a dual rectifier and heavy distorted tones.
Tube rectifier? i guess its posssible but it will take extensive modifications. Try putting a 12ax7 in the PI slot instead of the usual 12at7 for a looser feel. Its not great for the tube, but your amp will be okay. You just need to replace the PI more often with a 12ax7.
If you contact weber they will recommend either the 12f150 or the california. I removed my californias -too much treble and effciency. 12f150s are a modern remake of the original jensen c12n - great if it was still the early 70s and you needed to crank your amp just to be heard, but these days it is better to work within the limitations of live music venues as it it today.
Texas heats ftw in my book.
Road case? yeah why not? Remember that if you are recording, or mic.ed up for live, the microphone only hears the speaker, not the floor resonance. I generally have my twin tilted back so i get a truer representation directly to my ears of what is going to the desk or foh - you will dial in your tone controls differently that it the amp is sitting on the floor blasting your trouser legs but you will get a fatter FOH/recorded sound in the end.
Ok last secret tip: if you still want fatter, you can swap one capacitor from the tone stack from .47 to .22 and you will end up with the same tone stack as a super reverb - more useable bass (especially around the 100hz level) and low mids- the treble remains unchanged. It changes twins from being epic pristine clean machines to epic fat warm clean machines - more of a jazzy tone rather than sparkly clean. Its only a simple mod which is reversible if you want to try it out.
