played a few twins today

[drew_half_empty]

and, well, i gotta say i'm dissapointed with the bass response. My #1 pedal lost all its rock & turned into a sort of modern hi-gain fuzzbox sound. I loved the cleans, but it just couldn't voice the pedal properly. Same with the vibroloux

then i tried a variation of my hotrod deluxe, the hardwood looking one with i think a different speaker, and it sounded pretty much the same as the twin, so it left me wondering, is the lack of bass response due to the speakers? Or is it a circuit thing. I'm trying to beef up my live sound, and well, a twin has the wattage (and then some) but with the pedal it's just...bad. Left me wanting a hot rod deville instead, but then the cleans on the twin left me wanting my next amp to have cleans like that...I'm very confused right now

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: played a few twins today

what twins did you play through...I mean model years? Also keep this in mind a speaker change can change the whole amp...I have one, and at one tome it had a set of EVM12L's in it and OMG was the bass amazing in that amp! If you can spring for it, get a set of EV's or JBL's and you'll be in bottom end heaven!

 

[Luke Duke]

Re: played a few twins today

What kind of pedal are you using??? My twin always had GREAT bass. With my twin I was using a boss dual overdrive and a DOD big pig fat distortion and although they both sounded good the pig sounded better. Mine IS a silverface in all fairness and thus has 15 more watts and cleaner sound. How was the amp eq'ed? I was told here to try the fender rule of six. six treble 3 mids and 3 bass....tweak to suit.

Hope that helps.

Luke

 

[texasguitarslinger]

Re: played a few twins today

What were their names?... OH... You meant amplifiers... Sorry

 

[mrid]

Re: played a few twins today

The lack of bass is most likely the fault of your pedal.

 

[jeremy]

Re: played a few twins today

fenders rule of 6 as i know it is
volume, treble, mid at 6 adjust bass to taste

twins should have plenty of bottom so it might be speakers or tubes that were in there

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: played a few twins today

i tried the 65 reissue, 65 custom 15, and just the twin, as in the new one. And a vibroverb

and its not the fault of the pedal, i was using a modified bluesdriver, and part of the mod is adding MORE bass, and it's a pretty bassy pedal to begin with

as fat as eq i had treble 5, mids 4.5, bass 10. The knobs only went to ten. And i messed around with them & the bright switch but no luck. I know new speakers would affect the whole amp, which is why i keep an empty 2x12 layin around, hehe

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: played a few twins today

bump

i should add that my hrdx sounds bassy enough with the pedal

 

[B2D]

Re: played a few twins today

I've always found twins to have plenty of bass as well. I think maybe bad/old tubes in both amps was most likely the culprit. In general music shops are pretty horrible about tube maintenance.

What volume didja have it on at the store? The bass increases with volume, yannow

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: played a few twins today

really? on my amp it decreases.

can anyone else attest to this? twins getting more bass at high volumes?

also, i dunno about the tube thing, cuz i played thru a hotrod in the store & it sounded fine


and for reference i had the volume on all the amps at 1.5, and the pedal set to be the same volume as the amp

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: played a few twins today

bump

 

[B2D]

Re: played a few twins today

really? on my amp it decreases.

can anyone else attest to this? twins getting more bass at high volumes?

I find that MOST amps get better bass response as they get turned up, as it takes more power to amplify bass tones than it does mids and highs. Most tube amp's low end just seems to bloom the more it gets turned up.

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: played a few twins today

bump

again, anyone else think twins get bassier at higher volumes?

 

[flank]

Re: played a few twins today

of course they do......my bass on my twin doesnt show up till around above 3 or 4

 

[Skarekrough]

Re: played a few twins today

really? on my amp it decreases.

can anyone else attest to this? twins getting more bass at high volumes?

Most "vintage" style Fender amps sound better at high volumes. That's when they're designed for; back when PAs were only for the vocals.

also, i dunno about the tube thing, cuz i played thru a hotrod in the store & it sounded fine

The HotRod is a wholly different design. It's got a master volume on it to push the tubes to a certain point at which on a Twin will take your head off at 100 yards out.

and for reference i had the volume on all the amps at 1.5, and the pedal set to be the same volume as the amp

Good lord....don't bother. You won't get that sweet Twin sound until you get it past 6 at the earliest. A Twin is WAY more amp than most people need.

If you're looking for a good Fender sound with the breakup around 1.5 on a Twin look at a Deluxe Reverb or a Super Reverb.

I'd also ditch the pedal. Buying an amp on the grounds that it sounds good with your pedal is like buying a guitar because it sounds good with a certain pickup or control pot.

 

[flank]

Re: played a few twins today

yea, you need to have the voume way up man.......thats the only way

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: played a few twins today

and for reference i had the volume on all the amps at 1.5, and the pedal set to be the same volume as the amp

Volume on 1.5 ?!? No wonder! What a weak, weenie tone!

Blackface Fenders don't even begin to do thier thing until you reach volume 3 or more.

See....that's the problem with a Twin: they are just to darn loud to turn them up for the ballsy tone we guitarists crave in most playing situations.

That's why I play 20 watt Fender Deluxe-Reverbs and tweed Deluxes: you can turn 'em up without blasting everyone out of the room and destroying your hearing.

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: played a few twins today

?The HotRod is a wholly different design. It's got a master volume on it to push the tubes to a certain point at which on a Twin will take your head off at 100 yards out."

well, it's not a REAL master volume, its actually just a volume for the distorted channel


i think for my purposes i'd be better off getting a deville to run with my deluxe

yes, it's still 100 watts combined, but it's split in 2, and i can jsut get another pedal & eq differently to have complimentary tones from each

it's degrading to say so, but i guess the twin really is too much amp for me

and don't diss the pedal, thru my deluxe it gives me pretty much the exact tone i want, fits my style like a glove

 

[Mkf411]

Re: played a few twins today

One thing about Fender. I was at GC a few weeks back and I played one of their hand wired re-issues. Pretty sure it was 57 Twin reissue. It didn't have reverb and it didn't need it. http://www.fender.com/products/show.php?partno=8140500#

It was about $1,800 and had 2 12 inch speakers with 4 inputs. They don't have it at all the GC's. Anyway it was crowded and I had it on 4 and was jamming away. I thought it sounded sweet and wasn't concerned about the volume being to loud. It's only on 4.

But after 10 minutes they asked me to turn it down. The guy said he could hear it across a very large store and couldn't hear people on the phone. It didn't sound loud to me but he said it cuts right through because everybody in the store is trying to play heavily distorted low chugging stuff and that fender cuts right through. I'd love to have that amp.

 

[Scott_F]

Re: played a few twins today

MKF, you were playing the lower power Tweed Twin. About 50 watts I believe. That's an awesome amp. You can put in two rectifier tubes in it or run with just one of them if you want more sag. Very cool amp. You could build one for less than half that much though. I'm sure Bruce at Mission Amps coudl modify his 6L6 offering to up the trannies and get you that kind of power.

But getting back to Drew's dilema. Just get a Hot Rod Deville 2x12 if you like that tone. I can testify that I had one and it would take your head off. You won't need both amps on stage unless you're playing a stadium.

I mean, heck, if you like the tone, but need more power, then the Deville 2x12 is just what the doctor ordered. And you can find them used on Ebay for 500 bucks or less. There's nothing wrong with those amps. I thought the cleans on my HRDv212 were excellent. It was the buzzing POS distortion channel that killed me. That and I was losing plaster off my walls.

That is one LOUD amp.