The eternal question/controversy: how to get THERE from HERE?

[Kivitel]

I'm about to drive down to Syracuse, New York to pick up an amp I bought on eBay - a Peavey Deuce VT. Now, the Deuce is basically Peavey's take on the Fender Twin, but with a few key differences. It has:

- Solid state preamp which does not distort well but sounds good clean
- Fantastic spring reverb and nice phasey vibrato effect
- 120W of tube powering the speakers
- 2 Black Widow speakers

Now, I'm no purist, but I do love the tone of the classic fender amps, and I do need better distortion. I dislike pedals and if I had to use one for distortion I would probably take it apart and stick it in the amp. Which brings me to the next part of the post:

I am extremely handy, and I work somewhere with a lot of woodworking machinery. I can easily make a new cabinet for this amp, and probably will. So, my question is this:

WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH THIS AMP TO MAKE IT SWEETER AND MORE EXILE-ON-MAINSTREETEY?

Possible solutions may involve:
- New cabinet with 1x15, 2x12, 3x10, 4x10 (Although I want to be able to carry it)
- New speakers
- Effects that maintain tube feel, and tube preamps that can totally bypass the preamp section of the amp (the SD pedal sounds pretty sweet)
- Anything you can imagine using the 120W tube power amp as a jumping off point. Why do all this work? For two reasons. One, because I'll end up with something that I really like tonally, two because it's fun and three because this amp cost me c.$150.

 

[drpietrzak]

Re: The eternal question/controversy: how to get THERE from HERE?

I would pick up a Duncan Twin Tube Classic.

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: The eternal question/controversy: how to get THERE from HERE?

new speakers for sure

 

[Sabe]

Re: The eternal question/controversy: how to get THERE from HERE?

My buddy has Deuce. Its completely stock, and sounds totally mint. He plays a strat with the texas specials pups.

Personally, I think it sounds better than another friend's mid-70's silver face Twin (also stock). I know you're seeking some mods just for the fun of it, but I wouldn't be surprised if you decide to leave the guts alone once you give it a whirl.

one thing I wouldn't do is go to a single speaker. The reason I say that is that (yet another) friend has the Peavy Artist, which is essentially a slightly lower powered Duece with a single 12 instead of the 2x12. Although its a good amp, and has lots of juice to cut through, it doesn't have that same shimmer and sparkle that the Duece has, so perhaps there's some magical formula of running that amp through 2 speakers as opposed to single.

If you were to go with 4 speakers, I believe then you are essentially building a Peavy Mace, which was the Duece with extra speakers. I've never played (nor even seen) one, so I can't comment on what you get with those extra speakers (other than even more volume, which is hardly needed)

The only complaint is that it is prohibitively heavy, unless you've got hulk-strength. I'd rather help move a grand piano than be the guy that has to lift that deuce out of the van and bring it inside again.

 

[RW James]

Re: The eternal question/controversy: how to get THERE from HERE?

If I understand you correctly - you're planning to rebuild the cabinet and build a new combo setup?

If it were me - I'm a big fan of modular approaches because of the inherant flexibility it provides. I would put the amp into a head cabinet and mount the Black Widows into a separate 2x12 speaker cabinet. Then, down the road, you can build another speaker cabinet with whatever and easily swap them for different effects.

But that's just me.

 

[Kivitel]

Re: The eternal question/controversy: how to get THERE from HERE?

Rick, I was just thinking that today. But I may just build a lighter-weight 2x12.

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: The eternal question/controversy: how to get THERE from HERE?

If that amp is anything like the Fender Twin, you'll probably want 10'' speakers in there. What you should use is beyond me (my Fender Vibrolux Reverb just has Celestion G10L-35s, never tried much of anything else). I really dig the sonic spread of 4 speakers (especially live), but it does make it significantly heavier.

If you're going to be experimenting with different designs, RW James has a good point, you may want to throw around the idea of a head cabinet for the guts of the amp.