Twin Reverb Tone

[astrozombie]

In a smaller package?

I'm looking to add a fender tube amp to my rig. I like the twin reverb's sound but wish it came in a slightly smaller package. I'm thinking 112 or something like that. any suggestions? I looked at the other fender tube amps like the vibrolux and deluxe reverb, but its hard to judge these things by clips and pictures. In person it's a whole different ball game. Both models sounded nice...

Any ideas?

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Twin Reverb Tone

forgot to mention: i see the deluxe reverb is 22 watts. the only tube amps ive ever played have been 100 watt, 40 watt and 30 watt respectively. you guys think 22 watts is loud enough for gigs and stuff? I mean I'd be mic'd... but not at rehearsal.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Twin Reverb Tone

You'd be best off with a regular Fender Super Sonic. Then, you get clean, gain, FX loop, and a Celestion Vin 30.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Twin Reverb Tone

The only way to get that TR tone is with a TR...the high headroom and 2x12 package make that tone however you can get close with any number of BF/SF Fender amps with reverb...

As for the Deluxe being enough power I went to rehearsal 2 weeks ago with a tweed Super (18 watts, 2x10's) and a brown Deluxe (18 watts 1x12) and the other guitra player had a 100 Marshall DSL halfstack...I was heard loud and clear and never got my amps above 4...

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Twin Reverb Tone

my buddy has one of the 70's 100 watt Twin Reverbs

he is always wanting to trade me for my 40 watt Belair



What you want is the 1x12 nomad


I know they may be a bit hard to try out but the cleans are Fender-ish and the distortion circuit is Marshal-esque

 

[super rad stuff]

Re: Twin Reverb Tone

the thing to remember is that wattage doesn't really mean volume, but rather headroom. a 15w amp will keep up with a 100w amp as long as the speakers are efficient enough in the 15w, you'll just get more tube breakup with the smaller amp and more clean headroom with more wattage.

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Twin Reverb Tone

the thing to remember is that wattage doesn't really mean volume, but rather headroom. a 15w amp will keep up with a 100w amp as long as the speakers are efficient enough in the 15w, you'll just get more tube breakup with the smaller amp and more clean headroom with more wattage.

Yeah, I thought about this thanks for bringing it up man.I think I'll check out the 60w combo

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Twin Reverb Tone

I gigged with Twin Reverbs from about 1967 until the early 70's. To loud, to heavy and to clean for me. Unless you're looking for clean, like Wes Montgomery, it's just to much amp for most guitarists to turn up loud enough to get a good rock or blues tone. That's why I switched to Deluxe Reverbs - or even Princeton Reverbs if the gig is really low volume.

I use and recommend either of those two as being a Twin Reverb with about 25% of the power. Pretty much the same pre-amp as the Twin Reverb.

DR's and PR's can't be beat, IMO.

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: Twin Reverb Tone

I've heard you can put 6L6's in deluxe reverbs if you do... some relatively simple mod, I can't remember, but that'd give you a lot more clean headroom.

If you want a 1x12 a deluxe reverb is about your only option. Maybe you could check out the hot rod deluxe? Everyone seems to like their clean channel, and $200 worth of tubes and speakers improves them quite a bit

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Twin Reverb Tone

If you want a lot of headroom in a small box get a silverface Bandmaster Reverb and put it in an oversized 1x12 combo cab...it's a little bit of a project but 35 watts into a 1x12 cab will stomp a Deluxe Reverb in terms of headroom...not gonna touch a twin but will be closer than anything else you can get in that range plus SF Bandmaster Reverb amps are still rather cheep...

 

[Bludave]

Re: Twin Reverb Tone

The Twin Reverb has a huge amount of headroom & you will find it hard to find an amp that is as clean or as loud. The DR; for me is a great amp with the right speaker. I have a V30 in mine. It has plenty of balls but once the volume gets over 4 keeping it clean will be hard. Turning your volume down(on the guitar) can work as long as you are miked and have a good sound guy. For larger rooms its just too small. You may want to consider A Showman Reverb. It is essentially a Twin in a head. The original bootom or cabinet had 2 15" speakers 130D if I remember correct., but a decent 2 12 or 4 12 would work fine.

 

[Red_Label]

Re: Twin Reverb Tone

The Twin is a beast! It's heavy. It's LOUD. It's clean. But it's got that special something that very few other amps have if you're looking for it. I've never played through or owned another amp that had such a "breaking glass" sound to it. I just sold my Reissue to a friend last week. I'm gonna miss it, but I spend most of my time in more Marshall territory so I'll live. In fact, that's why I sold the Twin, because I felt it deserved more playing time than I was giving it. It mostly just filled-up a corner of my small man-cave. I'm replacing it with a DigiDesign Eleven Rack. Something that's not near as cool as a Twin, but a LOT smaller and will get a lot more use by me.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Twin Reverb Tone

I've heard you can put 6L6's in deluxe reverbs if you do... some relatively simple mod, I can't remember, but that'd give you a lot more clean headroom.

If you want a 1x12 a deluxe reverb is about your only option. Maybe you could check out the hot rod deluxe? Everyone seems to like their clean channel, and $200 worth of tubes and speakers improves them quite a bit

I think the biggest improvement a player can make to a Deluxe Reverb is to replace the stock speaker with a really good, really efficient Celestion speaker. Makes an enormous improvement in the volume and clean headroom and also sounds much better for solos. My two DR's each have a Celestion G12h30 - AKA: the Jimi Hendrix speaker.

 

[Got_tone?]

Re: Twin Reverb Tone

Astro, you get a BIG +1 for asking an excellent question. :friday:

 

[jeremy]

Re: Twin Reverb Tone

The only way to get that TR tone is with a TR...the high headroom and 2x12 package make that tone however you can get close with any number of BF/SF Fender amps with reverb...

yup

As for the Deluxe being enough power I went to rehearsal 2 weeks ago with a tweed Super (18 watts, 2x10's) and a brown Deluxe (18 watts 1x12) and the other guitra player had a 100 Marshall DSL halfstack...I was heard loud and clear and never got my amps above 4...

i do this with my tweed delxue and bf deluxe all the time too

I've heard you can put 6L6's in deluxe reverbs if you do... some relatively simple mod, I can't remember, but that'd give you a lot more clean headroom.

If you want a 1x12 a deluxe reverb is about your only option.

you can put 6l6 in a dr but it wont give you much more headroom. it will give you a little more and it will change the tone to a touch more twin reverb-y. there will be an impedance mismatch unless something is changed.

Maybe you could check out the hot rod deluxe? Everyone seems to like their clean channel, and $200 worth of tubes and speakers improves them quite a bit

a hot rod deluxe sounds very little like a twin reverb

If you want a lot of headroom in a small box get a silverface Bandmaster Reverb and put it in an oversized 1x12 combo cab...it's a little bit of a project but 35 watts into a 1x12 cab will stomp a Deluxe Reverb in terms of headroom...not gonna touch a twin but will be closer than anything else you can get in that range plus SF Bandmaster Reverb amps are still rather cheep...

thats a cool plan acutally. tony brunos cowtipper 35 is just about the perfect bf fender style amp. little more headroom than a deluxe but not as much as a super. this would put you in a similar ballpark for a hell of a lot less.

I think the biggest improvement a player can make to a Deluxe Reverb is to replace the stock speaker with a really good, really efficient Celestion speaker. Makes an enormous improvement in the volume and clean headroom and also sounds much better for solos. My two DR's each have a Celestion G12h30 - AKA: the Jimi Hendrix speaker.

absolutely. i like the g12h or the cannabis rex in a dr

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Twin Reverb Tone

yes 22 watts is definitely enough. Deluxe reverbs are a great working musicians amp. Stick a tube screamer in its face and you need little else. Unless you want to get a marshall sound of course.....
ive been using a 22 watt princeton reverb II for just about everything for a number of years now. Its also 6v6 based and also 22watts with a 12 inch speaker.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Twin Reverb Tone

Once upon a time, on an internet forum far away, the answer to this question would have been the Fender Pro Reverb. 40w RMS, 2x10, no midrange tone pots.

IMO, the "best of both worlds solution" to getting a lower power Fender Twin Reverb to use for smaller venues is to purchase a Fender "evil" Twin Amp and run it on the 1/4 power setting.

At the time of this posting, I am in the process of negotiating a possible deal to purchase my reclusive friend's criminally under-used MESA/Boogie mk3 Simul-Class combo and flightcase.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Twin Reverb Tone

Once upon a time, on an internet forum far away, the answer to this question would have been the Fender Pro Reverb. 40w RMS, 2x10, no midrange tone pots.

That would be the Vibrolux Reverb. The Pro Reverb has two 12's. Both are wonderful amps. The Vibrolux Reverb is associated with Roy Buchanan and Danny Gatton. The Pro Reverb isn't associated with anyone I can think of but after I was done with Twin Reverb I played through a nice blackface Pro Reverb for many, many years until switching to Deluxe Reverbs. I probably spent more time with the Pro Reverb as my only amp than any other amp...although these days I prefer my DR's.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Twin Reverb Tone

you need a supersonic

but you'd be happy with just about anything

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Twin Reverb Tone

you need a supersonic

but you'd be happy with just about anything

I keep hearing this......... maybe the super sonic combo is up my alley.