So I bought a twin reverb...

[Tadpui]

Just out of curiosity, how does the distortion/overdrive of a Fender Twin sound if you actually have the opportunity to dime the volume on it? I know that's quite a feat with an amp with as much clean headroom as a Twin, but how does the power section sound when its saturated? Has anyone hooked a power attenuator to one and cranked it? How was it? Or is is necessary to put an overdrive stomp box in front of it in order to get any sort of sensitivity or sustain?

 

[elenore19]

Good info Harvey on the speakers - thanx.

One funny note on this thread:

I doubt there's many pieces of gear you could post on this forum that everybody would unanimously agree was great.

Not one person said they didn't like the sound.

And everybody agrees they are heavy pigs.

You're so right, everything gets at least some negative comments. I feel really fortunate to have scored this amp.

Tho, I am wondering about your total cost? If you don't mind me asking--how much of the $675 was for shipping? It had to be pretty steep $ to ship and insure (maybe $125) which means the actual cost of the amp was $550?--KILLER deal.

I don't mind at all talking about money...I got it for $610 + $65 I'm getting really pumped for this amp.

I'm giving away a secret that anyone would have figured out anyway, so what the heck. If I feel like playing my Deluxe Reverb and I want to do 'medium size' gigs, I replace the speaker with a Red Fang. A little tweaking to the circuitry, and I have a giant killer that can hang with loud drummers. Remember this, and I'll come back to it in a second. If I have a Twin Reverb mood, and the band usually bitches how loud it is, I replace the speakers with a Jensen Mod 50. Now for the science and math.
A 3dB increase or decrease in speaker efficiency will give the apparent effect of doubling or halving the power to that speaker. As one example, a 50-watt amplifier with a speaker rated for 99dB and a 100-watt amplifier with a speaker rated for 96 dB will appear to have excactly the same volume. It's not magic or abstract math. Still with me? The stock P12R in a Deluxe is rated for 95dB, which is actually not so hot. The Eminence Red Fang is rated for 103dB. You do the math. Without too much BS'ing, a Deluxe with a Red Fang can hang with some 50-watt Marshalls. The C12K's in your Twin are rated for 99dB, which ain't too shabby. However, to tame some excessive volume, I use the 94dB Mod 50's. You have just enough power handling, so be careful. But the huge loss in SPL's means you can turn it up a little to get some grind and not get complaints from the rest of the band.
That's how I do it when the situation warrants, but feel free to disagree with everything I've just said.

I might have to look into those mod 50's. Although I definitely need clean, not grind. I have pedals for that.

Just out of curiosity, how does the distortion/overdrive of a Fender Twin sound if you actually have the opportunity to dime the volume on it? I know that's quite a feat with an amp with as much clean headroom as a Twin, but how does the power section sound when its saturated? Has anyone hooked a power attenuator to one and cranked it? How was it? Or is is necessary to put an overdrive stomp box in front of it in order to get any sort of sensitivity or sustain?

Check out this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeoWIOoWRxU
I've read that it takes pedals very very well. And this video really enforces that.

 

[Lt. Bob]

I had a Twin in the early 70's when it was still ok to dime one out and to the best of my recollection it sound nice and sustainy when cranked wide open although I'm sure it was loud.
But at any reasonable volume you'll need a pedal.

 

[Tadpui]

You're so right, everything gets at least some negative comments. I feel really fortunate to have scored this amp.


I don't mind at all talking about money...I got it for $610 + $65 I'm getting really pumped for this amp.

I might have to look into those mod 50's. Although I definitely need clean, not grind. I have pedals for that.

Check out this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeoWIOoWRxU
I've read that it takes pedals very very well. And this video really enforces that.

Holy fargin' crap! Wow, when that fuzz pedal kicked in, that had a truly remarkable tone. I'm not a Strat fan, and I can't even say that I'm much of a fuzz fan. But damn that really sounded great. That breakup, that characteristic clip of both the power section and the fuzz pedal combined to produce one of the select few tones I'd love to be able to reproduce myself.

I play through a Traynor YCV80, which has a clean channel that can sound extremely nasty when both the channel volume and the master volume are cranked, but it sounds more like a Black Keys kind of low-end breakup. That really sounded like Hendrix with the low end clipping like that...I mean it really sounded like Hendrix's cranked Marshall stacks!

I'm truly impressed, and I'm not easily impressed with guitar tone. Glad you posted that.

 

[dintymoore]

Cool video - that's the sound folks... I love the buzz at the very end!

Ah, the ol' Fuzz Face... brings me back to my basement around 1970...

One note of comedy on those amps is the bright switch.

Reminds me of when I was a kid and I used to pour tons of sugar on top of Fruit Loops.

They must of added the switch when Leo was getting old and losing his hearing.

 

[Bob Ross]

Man, I still kick myself for selling my Twin all those years ago! I bought a brand new Twin Reverb from Sam Ash in Paramus NJ in 1977 ($375 iirc) but only used it for a year before a severe cash shortage forced me to sell off nearly all my possessions. Over the years I've owned and sold a ton of different instruments and amps, and that's the only one I regret not keeping. Awesome sounding amps. Even the "bad" Twins sound better than a lot of the new amps on the market.