Another Fender Twin...

Tele · Post by **Tele** » 26 Feb 2001 11:10 am

Hey...just finished it today..what you see is not a Reissue and not an original BF 65 Twin!

The chassis is an early master Volume Dual Showman Reverb. I put a Repro faceplate on the front and the MV pot now sits where the external speaker jack was.
The amps sounds great, even with MV so I thought it should stay there.
I use GE 5751 preamp tubes and Svetlana 6L6GC, the amp is very quiet and has lots of headroom.
The cabinet is an original late67/early 68, still had the alu-trim. I made a new baffle out of Baltic birch and put a 15" JBL D130F in it.
Last week I tried a Peavey BW in it and it sounded much better with the amp, don't know why-usually I'm not the guy to praise Peaveys

.....
So it looks 100% like the real deal, sounds close enough but the cost was not even 50% !!!!
I would consider a MV Twin Reverb again, that's for sure !

Andy

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1957 Sho~Bud D-8:1961 Sho~Bud D-9:1962 Sho~Bud D-10:1966 Sho~Bud D-10 : Bigsby T-8

ShoBud Gallery

[This message was edited by Tele on 26 February 2001 at 11:14 AM.]

Blake Hawkins · Post by **Blake Hawkins** » 26 Feb 2001 3:11 pm

Hi Andy, You do good work! It looks great.

Blake

Steve Feldman · Post by **Steve Feldman** » 26 Feb 2001 3:19 pm

I agree. She's a beauty!

Tele · Post by **Tele** » 27 Feb 2001 11:43 am

Thanks

it was worth the effort..easy and inexpensive mods !

Andy

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1957 Sho~Bud D-8:1961 Sho~Bud D-9:1962 Sho~Bud D-10:1966 Sho~Bud D-10 : Bigsby T-8
My homepage
ShoBud Gallery

Cartwright Thompson · Post by **Cartwright Thompson** » 4 Mar 2001 3:42 am

Hey Andy,
Nice job. I think silver Fenders are one of the last real amp bargains out there, and you can turn them into great things.
I'm curious about your preference for the Peavey and should probably try one(a BW) myself. Is the Peavey a 4 ohm speaker? Is the output tranny on your twin stock?
If it's stock, running the D-130 would cut the power quite a bit and might be the reason you liked the Peavey better.

Tele · Post by **Tele** » 4 Mar 2001 4:57 am

Hi Cartwright

everything is stock, the Peavey is a 4-ohm 1501. Reason I like it better is not the loss of power with the JBL, it is still way too loud with my band

The BW sounds a bit more modern and versatile while the D130 has that distinctive 60s tone.
Both great speakers, maybe the JBL will be back for the next gig..who knows..

Andy

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1957 Sho~Bud D-8:1961 Sho~Bud D-9:1962 Sho~Bud D-10:1966 Sho~Bud D-10 : Bigsby T-8
My homepage
ShoBud Gallery

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 4 Mar 2001 7:19 am

Now Andy, if only you had said "and I reduced the weight of the unit by 25lbs.," I would personally come over to Germany with candy and flowers!!!

Hey, I like the Black Widow speaker in just about all the applications I've tried with them. Of course, that's really just putting them in an Evans and a Webb, but they sound great in both those amps. And the suggestion about the Evans/BW combo came from Ed Buffington himself, so I don't feel "unholy" about it.

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

Cartwright Thompson · Post by **Cartwright Thompson** » 4 Mar 2001 7:50 am

Andy,
If you put the JBL back in, try removing 2 power tubes( 1 and 4, or 2 and 3)this will cut your power in half and give you an 8 ohm output( to match the D-120). This is my favorite "15 inch" twin sound. Still plenty clean and powerfull and to my ears a little sweeter.

Tele · Post by **Tele** » 4 Mar 2001 11:17 am

Hey guys

to make it a bit more unique I think about recovering it with cream tolex plus wheat/gold (1963-64 era style)grille cloth...
Fender never had that option on combo amps, only heads and cabinets.
Consider it more work than the rest, I'll keep you updated.
Thanks so far.

Andy

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1957 Sho~Bud D-8:1961 Sho~Bud D-9:1962 Sho~Bud D-10:1966 Sho~Bud D-10 : Bigsby T-8
My guitars &amps
ShoBud Gallery

[This message was edited by Tele on 04 March 2001 at 11:19 AM.]

Cartwright Thompson · Post by **Cartwright Thompson** » 4 Mar 2001 4:30 pm

Don't waste your time on cosmetics. Try 6550's (2 of them), change the screen resisters and boom, about 65 watts, 8ohm output and tons wonderful tone with plenty of low end..

Chris Lucker · Post by **Chris Lucker** » 4 Mar 2001 8:59 pm

Andy, my Twin Reverb is now Cream rough Tolex with a wheat grille, black and silver flat metal Fender nameplate and black dogbone with black faceplate and a JBL D130 4 ohm. So it is a copy of a 1962 or so Fender that never existed. It started as a beat up 1971 Twin Reverb -- I had to replace all the Tolex and dowel the cabinet, and I had to recap the beast, do a partial Blackface mod, and replace the speakers. I saw Waylon Jennings using cream tolexed Twin Reverbs and thought they looked great. Now, if only I can get a tooled leather cover for my Telecaster.
Chris Lucker

Dave Van Allen · Post by **Dave Van Allen** » 4 Mar 2001 10:06 pm

Looks absolutely luscious! Bet it sound great, even with the P-word speaker...

Mr Lucker- can you post a pic of your mythic '62??

[This message was edited by Dave Van Allen on 04 March 2001 at 10:11 PM.]

Chris Lucker · Post by **Chris Lucker** » 5 Mar 2001 10:37 am

Dave, I will shortly. I am expecting a digital camera soon. Will post pics of an old Emmons/Standel too.
Chris

Tele · Post by **Tele** » 8 Mar 2001 1:56 pm

check this out !! This seems to be one cool amp:1970 Twin

Andy

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1957 Sho~Bud D-8:1961 Sho~Bud D-9:1962 Sho~Bud D-10:1966 Sho~Bud D-10 : Bigsby T-8
My guitars &s
ShoBud Gallery

[This message was edited by Tele on 08 March 2001 at 01:58 PM.]

Dave Van Allen · Post by **Dave Van Allen** » 8 Mar 2001 6:55 pm

yeah that "virgin" twin on ebay sure is purty, but I'd be scared to death to take it out of the house! I'd prolly just sit around all day drooling on it...

I can't be trusted with such nice things- I was all pins and needles til I put a bar ding in my Zum, now I can just relax and play the dern thing

I like an amp with some dings in it (those of you who have seen my Vibrolux will vouch)for gigging... but those pristine museum pieces do hold a certain fascination...

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"I AM ZUMBODY!"

Zumsteel U12 "Loafer" 8&6 :: Fender T-8 Stringmaster :: Fender Tube Amplification
www.voicenet.com/~vanallen/ :: vanallen@voicenet.com

[This message was edited by Dave Van Allen on 08 March 2001 at 06:56 PM.]

Chris DeBarge · Post by **Chris DeBarge** » 9 Mar 2001 6:32 am

Dave,
I agree, and I never buy mint stuff because I'm afraid of messing it up! (of course I could try not to stand on them or use them to hold my beer...)

Great job on the amp Andy!

Brian Stear · Post by **Brian Stear** » 9 Mar 2001 8:40 am

I'll have to agree with Cartwright on those 6550's for your amp. You'll be suprised by the difference. It's simply amazing how much " ooomph " they add. Alot more tone, albiet a bit different. Plus you can turn it up and get plenty of clean volume and headroom.They truly work great for steel.
After all, we like our amps to look good. But we play them cause they sound good!
A fellow Fender lover.........[This message was edited by Brian Stear on 09 March 2001 at 08:43 AM.]

Bill Crook · Post by **Bill Crook** » 9 Mar 2001 10:57 am

If you put the JBL back in, try removing 2 power tubes( 1 and 4, or 2 and 3)this will cut your power in half and give you an 8 ohm output( to match the D-120).

It's not often I differ with my electronic friends here but, just removing tubes, or replaceing them with higher power rateing ones will NOT change the output impedience of the amp !

As most of you'all remember the tube "Fender" amps have a big and very expensive output xmer. This is what DETERMINES the 4,8,16 ohm rateings of the amps. Different amps,different output values. The secondary windings of the output xmer is matched to a certain speaker ohmage. the closer the match, the more power transfered to the speaker. the choice of tubes has NOTHING to do with the impedience. Period !!

Cartwright Thompson · Post by **Cartwright Thompson** » 12 Mar 2001 3:36 am

I've been told of this "trick" (removing 2 power tubes) by several knowledgeable amp techs,something I don't profess to be myself.I was able to look up two explanations.
David Funk explains it like this:

"If you remove two tubes from a 100 watt amp, the Output Transformer's Primary Impedance needs to be doubled. To do this , double the Impedance of the speaker load. In other words four tubes might need a 2000 ohm primary, with a 4 ohm speaker load. By removing two tubes , the OT's Primary Impedance now needs to be 4000 ohms. By attaching an 8 ohm speaker, you've effectively doubled the Primary Impedance."

Gerald Weber says essentially the same thing:
"When you use only two of the Output tubes in a twin, you are reducing the output by half, and you are cutting the load impedance in half. This will wear ou tyour tubes prematurely, unless you do something to correct the load impedance. An easy way to correct the load impedance is to unplug one of the speakers or to use an 8 ohm speaker load."

Cartwright Thompson · Post by **Cartwright Thompson** » 16 Mar 2001 3:07 am

I was hoping to get a reply from Mr. Crook on this impedance issue. I'm not trying to be confrontational, I'm just curious about the subject.
There is still a lot of contradictory information floating around regarding tube amps. I'm not an amp tech, I'm just looking for the best sound/setup for my amps.

Tele · Post by **Tele** » 16 Mar 2001 3:37 am

..finally...

wonder why it doesn't sound better than before...

oh but I put the D130F back in it !
Andy
[This message was edited by Tele on 16 March 2001 at 03:38 AM.]

Chris DeBarge · Post by **Chris DeBarge** » 16 Mar 2001 4:35 am

Andy, that looks great!

Dave Van Allen · Post by **Dave Van Allen** » 16 Mar 2001 7:02 am

"now cut that out"
Jack Benny

Tele · Post by **Tele** » 16 Mar 2001 3:19 pm

hey Chris Lucker, still waiting for your picture here

!!??
in the meantime here's another one. Funny I had so many 70s Twins, should have done this earlier. Guess you could make a few bucks more if they look that way.
After all the total for the cosmetics were not even $100 and that includes the repro faceplate.

Andy

Chris Lucker · Post by **Chris Lucker** » 17 Mar 2001 12:09 am

I will post pics as soon as I get the digital camera (or any camera, for that matter) I had to take pictures of a twin twelve Standel with an Emmons logo and that took me forever.
Mine looks like yours, although perhaps my Tolex is whiter, and I applied a flat metal black and silver Fender nameplate and used a dogbone handle.
Very nive amp under your TR. Is that a tweed Twin? That is an amp I'd like to play Tele through sometime. I would imagine that dreams of a 59 Bassman might well go away if you had a Tweed Twin.
Chris Lucker