The Steel Guitar Forum

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97 lbs.! Required forklift listed separately.

David, you didn't have to buy the forklift if you went with the trailer hitch option.

There are two of them for sale right now in Guitar Centers "Used" website.
One of these days I would like to get one.
~pb

I have one I got from James M., but the chassis was shipped separate from the speakers and cab. I put it in a head cab right away. Can't imagine getting the combo up and down steps and lifting it into my van. The head weighs 60 lbs. and is manageable. They are fantastic amps if you need that much power. Gorgeous Fender clean tube tone, and you will never run out of headroom. If you have a Twin, Dual or Vibrosonic, and love the tone, but occasionally run out of clean headroom, a Super Twin will cure that problem. Also, the two EQ sections are switchable, so you can have two different tones dialed in, and switch between them. For me, it's the ultimate steel amp in the high volume range.

I'm wondering the weight difference between the Super Twin with just the speakers taken out, and a Super Twin mounted in a head only?
You're really only cutting out a few inches of wood on both sides, right?
If it were still in the original cab with no speakers, it might be easier to roll in/out of gigs, put right next to you at the gig with speaker cabs behind, ect.
Just a thought.
~pb

Interesting idea, Pete. Actually I misspoke off the top of my head. I just looked on a chart I have with the specs of all my amps. The Super Twin Reverb head weighs 54 lbs. My Dual Showman Reverb head is 46 lbs. And a Vibrasonic Custom in a head cab weighs 40 lbs. If you took the speakers out of the combo, the heavy particle board baffle would still be there. I think it's glued in. If you cut it out, it would ruin the resale value. The casters also add some weight. Of course you could roll it around on them. It would be like a sort of rolling stand for the chassis. But there is something to be said for the compactness of a head cab.

If you cut it out you would ruin the resale value? I thought ruining resale value is just what we DO around here...

Pete, one problem with just taking the speakers out is it WILL become top heavey.

Resale value, Don't cut up the original cab---store it and get Rick Johnson to MAKE you a perfect fitting head cab.

I bought one of these amps when they first came out. It was the most unreliable amp I've owned. Loud - yes. I put a 15" Electrovoice in it.

Kept getting circuit board problems. Maybe it was a Friday afternoon job, but I would not recommend this amp to anyone for reliability.

Some times you can get a lemon in anything, and thats unfortunate. But when you get a good one, hang onto it---these Super Twins are awesome. Right, David D.? I should have hung onto the one I sold to you, David!! Hindsight!! Sheeeesh!!

Well, mine was in good shape when I got it from James. I haven't had any problems or repairs over a couple of years of gigs. But it's time to take it in for a check up. They do need regular maintenance.

James, no need for regrets. There are plenty of these monsters out there; and they have little demand, because no regular guitar player needs that kind of clean volume anymore. Now days any guitar player needing that coliseum kind of volume would just use a smaller amp miked through the PA. But for steel they are great for allowing you to pump out a lot of clean tube high volume sustain with the volume pedal.

I tried one of these out & I didn't care for it at all. I ran a regular guitar through it & was severely disappointed.

It was in alright shape & I think it was around $400 bucks...I just wasn't into it enough to spend that much on it.

I will admit, it was pretty damn loud!!!

Casey

Yeah Casey, the Super Twin is one amp that you really have to "learn" the eq deal, or it will through you a "curve". Once you get it dialed in, you can really extract some of the greatest tone out of 'em.

The Super Twin worked for Ted Nugent (course, he pro'ly got his for free). But, like I said, regular guitar players these days don't care for them. They should all go to those steelers who complain their Twin isn't loud enough.

To me, there was just something missing with this amp. It's a shame that they didn't get the reverb & the vibrato in them. If they would've had them as features, they would've been some alright amps in my book.

If I ever see one for "cheap", I might go ahead & buy one since I have my trusty RV-3 & my Profex 2.

Casey

Casey, they had two models. One was a Super Twin, and the other was a Super Twin Reverb.

The Super Twin Reverb left a lot to be desired in the reverb department. Seems the consensus was, they put the reverb in the wrong place in the tone stack, making it subject to what ever the eq was set at. That meaning, if you eq-ed the amp in certain ways, the reverb would sound pretty nasty. If you eq-ed for good reverb, the amp would sound pretty nasty.

The Super Twin didn't have that problem, and you just went with your RV3 or what ever you liked.

David Dogget might have some better ideas here, but on the Super Twin Reverb, the best way I had found to eq them was to start with you regular twin eq first--set your bass, mids, and treble to what sounds the best to you. I then could take it further with the 7band eq, to taste. That seemed to be a way to get you into great tone on these amps. Gives you a great starting place, anyways.

Jim Sliff, what have you found to work for you on this model amp??

These amps have two EQ sections. One is the standard passive bass, mid, treble of a Twin, plus Bright. That set is always on (not switchable). The second EQ section is an active 5-band EQ. This section can be switched off or on. When the active section is on, it interacts with the regular passive EQ. So one way to use it is as James says: with the active EQ off, set the regular EQ as you want it. Then, switch on the active EQ, and starting with the bands all flat (straight up), use them to fine tune the overall EQ.

The other way to use the two EQs is to set up two preset switchable channels to give two different tones. You might want a bright tone for loud/fast songs, and a darker, more mellow tone for softer/slower songs. Or you might want a bright Ralph Mooney tone for country, and a dark Curly Chalker tone for jazz. You set up one tone with the regular passive EQ, with the active EQ switched off. For the second tone, you switch in the active EQ. Use it to overide the regular EQ to give you the second different tone. Then you can switch back and forth between the two tones by switching the active EQ in or out.

Another feature people should be aware of is the boost switch. The default with the foot switch unplugged is boost off. The amp then has about the volume of a regular Twin. Some people try these amps without the foot switch and think that's all the power there is. Only when you plug in the foot switch and switch on the boost do you get the full 180 watts.

Another feature is the distortion, which is switched on with a foot switch, and also has the amount dialed in with a knob. Everyone has always considered the distortion a joke. For guitar distortion, it is anemic and a bit strange sounding. Oddly enough, I found it almost usable for steel. Most guitar distortion is way too much to work well with the full chords of steel. Being so anemic, the Super Twin distortion sort of works for steel, if you are not too particular about the quality of your distortion.

I have one of these amps and it was wired for Europe and I have an old converter with it (another 10#). So the the whole works is in the closet where it has been for a long time and is gonna stay. Using this amp on the job is like using a canon to hunt birds. I'll sell it to anyone by the pound. PS I like the converter it filters out the 60 cycle.

Bo Legg wrote:Using this amp on the job is like using a canon to hunt birds.

Depends on the job. I played awhile with one group where I needed a Super Twin just to rehearse with them. And we played in rock clubs that usually did not mic the guitar amps. Neither my NV400 or 135w Twin would keep up with them. My volume pedal was bumping and I was running out of sustain. I saw the same thing happen with another steeler who tried to play with them with only a Twin. A Super Twin solved that problem for me.

You sometimes see people say their Twin does not have enough headroom, and they have to switch to a big solid-state amp. In fact, that's the reason the big solid-state amps took over the steel world. The Super Twin will blow away any 200-300 watt solid state amp, and do it with warm and sparkly tube tone. Of course many steelers do not need that much power. Yet many play with rack units with 500-1000 watt power amps.

i have one i love mine i don't use it very much great sound lots of headroom .i have a session 500 too i don't think it is as heavy as that amp . i will use it this summer. sound great with guitar too. i used to use it for my clean sound and a boogie for my lead sound with an a.b. switch sounded killer. mine doesn't have reverb but thats o.k. i have a pedal if i want that.