The Steel Guitar Forum

I may be asking for the impossible here...
I have a silverface 70's twin reverb in a head cabinet with two 15" speakers in separate cabinets. This worked for me weight-wise for many years. Now the head cabinet is too much for me to haul around. So I'm wondering if there's anything out there that will give me that sound in a relatively light weight package. This could include rack gear.
I realize that the the weighty transformers are responsible for much of the sound and getting around that is difficult. Still...I wonder...
Any ideas brought forth will be much appreciated.

Joe

What about a Tone Master Twin Reverb?

I should add that I'm not neccesarily looking for an as powerful equivalent of the twin reverb, just an amp that has that blackface/silverface sound.

definately Tonemaster !

I'm not ruling out the Tonemaster Twin; I haven't tried it, yet.
I'm thinking of something with tubes-in my experience this would be the way to go (tube snob).

Tube = Heavy

Hi Joe, I have a 68 Tube Twin at home that I use for sessions but when I leave for gigs, I grab a Tone Master. It has some of that Fender shimmer and emulates the tube tone close enough for me. I've been using mine a little over a year on pretty much everything, with no complaints.

I use a ToneMaster Twin with a Black Box.

Our guitar player has a Tonemaster Twin. The amp is lighter than my Seismic cabinet with a TT12 speaker.

and with the attenuator switch, you can set Tone Master Twin at 1 watt and practice in the doghouse with pretty good Fender Twin tone.

another vote for the tonemaster. you are their target demographic!

Quilter 202 into a cab with two D-120’s

What about a Milkman “The Amp” with your existing cabs?

"BF or SF Sound" well you can achieve that with a much smaller Fender amp but with that comes serious lack of headroom. Which is why we all ran out and acquired a TWIN REVERB.

I would agree that the Tonemasters are CLOSE but not quite there, if thats important. The drawback for me regarding Tonemasters is NO EXT speaker out. When I was active that was a deal killer.

There are multiple lite weight options today , obviously all solid state. Today I use a DV 250 watt head (4 lbs) and have a few different cabs that I can drag out. I find that the EQ section of the DV amps is 2nd to none, especially in the mids, really weak to really strong. Plus they all have on board reverb. I've used 2 or 3 different DV amps over the past few years on gigs and was never disappointed.

Replacing the iconic BF or SF Fender Twin Reverb is a tuff task. Maybe its time to look at other lite weight options, but do not skimp on the power.

If I happen to take a Steel gig, I bring out the DV and 1 or 2 cabs, the mighty Fender amp stays home.

I second the Quilter Tone Block suggestion. I have a 201, which has a 'Surf' setting that is a scooped blackface Twin type of sound. The 202 has a different tone stack, standard Fender-style Treble, Mid, Bass controls. You want light, you got it - just a few pounds. And 200 Watts RMS. I have a number of JBL D120F speakers, but I usually use a lightweight neo 12" speaker for steel - Telonics or Furlong. They don't have the JBL honk, but they do sound good, and I worry about blowing the JBLs with the 200 Watt amp. I generally use the JBLs in my Deluxe Reverb. Which, btw, is a reasonable option IMO if you don't have to be real loud. If I really want some extra headroom in the Deluxe, I use one of the Furlong or Telonics 12" speakers.

Another good option is Brad Sarno's Revelation rackmount preamp. It's basically Twin Reverb style preamp with one extra knob that gives some additional midrange control. You'd need a power amp - there are a number of very small and lightweight Class D options. I've used my Rev into the Quilter - either into the effects send or into the preamp on the flat 'Full Q' setting. I also have a Furlong CB12, which is a powered speaker cab - I think 300 Watts RMS. I think it's around 30 pounds, so not super-super-lightweight, but not really heaviy either - and it sounds excellent with the Rev. I've seen threads where Brad recommends the Furlong cab as a good option, and I agree.

Hi Joe, long time no see. I have a 69 Bandmaster Reverb head that works fine for me. Also have a Dual Showman Reverb head, very much like your Twin head, that I use if venue is large and amps are not miked. Most gigs amps are miked so BMR works fine. The weight difference isn't that much between the BMR head and Dual Showman Reverb head, maybe 7 pounds lighter and 1" shorter width.

For that Fender sound, when amps are miked, a Deluxe Reverb works fine. I played an outdoor gig in Genoa, NV few years back. Bobby Black was steeler in 1st band of event. He was using an old BF Deluxe Reverb (miked) he sounded wonderful, but he's Bobby Black.

If you get to S. Lake Tahoe you are welcome to try my BMR head. Might swap you for the Twin head.

Hi Raybob, good to see you here. I had a 64 Bandmaster amp and a 63 or 64 stand alone Fender Reverb unit. With the Sho-Bud Maverick that I sold you, that was some of the best tone I ever got in a psg setup. Alas, as the venues got bigger it was not enough headroom to play cleanly.
I'm reading all the posts here with interest and I still have not come up with an answer, but I have faith that a satisfying one is not out of my reach...

Joe

Check out a milkman “the amp 100” and a light cab. If you need more power you can use a powered speaker or use the DI . I use a milkman half and half combo for most all my live work. Plenty of headroom and around 35 pounds. It replaced my blackface fenders. I did a side by side test of my vintage fender amps and the milkman stuff. The milkman amps sounded and reacted better while being more reliable. Switching to Milkman was an upgrade and not a compromise. I do use his full on tube amps for recording work.

I have owned several twins and I haven’t found a 100% perfect substitute for one, but the Quilter Tone Block 202 set on the vintage voicing is the closest thing I’ve found to a twin in a lightweight application. The trick I’ve discovered is to run the Pre Gain and Limiter about 2/3rds-3/4ths of the way on. The limiter acts as a compressor of sorts on high and low frequency’s, it gives a nice authentic tube sound. Plus, you can run your existing speaker cabs out of it. Pat Quilter told me it will safely load down to 2ohms and it has a lot more power than your twin and all in a 5lb package. Has the effects loop too.

You can get them on sweetwater and can return within 30days if it doesn’t meet your expectations.