What is a Twin Reverb???

Stephen Gambrell · From: Over there

OK, there's posts on playing PSG through a bass amp, or playing bass through a steel amp, I thought of a question---Where does the Twin Reverb fall? Not the ones modded, with a 15" speaker, but a regular old Twin. What about it? I love the way my push-pull sounds through my master-volume model Twin. But is it a "steel" amp??

CrowBear Schmitt · From: Ariege, - PairO'knees, - France

if Lloyd G used one for so long it must be a Steel amp

i had a Twin (that i just sold) w:jbl K120s
i found it to be Xcellent for E9 but was'nt as good for C6

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

Well Stephen..wherever it falls you don't want to be under it !

see ya this weekend ..I think..or ..hope ?

t

Tim Whitlock · From: Colorado, USA

Absolutely it is! Click "search" to view the many many posts in the Electronics section for "Fender Twin". You have a wonderful steel guitar amp!

C Dixon · From: Duluth, GA USA

I love my twin for non pedal Steel guitars. I never could get the sound I wanted on my Emmons and my other PSG's using it. IMO it is no match for my NV400 for my pedal guitars.

I use the twin all the time when playing my Rickenbacher bakelite. It is beautiful. The NV400 is no match in this case. Would not want another amp when playing the Rick.

carl

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

I'm not positive about this, but I believe that Buddy Emmons "black album" was made with a stock Twin with the stock speakers, not JBL. I bet Mr. Emmons could confirm this.

Brad Sarno

David Doggett · Posted 19 Feb 2004 8:59 am

I have a 135 watt silver face master volume Twin with two 12" JBls. The only thing better for pedal steel is a Dual Showman Reverb or Vibrasonic with a 15" speaker. I just think pedal steels and 15" speakers are made for each other. I even have a little 30 watt tube Peavey Delta Blues with a 15" speaker for practices and acoustic jams. I play a universal and just like the voice of a 15" speaker much better. It's not just the lows; the highs sound thicker and less shrill, and the mids just reach out and grab your spleen.

My NV 400 sounds pretty good at low to moderate volume. But when I play with a loud band and have to crank it up all the way, it sounds terrible. At top volume it just sounds like a loud blat, and if you get it up to distortion level, it just sounds like horrible radio static. So how well the Peavey solid state amps work for you depends entirely on your usage.

The big Fender tube amps, on the other hand, just sound better and better the louder they get - sparkling highs, visceral mids, and luscious lows. At distortion level they are not particularly good (but way better than a solid state). If you get there, you just need to add another speaker, or another Fender tube amp. You can mic it, but you loose some of the spectrum that way.

My jury's still out on the black-face v. silver-face thing. I don't have access to a black face to try out. The silver faces are certainly fine for steel, and may be better. From what I have read, the black faces are a little warmer, but break up sooner.

There's also another little known advantage to the old Fender amps. They have two channels, with two inputs for each channel. You can use them to mix your CD player with your guitar. Just go from your CD player phone jack through an adaptor to split the stereo signal into two mono phone plugs, and plug those into the normal channel on the Fender amp. Adjust the receiver volume to a level that gives good sound with low amp noise. You can also unplug the amps internal speakers (even the combos come with a phone jack for the speakers) and use a stereo-to-mono adaptor to plug your headphones into the speaker jack. As long as the impedance of the headphones is higer than the amp rating (most headphones are 4 ohms or greater) this seems to be safe for the amp. Now you can play along with CDs through headphones, all with Fender tube tone. I've been doing this for over 25 years with no problems.

So now what do I do with my wonderful Twin 2x12? Now that I have a Dual head and a Vibrasonic head and two 15" speakers, it seems a shame to have the Twin sitting around for backup. I'm considering taking out the chassis and building a head cabinet for it. But then what would I do with those great 12" JBLs - and it seems a shame to dismantle this great amp. If anyone wants to trade it for a Twin/Dual/Vibrasonic with a 15" speaker, I'm game.

John Floyd · From: R.I.P.

Ain't Nothing sounds better than a twin that has just had all the Capacitors changed out, New Tubes, Biased and a JBL D 130 in it. Did this to a bunch of them in the 70's in Nashville, before the Session 400's came out. Other than Sho Bud or Evans It was the mainstay Steel amp for years. Was a hell of a lot more powerful than the ShoBud and would take a lot more abuse. We had to change out the output transformer and make an offset baffle board for the 15, but the results were well worth it. Wasn't lightweight but it would kick butt and this was before they started miking amps on stage.
I guess they diminished in popularity because a tube amp requires a certain amount of upkeep and maintenance. Peavey came along with The Session 400 and a lot of them were handed out free to the major players. It was a great amp with little or no upkeep or maintenance. It caught on fast and has never slowed down for an amp with a decent price and performance. I think Fender may have priced themselves out of the market on the Twins and Super Reverbs of today. The main reason amps don't sound as good as they did back in the 60's and 70's is the miking of instruments on Stage, It has become commonplace and you never drive an amp hard for it to find the sweet spot. The way to cure this is to go back to Sensible PA Systems and use the instrument amps for what they were designed for. Louder ain't better, its just louder.

I'm making a statement like this and going to Saluda this weekend and mike every amp on stage. Why?, because I record the show and make a complimentary CD for each player of his or Her Show, otherwise I would stick four vocal mikes on the stage and not make 50 - 75 trips to the stage to move mikes around all day long and try to get a decent mix among players. A decent mix should be the sole responsibility of the players In the past it was a part of the art of making music, but with Sound re-inforcement, it all goes out the door and everybody wants to be loud. Its very hard to get a good mix when the pickers aren't cooperating. A drummer or a Bass player can destroy a good mix in a heartbeat, because their instruments are inherrently louder than the rest.

Sorry to wander off topic a little, but its all very closely related.

[This message was edited by John Floyd on 19 February 2004 at 11:23 AM.]

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Sure, it's a fine steel amp! Renmember, the T/R was designed when there were only 2 kinds of amps...guitar amps and bass amps. The technique (or rather, "tactic") of voicing amps for certain instruments didn't become popular until the advent of solid-state. Hooked to a good bass-reflex speaker cabinet, the T/R will even do a pretty good job as a bass amp!

jim milewski · From: stowe, vermont

don't forget Steve you probably have the best 12" speakers for that amp, only drawback is the weight, I would love to hear it, remember that the early Sessions that were twin 12", used EVM, I loved mine

Stephen Gambrell · From: Over there

Jim, in my mind, the E-V's are PERFECT for this amp, and I thank you for them. I happen to love the West Coast steel sound, which, to me, means a Twin. Period.

James Quackenbush · From: Pomona, New York, USA

I've got a few different amps, and one of them is a Silverface Twin w/2 JBL D120's that have the original cones....Playing a universal I am wishing I had a 15 inch speaker in there , but when playing an S-10 Emmons..WOW , you can surely get some nice harmonic's out of that thing !!...The lower strings on the universal need the area of a 15, and the same goes for the C6 players...Mine is a 135 watt amp and has a lot of clean headroom ...All tuned up with new tubes and this thing just sings right along !!..Jim

Al Brisco · From: Colborne, ON Canada

FYI, I have just taken in a Vintage mid 60's Fender Twin Blackface with 2 JBL 12" speakers in excellent condition.
Here's a couple of links with info: http://www.steelguitarcanada.com/amps.htm

the picture: http://www.steelguitarcanada.com/img/forsale/Fender%20TwinRev.jpg

Regards,
Al Brisco
Steel Guitars of Canada

Nick Reed · From: Russellville, KY USA

Steve,
I've got a '65 re-issue TWIN REVERB and it's fantastic for Steel Guitar. In fact, I like it better than my Peavey Nashville 1000.

[This message was edited by Nick Reed on 19 February 2004 at 11:35 PM.]

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

Well I've been playing all my most recent gigs with my Hot Rod Deville, stock Eminance 2x12's . It's a 60 watt amp and for me I really prefer the sound over the N1000 that I also have.

I am considering upgrading to 2 EV's or 2 old D120's if I can find them at a reasonable cost..

Very bright sound..and at moderate volume very clean..very reminescent of my former Twin...and I get to crank the Tele' into oblivion too !

You should take a second look at these amps..maybe they're not for everyone but they are worthy of a look..

I use an AB foot pedal to switch between the Tele and Steel for the single input and I have actually found that the tone settings I use are pretty close for both Instruments..

I can tell ya this..if this was an 85-100 watt amp..it would be all over for the competition...

t

jim milewski · From: stowe, vermont

like Nick, I've been using a stock single coil pick up push pull through a reissue twin for gigging and find it well above average, although I put a older BW shallow basket BW 15" 1501 in it, warm and bright at the same time

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

Donny ole pal..These Hot Rods are a different breed than the Twins..

Similar in tone when in the clean mode..

Channel Switching, gain etc..more of the modern era amp..very flexible..and they list price new for around $700..they are in the $450 range used..

2 6L6's /3 12AX7's.. If this amp actually had the power to compete with the TWIN..thats what I am referring too..

Yes I know what power the Twins have that is why I referenced the 85-100 watts for the HR Deville series..

I too played thru a TWIN for almost 30 years..liked it just fine..

I would by another Twin in a heartbeat if the price was right..and I also think these Devilles are the best deal out there for general purpose guitar playing...in their price range of course...

t

Jerry Hayes · From: Virginia Beach, Va.

Hey Tony,
I also have a DeVille 2/12 which I use on lead guitar and love the thing. I've never used it on steel but after reading your post I think I might try it. I've been using a Nashville 400 for quite a while now. As far as the old amps go, in the sixties at a club I was playing in LA, we had Bobby Austin for a guest artist and he brought Ralph Mooney with him. Ralph had an amp that Fender had put together for him as an experiment and as far as I know they never marketed it. It was the same size as a Super Reverb cabinet but had a 15" JBL speaker in it. The face plate said "Fender Showman" and it also had built in reverb which the Showman piggy backs didn't have. It had the big transformer and 4 of the 6L6 power tubes so it must have been in the same power category as the Twin Reverb. I'd sure like to have an amp like that one. I wonder if Ralph still has it....Have a good 'un..JH

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Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.

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