Your Thoughts on the Fender Twin Reverb?

[pdfiddler]

You haven't lived until you've toted a Twin up a set of spiral stairs in 95 degree heat to get to the top deck of a party yacht! Two days later, I was in the hospital for a heart catheterization and angioplasty. Been using lightweight amps ever since. Great tone but not enough better to be worth the trouble.

That wasn't the Twins fault, that was the Coney Island hot dogs and chitlins you live on. lol

[guavajelly]

Classic jazz amp, great tones at any volume. If someone puts one on the stage for me to play, I'm happy.

[wzpgsr]

Classic jazz amp, great tones at any volume

Agreed, even at home practice volumes the Twin Reverb has a stature and authority that you just don't get from smaller amps. I have a 1971 Twin Reverb chassis stuffed into a head cab. It was rebuilt using the original transformers, most of the original guts, and some NOS capacitors that the builder had on hand. It's sort of like a brand new mid-60s Twin Reverb but built with old parts. I have two cabs for it: a closed-back mid-60s Bandmaster cab with a Weber California 15" speaker and a 2x10 with WGS G10A alnico speakers. With the latter, it's more portable than the classic 2x12 behemoth.

In my experience, to get a decent balanced jazz sound with a Twin, you have to keep the bass quite low and the treble set low to taste. With these settings, enough gain is taken out of the signal that you can open up the volume on the amp quite a bit. The key here, I think, is that the big iron, wattage, and large speaker surface area give you enough clean headroom to deal with this drop in gain without the sound getting tinny or the signal breaking up. With similar EQ settings, even at home volume, I had to push my 35 watt Vibrolux clone gain hard enough that I'd start getting into break-up territory, even at home practice volumes.

[Doug B]

(And I have yet to see a cart that go up a flight of stairs).

Here you go Jim: Mount-It! Stair Climber Hand Truck and Dolly, 330 Lb Capacity Heavy-Duty Trolley Cart with Telescoping Handle and Rubber Wheels

$238.55

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[Doug B]

(And I have yet to see a cart that go up a flight of stairs).

Here you go Jim:
INTBUYING Foldable Folding Portable Stair Climbing Hand Truck Luggage Cart,420LBS Capacity Handcart Luggage Cart with 6 Wheels and 2 Backup Wheels (Black)-with 2 Casters $209.99 CA


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[DawgBone]

My main gigging amp(s). I have a 69 and a 72 both of which I had blackfaced. JJ tubes as much as possible with a gold pin 803s in the V2 stage, a great preamp tube for modern production stuff. I have JBL D120's in the '69 and some English 100 watt celestions in the '72.

Go to settings when I get to play how I like are volume 10 treble 10 middle 1 and bass 1 with the bright switch on. Sometimes I use an OD pedal set neutral for a little extra preamping warmth. This way everything is controlled from the guitar. You can get a lot of nice tones from the neck pickup and bridge individually as well as mixing pickups while adjusting guitar's volume and tone controls for each pickup. Hollow/semi-hollow humbucker guitar into cranked twin the bluesman's rig of choice.

As far as dealing with the weight I guess not many guys have heard of a hand truck or dolly. Nothing to it. Neo speakers would be cheating...

[wzpgsr]

Go to settings when I get to play how I like are volume 10 treble 10 middle 1 and bass 1 with the bright switch on.

Is there any paint left on your walls?

[DawgBone]

Is there any paint left on your walls?

Lol, I live in an unfinished home.

I think the beauty of a Twin is it's versatility and it's clean power. You have the power to maintain a relatively clean tone in a large band with horns, keyboards, 2nd guitar etc. Or if you just have a driving band with a powerful drummer, same thing. Actually it isn't quite enough power so they invented the quad reverb and super six for extra noisy bands. Using a deluxe or something smaller in front a band like that you can't get on top of the band and maintain a clean tone outside of micing the amp, monitors, etc. Even cranked, my guitar's volume rarely exceeds 7 or 8, it gets "rock music" distorted and I'm doing blues and soul music mostly.

[Doug B]

Lol, I live in an unfinished home.

they invented the quad reverb and super six for extra noisy bands. .

Yikes! That's getting into Deep Purple/Van Halen territory!

Seriously though, a Fender Showman is about the same wattage and the head is more versatile.

Doug

[DawgBone]

Yikes! That's getting into Deep Purple/Van Halen territory!

Seriously though, a Fender Showman is about the same wattage and the head is more versatile.

Doug

Maybe so but I don't care for two piece head-cab arrangements and I don't care for closed back cabs all that much either so a Twin is ideal for me. I also prefer 2x12's. Head/cab arrangements are more of a pain to haul around especially in downtown gigs. Lighter individual pieces, sure, but the combo goes on the cart and the cart rolls to the stage and I can toss cable bags and video camera bag on top of it. No balancing the head on top of the cab on the cart rolling over bumps, no speaker cable to hook up or fail. A twin may be heavy but it is a lot of power in a relatively compact package for small stages so for me it gets the job done. Best of all everyone wants the vintage Fender kiddie amps like princetons and champs so a vintage SF Twin is relatively cheap.

[entresz]

If I show up at a festival gig and see a Twin supplied as backline, I know I'll have a good gig. They're great sounding amps.

[pdfiddler]

That sucker looks heavy but I'm sure it's a fine amp (Ampeg)

[pauln]

Yes Twin Reverbs are pretty heavy... watch this 100lbs girl move
a grand piano up and down a flight of stairs (with a PIANOLIFT).

[Little Jay]

I don’t my bring my Twin to the small bars but I am still very happy to have it for the bigger and outdoor stages. It’s an iconic amp that always delivers.

It’s also somewhat of a Swiss army knife… you can have 3 preamp and two power amp tubes failing and still make it play by swapping around tubes.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Yes Twin Reverbs are pretty heavy... watch this 100lbs girl move
a grand piano up and down a flight of stairs (with a PIANOLIFT).

I want one, and I have no plans of moving my piano

[pdfiddler]

WELL, I have as of last week a 1995 '65 Twin Reissue and 2007 Cyber Twin SE with the foot controller (AS NEW). Too cheap to turn down. Lots to keep me busy now!

[DMgolf66]

Yes Twin Reverbs are pretty heavy... watch this 100lbs girl move
a grand piano up and down a flight of stairs (with a PIANOLIFT).

She's adorable

[bluenote61]

I have gone through this thread and I think the comments can be summarized in two statements.
- It's a classic sound in its own, not comparable with other amps. Also ideal for gigs where you need a loud amp due to the power of the amp in combination with the 2x12 cabinet.
- It's too heavy. You must really be an Afficionado of a Twin when you carry it to your gigs.

Above said, the Tonemaster version should be the best of two worlds: Getting the sound identical to the tube version but with a weight like a Princeton.
I like to play over a Twin but never owned one. Needless to say why. But now I'm thinking its time to catch one these computers combined with a power-amp from the highly reputated supplier ICE power and all in the shape of a Twin Reverb.
Any comments, experiencies or obstacles?

[TedBPhx]

Got my ToneMaster Twin in January of 2020. It’s a keeper.

[jim777]

Got my ToneMaster Twin in January of 2020. It’s a keeper.

I've only had mine a few days, but it is a glorious sounding amp and weighs 33 pounds. I literally could not be happier with it - it's everything I hoped it would be and lighter And I'm butchering Joe Pass and EVH through it almost daily.

[pdfiddler]

There is a small flat head screw on each knob you can loosen and realign to marks

[DawgBone]

Avery Roberts on my two amps late 60's and early 70's Twins setting the dial to 1 gets no sound/EQ or other adjustment on any of the knobs.