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I do not see any previous discussion here about this amp.
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07-23-2021 12:00 PM
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I never heard of either the player nor the amp before, but she can play. It would be interesting to know how that was mixed, if it was. The lavalier mic clipped to her blouse undoubtedly picked up a lot of acoustic sound, but I can't say if any of it was used. I can't tell if the amp was miked or there was a direct out or something.
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You can see some construction detail and testing in this video.
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Hah! Great details! Now I love this company!
Originally Posted by DanielleOM
The D20 has amazing qualities:
Revv D20 Head
– Custom Sounds Finland
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I just ordered the REVV D20. Will couple it with a Jenson Blackbird 12" speaker in a handmade closed cab.
I bought it for my blues playing based on its excellent clean and low-gain tones, but am really interested to see if a good jazz tone is possible with my archtop with or without the built-in 'Torpedo' virtual cabs/mics etc.
The Jocelyn Gould video shows what's possible with the amp by a top class player, but from the video its not clear if the sound is real-world miked or from the amp's on-board DI out (via the virtual cab/mic software).
Overall it seems like a very versatile amp though.
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Ok, so first impressions of the REVV D20 are really very good.
Just to repeat that I bought this amp to use with my Fender Strat for playing blues. Having said that, I was intrigued as to what it might sound like for Jazz, especially having seen the Jocelyn Gould video.
Using it with an Eastman AR403 archtop the amp produces clear cleans with a lot of headroom provided in the 20W power setting.
Dropping the power down to 4W and there is enough clean headroom still for quite loud home practise.
I can get a very useable 'jazz' tone coupling the amp to the aforementioned Jenson Blackbird speaker.
Initially I did get a noticeable boomy bass around the middle of the fretboard on the low E and A strings. I think this was the speaker cab, and I was able to dial this out with an EQ pedal (and with the REVVs own EQ).
Overall I was pleasantly surprised with the REVV D20's ability to produce a decent 'jazz' tone.
Even more surprising, having never explored virtual cabinets before, I spent a lot of time playing around with the REVV D20's 'Two Notes' virtual cabinets.
The D20's virtual cab output is only available either through headphones, or via the DI out on the rear of the amp. I connected the DI out to my audio amplifier so I could hear the virtual cab through my hifi monitors when I played.
The amp comes loaded with 6 virtual cabs selected via a dial on the face of the amp, but these seemed more aimed at rock/metal so I replaced them (at additional cost) with virtual cabinets more suited to jazz.
These included a 'Polytone' Mini Brute clone, a Mesa Boogie Thiele closed ported cab, a Fender Blues Deluxe clone, a Fender 'silverface' clone, and a couple of other cabs I'd not heard of but were listed as suitable for Jazz.
I was mightily impressed. I spent a lot of time playing through the Polytone virtual cab because it had a very appealing jazz tone. I have no idea how accurate a representation of a real Polytone Mini Brute it is as I've never used a real one, but the virtual cab kept me interested for some time. I also liked the Mesa Thiele cab (again I have no real-world reference point), and both Fender's sounded pretty convincing. The software used to load the virtual cabs into the D20 runs on a PC/laptop and also allows you to choose and position the virtual microphone(s), to add different virtual reverbs, apply either parametric or non-parametric EQ, and manipulate the signal tone 'presence' (to get a brighter or duller sound per your taste).
Overall it seems a very versatile amplifier. The amp's traditional capabilties alone would have left me feeling it was a good purchase, and the virtual cab capabilities make it much more useful than I'd expected.
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Originally Posted by marschp
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Thank you for your post marschp. There has been a REV D20 at work.
I finely had a chance to check it out today. I plugged in my Ibanez AM205AV. They had the amp plugged into an 2x12 (Closed back) Orange Cab.
The amp sounded great. I was not able to get a super clean with a loud enough volume for me. Typically I want an amp to pass the “loud drummer test”. I like to err on the safe side. So it was more loud then many situations would allow. It became a little too thick, a little too soon. There could be a lot of reasons. First I have no idea about orange cabs. Second, I am wondering if there was any issues with the ohms they had chosen and the cab. They had the REV running at 4 Ohms. Not sure...
I think my guitar also gets a little thick, fairly quickly. It could be that the guitar by itself is a little dark, then the strings on it are maybe also a little dark, and maybe the PU is a little hot. I bought the guitar used, and have so far not played it out. (Typically at home, I keep my amps on the low side). Also when I plugged my guitar into a TM Twin (at work), it was also getting thick at a level where other guitars were perfect and loud. (TM Twin attenuation set to the second most and volume set to 8).
However, the REVV D20 sounded really nice. If I ever get a chance, I will see what it can do with other stuff. I would bet that Balckbird speaker is amazing with that amp.
I know that I must like that amp a lot, because I keep thinking about it. I have a feeling that it is the best weight, size and tone relationship that I have ever come across.
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FYI, for anyone who is wondering... I had another chance to run through stuff with the REVV D-20. I used the same guitar, but was able to plug into a cab at 8 ohms. I plugged into a closed back Marshal 2x12.
Plenty of clean headroom at a solidly loud volume. This time the amp was too clean, so I turned up the gain to get a little more gain-y warmth. The only problem I ran into was my low string was a bit boomy. I assume that a closed back 2x12 will probably add more weight to the lows. I have a feeling that Marshall stuff is not geared towards jazz musicians. I tried to dial out the low emphasis with the amps eq, but was not really that successful.
The amp sounded good, I bet it would work well with the right cab.
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