Fender Twin Reverb Pros and Cons

[Sublimedo]

Hahaha "three-dimensional tone", that's such mojo bollocks.

I disagree. Solid State amps sound very "flat", they have a shitty sort of compression. A lot of Marshalls, tube or not, sound similarly flat. This isn't something that can easily translate into recordings, but it's easy to notice when you are playing a Twin in person.

+1

Reverb is wank. It is the job of the room you're playing in to provide the Reverb.

I'd rather put the money towards a nice amp with reverb instead of millions of dollars to build a church for the sake of acoustics.

I love the Twin. In LA, we end up playing with a lot of metal bands with full stacks and crap and we still are capable of washing them out. The Twin is intrinsic to the character of Swing Hailey. With my Twin and my Box of Mike, I got my bases covered.

[paul_]

I do like it, but can't use one anyway because it triggers my TMJ problem that makes my right ear like a blown speaker... a frequency problem rather than a volume one... my '73 marshall superbass or superlead clone don't do that through a 4x12. JCM 900 does a bit. That's nobody's problem but mine, but I think of it as a pretty sure demonstration of the extreme amount of high-end on tap when dealing with a TR... it's not just something people say to be controversial for the sake of it, those fuckers are spikey as shit.

What I will say though is that anyone who pays full price for a Fender '65 Twin Reverb re-issue is a SUCKA in every sense of the word (FYI, lighting cigarettes with burning 100 dollar bills is also fun, guys!!!)

[Aeon]

Three-dimensional tone means nothing, it just sounds like it means something. Flat means something, although i would definately argue that marshalls don't sound flat.

Ever play a line 6 amp? They do a pretty decent approximation of the sound of a Twin Reverb. The feel, however, is completely flat in comparison to a real one. Twins just translate everything about your playing, including minor details like the direction you hit the strings with your pick. That is sort of what I'm trying to get at by describing it as "3d". It's a feel thing more than a sound thing.

[light rail coyote]

They aren't 6 feet tall like my 6 10 sunn amp. how can I play and amp that's not as tall as me

[Reece]

I played a line6 amp once.
Never again.

I sort of get you now, I was trying to work out in my head what the fuck 3d-tone would be but that sort of makes sense I suppose.

[Sublimedo]

also in CA, the Twin Reverb is actually one of the more cheaper tube amps you can find used. I know several people who've bought theirs for 300 bucks off craigslist.

Vintage ones are ridiculously heavier than my 65ri, though. But I don't know, I'm not frolicking in the fields with my amp. Its either on stage or in my garage.

[Aeon]

I think a more modern solution to get the Fender tone is playing a Deluxe Reverb or possibly a Princeton. You can have them mic'd and run them hot if overdrive is your thing.

However, they are still slightly more 'brittle' sounding than a Twin. You can't really approximate the sound of 2 12" speakers moving air.

[Doog]

Reverb is wank. It is the job of the room you're playing in to provide the Reverb.

Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh no. Spring reverb isn't emulating a slight bit of room reverb.

[euan]

Mike? Miiiiiike? I can't make my room go brueeeeng whunngg when I hit it. How do I get my room to sound like that?

[Doog]

Mike lives in a metal house.

[aen]

Really Heavy

BUck up pussy.

Ridiculously Overpriced

Find me a better amp for less?

No Dirt To Be Had At All From Pre-Amp Or Power-Amp

So you're saying it's perfect?

They do two sounds. Blargh. and BLARRGH.

No they do whatever sounds you put into them. And with handy dandy bass middle and treble controls you can dial in or out those frequecies as you like. It's pretty fun.

135 Watts.

usually 85 these days. As in, your clean can compete with the drummer, and actually be clean.


I can't think of any possible downsides to a Fender Twin Reverb. Unless you have a back problem. BY the way, I have a 1x15" cab for mine and now it's a bass amp that will absoloutely fill the house with my THUNDER.

They sound good, but are louder then you'd need for just about anything.

Seriously, am I the only one who wants my clean to be clean, and audible over rock and roll drums?

[SpaceFace]

I know this is a thread about the twin reverb but since we are on the topic of fender, on their cheaper models is there a difference at all between the hot rods and the blues deluxes at all in terms of just straight clean sound?

[Will]

I know this is a thread about the twin reverb but since we are on the topic of fender, on their cheaper models is there a difference at all between the hot rods and the blues deluxes at all in terms of just straight clean sound?

Some use EL84s for more gain. On the 6L6 versions, they up the bias on the power tubes to get more distortion. I think the tone is a bit more "British", which isn't really a bad thing. It's just different. More mids, grind, and compression.

[filtercap]

Fender Twins getting singled out as being "too heavy" -- a case of Bad Internets? Observe:

The current model of the Vox AC30 weighs 70.5 pounds. Google gives you a total of 308,000 pages containing either the phrase "Vox AC30" or "Vox AC-30". Of these, 0.5% also contain the phrase "too heavy."

The Ampeg SVT Classic bass head weighs 81 pounds. Google gives you a total of 31,600 pages containing either the phrase "Ampeg SVT Classic" or "Ampeg SVT-CL". Of these, 0.4% also contain the phrase "too heavy."

The Fender Twin Reverb weighs in the 64-69 pound range, lighter than either of the above amps. Google gives you a total of 174,000 pages containing the phrase "Fender Twin". Of these, 0.8% also contain the phrase "too heavy."

So on the above Internets, the Twin is associated with too-heaviness 60% more often than the heavier AC30 is, and twice as often as the much-heavier Ampeg head (possibly because bassists complain less than guitarists overall ).

[Will]

Science has been dropped.

[william]

Three-dimensional tone means nothing, it just sounds like it means something. Flat means something, although i would definately argue that marshalls don't sound flat.

Ever play a line 6 amp? They do a pretty decent approximation of the sound of a Twin Reverb. The feel, however, is completely flat in comparison to a real one. Twins just translate everything about your playing, including minor details like the direction you hit the strings with your pick. That is sort of what I'm trying to get at by describing it as "3d". It's a feel thing more than a sound thing.

sigh. please name the three dimensions you are somehow hearing. if you can't, this truly is balls. three dimensional has nothing to do with sound or feel.


personally, i think my hot rod deluxe sounds pretty tall, but not very wide. the depth is average.




I'll tell ya, a friend of mine has a twin reverb that sounds loud, and awesome. it is heavy, he is considering making a head enclosure for it.

also, i tend to think of reverb as more of an effect than a simulation. room reverb is one thing, and spring or plate reverb is another.

[roachello]

Muahaha... Aen's gonna have a blast in So Cal.

[Will]

I think the 3-D thing people go on about has more to do with dynamics then anything else; similar to, say, listening to a symphony on a really good surround sound vs. seeing them in concert. Live still sounds better because the range of dynamics is much greater. That intangible quality is what I think of as "3-D"

As far as translating that to amps, there are some limitations as all amps have compression. Additionally, SS amps have less compression theoretically then their tube counterparts. The difference is probably in what frequencies are compressed and how the compression is related to the input signal, with the timbre of tubes being more pleasing and natural to most players.

Without a doubt, modeling amps feature the most compression of any design and seem unnatural for it. When I think of "flat", I think of an amp which sounds basically the same no matter how I vary my playing. This would cover most modeling amps.

[light rail coyote]

I played through a 65 reissue twin that belonged to my band's old guitar player for a while. It was rad, I loved it. I almost bought it from him too. It would overdrive quite nicely I thought. Alot like my bassman but with reverb. I just love having a big tall cab that I can walk up to and feel the bass from

[Mike]

Reverb is wank. It is the job of the room you're playing in to provide the Reverb.

Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh no. Spring reverb isn't emulating a slight bit of room reverb.

Surf Reverb is for Pussies.