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just had a tip off from a mate that a shop near to me has a second hand fender 65 twin reissue priced for £600.

sounds a little suss to me, i think they go for £950-£1000 new don't they? a clean loud 2X12 would make a great gigging amp with pedals i think. part ex against my blues deluxe may make it worth my while. what are twins like for filling the sound in a band?

they also have a laney VC30 in for £320, though i've heard reliability is a little hit and miss with them.

Dude, you don't want a Twin.

The VC30s are OK (in fact, doesn't Euan have one?), and I think they've stepped up the reliability since the LC series, but I wouldn't bother with it Rob - Fran's Marshall sounds like much better value. As far as the Twin goes, in theory I'd like one, in practice it'd be too big for me, and I enjoy amp breakup too much. Strikes me that the more expensive amps tend to go for tastier prices secondhand - a case in point is that dream HiWatt still languishing in our secret shop. I guess people don't realise what they've got, or people don't get as het up over amps as they do guitars.

i liked fran's marshall, but not enough to buy it. it sounded in a similar ballpark to what i'd already got with the blues deluxe. the main bonus was having the marshall drive section, which is hands down better than the blues deluxe's drive. it's the low end that i struggle with and both combos don't have enough low end. mids are must too.

Progrockabuse wrote:mids are must too.

Then you don't want a Twin, or any Fender voiced amp really.

sounds like combos in general might not be the way to go.

benecol wrote:that dream HiWatt still languishing in our secret shop.

whassis?

You need a 2x12" closed back cab and a head. End of.

A second-hand Twin is worth £500, and you should be able to get a silverface one for that. People don't want them because they're very heavy and too loud for club and small-medium venue gigs.

As a used price from a shop for a Reissue, it's really nothing to argue about, unles they sell much cheaper in the UK than here. But usually Silverfaces go cheaper than reissues, and I'd say something that is 30sthg years old and still working has proven its reliability. But there's nothing wrong about the reissues, you may say that there are cheaper amps around, ok - but Mike saying a Twin sucks is like ... dunno ... talking to Neil Young about Modelling Amps maybe There always comes the pont where He'll say it's killing music.

If you want and like a Twin, that's a different question. It has a special sound to it, sparkly, trebly and spanky and room-filling, but not very broad in the mids. It fills the Band sound, yes, but it's not the amp that bursts in front, unless you really force it there - it tends to be a little more "back in the mix" by its nature.

timhulio wrote:People don't want them because they're very heavy and too loud for club and small-medium venue gigs.

the're heavy, but any big tube amp is heavy ... and it usually stands around somewhere, unlike a guitar that you are wearing with you when playing. And like any amp that is capable of being loud, it's only too loud when it's turned too loud. It doesn't crank, though - at least not at a volume you want to hear, unless you are Ted Nugent.

But they don't sound as good at lower volumes as a Deluxe or Princeton, and as combos go, I can't think of one heavier than a twin without going into Super Reverb territory. Lugging a twin in and out of venues, up and down stairs, through narrow doorways- it's a pain in the ass. The sheer bulk of the things is what caused my band to switch to a really nice gigging setup of a Silverface Deluxe (22 watts) and a Musicmaster Bass Amp (12 watts, and that is plenty loud for club gigs). These amps, three guitars and a drumkit fit in the back of my car, which wouldn't happen if we used one or two Twins.

Progrockabuse wrote:i think they go for £950-£1000 new don't they?

yikes! why do you guys even bother with american amps? you've got vox, hiwatt, marshall, orange, etc.

Justin J wrote:

Progrockabuse wrote:i think they go for £950-£1000 new don't they?

yikes! why do you guys even bother with american amps? you've got vox, hiwatt, marshall, orange, etc.

word!

Progrockabuse wrote:
they also have a laney VC30 in for £320, though i've heard reliability is a little hit and miss with them.

I had problems with my VC30, I had the 2x10 amp with the matching 1x12 cab.. I loved it for about 3 weeks... firstly the output transformer died. That was £100 to buy and get wired in.... then the V1 valve kept blowing for no apparent reason, that cost another chunk of cash to get sorted. I got sick of it in the end and got rid of it, The other thing was it never sounded as loud as I thought it should, it was my first all valve amp and everyone was saying "30w will be plenty loud enough for a valve amp" but it just wasn't .... I was ringing the crap out of it just at band practice. it might have been loud enough for a 5 piece jazz band but for a 3 piece 'alt' rock/punk band it really struggled..... I might have just been unlucky though because I have a laney head now and it's been brilliant for nearly 2 years.

Well, I got a silverface twin reverb a few months back and it is retardedly heavy but I do like the sound much more than that of the hot rod deluxe I had before. Sounds awesome with my blues driver and my mustang. I haven't lugged it around anywhere at all, except when I wanna vacuum, but now I'm starting up a new band and we'll see if it breaks my back or my volvo first. Mine's around 70 pounds and I parted with $650 CAD for it.

yeah you got a hell of a good deal on it.
650 cad is pretty much nothing for one of them.. and it was a local pickup if i recall.

my problem is, as much as i'd like to get a head and cab or a better combo, i need to sell an amp to buy an amp. plus with a head and cab, i might be able to afford the head, but not have enough dollar for the cab. though suppose i could use my blues deluxe as a cab till i got one, if i was able to keep both. i've been leaning toward vox recently, but there well outta reach. i think either blackstar or marshall are gonna be the direction, banking on a part ex.

my ideal list of amps i would like to try and get:

50 watt marshall superlead
50 watt JCM 800
50 watt Vintage/Modern

Vox AC30 CC2

Blackstar HT stage 60 2x12

Hayden MoFo

Rob, a Harley Benton 2x12" is cheap as shit.

Seriously. Save some money and actually do the right thing.

Rob, there's a chance I'll be selling on the DSL50 and 2x12 on to downsize to some form of luggable combo, would they be if any interest?

Low end out the wazoo.

Doog wrote:Rob, there's a chance I'll be selling on the DSL50 and 2x12 on to downsize to some form of luggable combo, would they be if any interest?

Low end out the wazoo.

that's certainly pricked my ear. it's the amp you've used in your record blog/demos isn't it? sounds really nice. 50 watts i'm guessing?

Yup, that's the fella, although all the distortion tones were from pedals. It does take pedals bootifully, though.

It's 50w running JJ/Tesla E34Ls (rather than EL34s) for a little more clean headroom.

I've got my eye on a few Jazz Chorus combos on eBay at the mo, may well be the perfect replacement for me.