My Rant on Fender Twin Reverbs...

[Sillypeoples]

Originally Posted by GAS Man

I have one. I like it. Nothing else thunks like a Twin (excuse the over emphasis wording). ............

+1

. a certain authority on those baselines.......

[Kevman]

Cool opinion thread. I like my Line 6 rigs.

[DaleH]

twins and tweed twins have little in common opther than there made by the same company.

No reason a twin reverb has to be defensing. Just in experienced players or sound people.

[bernardo gui]

Real musicians KNOW about volume generally speaking.
Also real musicians know: LOUD drummer = LOUD band.
Loud volume is the kiss of death for ANY band despite the genre.
Don't give a {censored} if it's Mozart, Guy Lombardo or Lawrence Welk.
If it's too loud, it's noise.....PERIOD !

[Burgess]

Originally Posted by bernardo gui

Real musicians KNOW about volume generally speaking.
Also real musicians know: LOUD drummer = LOUD band.
Loud volume is the kiss of death for ANY band despite the genre.
Don't give a fuck if it's Mozart, Guy Lombardo or Lawrence Welk.
If it's too loud, it's noise.....PERIOD !

The last band I was in the drummer wore ear plugs. Protected his ears but it also meant he played f'in loud, too loud for most rooms. And you're right, if the drummer plays loud, the band plays loud, period.

[Bucksstudent]

I don't care for Twins at all.

[Help!I'maRock!]

Originally Posted by bernardo gui

If it's too loud,

you're too old.

i play through a twin sometimes in rehearsals. there's definitely a thing about using the right dirt box. i've found that i like either the Way Huge Red Llama or the Mojo Hand Colossus. i don't think a Fuzz Face is the right fuzz for a twin. at least mine wasn't (Foxrox Hot Silicon Fuzz). they need more mids.

[honeyiscool]

Yeah, I feel like the right kind of dirt works for a Twin. And I don't think Tube Screamer, at least the traditional kind, is really the right kind. It's too grainy for me.

I know these are meaningless words from a scientific perspective, but to use in front of a clean amp, I feel like you need a dirt pedal that can provide its own oomph and dirt while being full and warm. It really has to be the kind of thing you could plug straight into a console if you had to. So I'd prefer something like a Boss OD-3 (which actually sounds fantastic in front of a Twin) over something like a TS808. And yeah, a Fuzz Face... I've heard it through a Twin and for being loud as {censored}, it kind of sounds terrible, it lacks fullness and warmth. I actually think those Tech 21 Character Series pedals with the speaker emulation off would be wonderful dirt pedals for a Twin.

[scolfax]

 

Originally Posted by tlbonehead

no. In fact he complained hugely the first time he played Montreux. Twins were supplied for backline and he was insanely loud onstage and couldn't get the amps to sag at all.

 

I read that he turned up a twin as loud as the venue required and then used a tube screamer to make up for whatever gain was missing if it wasn't loud enough for a gainy tone on its own.

[PrawnHeed]

I think they sound just fine - they do what they try to do. The problems come when people try to make them do something else.

However, they are impracticably heavy and unwieldly for me.

[bernardo gui]

I use a T.C Electronics Dark Matter for distortion on my Twin.
It sounds extremely good & it's dynamic as hell. It's a keeper.
Sure, my Twin weighs 80 pounds. It's a ball buster.
But the clean headroom is glorious.....I'm willing to "suffer" for my tone.

[GAS Man]

Originally Posted by dcooper830

If it sounds like crap or is too loud and trebly/piercing it's operator error plain and simple.

I recently played a Strat > TS-808 Tubescreamer into a Twin and had beautiful tone at a moderate volume.

Wasn't overbearing or piercing. Sounded rich and full.

Yep, yep, uh huh, that's what I said too, yes I did, surely did. What a simple fix.

[Funkwire]

Originally Posted by honeyiscool

People say Twins are great, and whenever I've played through one, I've enjoyed it. But when I see a guitarist roll in with a Twin, I am prepared for the worst.

Basically, I play with a guy who has a tweed Twin, and I've also been front and center in the audience of bands using Twins and yeah... most people don't use these things right, IMO. And it's dangerous giving tin ears this much sound pressure potential to work with, especially when these people are going already deaf from abusing their Twin Reverbs and intent on dragging others to the ground.

I have the same reaction when I see somebody roll a full stack into a club. As others have pointed out, it's not the right tool for the job.

Originally Posted by honeyiscool

I feel like the way people SHOULD be using Twins is that they should keep it at a reasonable fucking volume when they're playing without a dirt pedal because truly clean guitar is one of the most unpleasant things to listen to at a high volume, especially if you're bridge pickup on a Tele. Please get that away from me.

Honestly, most Teles I've seen in a live situation sound that way. The absolute worst tone I ever heard was a dipshit who played a Tele into a Peavey 5150 stack. Way too loud with icepick highs. Literally driving people out of the room. He was on top of the whole band and I pointed it out to the soundman. He grabbed me by the collar and showed me the board--the guitar player wasn't even in the mix. It was his stage volume. I told the bass player, and he said, "Yeah, but he's got to have it at a certain volume to get his sound..." I said, "Congratulations. He'll have his sound, and pretty son you'll have no audience."

I think your rant should be directed at people who don't know how to use their gear, instead of a specific amp.

Having said that, I would never own a Twin Reverb. 100 watts and 75 pounds? No thank you.

[OldGuitarPlayer]

This is the sound of two twins on 10 in the studio. There is no distortion pedal involved.

[Mr. Friendly]

When I had my 1970 Twin Reverb, I never turned it above 3. I used an old Boss CS-2 or MXR DynaComp compressor, an Expandora or Tube Screamer overdrive, a very old Rat , and very occasionally a fuzz or delay. It sounded insanely good. And it sounded fantastic on the bridge pickup of my Telecaster.

[Help!I'maRock!]

Originally Posted by honeyiscool

Yeah, I feel like the right kind of dirt works for a Twin. And I don't think Tube Screamer, at least the traditional kind, is really the right kind. It's too grainy for me.

I know these are meaningless words from a scientific perspective, but to use in front of a clean amp, I feel like you need a dirt pedal that can provide its own oomph and dirt while being full and warm. It really has to be the kind of thing you could plug straight into a console if you had to. So I'd prefer something like a Boss OD-3 (which actually sounds fantastic in front of a Twin) over something like a TS808. And yeah, a Fuzz Face... I've heard it through a Twin and for being loud as shit, it kind of sounds terrible, it lacks fullness and warmth. I actually think those Tech 21 Character Series pedals with the speaker emulation off would be wonderful dirt pedals for a Twin.

fuqatoobscreema

[GREC]

I love twins.
A good reason to have a higher watt amp is the oomph. A lot of bands i've seen don't turn the treble/presence down when cranking it at a gig! Like freakin' razors in yer ear.

[hecticone]

I played out with 2 twins for years most of the venues I pointed them at the wall behind me. If it was a huge place I turned them around. The best OD I used with them was a Texas Deuce made by Ocean EFX long discontinued but the best 808 I have heard to this day.

[Presc]

I would love to use a Twin live. Big and clean, and will sing with the right pedals. For me, the key with any Blackface Fender is to keep the treble around 4 when using single coils, and I almost always have my guitar tone knobs slightly rolled off. Unfortunately it seems that most guitar players ignore tone knobs and the twin really exposes that. As does a deluxe on a smaller scale.

[ashtray]

Twins sound like ice picks. They really give off clean highs - its not do much the db level as it is the frequency. Yeah, guitarist like them bc they "cut through". When the bass, drums, and singer are all in the low to mid frequency range, those twins at higher frequencies are the only thing there. But here's the problem with human ears - as they age, they can't detect the higher frequencies as well. Musicians with damaged hearing (ie, most gigging musicians who never used ear protection) can't hear the highs - so they crank them up. To their ears the sound is balanced - bc they're basically listening through a blanket. All those not listening through a blanket (ie the crowd) just hear the piercing highs. It's bad.

I've had bar tenders tell the guitarist to turn down - he was playing a Twin, clean. Volume at under "2", but it's just that loud ice pick.

[mistersully]

i've heard twins sound fantastic at gigs

i've been to a lot of gigs where the sound was {censored}ty... regardless of what amps were being used

if you can't get a good gigging tone out of a twin and some pedals.. you're probably clueless

[GAS Man]

Hmm, all this ice-picky talk. My Marshall JCM2000 DSL100 has far more piercing highs than my Twin. All of my Twin's highs are wrapped in warm Fender fuzzies. Must be some folks out there that haven't found the treble knob.

[Sillypeoples]

Who cares what the guitar player wants, or feels, or digs.....all it takes is a bartender with a DB meter to walk up in between songs and tell him to turn down or he's getting unplugged. Done.

For all this rock and roll bad assery that gets hyped, it's mega pussyfied to sit there and watch some idiot on stage run paying patrons out the door, all the while staff is going deaf...

[The Lou-Dog]

I would much rather play a Vox AC-30 than a Twin Reverb. They're just too stiff for me! I love my DRRI though......

[csm]

Don't get me started on dB meters ... did a gig a year or two back at a place thus equipped and the (unamplified!) drums were enough to set it off without a single electric note struck ... an unmic'ed jazz quintet (piano, bass, drums, sax, trumpet) would probably have blown all its fuses ...

As for Twins of the BF/SF variety, they'll have the audience in a smallish club pasted against the back wall bleeding from the eyes and ears before they start to distort -- clean tones at major volume are what Twins are FOR. That's what they do. I love 'em, but for my own purposes they're both too heavy and too loud.

I use a 4x10 45w Super Reverb with -- generally -- Volume and Mid on 5, Treble on 6 and Bass on 4, with adjustments in all departments depending on the room, whether or not the amp is mic'ed, etc (I remember one gig where the amp was mic'ed into the monitors, but not into the PA).

No casualties so far ...