New amp day for me!

cdwillis

cdwillis

Well-known member
I actually picked this up in a trade yesterday. It's a 1975 Fender Twin Reverb. I doubled checked the transformer and chassis codes to verify. The previous owner changed out all the filter caps and did a general service on it.

twin.jpeg

1975 is an interesting year. I read that in '76 they added the master volume, but this one has the master volume and the pull boost on the knob already. It's still a 100w amp, not the 135w ultra linear setup that came out shortly afterwards. The master volume on this works really well which I was not expecting. There's a bright cap on it which I think helps keep some of the sparkle. I was thinking about changing it to a post phase inverter master volume and removing the boost, but I don't think I'll bother since the master works so well and I can just ignore the boost.

The vibrato channel sounds incredible. The normal channel is just sort of there and it doesn't nearly as much gain. Even cranked to 10 the normal channel stays clean. The vibrato channel will get dirty halfway up and it depends on the master volume level setting too. I might tweak the normal channel a little or see about adding the reverb to that side as well.

Right now it's got a Pyle and a 12t6 speaker in it. The guy I got it from had some other Eminences in it because he thought the speakers in it were too loose with the steel guitar he was playing. I'm doing a little research into replacement speakers. I see lots of people using WGS ET65s in Twins. The WGS 12c/s is another one. I'm interested in the Eminence Red White and Blues, also their Texas Heats. Seems like the lowest sensitivity speaker I can find that is still 50w is the Celestion A Type. It would be nice to have the lower sensitivity so that I could turn up the amp a little more without blowing my eardrums out.
 
If I plug my SG into input 1 on the vibrato channel and turn the channel volume to 4 or so and the master to 4 or so it's louder than a conversation, but still sounds really good and won't blow your head off. I had the channel volume on 10 and the master on 4 for about the same effect, but a lot more drive from the tone stack pushing into the gain recovery stage. It sounded like straight up ACDC at that point. I couldn't believe it. From my limited time with it so far it seems like you wanna dial in the channel volume to sound good then use the master to tame the output level, as obvious as that may sound.
 
Congrats on the new (elderly) baby.
Saw a lot of patriot series in them in my studio time in Nashville 15 years ago.
Also, red coats sounded great on the more rockish non chicken picken stuff.
 
That is a nice lookin Twin!

I built a Twin and in place of the ground switch, cause the chassis had a hole there, I added a switch to go between a master volume/Tone Cut/ Regular Twin No Master Volume - Modes. The Tone Cut was so Nice to have. Basically a one knob tone control for the power section post PI. That was the most beautiful amp I have ever heard. With a master volume you can crank the preamp volume and get a little dirty.

I regret selling it, but I don't need that large of an amp. Guess that's why there is a pile of parts to make a 50W version sitting in my shed 🤪
 
I spent a bunch of time this past week reading about different speakers and listening to demos. One thing I was trying to avoid when looking at new speakers was ending up with 101db sensitivity speakers. There's not a whole lot of inefficient high wattage speakers to choose from. Eminence is particularly bad about this. All their speakers very efficient.

Looking at their Legend series I came across their Legend 1218 speakers. The spec sheet says the sensitivity is 98.7db. So it's still pretty loud, but not nearly as ridiculous as a Swamp Thing, Governor, or a Wizard. What's interesting is I came across a forum post where someone pointed out that the 1218's frequency response looks very very similar to the Swamp Thing. The 1218 has more of a peak at 2.2k or so and more low mids/bass. The top end is a little rolled off as well so I should be able to turn the treble up on the amp to bright it up and also take off a little more bass if I need to.

Screen Shot 2023-11-19 at 7.26.02 PM.png Screen Shot 2023-11-19 at 7.26.11 PM.png Screen Shot 2023-11-19 at 7.26.29 PM.png

I was watching a bunch of speakers on reverb and somebody had two 1218s that they dropped the price on last night. I was still a little undecided between the 1218s and something like the Red White and Blues or WGS ET65s, but I jumped on them. The seller is shipping them out tomorrow, so hopefully by the weekend I'll be jamming on these new speakers.

1218back.jpeg 1218front.jpeg
 
Robert said:
My '65 Twin Reissue is my bedroom/practice amp.

There is no other amp that sounds as big and full at low volume.
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I dunno about that... I had a RI '65 Twin Reverb and I think my homebrew 5E3 with a Celestion G12H Creamback sounds bigger/fuller at the volume I play at in my office. Which is, admittedly, quite loud.

And the Suhr Hombre I tried recently sounded just huge. Some small amps can sound bigger than I ever thought just a few years ago. I had grown up thinking I needed lotsa watts to sound big. Now my back is grateful that it's not true!

For years I gigged with a Twin Reverb II (not really a great amp), then a Vibroking, A Super Reverb RI, a 4x10 Bassman RI... The best and biggest sound I ever got onstage was with a homebrew 1x12 5F4 tweed Super. And at home the 5E3 Deluxe sounds even bigger!

Having said all that, I must agree that a good Twin Reverb is a beautiful, classic sounding amp.
 
Thing of beauty! I have a vintage 68 SFDR with the BFDR circuit, which is insanely wonderful sounding outside. Plug in a 12 string acoustic and it sounds like a Neil Young concert....

I don't know how these guys are 15 - 20 less than everyone else but they are...

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Here's the unfortunate update to this story so far. The speakers were originally scheduled to arrive today. They attempted to deliver them early Saturday, but they required a signature and I didn't hear the mail carrier knock. So they sat in the post office until my lunch break from work today. Today I brought them home at lunch and opened the box to find this:

damaged set.jpeg damaged single.jpeg

The seller said he packed them well and was surprised they were damaged. From what I can tell he put jumbo bubble wrap on the cones then clamshelled them together (not zip tying or screwing them together), but in shipping the top one spun around, popped the bubble wrap, then blasted through the cone on the other speaker. What is insane to me is that he just had wadded up craft paper filling the void between the box and the speakers. All he had to do was to faster the rims together then wrap the shit out of them with bubblewrap.

Shit happens, but this is a bummer. The one that isn't destroyed has a little dent on the doped portion of the gasket and edge of the cone. It is probably ok to use, but I wouldn't buy a speaker with a dent there if I had a choice. Eminence doesn't repair their speakers, neither does Scumback (they only recone Celestions or Scumbacks), and even if they did the cost to repair it would be the same as another used speaker. The seller filed a claim with Reverb's insurance and now we're waiting to hear back from them. He said if they don't refund me he would himself. So I guess I'm waiting now.
 
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This happened to me several years ago with a pair of speakers I bought on reverb. I got a full refund and repaired the speakers myself (not damaged as badly as this) hope it works out for you
 
I look at those poor speakers and all I can think of is Ace Ventura. Sorry for your loss, hope it all works out. At least you still have that bad ass amp.

I was looking into those RWB's as well for my HRD. Never pulled the trigger. Heard good things about Eminence
 
cdwillis said:
Here's the unfortunate update to this story so far. The speakers were originally scheduled to arrive today. They attempted to deliver them early Saturday, but they required a signature and I didn't hear the mail carrier knock. So they sat in the post office until my lunch break from work today. Today I brought them home at lunch and opened the box to find this:

View attachment 61658 View attachment 61659

The seller said he packed them well and was surprised they were damaged. From what I can tell he put jumbo bubble wrap on the cones then clamshelled them together (not zip tying or screwing them together), but in shipping the top one spun around, popped the bubble wrap, then blasted through the cone on the other speaker. What is insane to me is that he just had wadded up craft paper filling the void between the box and the speakers. All he had to do was to faster the rims together then wrap the shit out of them with bubblewrap.

Shit happens, but this is a bummer. The one that isn't destroyed has a little dent on the doped portion of the gasket and edge of the cone. It is probably ok to use, but I wouldn't buy a speaker with a dent there if I had a choice. Eminence doesn't repair their speakers, neither does Scumback (they only recone Celestions or Scumbacks), and even if they did the cost to repair it would be the same as another used speaker. The seller filed a claim with Reverb's insurance and now we're waiting to hear back from them. He said if they don't refund me he would himself. So I guess I'm waiting now.
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Face to face attach zip ties on four opposing holes and a pair of speakers are practically impervious! I had this happen to me on a pair of Rola's. Got my refund told him about zip ties.....
 
Ok, so the latest update now. Reverb refunded half my cost on the set of speakers and told me to just keep the busted one, so I found another Legend 1218 from a different seller and bought it. Cut to this morning it came in the mail. The seller actually did a professional packing job, so there was no danger this thing was going to be damaged unless somebody drove a forklift through the side of the box.

Got both 1218s installed and I'm impressed. It's got a lot more bass response compared to the old speakers, but not overwhelmingly so. The top end is definitely warmer, but I wouldn't call it dull. The clean tone is big and warm. Plus they respond to overdrive and fuzz like a champ. That's one reason I went with these instead of the Legend 1258s. Those seemed like they were focused on the high end without much low end of midrange. Once I plugged in I went from a nice chimey clean to ripping with my meathead clone. The bright cap switch can make a big difference if you have the channel volume below halfway, but even with the bright engaged it's not sharp like the old speakers.

emi1218s.jpeg

I'm going to add a few things mostly for my own record keeping and maybe it'll help somebody thinking about speaker swapping. I've been doing a lot of research on speakers while I wait on this whole situation to resolve. Speaker construction is really a sum of all the parts in the design, but I noticed a few things.

Seems like the American style speakers usually use a smaller voice coil like a 1" or 1.25" compared to British style speakers with something like 1.75" VCs. Something like an EV speaker will have a 2.5" VC. The smaller voice coil speakers handle less wattage and they have less bass response. That's why some of those old Jensens sound so bright. The bigger the voice coil it seems like the more bass response you have and that increased bass compensates for the high end so it seems less bright overall. These have a 2" VC, which explains the bass response.

As far as the smooth top end I chalk that up to it having big dust cap which softens the high end. You'll see that on Eminence's Swamp Thing and Tonker, as well as Celestion G12-65s. The old Jensens, and the older speakers that came in this TR, had those little paper dust caps that don't diffuse much high end. At one point I had the old Pyle/Fender speaker installed with the 1218 on the other side and there was such a noticeable high end difference. I was sitting on the floor in front of the amp moving my head from side to side and the Pyle had a lot more high end. I've been reading a little about different materials (https://300guitars.com/articles/dust-caps-the-deal-on-dust-caps-by-anthony-lucas/).

Having a bigger magnet will also increase low and high end response. These have the smaller magnet (38oz compared to a 56oz magnet on the Tonker) which seems to keep the midrange response fairly even (unscooped). The frequency response chart shows a dip around 1.5khz which seems kinda standard for guitar speakers. The notable ones I've seen that don't really have a dip there are Vintage 30s, EV style speakers, and the Eminence Red, White, and Blues.

Anyway, that's just some of the stuff I've noted while waiting on these speakers. Hopefully it's helpful or give you something to think about. There are some pretty good speaker demos on the Zilla Cabs youtube page. I'd really like to build a 2x12 cab sometime soon and I'm really interested in Eminence Tonkers and their EM12/EM12n speakers.
 
Congrats on the amp, silverface amps are awesome. I can vouch for the wgs ET65. it's my speaker of choice. I have had multiple and even have the 10" version the ET10 in my vibro champ. Also WGS are great people and sent me a replacement speaker when mine got messed up when a pipe burst all over my amp.
 
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