Fender Twin Reverb

[Bill Moore]

That's a beauty Ken!
I want to build a tone ring cab some day, and run mine with 2-15's.

[Green Lantern]

This is my '71 pre-master volume Twin Reverb. It's been given a blackface mod. I love the color of the grillcloth. I don't see many Twins that have the silver-turquoise combination. It matches the lettering on the faceplate really well. This is quite possibly my favorite amplifier. Incredible tone. It also has a really nice, sweet smell to it.

That thing on the top is a repair tag that I keep on it for old time's sake. It's been there for over a year.

[flag72]

Originally Posted by Green Lantern

This is my '71 pre-master volume Twin Reverb. It's been given a blackface mod. I love the color of the grillcloth. I don't see many Twins that have the silver-turquoise combination. It matches the lettering on the faceplate really well. This is quite possibly my favorite amplifier. Incredible tone. It also has a really nice, sweet smell to it.

That thing on the top is a repair tag that I keep on it for old time's sake. It's been there for over a year.

man Green Lantern that thing looks new

[Green Lantern]

Thanks a lot. There are much better ones out there cosmetically speaking, although mine is not bad. I've done some stuff to spruce it up, like deep, thorough cleaning to the tolex, polishing, and replacing rusty chassis straps. I'm currently on the lookout for a really clean silverface faceplate, as mine has some scratches and stuff, but it's not easy to find those things, especially when there is a certain version I need. The non-master volume version that doesn't say "Twin Reverb-Amp."

There are some forgivable nicks here and there in the tolex, but what is of biggest concern to me is that spot at the right side of my Twin. If you look carefully, you'll see that some wood from the cabinet is peeking outside the tolex. The cabinet unfortunately took some damage, but the package is still really sturdy. I'm not going to replace the cab unless some huge accident happens that forces me to absolutely have to. That's 42 years aged solid pine. I'm not giving that up : p

[Big_Bend]

Man Greenie nice one!!! Love those 70s silverface Twins.. yours is especially clean and purdy. Enjoy....

[flag72]

well guy's Im going to inclue'd my self in this elite club,I bought a 1976 Twinn Reverb in very good condition it's not like new and not 100% original(I wasn's looking for a collector pieces but a player) and this is what I have, I playe'd it saturday morning and this thing sound's great I have not yet experimented with the control knob's yet the EX. owner had it set-up to is likking and sounds good,I will take some note's and go from there.
here a few pic's ..lloollllll





BTW the best thing 650.00$ ship

[Big_Bend]

Hi Flag,

Wow $650 Canadian shipped for that amp? Score!!!! Very nice. I bet it sounds awesome. Welcome to the club, enjoy the Twin!

[zoppotrump]

here is my 72 SFTR. i planned to retolex it and had a a new grill cloth ordered, but my loving wife stopped me after the first hearing me play through it and convinced me to let it just the way it looks....

[Toppscore]

Hi. I just received a 1968 Silverface Twin Reverb amp.
Are the 1968 models naturally circuited to be blackfaced,
or should it be modified.

Also, are there referenced to comparisons of an amps' sound
before and after the blackface modification?
Obviously, many Silverface amp owners do make the modification,
but do all 100% like the mod? Any complaints?
Thanks for your responses. Toppscore.

[Ash Telecaster]

I just got a good deal on a PR266 Evil Twin in remarkably good condition.

I have removed 2 tubes and using the cut power switch and it is still loud even running at a theoretical 15 watts! What an efficient design! Great gigging out amp but difficult to use at in house levels because it just doesn't sound right until you turn it up enough. I am thinking of either getting a power soak or a less efficient speaker cab to use with it at home.

It is great when I get to turn it up though! It moves a lot of air. It's an amp you can feel!

[Fret Wilkes]

Might as well show it here too...

1968 Twin Reverb, drip edge, blackline, Weber California ceramic 12s

[Topbanana]

How does one go about pulling a tube to reduce watts? I've heard this can be done.

[Ash Telecaster]

I pulled 2 tubes.

I have the PR266 and it stated it in the manual. If I remember correctly you pull out the inner two power tubes. There are a lot of tubes but the power tubes are larger than the others and there are only four of them. There are two metal clips on each side of each tube. You press them down and wiggle the tube free.

You then need to change the imepence which is pretty easy to do also. It's just a switch on the back of the amp. Some models, like mine, also have a power cut switch as well. I am now running at a theoretical 15 watts. It's a very loud 15 watts but much more friendly than 100. I have also hear you can disconnect one of the speakers as well and all these things are easily reversable when you have a gig.

I would recommend googling for the manual of your particular model. Any specifics I give you might be wrong for the Twin you have.

[Ken Wilson]

I've also tried pulling two power tubes. Either the two inside or the two outside normally works fine, and I've tried both and there was a reduction in output.

I had better success taming my Twin by substituting a different tube into V2, which is normally a 12AX7. My best result, and what I use consistently now is an NOS Sylvania 12AY7.

[Ash Telecaster]

Hi Ken,

Thanks, I've heard of that too and was considering doing likewise.

[cellrebral]

Pulling two power tubes, either the two outer or two inner, will only reduce the perceived volume by 2 or 3 decibels. Plus those tubes will burn out quicker. As others have mentioned, you also need to account for the reduced expected impedence.

[Jazzerstang]

my 71 is a beaut.

[proaudioguy]

Originally Posted by Green Lantern

This is my '71 pre-master volume Twin Reverb. It's been given a blackface mod. I love the color of the grillcloth. I don't see many Twins that have the silver-turquoise combination. It matches the lettering on the faceplate really well. This is quite possibly my favorite amplifier. Incredible tone. It also has a really nice, sweet smell to it.

That thing on the top is a repair tag that I keep on it for old time's sake. It's been there for over a year.

This is how I imagine my 68 TR looked when it was new. It was the AA270 circuit. It was torn up pretty bad. I rebuilt it entirely. The transformers, chassis, and cabinet (except the baffle), are original.

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6234/7...decce5f7_b.jpg
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6060/6...a7be563b_b.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7082/6...f6e3e3a9_b.jpg

It's now the AB763 (blackface) circuit with the 6G16 bias vary vibrato (tremolo)

[proaudioguy]

Hey guys if you want to reduce the power of an older Twin Reverb you can first shut off the amp. Take it to your amp tech. Tell them you want the speakers wired in series for a 16 Ohm load. Remove the 4 6L6 power tubes. Install 2 6V6 power tubes. BIAS THE AMP!!!!! The Bias current for the 6V6s needs to be at most 1/2 that of 4 6L6 (more like 1/3rd). This reduces the power from about 80 watts (on paper) to about 22 watts (on paper) for a reduction of about 6dB. It works, I did it a few hours ago. I don't have the 6V6s to spare but I wanted to test it so I pulled a pair out of my Super Champ. I highly recommend NOS 6V6s like RCA or what have you. I thought the tone of my 4 matched Sovtech 6V6s was a little better than my 2 matched electro Harmonix 6V6s, these are all from the 90s and not NOS tubes. Nothing beats the stuff they made in the good ole days.
If you just pull out 2 6L6s most people favor pulling the inner pair. I have no logical reason why. The issue is the pair of 6L6s through the output transformer now wants to see 8 Ohms. The easiest answer is to disconnect 1 speaker giving you an 8 Ohm load.

If you are going to mismatch impedance, you are better off running the pair of 6L6s into 4 ohms, than 16 Ohms. Tube amps need a load. You also might want to reduce the bias current a bit in that case. I'm not totally sure about that but the tubes will be stressed a bit so lowering the current might help cool it off. If you are going to use 2 tubes and really want less power the first method is best. It basically turns your Twin into a Deluxe with 2 12"s. Halving the power from 80 to 40 watts is a drop of 3 dB, halving it again to 20 Watts is another 3 so that's where I get the approx 6dB drop. The same goes for pulling 2 6L6s and disconnecting 1 speaker. -3dB for pulling 2 tubes, -3dB for dropping from 2 to 1 speaker, total drop of 6dB. To our ears this is about half as loud at the same setting but YMMV. To my ears the 2 6V6s into 16 Ohms was better than the 2 6L6s into 1 12.

Now if you have an upgraded output transformer that has multiple taps you can pull the tubes and change taps but that gets a little trickier as you have to think backward from everything I just wrote. Did I mention you should have your tech do this?

Edit,...regardless of which pair of sockets you use you have to use at least 1 from each SIDE. You can't pull 2 on one side and leave the other 2 on the other side. You can pull both inner or both outer or inner left and outer right or outer left and inner right, but you can't pull inner outer left OR inner outer right. Got it?

[marc13]

Originally Posted by Bill Moore

That's a beauty Ken!
I want to build a tone ring cab some day, and run mine with 2-15's.

Yeah, I want to run 2 15's as well...considering using a separate cab for the 2nd 15? :)