Headroom like a Twin Reverb w/o reverb and vibrato?

Looking for opinions on this. I have a Victoria Reverberato that I just love. So looking for something powerful and clean to mate it with but lighter to lift than a TR or even a Dual Showman Reverb head like I recently unloaded. Great sounding amp but the Vic reverb and vibrato are so much sweeter. So is there anything like a Dual Showman without vibrato?

Seems like there's a never-ending queue of people looking for something like a Twin, only lighter. An amp manufacturer should really target this market, but what would they call their model? Diet Twin? Skinny Twin? Dual Showgirl?

Well, it's highly unlikely that it's gonna be much lighter than a Dual Showman, but one of the highpower SF bassman sounds about right. It'll be a head, obviously, so I'm not sure it that'll fit your needs, but it'll probably slot into an SFTR cab, then change out for NEO speakers of some sort...

WOW, that sounds like work.

Just a twin with a few organs removed for me. Dual Showgirl? Hmmm...
Would she look the same on both sides?

What about a SS amp with one of those "tube in a pedal" stomp boxes to add some warmth?

I'm more into separates to lighten the load. I am building speaker cabs presently and more than willing to build a kit amp too. I have a Bandmaster Reverb head that is in my comfort range for lifting but thats about the weight limit. I'd like to keep everything in the 40 lbs. or less range. That DSR was way heavier due to the transformers and was awkwardly heavy on that end.

Speaking of not lifting heavy stuff, I'm going in to see a surgeon about my hernia today :oops:

You know I had some Lab Series amps in the past, L5 and L11, and while I kinda liked them they just didn't do it for me like the TR and DSR. With the big amps I'm looking for that Marty Stuart through the 2 stacked Twins tone.
MMM!!! MMM!!! MMM!!!

Ouch! I hope that goes well! I hope to accomplish something here before that happens to me. My dad had an umbilical hernia once that looked like half of a softball. They installed some kind of mesh material to hold him together. That worked quite well for him after a lengthy recovery. Hopefully yours is less severe and simpler to treat.

Whenever it pops out, I can still push it back in, but I can't say that's something you'd want to do at a cocktail party. The operation, I'm told, is pretty straightforward, using the mesh you mentioned. I think I did this to myself lifting weights, but from now on, I'm going to be extra careful.

Hey Marshman, there's a thought. What about that high gain the Bassman's are noted for? I could use some help understanding that concept.

Seems like there's a never-ending queue of people looking for something like a Twin, only lighter. An amp manufacturer should really target this market, but what would they call their model? Diet Twin? Skinny Twin? Dual Showgirl?

Shhh! Workin' on it. :lol:

I'm thinkin' I'll call it, "The Hindenberg". :twisted:

Twin w/ reverb and trem stripped out is easy. That facilitates a warmer clean tone without the compromises necessary to accomodate Fender's reverb circuit.

I didn't think Bassmans (Bassmen?) were known for high-gain, truthfully. Part of that equation might have been the early models designed around 12AY7s, which guitar players replaced with 12AX7s at better than twice the gain. Then, once the BF amps came along, and bassplayers tried using THOSE as bass amps and hadda dime 'em to have any hopes of keeping up, and voila--overdrive. SF Bassmen go as high as 135 watts, but I've never plugged into one of those.

The 135s and 70s are 'ultralinear' models, which are said to have traded warmth for max power...never tried any, but always figgered that they would be perfect for clean tones & big pedalboards.

Maybe tweak an SFBassman to run 6550s/KT88s for 100 watts and call it a day. Probably require new trannies, though, and someone will undoubtedly call 'foul' for daring to blaspheme the possibility of modifying an old Fender, but if it gets your job done.

Maybe a 100watt Marshall 'Plexi' clone, tweaked for headroom? In a smaller cab, no doubt, but hey, one channel, big power, that's what we're after here, innit?

And last but not least, the easiest route to more headroom is higher efficiency speakers. Replace a set of 96dB speakers with some 101dB units and you WILL be waaaay louder.

Umm, removing the trem and reverb won't exactly shed much weight. My vote is for the head/cab conversion. Neos for the speakers.

Or SS if that still isn't light enough. It takes heavy iron to make a loud/clean tube amp, no way around it.

- Scott

Seems like there's a never-ending queue of people looking for something like a Twin, only lighter.

Ideal amp = one of the tiny 5-pound SS heads with the following features:

1) 200 watts for any size gig
2) All analog path perfectly replicating both blackface and tweed sounds
3) Master volume without tone loss (one amp spans from PR to TR, Tweed Deluxe to 80-watt tweed twin)
4) On-board reverb, bias-very-style trem, and analog delay.

I see some GREAT analog-but-solid-state pedals out there, why can't they be incorporated into a small amp?

Acoustic Image Amps? They have a 800W (well, 2x400W) head that weighs less than 5 lbs. http://www.acousticimg.com/products/prod_clarus.html

randall commander II with neos.

turn off the reverb. don't pull the pull boost.

The great thing about this opinion is no one will listen, so I don't have to sweat complaints...

Seems like there's a never-ending queue of people looking for something like a Twin, only lighter. An amp manufacturer should really target this market, but what would they call their model? Diet Twin? Skinny Twin? Dual Showgirl?

It'd have to be called a Single!

Or SS if that still isn't light enough. It takes heavy iron to make a loud/clean tube amp, no way around it.


Or course, some SS combo amps are heavy, too. The Peavey Session 500 (A classic steel guitar combo) tipped the scales at about 95lbs?!

SOMEONE!!!
Give this Man a Fender Showman.
Thank You.

SOMEONE!!!
Give this Man a Fender Showman.
Thank You.

^^^This.

On a slightly different note, my local guitar shop got in one of those new GK bass amps, 500W into 2x10" and an external load. Whole thing is like 35lbs. It will literally crawl across the floor when played on a smooth surface. With a guitar plugged in, it actually wasn't half bad, kinda like a darker Bassman vibe. With bass micro amps all the rage, it can't be too long before some micro-but-clean guitar heads start to appear, but voiced for guitar.

http://12fret.com/new/fender_jazzmaster_ultralight_amp.jpg

How about the fender jazzmaster ultralight? 250 watts and 7.6 pounds! That should solve all your problems:razz:

A Showman head weighs 34#, a little over 10# less than a Showman Reverb. It's also much more compact and not quite as awkward to cary. Also mating a Bassman head with very efficient speakers in a light cab might also be a solution to look into as well.

I didn't think Bassmans (Bassmen?) were known for high-gain, truthfully. Part of that equation might have been the early models designed around 12AY7s, which guitar players replaced with 12AX7s at better than twice the gain. Then, once the BF amps came along, and bassplayers tried using THOSE as bass amps and hadda dime 'em to have any hopes of keeping up, and voila--overdrive. SF Bassmen go as high as 135 watts, but I've never plugged into one of those.

The 135s and 70s are 'ultralinear' models, which are said to have traded warmth for max power...never tried any, but always figgered that they would be perfect for clean tones & big pedalboards.

Maybe tweak an SFBassman to run 6550s/KT88s for 100 watts and call it a day. Probably require new trannies, though, and someone will undoubtedly call 'foul' for daring to blaspheme the possibility of modifying an old Fender, but if it gets your job done.

Maybe a 100watt Marshall 'Plexi' clone, tweaked for headroom? In a smaller cab, no doubt, but hey, one channel, big power, that's what we're after here, innit?

And last but not least, the easiest route to more headroom is higher efficiency speakers. Replace a set of 96dB speakers with some 101dB units and you WILL be waaaay louder.

+1 on the Bassman 135

My buddy has a UL Twin and it sound really good. All the negative UL opinions seems to be a bunch of BS if you ask me. The are great for clean tones.

A Showman head weighs 34#, a little over 10# less than a Showman Reverb. It's also much more compact and not quite as awkward to carry.
Yup. That was the very first thing I thought of when I saw this thread... :idea: CS

Whenever it pops out, I can still push it back in, but I can't say that's something you'd want to do at a cocktail party.

just threw up a little in my mouth.:lol:

i definitely think you're gonna have to go head/cabinet.

I play my bass through a Hartke LH500 (http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/LH500/?gclid=COKToPOY9aACFROdnAodqQ3zug) head, which has a tube front end supposedly modeled on a Fender Showman preamp, feeding a 500-watt power amp. It weighs 23 lbs (plus the rack case I have it in). Sounds like a million bucks in small, unmarked bills, and has all the headroom you'd ever want...

Tim