Tips to make a 65 Twin Reverb sound better with humbuckers?

[Bourbon Burst]

I did not know this! I'll try that later for sure. This is the second input on the channel with reverb and vibrato?

On both channels (Normal and Vibrato).

 

[Dacious]

On the FMV tone stack you have to be careful. The treble is also a master eq control. If you have it past midday it can start to effectively increase the mid and bass settings and those controls lose effect.

The 'rule' with setting Blackface amps is once past low volumes, you typically need to drop treble, mids and bass to 6 or less.. To some degree this is interactive with your guitars volume and tone controls. If you keep these dimed the amp settings become more important.

Unless volume is on '2' having bass at '5' is almost certainly too much with Gibson-type humbuckers.

You're also battling the Fender AB763 tone stack, which was aiming for massive sparkling cleans with long spring reverb. It's inherently scooped in the midrange. Reverb settings past 3 will tend to make any distortion sound messy.

If you boost bass past around 3 and mids past 5, you will not only get blocking-type distortion, but it will be reverberated which will indeed make it sound both harsh and muddy at once.

If you're looking for a bluesy edge of breakup tone, the TR is maybe not your amp. It's more a BB King type device.

 

[BrettFuzz]

I say don't touch your single coil guitars for a week and play only the PRS and don't think about it; just play like that's your only guitar. By the end of the week you'll know what to do.

 

[codamedia]

Have you tried the second input which has a pad for humbuckers? I have a 1975 silverface twin reverb and using my 50s Les Paul works well on that input and with the bright switch.

^^^ this ^^^

The 2nd input of each channel on a Twin is magical with humbuckers. (IMO of course)

 

[rand z]

Perhaps you're just not a humbucker guy.

Nothing wrong with that at all.

THIS^^^^.

I have/had a few humbucker pu guitars.

I currently have a Gibson ES 339 and a Carvin 127(?) with humbuckers.

I enjoy the sonic differences between them and my single coil guitars.

But, it's hard for me to get a "good" and usable sound from them.

It always requires a very different amp setting.

If I played Trad, straight ahead Jazz, Southern Rock or Hard Rock, they would really be perfect.

However, I'm more of a Country Blues guy.

Humbuckers don't really fit all that well.

There are lots of good suggestions posted here.

Good luck!

imo.

 

[Twang Deluxe]

Use the second input of your amp and use an EQ Pedal

 

[Nick Fanis]

Humbuckers and "great clean tone" is an oxymoron.

 

[bigben55]

Volume dependant, having the bright switch on and plugged into vibrato ch input 2, set the TMB at 7 5 3. If you're still not happy, you can try an EQ pedal. Or, volume up even more and guitar volume down. Still no luck, then that guitar->amp combination just ain't gonna work for you.

I have a blonde Tone Master Twin Reverb and it works with my G&L ASAT Deluxe(Seymour Duncan 59 and JB humbuckers), but it'll never be a strat.

 

[jvin248]

...for those reasons, the pick-up change sounds like possibly the right solution, and I'll try it tonight - this definitely does feel like something that's more of a source issue than amp issue....

+1 Neck humbucker flush with the trim ring (even find or make a thinner neck pickup trim ring). Some have sanded off the bottom of a trim ring by putting sandpaper on a flat bench and scrubbing the trim ring on the paper.

Raise the neck humbucker screw poles 3/16ths inch and slightly lower some to get the typical Strat 'Stagger Pattern'. Yes, the Strat Stagger was for different G-strings, but so many songs have been recorded with those pickup pole patterns and modern string sets the stagger 'sounds right'.

Bridge pickup: rotate 180deg so the screw poles are on the neck side bobbin, raise screw poles 1/8 to 3/16ths but keep them level to each other (no stagger). This emphasizes the screw pole bobbin which is in the same location as the centerline of a P90 pickup and will give you more of a P90 tone. Tip the pickup for more/less bass or treble side as you like. Lower is better tone but match volume output to the neck pickup.

Clarity with humbucker pickups is achieved by setting them lower and raising screw poles. I know one player who completely removes screw poles turning their humbuckers into single coils with dummy coils for noise reduction so that's an option too. I find enough improvement from just raising screw poles.

Next option is to solder a 0.047uF capacitor in-line with the muddy/dark pickup(s).

You should also measure the actual kohms of the volume pots -- higher measured kohm will be brighter, lower darker. Original Gibson wiring had 300kohm pots to go with overly bright amps. Now everyone with an HH guitar seems to run darker amps and 500kohm pots.

.

 

[hotcoffeenochill]

Unless volume is on '2' having bass at '5' is almost certainly too much with Gibson-type humbuckers.

Yeahhhhh, as soon as I read "bass on 5" I gave a little yelp. With humbuckers in to any black-panel style amp I'd be starting with bass at 3 at the highest, usually find myself with it closer to 1, depending on the guitar.

OP, also consider some guitars are just darker than others. Have you compared the PRS to any other humbucker guitars through the Twin? My two humbucker guitars are miles different in loudness and tone through the same amp at the same settings. My Eastman Les Paul gets bass at 1, my Yamaha SG gets bass at 3.

There are plenty of great musicians that use humbuckers and Twins, so at the end of the day, before you sink a bunch of money looking for a solution, consider that maybe you just don't like humbuckers through a Twin and cut your losses.

 

[Blue Bill]

Ummm...guitar lessons?

 

[msalama]

Humbuckers and "great clean tone" is an oxymoron

Not necessarily, if one plays through a set of Filtertrons or Minis.

 

[fofomomo]

On the FMV tone stack you have to be careful. The treble is also a master eq control. If you have it past midday it can start to effectively increase the mid and bass settings and those controls lose effect.

The 'rule' with setting Blackface amps is once past low volumes, you typically need to drop treble, mids and bass to 6 or less.. To some degree this is interactive with your guitars volume and tone controls. If you keep these dimed the amp settings become more important.

Unless volume is on '2' having bass at '5' is almost certainly too much with Gibson-type humbuckers.

You're also battling the Fender AB763 tone stack, which was aiming for massive sparkling cleans with long spring reverb. It's inherently scooped in the midrange. Reverb settings past 3 will tend to make any distortion sound messy.

If you boost bass past around 3 and mids past 5, you will not only get blocking-type distortion, but it will be reverberated which will indeed make it sound both harsh and muddy at once.

If you're looking for a bluesy edge of breakup tone, the TR is maybe not your amp. It's more a BB King type device.

This is super interesting, thanks! I didn't know the treble was a master eq, and will keep that in mind.

I have always had all the eqs on 5 since I bought the amp, which works great for my Fenders, and like I said, turning the bass down made the amp sound really boxy, but I'll mess some more with it. (I do tend to have the volume at 2-3 except when I'm playing with someone).

 

[Dacious]

This is super interesting, thanks! I didn't know the treble was a master eq, and will keep that in mind.

I have always had all the eqs on 5 since I bought the amp, which works great for my Fenders, and like I said, turning the bass down made the amp sound really boxy, but I'll mess some more with it. (I do tend to have the volume at 2-3 except when I'm playing with someone).

Egs on 5 - nup. That's your issue. Too much. The AB763 was developed when the highest gain/, output pickups Fender made were the Tele bridge and Jazznaster soapbar. Even with them you can't run bass past 3 with treble on 6 and mids 5-6 with volume past 2.

It's just the nature of the amp. As others have noted it's partly because of the coupling caps, gain structure of the preamp and its intended use. BF Fenders with reverb have not much preamp gain as a deliberate feature - the range of the controls is to dial clean in. Not dirty. The second low input when fitted is designed for higher output pickups like humbuckers. It drops about 6 db and lets you get more range in the eq controls.

Marshall for instance uses much smaller coupling caps and they quite often need treble on virtually zero but bass dimed to stop them being way too bright.

 

[fofomomo]

Well well well well well... I just went down and turned treble-mid-bass to 3-3-2 and the dang thing sounded GREAT, an amazing jazz type of tone, just what I'd like.

I do feel like sometimes I have tones that sound great, then I go back 5 hours later and I hate it, but I'm prettttty sure this is perfect and will suit me fine. Thanks all!

 

[Nick Fanis]

Not necessarily, if one plays through a set of Filtertrons or Minis.

These are devine but not the "humbuckers" 99% of guitarist think of as humbuckers

Here are mine anyways

 

[Bwagster]

Just lower the guitar volume a touch when using humbuckers.

 

[RocketKing]

I haven't had the time to read every post but straight away i'll say that 5 on Bass is way too high!!
The higher the volume, the less bass you need.
I have a twin reverb and my default setting is 2.
regulating the mids is more important.
I have 2 Gibsons that I use with my amp, fyi.

 

[msalama]

but not the "humbuckers" 99% of guitarist think

True, but double-coil humbucking pickups nevertheless. Not that such nitty-gritty matters a whole lot, but still.

 

[msalama]

And oh, here're mine: