90's Fender Deville 4x10 or 90's The Twin

Both good amps.

 

Many players have run many different pedals at this type of amp for decades with good results. $400for amp work.....what was done? I take it that the electrolytics are fresh. Does the amp have a bias voltage adjustment circuit now? if not, it needs one. If it does have that circuit, how is the amp biased? That info should be part of the deal, IMHO.
What does this amp NOT do for you...outside of the pedal thing. What does it do that you do not like......Specifically? How do you run the controls...preamp gain(channel volume), MV and tones?
What do these Cannabis Rex speakers do/not do that you dislike?

 

IT sounds as if that amp is NOT working as it could. IME, that amp can be made to sound very good...clean but warm.
Have you seen this??
https://dallas.craigslist.org/ftw/msg/5780213862.html

 

I think you need to talk to someone like Weber about the right speaker for you in that Pro. That Pro Reverb is everything the Deville dreams of being. The PR is also better built and easier (read:cheaper) to service and maintain. How loud are you playing that an ultralinear ~75W 6L6 amp break up unpleasantly?! I've never been able to make my 75 45W Super Reverb break up on stage.

 

Fwiw, the Blues/Hot Rod amps do not 'dream' of being anything like a BF/Sf Fender. They are based in the 5F6A world. This is why I said that ime that preamp cannot yield the cleans that the BF/Sf preamp yields. Different animals.

 

Doc, the 5F6A preamp has two gain stages prior to the tone stack versus the gain/tone stack/gain of the BF/Sf amps. That Bassman topography is the basis for all of those good Marshalls. They heat up earlier in the preamp...before that signal sucking tone stack interferes with things. Leo was ever searching for bigger and cleaner....and that is the direction his amps took during the evolution of things.
IMe, a BF/SF reverb amp at 5 with the tones set at 5 should be clean and lively.. AS one turns the volume up on this type of preamp, the tones need to come down. The story is the same with that TRII you liked....same preamp before the tricks come into play. WIth a Bassman preamp, the tones can be run almost anywhere one wants at any volume level because the changes in the tone stack are not amplified through as many gain stages as in the BF/Sf amps. boogie explained all of this in their MK series manuals...because those amps are based on the BF AB763 preamp....and one has to control the preamp tone settings when volume/gain is pushed. That is why a MK Boogie without a post-EQ graphic is not an amp I want. The post-preamp Graphic Eq can be used to re-establish the tones...especially the low end which needs to be carefully tended to in the preamp EQ section when volume is pushed.
This is why I asked how you set the amp up. One can run these BF/SF Reverb amps at very low volume and get wonderfully rich sounds by pushing the tone control up past 5. When pushing the preamp gain/channel volume, past 5, the tones need to come down...especially the lows.
I take it you have the MV at 10???
the biasing is also a big part of things. That is why I asked about that....not just whether or not it was biased but at what plate dissipation it was biased. When one pays $400 for service, that information should be written on the work order, imho. IT is good for the owner to know that, and it is good for the tech to have that information for future reference, ime.
That Vibrasonic in the link is essentially a Twin Reverb with a 15" speaker. It will do big and clean.

 

I have both the PR and the SR currently... the SR starts to break up around the same setting as the PR. They are close to the same volume as well as my SR has Alnico CTS speakers and the PR has a bit more efficient ceramic speakers. Side by side they both sound wonderful and voice very similar.

 

That is true they do sound different... mine is non-MV and non UL... although the other guitarist uses a PR like yours at band practice and it sounds great to me.. maybe it's his playing????

 

Wish I could offer some good advice . . . I would lean to the DeVille. I gig an American HRD on the 2nd drive channel, which many internet people say don't do. I crank the bass and have the reverb, treble, presence and mids very low (saw an interview with Campilongo) and with a Strat get a sweet warm singing tone that cleans up when I back off the guitar volume, but gets a great smooth overdrive when I turn it up. (Don't like piercing or ratty distortion).

 

+1

As someone who uses HRDs I agree that you can get a decent tone on the drive channel. (been saying that here for a while) The problem is that the HRD series are a mono channel design where the gain is inserted into the lone input single/path. Hence.... Using the Drive channel and getting a decent tone, the EQ settings are way different (almost opposite) of the EQ's settings one would employ for the clean.

IMO... because of this unconventual factor.... people say the Drive channel is garbage. can't blame them for thinking that, trying to use the amp as a 2 channel amp… not their fault, Fender markets the line as such.

My experience … to get the max out of the HRD line... Being a mono channel amp... One has to operate HRD's either has a Clean amp, or as a Dirty amp, but not both.