Questions about blackfacing my Twin

Bill Terry · Post by **Bill Terry** » 16 Jul 2000 5:16 am

I ended up with 68pF on the bright switch, it seemed right for me. I also changed the power supply dropping resistors for a little more voltage. That's also described in the Weber book.

My next project is to try some different things in the preamp section, but I'm real happy with it as is for now.

Thanks to all for the suggestions and advice.
Bill

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bterry.home.netcom.com

Bob Metzger · Post by **Bob Metzger** » 16 Jul 2000 12:43 pm

Dear Jerry Hedge,
Excellent advice. These are all great mods for the Twin. Jerry, I bet your amps sounds absoluely great! BTW, what's your chioce for speakers?

Bob

Kevin Post · Post by **Kevin Post** » 17 Jul 2000 6:57 am

Bob,
Thanks once again for all of the Fender info. I believe that it is a JBL D-130, because I saw one on ebay out of a Fender.

When I bought this Custom Vibrasonic, it had some hissin', spittin-type problems, so I took it to the Nashville Fender Custom shop. Ronnie, the amp guy, said that these new amps are very inconsistent from the factory. He came up with some kind of a mod that fixed it. It has a really nice Fendery, shimmery "compression distortion" as you say.

I dropped a 15" Black Widow in her and she really came alive. I play everything through the guitar channel, better tone.

I use it on sessions and engineers LUV it. It really makes my Zum blend, yet jump off the speakers.

I'll be out in Irvine,CA with Terri Clark on wed, Aug 2. If you or any of your friends/family want to come, be my guest. Email me with tix requests before this Th.

Kevin

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 17 Jul 2000 7:58 am

Guys, this thread is getting pretty long. Can I close this one, and if y'all want you can open a new thread about the same subject.

Bob Metzger · Post by **Bob Metzger** » 17 Jul 2000 1:57 pm

Close away! But first, Kevin, what an unbelieveably kind offer. Thank you for offering! Unfortunately, I'm gigging that nite; it'll be a 10 round welterwight bout. In this corner, in the Tony Llamas and bolo tie, we have a 15 lb overweight steel player and in the black with silver trim we have a Nashville 400. Who will win?

Seriously, would you please consider posting the Custom Vibrosonic/Ronnie mods? (With his permission, of course). And was that Black Widow a 1502 or a 1501-DT or a 1501-SB? (it says on a little white tag adjacent to the speaker terminals!)

Thanks everyone for contributing!

Bob

Jerry Hedge · Post by **Jerry Hedge** » 17 Jul 2000 7:40 pm

Bob, the speakers in my Twin are the weak point right now. I'm using some speakers that a reconer friend put together. They're Peavey Mace frames reconed with a heavy duty Waldom kit. I either want a Single Showman output transformer and a J.B.L. 15 or I might go REALLY CRAZY and put Hammond Transformers,boost my Output plate voltage to about 550 or 600 Volts and run 6550s. That should give me pretty close to 200 Watts.

Bob Metzger · Post by **Bob Metzger** » 17 Jul 2000 11:26 pm

Do it in two steps. Hammond makes some great output transformers with 40% ultralinear taps, interleaved and will give you a nice volume boost (4, 8, 16 ohms). If that doesn't do it, then go for the power tranny.

Good luck with it,

Bob

Dave Zirbel · Post by **Dave Zirbel** » 19 Jul 2000 5:52 am

Does anyone know of a tube amp technicion in northern CA that understands the needs of a steel guitarist? I have a Silver face Twin I'd like to have set up for steel. I'm thinking of talking to Torres Engineering in San Mateo. http://www.torresengineering.com Anyone heard of these guys? I can print out this thread and show him some of the ideas I've read.

Kevin Post, I would also like to hear about the Custom Vibrasonic mod.

Thanks guys, this thread changed my mind about getting rid of the Twin!

Dave Z[This message was edited by Dave Zirbel on 19 July 2000 at 08:53 AM.][This message was edited by Dave Zirbel on 19 July 2000 at 09:49 AM.]

Bob Metzger · Post by **Bob Metzger** » 19 Jul 2000 11:37 am

Dave,
I'm glad that you're re-evaluating the Twin Reverb. They're great amps and deserve the attention they get. But they do need to be set up especially for steel. A well chosen series of minimumly invasive mods can enhance the chances that you'll love this amp for steel guitar but you have to have the will to get through that process. Sometimes it'll take a few trips to the amp tech to fine tune everything. It's not like, ok, I'll change this and this and now you have the perfect steel guitar amp. The mods for the Twin Reverb are being played out right here, right in front of all of us. With a great forum like this for support the future bodes well for theTwin and steel guitar.

Dan Torres has a very good tube amp book for beginners: "Inside Tube Amps". He is very knowledgeable about tube amps; I don't really know if he's setup amps expressly for steel guitar but he is well acquainted with the principals of what would make a successful steel amp. On the other hand, he is flamed daily on another BBS by the 'preservationist' vintage amp guys because he has invasively modded many Fender amps (May I say the 'D' word on the forum): he's drilled a few holes for extra features. I don't find anything wrong with him but he is compared daily to Hitler, Idi Amin, Pol Pot and a number of other well-known amp builders. I've never had any dealings with him one way or another but I did install one of his 'amp kits' that he sells in a friend's amp, which turned a mediocre amp into a great sounding amp. My advice: If I were in your shoes, I'd go to him. He knows his stuff. Go thru this thread and pull out the actual tech stuff; leave the prose behind; he (or any other tech) doesn't have time for that. OTOH, you could ask bOb, who is a hop, skip and a jump from you about any tube amp guy in Sonoma who has steel on the brain (not a metal plate, though!).

Too bad, My wife and I are planning to move to Sonoma but not for a few years yet. I'm glad to know that there's a few tube amps left up there and it's not all grapes (yet!).

Good luck,

Bob M.

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 19 Jul 2000 2:53 pm

Dave, call Mike Bendinelli. He's the best tube amp guy in the world, and he just lives a few miles from you, out near Occidental.

Kevin Post · Post by **Kevin Post** » 20 Jul 2000 5:57 am

Bob,
Sorry you can't make it out. I'm afraid that I haven't been able to get a hold of Ronnie @ Fender, and I'm leaving tonite for five weeks on the road.

I couldn't tell what model the BW was either. D@mn, I'm battin a goose egg.

Dave Zirbel · Post by **Dave Zirbel** » 20 Jul 2000 9:30 am

I spoke with Dan Torres yesterday and he said he's been doing Twin steel mods for 15 to 20 years and doesn't swap out transformers. He called it the "clean amp mod". That might be a good place to start, plus new speakers.I'd like to set one channel for guitar and one for steel. Has anyone done this?

b0b Lee, does Mike do mods?

By the way, Dan said his mod for a Custom Vibrasonic would be to rip out the circuit board and start over with regular components.

Dave

Dan Tyack · Post by **Dan Tyack** » 21 Jul 2000 1:44 am

I'm not an expert at this stuff by any means, but I did play through some of Bruce Bouton's amps in Nashville a few months ago. He had a blackfaced 70s twin and a Custom Vibrosonic, and there was no question that the twin was a million times better sounding. I can't tell you why, but that's what my ears heard.

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www.tyacktunes.com

Dave Zirbel · Post by **Dave Zirbel** » 21 Jul 2000 8:31 am

Dan, did both of Bruces amps have the stock speakers?

Dave