Unexpected NAD x2!!!

[therizzla]

Girlfriend and I were driving to Portland for a weekend trip and we stopped at a shop in Vancouver, WA and I wasn’t even out to buy anything at all but I pickup up a 70’s Twin Reverb for $719 and a Peavey Special 130 for $89! Fortunately they both fit in the trunk of the Civic!

[B.T.]

Nice score!

[MrShake]

That is mental. And would be a perfect 2-amp setup . Congrats, those are amazing!

[therizzla]

That is mental.

I felt mental buying two amps on my way to a weekend vacation! They both sounded very good and the mid control and mid shift on the Special 130 makes a HUGE difference from the three Bandits I’ve owned before.

The Twin has speakers I don’t recognize but I have two WGS ET90s back home if I wanna experiment.

They both came with footswitches and the Twin has a new cover!

[B.T.]

That is mental.

I felt mental buying two amps on my way to a weekend vacation! They both sounded very good and the mid control and mid shift on the Special 130 makes a HUGE difference from the three Bandits I’ve owned before.

The Twin has speakers I don’t recognize but I have two WGS ET90s back home if I wanna experiment.

They both came with footswitches and the Twin has a new cover!

How much would you say the Special weighs?

[therizzla]

That is mental.

I felt mental buying two amps on my way to a weekend vacation! They both sounded very good and the mid control and mid shift on the Special 130 makes a HUGE difference from the three Bandits I’ve owned before.

The Twin has speakers I don’t recognize but I have two WGS ET90s back home if I wanna experiment.

They both came with footswitches and the Twin has a new cover!

How much would you say the Special weighs?

Not much less than the Twin! All my amps at home are Quilters so everything is heavy to me.

[therizzla]

So, the speakers in the Twin are some kind of old Rolas that sound rather dull and much “softer” than I like but I plugged it into the WGS ET90s in my two Quilter 1x12 Dock Block cabs and there was a huge improvement all around. Louder (not that a Twin needs to be louder), tighter low end and less piercing highs. I did have to dial the mids back a bit to keep a more traditional Fender tone. The reverb is very weak and there is more background noise than I think it should have so it’ll probably be going in for a tune-up soon but luckily the Special 130 absolutely kills and will serve as a great backup to the Twin Reverb. I still really enjoy my Quilters but I may just go down to one; the Tone Block 201 in the Dock Block 1x15 cab.

[MrSparkle]

So, the speakers in the Twin are some kind of old Rolas that sound rather dull and much “softer” than I like but I plugged it into the WGS ET90s in my two Quilter 1x12 and there was a huge improvement all around.

You know you want to...

[therizzla]

So, the speakers in the Twin are some kind of old Rolas that sound rather dull and much “softer” than I like but I plugged it into the WGS ET90s in my two Quilter 1x12 and there was a huge improvement all around.

You know you want to...

That’s very interesting, especially for the weight, but I’m gonna stick with the ET90s I have on hand for now. My Quilter 201 with Steelaire 15” really covers my JBLish needs.

[therizzla]

I’m dropping the Twin off at Solderhaus for Brent to fully service and do a few modifications tomorrow! I was going to install the ET90s but someone soldered the wires directly to the current speakers. While it’s gone I’m going to order some 2134PA op-amps for the Special 130 and mess around with it. I played the Special through my Quilter Steelaire 15” cab but I honestly preferred the stock Scorpion. When the Twin is back I’ll plug the Special into the ET90s and see how that sounds, they’re a brilliant speaker!

[therizzla]

I swapped out three of the four 4558 ICs in the Special 130 yesterday with Burr Brown 2134 op amps. The difference wasn't huge but still noticeable, a little clearer overall and rounder in the high end. It was a worthy mod for the dollars spent and a good way to distract myself while the Twin is gone getting serviced.

Looks brand new inside! We’re the same age and it’s aging MUCH better than I am.

[46346]

really fun score! i think that Twin is gonna get pretty massive with the ET speakers. got any outdoor gigs coming up?

actually i've been mostly playing a Twin these days, even though i've played legions of lower-powered amps over the decades. in my current group i'm playing deep, clean tones. tuned down to C. and lap steel. and electric piano. and Mellotron the Twin Reverb handles it all with aplomb.

[therizzla]

really fun score! i think that Twin is gonna get pretty massive with the ET speakers. got any outdoor gigs coming up?

actually i've been mostly playing a Twin these days, even though i've played legions of lower-powered amps over the decades. in my current group i'm playing deep, clean tones. tuned down to C. and lap steel. and electric piano. and Mellotron the Twin Reverb handles it all with aplomb.

I may be playing some Ventures, Link Wray and such tunes at my company’s next Christmas party at a classic car museum in a huge open warehouse and by next summer I’d like to be playing at my local Porchfest.

Honestly, I live in an apartment and with the master at ten and the channel volume at 1.5 I was still getting a really nice clean tone to work with without being much louder than higher TV levels. This is one of the later 135 watt ultralinear Twin models that get some hate but I thought it sounded close to the ‘68 drip edge I played years ago (and should have bought). It does have some harsher high end but the ET90s helped and my tech is adding a NFB adjuster where the MV is. I guess a big part of the brighter, stiffer tone of the UL Fenders is that the UL set up adds its own NFB so it sort of “doubles down” with the NFB already in place in the Fender BF/earlier SF amps. I’m not concerned with gain from my amp, I want a big blank canvas to work with. The added NFB actually works with the bass VI, so I wanted to be able to dial it in and out.


Sounds like a Twin Reverb was the most practical solution for you tuning down and with a lap steel and piano! I wanna use the normal channel for guitar with my pedalboard and the vibrato channel for my Danelectro UB2 bass VI and theremin.


One amp to rule them all.

[therizzla]

I got the Twin back from Solderhaus today and it sounds great! Removing the master volume/boost circuit and replacing it with a NFB control was a great idea, I like it set between 4-6 on the dial where it starts to noticeably lift the stiffness of the tone without adding any more noise to the signal. It’s a little louder than it was when I dropped it off but I assume that has to do with some fresh caps and a proper bias. The ET90 speakers are installed and still impressing me, they’re a great match to the amp. He did forget to give me the footswitch back though which is a little annoying but not the end of the world. Maybe I just like mine or it’s a honeymoon phase but I think these UL models may undeservingly get a bad rap. Sure, it needed new speakers and a little mod but it’s definitely a nice sounding vintage Fender amp I got for $881 after servicing. Nothing like a Jazzmaster (or Casino or Bass VI) and a Twin Reverb!

I just looked it up and it’s a 1977 model.

[46346]

excellent. i would love to play more Surf and Link Wray these days. i do sneak those tones into my current ensemble here and there.

i haven't spent a lot of time with the UL Fenders, but do remember a UL Twin i played, and it delivered exactly what i hoped from a classic TR. i think the bad rap they got was from their day, when bands had been pushing classic TR's toward their limit, and while the UL may not break into power tube overdrive in the way that the earlier ones (eventually) did, these days most of us don't play that loudly, and we have other means of getting overdrive - if it's with driving smaller amps harder, or using pedals.

the only time i've fully embraced the TR is when i've needed that deep, 90% clean tone - with confidence that i can bump that same tone up a bit louder if it's an outdoor gig or bigger stage. and with what i'm doing these days, that's a really sweet, almost bottomless well.
actually it has become essential now that i've added Taurus-style bass pedals for our next sessions and gigs. it carries the low throb along with the upper curly resonance REALLY well. i would probably also bring this amp for Surf-style gigs, unless perhaps it was a smaller, echoey room.

i imagine the UL 135 watt might handle this stuff even better? mine is a 40th anniversary blonde reissue. holy smokes, it's almost 20 years old now!

what a cool idea to swap the MV for essentially a Presence control. i love the Presence controls on my brownface amps. sometimes on my Twin i get caught between having the Bright switch up or down, whereas a Presence knob gives you more adjustment of that region. of course they are two completely different kinds of circuits, but the resulting tonality seems similar to me.