Worth Considering

StevieK

Anyone who plays one of the reissue fender or vox combo amps that are becoming increasingly popular these days might want to consider some of the following modifications. I recently stumbled onto an article about the low quality transformers used in reissue amps (along with info about the cheap PCB boards, caps, and speakers used) and thought I may as well invest in new transformers on my 65 Reissue Twin Reverb. I had recommended to me Mercury Transformers by my local guitar tech and had him order the output and power transformers and install them in my twin.

My impressions are that the sound quality is not immensely different, it still sounds like a twin. The amp does now have a bit more depth and warmth in the low end and the high end sounds less brittle and ice pickey at higher volumes then it previously did. I spent about $250 on these mods so unless you're someone whose very anal about tone (which I tend to be lately) then I wouldn't advise spending the money. However, if you're someone who wants the absolute best out of all of their equipment without dishing out thousands of dollars for original fender and vox amps of the 50s and 60s then I think Mercury transformers are a good investment.

I've now got the amp back in the shop and I'm having a Celestion Vintage 30 and a Celestion G12h installed. Combining different speaker types in a single cab is something a lot of boutique amp companies like Bogner and Divided by Thirteen are doing so I thought I might as well try it out and see what happens. I'll post up what the sound is like after I get my amp back. The simple fact is that speaker wise it cant sound any worse. Fender uses cheap speakers in all the reissues, just another way for them to cut corners in quality and make a few extra bucks.

jellybelly

thanks for the advice stevie, I've got a super reverb RI and was considering a few mods but I'll certainly look into that! Was also considering a bit more drastic speaker config: instead of 4x10, i'd been thinking about one 12" and one 10" speaker for a big mix of sounds, would hopefully make it a bit less back-curvingly heavy too!!! Let us know what results you get dude,

StevieK

Yeah that is pretty drastic, but might sound really good. I might try something like that on an ext. cabinet, I'm too much of a wuss to try that in a combo though. ☹

It's amazing how uncreative a lot of companies are with their speaker configurations. I as a consumer would be more than willing to pay 200 more for one of their amps if it came with better speakers. It would save me the trouble of having to pick speakers and get them installed myself.

If you're going to mod your amp that much I think you should def. look into the transformers. Mercury claims they help emphasize even order harmonics, instead of odd order, which helps prevent ear fatigue and helps reduce that brittle ear piercing sound a lot of these reissues suffer from.

OceanTurquoiseMetallic

Let me know if you go with the speaker change. I have a Twin Reverb II (rivera era) that needs some new speakers. I love the sound of the vintage 30's in my Marshall 4x12 but im getting really interested in the G12h30/vintage 30 combo-combination. Or maybe even just a pair of G12h30's....

Richie

I think it's a new output transformer my Selmer TnB needs, it tends to overheat a lot. I think the grounding between winds is failing somewhere.

Seems to me that around

coldwaraudio

by the time ur done paying for all the mods to get it close to vintage you could have bought the real deal just buy vintage be happy with your tone and crank that bitch up so you can get that good vintage natural overdrive

StevieK

coldwaraudio said: by the time ur done paying for all the mods to get it close to vintage you could have bought the real deal just buy vintage be happy with your tone and crank that bitch up so you can get that good vintage natural overdrive

Actually no, the mods I did cost about $450 for everything (including speakers and install) and I bought my twin used for $800. So my total investment in the amp has been $1250, the cost of a new reissue twin. Further all original twins cost around $2500-3000 and the sounds vary greatly from one to another so you have to play several of them before you find one that is worth even close to the amount you're paying. PLUS, odds are the paper on the speakers is worn to #### by bacteria and you're gonna have to probably get new speakers anyway if you actually want to get any use out of the amp, which just cut the resale value of the amp in half because it's now no longer all original. Same is true for the caps and trannies.

Old amps are also prone to lots and lots of problems and you're gonna be hauling that thing in for repairs several times a year. Each time decreasing it's value every time you have to swap out an original part for a new one.

So vintage Twin Reverbs=horrible investment of time and money. And twins are way too loud to crank and get "good natural vintage overdrive."

StevieK

Well I got the amp back friday so I'll tell you what I've found.

First off, Twins are heavy beasts of amps, and now this thing probably weighs 15 more pounds due to the oversized magnets in the Celestions. So that's a negative.

I am told that these speakers are gonna take about 100 hours of playing through at fairly loud volumes before they break in completely and are at their optimum performance. Which is actually exciting because they already sound GREAT!

The first thing I immediately noticed is that these speakers are loads louder then the stock fender speakers so I almost blew my head off when I first plugged in my guitar and set the volume at 4, where I normally set it. For playing out live this is good news, but is bad news for my bedroom jamming. The first thing I noticed was how different the harmonics and overtones sounded in the amp, the whole voicing of the amp is different, it still sounds like a twin, but it has much more warmth then I'm used to hearing.

The next thing I noticed was the significant increase in low end response and the bass frequencies are much much tighter and less flabby sounding then before. The overall voicing of these speakers is darker and I found myself lowering the bass knob down considerably from where I normally have it. I'm not someone who normally plays with a lot of midrange, mids sometimes sound a little harsh to my ears, but on these speakers the low end mids sound absolutely beautiful so I found myself dialing in a lot more mids then usual as well. The high end has a lot different texture to the sound and actually has a larger range of tones then the stock speakers did. So they can actually get a lot more ice-pickey then the stock speakers then the originals if they are raised to high, but dialing them down a little took care of that problem. This is not too say that the speakers are brighter or more harsh in the high end then the old speakers, they just have more high end range then the old ones, so you have to dial them down a little more then the stock speakers to mellow them out.

Playing my Jap Jag with Seymour Duncan Antiquities with amp highs set to about 6, mids at 7.5 and bass at 7.5 with reverb at 2 sounds absolutely great. Very rich warm tone, and if I roll the tone and volume down on my jag to just the right point I get a great warm attack from my guitar's pickups and a large snappy bass tone if I hit the strings hard that doesn't ever sound harsh, just more aggressive.

My old amp settings used to be highs at 7, mids at 5, and bass at 9. Now my settings are totally different. The mids on this speaker combination is what sounds really great to my ears so I end up using more mids then I've ever used before.

I've tried all my effects through this thing and with fuzz or tubescreamer type pedals this amp sounds great. The harmonics on this amp are super warm and rich and drive pedals really help bring this out.

So if you've got the money I say mod your vintage reissue!

coldwaraudio

i wasnt really talking about twins but more vintage amps like kalamazoos and vintages champs and silvertone amps i own a kalamazoo and a gibson from the 50s they both are all original and sound great cranked up.