Twin Reverb...As a living room practice amp?

[Gone Fission]

If your pedals don't need any amp softening/smoothing/compression, a Twin could work. If cooking the first triode a bit is part of your sound, the dreaded master volume may be necessary. If you've got a non-master Twin and need that smoothing, an amp-in-a-pedal sort of thing with a good master volume control could be helpful in your signal chain.

The real problem is that you really want these things to open up at least a little, and that little can be a lot for an apartment. My Bandmaster Reverb was too loud for a dorm amp where it was opening up.

[rfurtkamp]

It'll sound good or it won't- attenuator won't make it better at those volumes.

Whether that particular one will sound good (given mods) is twofold IMO - the speaker and the tubes.

Clean, no breakup 6L6s will sound good pretty much once they're warm, period - from whisper to stupid.

The *right* 15" will sound very good at even conversational volume, the wrong one (that requires breakup to get anywhere) would be the wrong type for that amp but I'm a JBL on 6L6 Fender guy at heart.

[tremolo3]

My twin sounds good at 3.
Sounds a little bit better at ~4
Past 5, it only sounds louder.

How close are your nearest neighbors? I think that needs to be a part of the answer to this question in general. I can't imagine running any amp on 3 at home, let alone a Twin Reverb... but I live in an apartment.

A few meters, 15 or so. But that's on our rehearsal space so we don't care that much.

I use a Champ at home for practice.

[frigid midget]

I can't play my AC15C2 at home with the volume at 3, and I couldn't do that with my old deluxe reverb or even Pro Junior...

But again, a 85Watt twin reverb with a good master volume, two pulled tubes and an attenuator...If that'll allow me to put the volume at 2 and sound 'okay'...I should definatelly buy me one

[CyaNitrate]

Tried for the aforementioned Twin... He didn't want me Vibrolux.

[larsbars]

rfurtkamp has been pretty much spot on with every post. Assuming you're using the twin as a clean pedal platform, as long as the tubes are warm, it'll be fine. IMO you don't need to run it at its optimal volume for practicing at home...tone isn't nearly as important as just the act of practicing

Plus you won't be driving the tubes as hard as you would with an attenuator, and they'll last longer.

[frigid midget]

rfurtkamp has been pretty much spot on with every post. Assuming you're using the twin as a clean pedal platform, as long as the tubes are warm, it'll be fine. IMO you don't need to run it at its optimal volume for practicing at home...tone isn't nearly as important as just the act of practicing

Plus you won't be driving the tubes as hard as you would with an attenuator, and they'll last longer.

It's startin to look and more and more like it's worth a shot.

The attenuator would be there to make the volume control a little less finnicky, and to at least get the tubes to wake up. So very mild attenuation, to sorta act as a master volume, nothing that should punish the tubes too hard. Fiddling with the volume control on a 85watt tube amp can be tricky when you're in yer living room. The difference between 0 and 1 on the volume control can be a matter of hardly hearing anything or shaking the windows :s

[rfurtkamp]

Never had that issue with the old Fender stuff I used as small venue/recording/apartment amps throughout the 90s.

If you need to control microcontrol volume, volume knob or gain pedal with a level control does it well.

Attenuator seems to be a solution in search of a problem. I'm trying to figure out why you want one on a stupidly clean amp and it's not pushing to breakup (like most Twins simply just *won't* before speaker distortion kicks in).

[PeteeBee]

The *right* 15" will sound very good at even conversational volume, the wrong one (that requires breakup to get anywhere) would be the wrong type for that amp but I'm a JBL on 6L6 Fender guy at heart.

What would you recommend for a 15" speaker? I'm looking to build a 15" cab for at home with my micro terror, so I can leave my 2x12 at the practice space with my peavey head. I'd love to be able to run both with the peavey when I want, which I guess means I need it to be 16ohm because that's what my current cab is.

[rfurtkamp]

On current stuff, no idea. I've always just bought older JBLs (when available), Emi clones thereof, Weber of same, etc. I don't mod or upgrade stuff unless something's broken and that rarely, rarely happens.

[friendship]

Never had that issue with the old Fender stuff I used as small venue/recording/apartment amps throughout the 90s.

If you need to control microcontrol volume, volume knob or gain pedal with a level control does it well.

Attenuator seems to be a solution in search of a problem. I'm trying to figure out why you want one on a stupidly clean amp and it's not pushing to breakup (like most Twins simply just *won't* before speaker distortion kicks in).

I dunno, in my experience with a Twin there's still some spectacular tube compression that happens well before the amp breaks up, but at way-too-loud-for-practice volume (volume around 4-5 on mine I think). I've never used an attenuator and have no idea if that would help you get that at more reasonable volumes or not.

I got sad about never being able to turn up my Twin to its Magical Zone so I ended up getting a small low watt combo for apartment practice and I wish I had done it years earlier. That's just me though.

[D.o.S.]

Twin Reverbs are incredibly fucking loud.

This is exactly what I can tribute to this thread.

[rfurtkamp]

The magical zone is room presence and speaker cone distortion for any of that era's Fender 6L6 stuff IME - varies a lot on how far you have it up in relation to the sq. ft and how packed/bright the room is.

But again, I've always run the cleanest tubes money could buy on purpose in any 6L6 Fender - if I wanted breakup, I'd go with a 6V6 design (and I'm not a PT distortion guy, I guess).

[cheesecats]

I dunno, in my experience with a Twin there's still some spectacular tube compression that happens well before the amp breaks up, but at way-too-loud-for-practice volume (volume around 4-5 on mine I think). I've never used an attenuator and have no idea if that would help you get that at more reasonable volumes or not.

The magical zone is room presence and speaker cone distortion for any of that era's Fender 6L6 stuff IME - varies a lot on how far you have it up in relation to the sq. ft and how packed/bright the room is. But again, I've always run the cleanest tubes money could buy on purpose in any 6L6 Fender - if I wanted breakup, I'd go with a 6V6 design (and I'm not a PT distortion guy, I guess).

i agree that a twin sounds good at low volume levels, but i've experienced the phenomenon that friendship described--there's a bell-like tone that occurs in a sweet spot as he describes, usually at volumes that are quite loud in a smaller room. i've not been able to get this sound at lower volume levels.

[Gone Fission]

Yeah, with the Bandmaster, it wasn't bad at bedroom levels, it was just better if I could open it up a bit. Some of that may have been the JBL 10s I was using, which were really fucking bright at low volumes and kept some edge until really pushed, where they did sound glorious.