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Post subject: Cyber twin 1.3 with new tubes
Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 4:52 pm
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My son says this is #5, I think this makes four cyber twins I've owned now.
couldnt pass it up, Chicago craigs list for 350 and i gave the guy an extra 20 and he delivered it.

I had never pulled one apart, however this one had a nasty microphonic sounding pre amp tube, I pulled the chassis out and it was very easy compared to what I've read.

Long story and I'll try to get to the point, the tubes were yellow labeled 12AX7 R's
Groove Tubes (DUH !!!) with a huge figure eight vibration dampner around the metal shields, the sheilds also had some type of foam in them, must be a huge vibration problem with these !!!

Any way I stuck two Tung-Sol Reissue 12AX7's in there.

The sound improvement was unbelievable, warmed up the tone and made the overdrive much more pleasing to the ear.
I would still love to get rid of the metal covers to see if it would improve the tone as it did in my DRRI when I chucked them out.
Afraid they might vibrate to death in that 130 watt monster.

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Post subject: Re: Cyber twin 1.3 with new tubes
Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 5:46 pm
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If it has steel glides on the bottom, you may want to change them out for some large rubber feet. This may help dampen the vibration of the amp cabinet when its playing loud on very hard/solid surfaces.


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Post subject: Re: Cyber twin 1.3 with new tubes
Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 6:29 pm
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It has me wondering what a pair of decent speakers might do for the sound of these amps ???

One Red White and Blues and one Swamp Thang maybe ?

Still hard to believe fender put such cheap crap in a $1300.00 amp.

The tubes helped a ton !! I'm betting the speakers will make a new amp out of it, since i promissed my son not to sell this one, i guess I'll have a little fun with it.

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Keepn' the Blues Alive

2004 50th Ann. Limited edition AMSE Stratocaster
2017 50's Baja Telecaster BSB

1968 Bandmaster with 2X12 cab C-rex speakers
VHT Special 6 Ultra combo

Visual Sound Route 66
Cmatmods Signa Drive


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Post subject: Re: Cyber twin 1.3 with new tubes
Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 7:20 pm
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blues bondsman wrote:
My son says this is #5, I think this makes four cyber twins I've owned now.
couldnt pass it up, Chicago craigs list for 350 and i gave the guy an extra 20 and he delivered it.

I had never pulled one apart, however this one had a nasty microphonic sounding pre amp tube, I pulled the chassis out and it was very easy compared to what I've read.

Long story and I'll try to get to the point, the tubes were yellow labeled 12AX7 R's
Groove Tubes (DUH !!!) with a huge figure eight vibration dampner around the metal shields, the sheilds also had some type of foam in them, must be a huge vibration problem with these !!!

Any way I stuck two Tung-Sol Reissue 12AX7's in there.

The sound improvement was unbelievable, warmed up the tone and made the overdrive much more pleasing to the ear.
I would still love to get rid of the metal covers to see if it would improve the tone as it did in my DRRI when I chucked them out.
Afraid they might vibrate to death in that 130 watt monster.

I never really like those R sovtek tubes, i yanked mine out:)


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Post subject: Re: Cyber twin 1.3 with new tubes
Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:21 pm
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Instant removal of a lot of unwanted noise.
The stock tubes were junk !
Wonder if anyone else has tried new speakers in one ???

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Keepn' the Blues Alive

2004 50th Ann. Limited edition AMSE Stratocaster
2017 50's Baja Telecaster BSB

1968 Bandmaster with 2X12 cab C-rex speakers
VHT Special 6 Ultra combo

Visual Sound Route 66
Cmatmods Signa Drive


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Post subject: Re: Cyber twin 1.3 with new tubes
Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 1:05 pm
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If you really want to experiment, try using 12AU7's or 12AT7's. I did this with my CT SE and what a difference it made, especially with the factory presets. By lowering the gain in the tubes, you can crank the volume more and get the speaker(s) to really come alive. I found this information on another forum and decided to give it a try. I purchased some vintage 12AU7's and 12AT7's (GE, Tung-Sol and RCA) from eBay. I tried different variations. I settled for a 12AU7 in #1 and a 12AT7 in #2. What a difference in tone and overall sound.

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Post subject: Re: Cyber twin 1.3 with new tubes
Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 3:53 pm
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It is a bit of a pain to swap out tubes on the original Ct such as the one I have, I do have 12At7's, 5751's and many other pre amp tubes to try.

But I'm pretty sure the tung-sol 12AX7's I installed helped the overall sound about 50%, still have to wonder what using a more "Fender sounding" speaker would do for the amp settings, and just how much it might upset the balance of the non fender sounds.

I'm thinking about one red white and blues and one swamp thang to sort of balance out the warm tones and the highs.

All in all its fun to mess around with the CT's, they knock the socks off of any other modeling amp's I've tried so far.

I just bet that a better speaker set will liven up the whole package

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Keepn' the Blues Alive

2004 50th Ann. Limited edition AMSE Stratocaster
2017 50's Baja Telecaster BSB

1968 Bandmaster with 2X12 cab C-rex speakers
VHT Special 6 Ultra combo

Visual Sound Route 66
Cmatmods Signa Drive


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Post subject: Re: Cyber twin 1.3 with new tubes
Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 5:49 pm
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I have both the original CT v1.3 (Head and Cab) and the CT SE combo. The SE is definitely easier to work with, especially changing the tubes. I can honestly tell you that the playing around with the tube setup was an absolute delight. I picked a preset, played a progression and recorded it. I then started the tube swapping and recorded each instance with the same preset. It was amazing how it mellowed out the presets and made them so much more "musical". Don't get me wrong, I like 12AX7's in other tube amps that I have like my Fender The Twin, Hot Rod, Reverend Hellhound, 66 Princeton, but on the CT with the different presets and sound tweaks, the amp came alive with lesser gain pre-amp tubes.
I haven't done a speaker swap. I don't really have any issue with the ones that are stock. I am thinking about taking the chassis out of the SE and putting into the original CT head. The SE into the 4x12 Showman Cabinet is really sweet.

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Post subject: Re: Cyber twin 1.3 with new tubes
Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:33 pm
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Next time I pull the chassis, i'll try a 5751 in the first socket to see what it will do.

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Keepn' the Blues Alive

2004 50th Ann. Limited edition AMSE Stratocaster
2017 50's Baja Telecaster BSB

1968 Bandmaster with 2X12 cab C-rex speakers
VHT Special 6 Ultra combo

Visual Sound Route 66
Cmatmods Signa Drive


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Profile
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