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Post subject: advice? : new Twin Reverb vs used Vibro King
Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 10:22 pm
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Have been looking for a Fender amp, play surf, and jazz rhythm guitar, some rock, has come down to:

-new Twin reverb; I have played about 6 of these recently and most of them sound "harsh", but one of them sings more and is "less harsh", can get it for $1250 total

- 8 year old Vibro King (blonde tolex model); was played for ~10 hours at time of purchase, and then sat in a room for all those remaining years (Really is true! and sure looks unused); $2100 total

Twin sounds real good for surf, can tell VK has a lot of tonal possibilities. Already have a Deluxe Reverb reissue (ltd edition with the Jensen P12Q in it, and like it for jazz rhythm)

What say you loungers?

Craig H


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Post subject: Re: advice? : new Twin Reverb vs used Vibro King
Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 11:13 pm
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For $1250 you can buy a real Twin Reverb.

Why flush that money away on a re-issue?

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


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Post subject: Re: advice? : new Twin Reverb vs used Vibro King
Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 8:26 am
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I've had both of those amps. If you think the Twin is heavy, try picking up that Vibro King. It's an anchor.

I bought the VK for surf, thinking that the "built-in" reverb unit would get the surf tone. The reverb is very nice, but not the same as a stand-alone unit between the guitar and amp. Headroom was also an issue. It's a good quality amp for other genre's, just not the optimum surf amp (pretty much the consensus as well at SG101).

The Twin will do surf well. I actually put two Neo's into mine, which lightens the weight to about 53 pounds.
Tone is subjective, but I like the Neo's better than the stock speakers (with comparable break-in time).

However, I don't think that my modern Twin sounds as good as the vintage ones that I've heard. A lot of variables in that, obviously.

Best of luck.


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Post subject: Re: advice? : new Twin Reverb vs used Vibro King
Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 9:35 am
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Retroverbial wrote:
For $1250 you can buy a real Twin Reverb.

Why flush that money away on a re-issue?

Arjay


You can find find SF Twins for $600-700 all day long. The reissues sound harsh most likely because they bias everything so cold out of the factory. I put my money on the real deal. I lugged a 76 Twin around for over 30 years with no failures or problems. It was seriously gigged too. I sold it with most of the original tubes still in it.

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Post subject: Re: advice? : new Twin Reverb vs used Vibro King
Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 5:08 pm
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+1000, Supro!

They built them to last back then.

8)

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: advice? : new Twin Reverb vs used Vibro King
Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 10:12 am
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Those nice amps need a carrier or a spare spine ! 8) That's may be the price to pay to have the sound.

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Post subject: Re: advice? : new Twin Reverb vs used Vibro King
Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 11:19 pm
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Everybody above thanks for weighing in, I bought a Fender amp last night and here is what happened:

Found a guy in local craigslist unloading several vintage Fender amps, tested with CShop Strat and Johnny Marr Jag:

-1967 TR blackface with orig transformers, some new caps, resistors and tubes; speakers replaced with JBL K120s, cosmetically good, new grill fabric, casters added

-1967 Pro Reverb blackface, orig tfs, newer tubes, newer Jensen C12Ns, cosmetically ok, new grill fabric

-1968 Pro Reverb silverface with BF circuitry, orig just about everything, faceplate and metal grill frame beat up.

Tones:

TR- loud, body thumping power, good surf tones, need to turn it up to 7 to start to get the better tones and it was getting pretty loud there. But I would say this TR took more to get loud and does not break up as much as others. Are those K120s relatively inefficient compared to other 12inchers that get plugged into TRs? could be other factors

67 PR- WOW! gets loud fast, real clean and in your face with superb overtones. Starts breakup at 5. From what I have experienced to be Fender Blackface tones, these are the most Fendery BF sounds I have ever heard. TR sounded boxy compared to the openess of the PR

68 PR- did not like it, it yelled abrasively

So per above I was after a TR and this was the best TR I tried, but I walked out with the 67 PR. This PR sounds like some great Super Revs I have heard but with more solid bass and cleaner, smoother breakup.


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Post subject: Re: advice? : new Twin Reverb vs used Vibro King
Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 11:35 pm
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Pics......we need pics!

Congrats on the new amp.

8)

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


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Post subject: Re: advice? : new Twin Reverb vs used Vibro King
Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 8:43 pm
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Arjay, thanks and I just tried for 40min to plug images (I made 7 fotos) into this reply. Read the FAQ and had my wife try to help, all to no avail. Any advice? I dont have a publically available website to go to, but I thought I should be able to paste images in or at least list a set of openable .jpg files.

Cleaned up the dust, tightened screws, checked tube insertion, then snapped the fotos.


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Post subject: Re: advice? : new Twin Reverb vs used Vibro King
Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 8:49 pm
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Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2010 8:07 pm
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send the pics to me... brianmayeux@yahoo.com

I will post them...

If you are not willing to to that, upload them to photobucket and past the
path like so

[img]path[/img]

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