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Post subject: 1st gen. Cyber Twin: diff. sound after exchanging encoder?
Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 11:01 pm
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Hi folks!

You might remember that I mentioned the irrational behaviour of the big preset selector wheel on my first generation Cyber Twin?

Well, I sent it in for a repair (no official Fender maintenance shop!) and had the tubes changed as well.

Dispite the sloppy maintenance job (rear tube rattling because it wasn't plugged in properly, a loose part of wire sticking to the speaker magnet, one nut was not tightened on a rear input and a second one was flying around in the rear opening of the case, including the shim!!), they also did not inform me about the tubes being bad (I had bought them new and sent them in together with the amp) but sent the amp back to me with no output at all. :evil:

Well, my guitar shop was sorry about the sloppy job and they quickly changed the tubes back to the old ones, which are still in perfect shape.
I just wanted to change from 12ax7s to 12au7s to reduce noise and achieve a warmer crunch tone, following an advice from different forums.

Anyhow, the new tubes were busted and now I've got the previous 12ax7s back in.

Assuming that the same tubes would also sound the same, I was very surprised that the sound of the amp has drastically changed!!
It sounded gritty and somehow scratchy when I used my presets which I had stored earlier.

It took me quite a while to adjust my presets again, reducing treble and mids down to 1 to 2!!

It also seems that the amp is distorting earlier than before (on crunch settings).

Overall the sound is a little less chimey, a little less "fenderish".

The missbehaving preset wheel was induced by a faulty encoder, which had to be exchanged during the repair. Now it works perfectly fine instead of jumping irretically to any preset.

Now, here's my question to you electronics freaks:
if tubes, presets, cables, guitar etc. is all the same as before (preset values/settings haven't been changed), could it be that the sound changes just by exchanging the encoder? :?:

Does the encoder have to have certain electronical values and maybe they used one with the wrong values? Or used a third party one??


I'm a complete electronics-idiot, so I don't know.

And yes, I have complained and am waiting for some kind of refund/make good for all the trouble.
The problem is: sound is a very subjective topic and it's hard to explain, in which way (or at all) the sound has changed. They simply say "we've just exchanged the encoder". :evil:
I can complain about loose parts and crap flying around in my amp but they can't evalue the changed sound since they don't know my amp as well as I do.

Fact is to me: my Cyber Twin is not my Cyber Twin anymore and I'm p***** off as hell.
Even my wife (she's not a musician but has heard my Twin a lot) noticed, that the sound has changed! :(

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Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!


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Post subject: Re: 1st gen. Cyber Twin: diff. sound after exchanging encode
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2012 6:51 am
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Can you be sure that the tubes are the same originals, and not some other replacements that they had laying around? Considering the sloppy job, what is the likelihood that they kept your old tubes, and didn't throw them away, or put them in a pile of other used tubes?

I would think that a new encoder would be the same as the old as far as function, and have absolutely no affect on sound, but it's possible that something is different here. It is certainly much easier to try some known good 12AX7s to see if it's just the tubes. Typically, tubes should be the first suspect in most cases of poor sound.

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Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.


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Post subject: Re: 1st gen. Cyber Twin: diff. sound after exchanging encode
Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 6:46 am
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shimmilou wrote:
Can you be sure that the tubes are the same originals, and not some other replacements that they had laying around?


No, I can't! :(

It says FENDER on them, that's all I can say.

I told them to not discard the old but still good tubes and send them back to me with the amp.

They certainly had put in my delivered 12au7s at first but there's no way I can ensure that the two 12ax7s are my original ones.

You might be right! Considering their sloppy job with the repair, they might have as well sent ANY 12ax7s back to me. :evil:

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Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!


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Post subject: Re: 1st gen. Cyber Twin: diff. sound after exchanging encode
Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 7:29 pm
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I would try some new 12AX7s just to see if it's the tubes. The encoder just basically outputs a different number, in code form, at each selected position, by selecting different contacts that are "read" by the amp as a particular number depending on the position of the dial (if a contact type of wheel). This number should be the same even if a new encoder is used, and would not affect the sound, but merely tells the amp which preset that you have selected. As long as the correct preset is selected, the encoder is working. The preset itself is what affects the sound, and the encoder just selects which preset is used.

Otherwise, it is possible that something else was not done correctly during the "repair", but the encoder should not have any affect on the sound. In fact, it's quite possible that the encoder contacts can simply be cleaned if the encoder is acting up (again, if a contact type).

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.


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Post subject: Re: 1st gen. Cyber Twin: diff. sound after exchanging encode
Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2012 11:47 am
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Thank you, shimmilou!
I contacted them again but have gotten no reply yet.

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Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!


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