Taming a 60w Fender

ICBM

shaunm said:

What wattage is the perfect gigging valve amp? The DDRI?

You would think so in volume terms, but it depends what you need them for… I find they don't take heavy distortion sounds very well - they fart out at a lower volume than their own natural overdrive sound and sound too compressed.

I prefer the Vibrolux or Pro Reverb at 35-40W, they have more solidity to the sound, even though you then can't get them to overdrive by themselves.

shaunm

So is there a fender that has good typical fender cleans (so not a tweed) and can be pushed into natural amp Drive at normal pub gig volume?

Travisthedog

I reckon the bassbreaker 007

ICBM

shaunm said:

So is there a fender that has good typical fender cleans (so not a tweed) and can be pushed into natural amp Drive at normal pub gig volume?

Yes, Princeton Reverb.

Travisthedog said:

I reckon the bassbreaker 007

I tried one. Absolutely awful-sounding thing, all overcompressed mud and no typical Fender clarity whatever. The only Fender valve amp I've tried that I liked less than the Blues Junior.

shaunm

I’m not sure that a Princeton would cut it in a live situation for me in a two guitar band playing rocky stuff. I struggled with a 18 watt tweed and 18 Marshall 

Travisthedog

22w supersonic 

ICBM

shaunm said:

I’m not sure that a Princeton would cut it in a live situation for me in a two guitar band playing rocky stuff. I struggled with a 18 watt tweed and 18 Marshall 

In that case a Deluxe, or possibly a Vibrolux.

cbellanga

What about replacing the speaker with something less efficient?

DJH83004

SF Vibrolux reverb with 2 x 10" Legend 1028Ks, being 6L6, it has all drive you should need, more than my SF Deluxe reverb in fact. 

Telejester

Travisthedog said:

I reckon the bassbreaker 007

If you want an undynamic , bassy, farty mess then the bassbreaker 7w is ideal

Travisthedog

Telejester said:

Travisthedog said:

I reckon the bassbreaker 007

If you want an undynamic , bassy, farty mess then the bassbreaker 7w is ideal

Ha ha 

Dominic

bite the bullet and get a Carr Rambler 

shaunm

@ICBM on the Supersonic if you run a patch cable in the fx loop you can turn the volume up or down using the send and receive knobs. If I did this in reverse and had the volume low via the fx loop but the master high on the amp would this damage my amp at all?

ICBM

shaunm said:

@ICBM on the Supersonic if you run a patch cable in the fx loop you can turn the volume up or down using the send and receive knobs. If I did this in reverse and had the volume low via the fx loop but the master high on the amp would this damage my amp at all?

No, definitely not.

The only thing to avoid with FX loops is too much gain boost - usually overdrive/distortion/fuzz pedals or external amp-type preamps, which can sometimes make the main amp unstable. (If you're using an external preamp you can run it into the FX return as long as it's not also connected to the send).