Well it's quite a common fact that Keith's live sound from 1989 untill now has been created with Fender Twins. Does the current Fender Custom '57 Twin-Amp Reissue come close to Keith's sound? [www.fender.com]

Thanks!

An intriguing question indeed mrrockandroll. Unfortunately I don't own one of these amps, nor have I heard one. I hope somebody here has one though. I bet they sound awesome!

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anyone? Mathijs????

Well the reissues have the same circuit, so you're in same the ball park.

....but they don't have/make the same caps and resistors and whatnot like in the ole days - so there they kicked the ball out of the park.
It's amazing how different caps and resistors sound.

Keith has some real old, low serial numberd Twins, like A-00003.
they've been worn in, serviced and repaired for the oompth time.
they've got mojo that you just can't rebuild in factorys, plus Fender will do this and that to reduce production costs.
what Fender calls poin-to-point wireing these days isn't the same like back then.

so it depends on how you define "close to Keith's sound".
you'll probably never archieve excatly that sound - but you can get the direction.

why are you asking? are you thinking of buying one yourself?

The reissue Twin will get you there 80%, but I feel that the Victoria 212 gets you there 95% -they are better build and made out of better components.

Tweed Twins are useless to mortals like us if you want that Keith sound. Turning a 80 watt Twin to ten will leave the audience of a 400 seater with bleeding ears. It's just way too loud.

Mathijs

I was lucky enough to inherit a 1966 blackface super reverb a few weeks back
With the Tele through that and my eyes closed it sounds really close to some KR magic.

I didn't think the twin sounds as KR as the Vibroverb reissue to my ears, even though I'm not sure he ever played a Vibroverb. What amp is used on the Let It Loose intro and rhythm? The VVerb recreates that almost identically with the proper Tele setup...


The sound of the "How I Wish" intro still somewhat eludes me. Once I get that I'll be pretty dialed in.

> Tweed Twins are useless to mortals like us if you
> want that Keith sound. Turning a 80 watt Twin to
> ten will leave the audience of a 400 seater with
> bleeding ears. It's just way too loud.
>
> Mathijs



Can't you put a powerbrake/loadbox between the amp and its speaker???

Just out of curiosity: What is the Keith sound? His sound has really changed very very much fram 1989 till nowadays. listen to the Steel Wheels shows through the tours since then. It's really amazing hvow different he sounds. I think much thanks to his use of different guitars. That's also part of hos the band is still sounding interesting, the way they change the songs arrangements and the sound of the guitars.

Well I thought the best sound he had was when he was using Ampeg on the '69 tour. Lots of bite.

mrrockandroll Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > Tweed Twins are useless to mortals like us if
> you
> > want that Keith sound. Turning a 80 watt Twin
> to
> > ten will leave the audience of a 400 seater
> with
> > bleeding ears. It's just way too loud.
> >
> > Mathijs
>
>
>
> Can't you put a powerbrake/loadbox between the amp
> and its speaker???

Yes you can. I use a 'volume box' with my Fender Deville which is not as loud as a twin but still pretty loud. It will only set you back $10 and allows you to really push the tubes but without ear-bleed volume.

[cgi.ebay.com]

Roll73 Wrote:

> Yes you can. I use a 'volume box' with my Fender
> Deville which is not as loud as a twin but still
> pretty loud. It will only set you back $10 and
> allows you to really push the tubes but without
> ear-bleed volume.

Also very easy to make one yourself: [www.fortunecity.com]

There are some good and valid points made in this thread with respect to an exact replication of "Keith's sound".
Those points accepted, with a good pair of ears and the appropriate guitar you can get pretty close with most Fender 6L6 based designs or similar.
The modern Fender Blues or Hot Rod amps do a remarkably good job for the money...especially with the right choice of tubes and speakers.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-10-24 19:13 by Spud.

Spud Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There are some good and valid points made in this
> thread with respect to an exact relication of
> "Keith's sound".
> Those points accepted, with a good pair of ears
> and the appropriate guitar you can get pretty
> close with most Fender 6L6 based designs or
> similar.
> The modern Fender Blues or Hot Rod amps do a
> remarkably good job for the money...especially
> with the right choice of tubes and speakers.


That's an interesting point. Which tubes and speakers do you think are best in say, the Hot Rod or Blues Deville? I don't own either at the moment but I was thinking of buying one or the other sometime soon...

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Try a Celestion Lead 80 Speaker, some JJ ECC83s preamp tubes and some TAD 6L6WGC power tubes. [NOS Philips 6L6WBG tubes are also great if you can source them and not yet silly money].