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Author
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Topic: Fender 63 RI reverb unit killing tone before amp
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Steve Walz
Member From: USA
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posted 28 November 2006 02:21 PM
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I'm playing through a 63 RI reverb unit on the way to my 59' RI bassman. I changed the bassman to a single 15 altec 421-B and I changed the OT to an 8ohm. It works great for steel and the tone is so nice.But, when I run the reverb before the amp, the tone gets sucked out. I run the guitar straight and the tone comes back. I changed out the 6V6 with an old GE and I changed out the 12AX7 with a good old tube. It helped a bit but not enough. I didn't change out the 12AT. I didn't have another right there. The tone of the reverb effect isn't the issue. I don't need to change the pan. I really only use a bit of reverb anyway. The issue is that the unit is losing the good tone that I like. I have read of a tone cap change but the directions say that it changes the tone of the reverb effect where I want to clean up the overall tone of the unit or I don't know what to call it but I want the unit to not remove any good tone. It doesn't seem to matter if I turn the reverb signal down, the unit is still stealing tone. I'm thinking that I could jumper out of the second imput of the bright channel of the amp, into the reverb unit and out into the normal channel of the amp. I would add reverb by increasing the volume of the normal channel. That way I would keep the good tone of the amp run direct and then i wouldn't worry about the reverb unit stealing tone. Ideas about what might be the problem? BTW...the sound of this amp is great. It is better than my slightly modded vibrosonic. It's just a very warm natural sounding amp. It sounds great at low volumes where the Vibrosonic doesn't really get a good sound until it is cranked which is pretty loud. Steve |
Michael Brebes
Member From: Northridge CA
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posted 29 November 2006 09:15 AM
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That's normal operation for the old Fender standalone reverbs. If you don't like it , then I would recommend getting a reverb pedal, like the Boss RV3. |
Bob Knight
Member From: Bowling Green KY
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posted 29 November 2006 09:34 AM
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Steve,
I'll trade you a Boss RV-3 for it.  |
Donny Hinson
Member From: Balto., Md. U.S.A.
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posted 30 November 2006 09:28 AM
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Are you keeping the cords as short as possible? Using another 8 feet of cable (especially an inferior grade) to hook up an accesory anything can degrade your tone.Back in the day (when I was using them), the Gibson stand-alone reverb unit was far better sounding than the Fender. |
Steve Walz
Member From: USA
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posted 30 November 2006 10:07 AM
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I have heard that the cable could be the problem. I'm going to try the shortest cables that I can get or use those George L's to size. I also heard the 6V6 can be changed to a 6K6 but I think that will change the effect tone more than the overall. I'll try it tonight and see how it works. Steve |
William Clark
Member From: Chicago, IL USA
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posted 30 November 2006 08:41 PM
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Steve: You may try playing with your settings. One trick that my old Amp Tech taught me was to put the dwell and tone on 10 and put the mix on 3 or 4 depending how much reverb. Those settings give the tank a nice tight sound without sounding too boingy or surfy. If you get the mix above 3 or 4 it just sounds mushy. He showed me this trick years ago and I haven't touched my settings since. Also, your Bassman rig sounds like it would be pretty awesome! |
Bob Carlucci
Member From: Candor, New York, USA
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posted 02 December 2006 08:58 AM
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I had the same problem as you... My RI Fender Reverb sucked tone and sounded awful,,, I went and bought an ORIGINAL 1963 Fender Reverb unit for BIG$$$$$$$.. It had a much nicer reverb sound but sucked all the life out of the amp... I sold it within a few weeks, bought a Holy Grail Reverb and NO MORE tone suckage and the reverb sound is wondeful, indistinguishable from a Fender Reverb... If you want to stick with the Fender Tube Reverb, you may need an effects loop... It may sound better than running it into the input...I would try it through an amp that has a loop built in and see if the tone suck resolves.... bob |
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