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Thread: Audio sample: Why does my Twin distort that much, worn out tubes?

  1. #1
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    Audio sample: Why does my Twin distort that much, worn out tubes?

    Greetings everyone,

    I am new to the forum and looking for advice about my Twin Reverb amp. The thing is that I would like to record off of it in my home studio but of course it is way too loud to get some tube saturation (please excuse me if I'm using some vocabulary wrong, not a native speaker). So I bought a two-notes torpedo captor 4 Ohm attenuator to experiment. I have connected the amp to the attenuator and from there I am going directly into my interface via the attenuator's DI output with some generic cabinet emulation (I think it should be a classic Marshall 4x12, please forgive me my sins).

    Now my problem with all this is that my Twin gets into overdrive unexpectedly hard. For starters, I dialed in the magic six setting and without any further equipment than my guitar I am going straight for snarky early AC/DC sounds. It just gets clean'ish again when I'm going half volume on my guitar or turn the amp down to 2-3.

    I know the attenuator is supposed to get a amp into overdrive faster, but I did not expect this much from the Twin. After all, this should be the one tube amp that stays clean most of the time, right? I have to add that I used it only for mild shenanigans until now (rehearsal room and at home), so its volume has been at 2-3 for the most time of the last years.

    So the question is: Are the tubes most likely worn out and need some changing? I've never had the opportunity to run the amp that loud like I have now with the attenuator. I like the saturation it gets and feel like I am in the right spot with it if it were not for the strange overdrive and snarkyness. If you could confirm my hunch before I invest 350 € in a new set of tubes, that would be great. If this is how a Twin should sound at the stated settings, then I am fine with it as well. It is just my lack of experience that makes me uncertain.

    It would be very helpful for my if you guys could listen to my demo footage that I put in my onedrive. It shows all the snarkyness the amp displays even with some mild arpeggios and other stuff. The link is as follows: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AhU0I228F8GZg7Ad...f8Wtw?e=idEvu2

    I used the following equipment for the recording:
    Guitar: Eastwood Airline, treble pickup, volume and tone at max (I've encountered the problem with four different guitars though)
    Amp: 40th Anniversary 65 Twin 230v from September of 2005 (blonde tolex)
    Amp settings: Vibrato channel, bright on, vol 6, tre 6, mid 3, bass 2, no reverb or tremolo; I did encounter the same problems on the normal channel too
    Effects: none, directly into amp
    Attenuator: Two-Notes Torpedo Captor 4 Ohm (DI out with Guitar cabinet emulation, silent recording mode without cabinet connected, straight into the interface)

    If it would be of any use, I could set up different samples as well and I would gladly do so, if it helps.

    Have a great day,
    Ray

  2. #2
    Forum Member dirtdog's Avatar
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    Re: Audio sample: Why does my Twin distort that much, worn out tubes?

    Quote Originally Posted by Rayspekt View Post
    Greetings everyone,

    I am new to the forum and looking for advice about my Twin Reverb amp. The thing is that I would like to record off of it in my home studio but of course it is way too loud to get some tube saturation (please excuse me if I'm using some vocabulary wrong, not a native speaker). So I bought a two-notes torpedo captor 4 Ohm attenuator to experiment. I have connected the amp to the attenuator and from there I am going directly into my interface via the attenuator's DI output with some generic cabinet emulation (I think it should be a classic Marshall 4x12, please forgive me my sins).

    Now my problem with all this is that my Twin gets into overdrive unexpectedly hard. For starters, I dialed in the magic six setting and without any further equipment than my guitar I am going straight for snarky early AC/DC sounds. It just gets clean'ish again when I'm going half volume on my guitar or turn the amp down to 2-3.

    I know the attenuator is supposed to get a amp into overdrive faster, but I did not expect this much from the Twin. After all, this should be the one tube amp that stays clean most of the time, right? I have to add that I used it only for mild shenanigans until now (rehearsal room and at home), so its volume has been at 2-3 for the most time of the last years.

    So the question is: Are the tubes most likely worn out and need some changing? I've never had the opportunity to run the amp that loud like I have now with the attenuator. I like the saturation it gets and feel like I am in the right spot with it if it were not for the strange overdrive and snarkyness. If you could confirm my hunch before I invest 350 € in a new set of tubes, that would be great. If this is how a Twin should sound at the stated settings, then I am fine with it as well. It is just my lack of experience that makes me uncertain.

    It would be very helpful for my if you guys could listen to my demo footage that I put in my onedrive. It shows all the snarkyness the amp displays even with some mild arpeggios and other stuff. The link is as follows: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AhU0I228F8GZg7Ad...f8Wtw?e=idEvu2

    I used the following equipment for the recording:
    Guitar: Eastwood Airline, treble pickup, volume and tone at max (I've encountered the problem with four different guitars though)
    Amp: 40th Anniversary 65 Twin 230v from September of 2005 (blonde tolex)
    Amp settings: Vibrato channel, bright on, vol 6, tre 6, mid 3, bass 2, no reverb or tremolo; I did encounter the same problems on the normal channel too
    Effects: none, directly into amp
    Attenuator: Two-Notes Torpedo Captor 4 Ohm (DI out with Guitar cabinet emulation, silent recording mode without cabinet connected, straight into the interface)

    If it would be of any use, I could set up different samples as well and I would gladly do so, if it helps.

    Have a great day,
    Ray
    Just confirming that you heard that sound coming from the amp before it was recorded? Specifically, trying to determine that it's not clipping we're hearing from the recording process you used?

  3. #3
    Forum Member DanTheBluesMan's Avatar
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    Re: Audio sample: Why does my Twin distort that much, worn out tubes?

    try it once at volume with the speakers, but at a reasonable time of day and beg forgiveness from your neighbors

    kind of dumb question but why are you trying for tube distortion from a Twin if you say you know they have the reputation of clean all the way up? Is there any reason why you need to turn the amp up that much to record silently?

    Basically what I'm saying, from your post, is that you are getting AC/DC type tones from an amp that never was meant to be like that. That's what Marshall amps are for :)
    "Live and learn and flip the burns"

  4. #4
    Forum Member Offshore Angler's Avatar
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    Re: Audio sample: Why does my Twin distort that much, worn out tubes?

    The Twin sound I think you're looking for is overdrive. That's coming from the power section not the preamp. The preamp on a Twin is pretty clean.

    So for home recording - I have to ask- why are you using a Twin? Why not just buy a PODxt or similar inexpensive modeler? Or maybe an inexpensive modeling amp. It will sound great and have the advantage of using stereo on time-based effects. Unless you have an iso cab, a really good ribbon mic and some other expensive goodies chances are you won't get as good a recorded sound as direct out from a modeler. Trust me, I have tried. I can record a Twin very well, but the setup and teardown and expensive gear required and the constant bleed over issues with the rest of the instruments ain't worth the effort when you can so easily model one now.

    Plus, you can record the dry signal and later re-amp it when you change your mind on what sound you want.

    A quick solution for you would be to take the clean Twin output and put it into one channel, use that channel input to another channel and then add effects to that channel. You'll get the Twin "cut" with some nice OD on the driven channel. Adding crap onto an amp to make it something it isn't rarely works IMHO.

    Chuck
    "No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim

  5. #5
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    Re: Audio sample: Why does my Twin distort that much, worn out tubes?

    First of all, thank you for your replies.

    I can confirm that it's no issues with the recording setup.

    Regarding DanTheBluesMan's comment: I'm aware that Marshall amps are for that ACDC sound I described. That's exactly the point that keeps my wondering if something is wrong with my amp. I crank the amp of to six to get that warm clean sound you get out of a tube amp. It's not about getting into overdrive, just to get the tubes working. For comparison: I don't want that thin sound you'd get when you play the amp at 1-2 vol or so.

    Regarding Offshore Angler's comment: I'm not looking for an overdrive sound. That's not the purpose of my post. With the current state I have no problem getting ACDC or GnR Sound. I'd like to know if my tubes are worn out or anything. Aside from my issue I'm very fond of the torpedo captor attenuator I'm using. I went that way rather than buying a POD or a modeling amp because I already have my Twin and would like to record our songs with the "real" equipment I'm using and not some replacement, if you know what I mean. Aside from the behaviour the amp exposes now under certain circumstances, I'm really fond of the recording quality itself.

    So to move back to the issue itself: Can you confirm (or deny) that with the presented a twin would break up like in the audio sample? For now, I get decent blues tones with a brightOn-vol6-tre4,5-mid5-bass3 setup and my Guitar on RhythmPU and volume at 3 to make up for the distorting amp, but I think I'm missing a lot of clean headroom the Twin should have.

  6. #6
    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: Audio sample: Why does my Twin distort that much, worn out tubes?

    I have to admit that I have never played a Twin with the volume on 6* and don't have a device like the Captor to try it if I had one, but that clipping does not sound right for a Twin. I'd look for videos of cranked Twins to see if yours sounds normal.

    It could also be that the amp is fine and the Captor is adding a weird artifact to the sound. Do you have ear plugs and a few minutes at home alone to try the amp cranked up to 6 with no attenuation?

    *I have a Vibrolux Reverb and had a Super Reverb and they sounded awesome at 6, nothing like your clip.

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