Fender Cyber-Twin SE

[Harley Hexxe]

Hey Gang,

            As a few of you know, I've been a fan of Fender amps since my early teens, and have owned and sold enough of them to stock the showroom of GC twice over.
           I've still kept a few of my old Fenders that I liked the most, which would be my 1973 Vibrolux Reverb, Two Twins, and 1971 & 1972, and a 400PS with three Fender cabs to go with it, loaded with JBL's and Altec speakers.
           On the more up-to-date side of Fender, I purchased a NOS Fender Cyber-Deluxe with a foot controller and paired it up with my '73 Vibrolux, which is one of the baddest sounding tone rigs I own. (Very happy with that one).
           Last September, I drove down to West (by God) Virginia and bought a Cyber-Twin SE, just because I've been curious about having one and what kind of tones I could coax out of an amp like that.
           As I stated in one of my posts about this amp, I wasn't impressed with the factory programmed sounds that were installed in it because they were thin and wimpy sounding, but I did manage to figure out how to make it sound more like a boss Twin should sound like by flipping one of the speakers out of phase. I've only had this amp out and messed with it about four times since I bought it.
           Saturday, I was watching a Youtube video by Ragdoll, and listening to the guitar tone on a song called "Break You."  Well, I pulled out the Cyber-Twin and did a little editing, and Wham Bam Thank you Ma'am, I nailed that tone in about 15 minutes! That rig was sounding SOOOOOO good, I wanted to keep playing all night!  I had to keep the Master Volume down around "1" because it was getting late, but had I cranked it up, I would have been peeling the plaster off the ceiling! That amp can ROAR!
           I think I'll be keeping this one. A little more time tweaking, and jamming on it, and it will be a killer combo amp that can hang with the best of them.
           I'm also thinking about taking the direct outs from this amp, and plugging them into my '71 & '72 Twins. What a rig that would be  :whoohoo!:

Harley 8)

[Dante]

Nice! Glad you're diggin the Cyber Twin. I monkeyed around with one at a pawn shop and fount it quick/easy to edit too, but too damn loud to sound 'full' in the store. Need to turn it up past 0.5

Haha

[rnolan]

Hey Harley  :whoohoo!: .  I like your idea with the direct outs into the 2 twins, it's going to be loud 

[Harley Hexxe]

Nice! Glad you're diggin the Cyber Twin. I monkeyed around with one at a pawn shop and fount it quick/easy to edit too, but too damn loud to sound 'full' in the store. Need to turn it up past 0.5

Haha

    Hey Dante,
        It is easy to dial in tones and such with the amp, what gets a bit tricky is when you try to dial in the effects. As I mentioned before, it's not as flexible as the Cyber-Deluxe in that respect. There are limited tweaking choices in the Twin when it comes to effect combinations. You can add and tweak single effects in this amp no problem, but combinations are preset and you can't do too much about that. However, I'm pretty sure I can live with that since there is also an effects loop that I can add effects pedals to. (Kind of defeats the concept behind the Cyber-Twin to begin with, doesn't it)?

Hey Harley  :whoohoo!: .  I like your idea with the direct outs into the 2 twins, it's going to be loud 

       Hey Richard,

             Getting loud is only part of the idea. The amp itself is already louder than a battlefield, but the idea I have about it is because of the stereo effects. You see, How much stereo separation can you get with a single 2x12 combo? But if I take the Direct outs and run each one to it's own amp, and separate them, that would give effects like ping-pong delays some air space to move through!
           I already experience this with the Cyber-Deluxe and Vibrolux rig. It's cool as heck when you have a good tone going that seems to fill the room at a volume that is not overbearing, but then, when you add stereo effects like chorus and/or delays, you almost "feel" the movement through the air. I place those combos on either side of the drum riser, and that's more than enough to play with spatial dimensions.

Harley 8)

[rnolan]

Hey Harley, either side of the riser will sound awesome  :headbanger: .  Decent space between amps (well speakers really) with a stereo set up really enhances the sound, if the cabs/speakers are to close they couple and also phase cancel etc.  Sounds like a great buy, lots of fun to be had  :whoohoo!:

[Dante]

That reminds me of Pete Townsend playing with two Twins onstage - pointing at his face, like monitors. They were set into the floor and tilted back. I can't imagine why he's friggin deaf. 

[Harley Hexxe]

Hey Harley, either side of the riser will sound awesome  :headbanger: .  Decent space between amps (well speakers really) with a stereo set up really enhances the sound, if the cabs/speakers are to close they couple and also phase cancel etc.  Sounds like a great buy, lots of fun to be had  :whoohoo!:

So true Richard,

          It is fun with that setup using two amps, but this setup will have three amps. I'm wondering how that will affect the stereo spread, with one amp in the center now. It'll be interesting when I try it just jamming alone, but it'll be a different matter in a band situation. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.
          Definitely a great buy, both of those amps. I suppose since you are paying for the Fender name, they are going to have to sound good. 

That reminds me of Pete Townsend playing with two Twins onstage - pointing at his face, like monitors. They were set into the floor and tilted back. I can't imagine why he's friggin deaf. 

Dante,

        When did Pete Townsend use Twins? I always heard he preferred British amps. I know when I first saw The Who, he was playing through HiWatt stacks, then later, when I saw them in '83, he was using Marshalls.
        It's alright though, hearing is over rated

Harley 8)

[Dante]

It was a solo tour, back in the 90s. He had center stage...I'll look for it

I can't find a picture of it, maybe it's a video. Here's a pic of him playing through some Vibroluxes in the early 2000s

[Harley Hexxe]

Hey Dante,

        I hate to tell you this Bro....those are not Vibroluxes. I think those are Vibro-Kings. A Vibrolux only has two 10" speakers and are not as tall as those. IIRC, those have three speakers in them, although they look like they would have four like a Super Reverb. Those were some of the ultra high end Fender tube amps they made in the 90's
       But it IS weird seeing Pete with Fender amps. It kind of looks like he was going for the same kind of tone-vibe that Keith Richards and Jeff Beck were getting when they grouped four Fender Combos together.

Harley 8)

[Dante]

You would know better than I

I totally refer to your opinion on all things Fender, no worries. That's just how it came up in search results, I take no responsibility for such claims, haha. I too am weirded out by Pete (aka, the guy who knew Jim Marshall personally) with a Fender lineup.

[rnolan]

IIRC he used Boogies for studio but not on stage as they are hard to dial in.  All the pics I've seen of Pete (which is not that many I spose) he was using Hi-Watts, not my favourite sounding amp.

[Harley Hexxe]

You would know better than I

I totally refer to your opinion on all things Fender, no worries. That's just how it came up in search results, I take no responsibility for such claims, haha. I too am weirded out by Pete (aka, the guy who knew Jim Marshall personally) with a Fender lineup.

         Thanks Dante, I have a lot of experience with Fender amps beginning in the early 70's

         Jim Marshall made it his business ( literally), to get to know all of the high profile guitar players in the 60's, of course, to help him promote his amplifiers.

         @ Richard: When I first saw The Who, Pete was playing through two Hi-Watt stacks. They were louder than F@*K! I think maybe that's why Robin Trower used them when he was with Procul Harum.  Pete was using four Marshall stacks when I saw him in the 80's...I still say hearing is over-rated

Harley 8)

[rnolan]

Loudest amp(s) I ever heard were Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs (1970's), Strauss (Warrior) amps made in Melbourne, 6 x KT 88s allegedly, Billy had 3 stacks, I was trying to crunch up the program leaflet and shove it in my ears.  The gig was at Newcastle (Australia) university in a lecture theater (all concrete). (https://www.ozvalveamps.org/strauss.htm).

[Harley Hexxe]

Loudest amp(s) I ever heard were Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs (1970's), Strauss (Warrior) amps made in Melbourne, 6 x KT 88s allegedly, Billy had 3 stacks, I was trying to crunch up the program leaflet and shove it in my ears.  The gig was at Newcastle (Australia) university in a lecture theater (all concrete). (https://www.ozvalveamps.org/strauss.htm).

You should get a load of my 400PS. There was never a bigger production tube amp anywhere. 6 x 6550's with one 6L6 for a driver.

Harley 8)

[MarshallJMP]

Harley, that 400PS looks like a beast, just had a look at the schematics, it seems you need to hook  speakers to each of the outputs to get the full output, or am I wrong? Looks like each jack has a switch that switches in a pair of 6550 tubes. Never saw a design like this. And like you said a 6L6 to drive a transformer that acts as a phase inverter.
That was interesting to look at, you learn something new every day  ;D