Anyone have experience with these? How does it compare to your typical '70s Twin tone wise?

Assume I'm a powerlifter and weight isn't an issue.

I think this was meant to be the house amp, and only ever move by being rolled on casters to different positions onstage.

It's from the era of cheap cabinet construction in Fenders, although even those tend to hold up tolerably.

If you have golden ears, it may sound a tiny bit different than a Twin due to having four speakers in parallel instead of two - more parallel can seem more damped, supposedly.

I played with a guy who had one. It sounded like a Twin. I don't think we ever played a single show where he turned it up anywhere close to what it could do.

My first "good" amp was a quad. I bought it in 94 for $300 when silverface Fenders were almost free and had it for about 20 years. It is very twin like, but having 2 extra 12s gives you a more low frequency rounded sound with a little less focus. It seems quieter than a twin and a little more tonally mellow, though plenty capable of offering the twin reverb "way too bright" sound. Its a 70's silverface, so all silverface things apply. Mine was a pull out master, a thing I still don't know why it exists. I actually really liked it for recording Bass at super quiet volumes using an Oktava mk012 or a LDC super close to the speaker. It was never a great amp for recording guitar. I always felt like dispersing the power across 4 speakers gave it a scooped mid range that isn't as apparent on a twin. I sold it to my boss when I moved to Portland because I just didn't have room for it any more. I miss it purely due to nostalgia, but never the sound or back aches.

I voted crap because it's a ball-buster. Sounds like a Twin Reverb though, if that's your thing. I like all 85-watt Twins, but I'd almost always rather have a Pro Reverb.

40w Pro Reverb > 85w Twin Reverb > 100w Twin Reverb > 70w Pro Reverb > 100w Quad Reverb > 100w Super Six > 135w Twin Reverb

tommy wrote: 40w Pro Reverb > 85w Twin Reverb > 100w Twin Reverb > 70w Pro Reverb > 100w Quad Reverb > 100w Super Six > 135w Twin Reverb

Everything past the first 2 sound like dumb amps that no longer need to exist.

penningtron wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 10:02 am

tommy wrote: 40w Pro Reverb > 85w Twin Reverb > 100w Twin Reverb > 70w Pro Reverb > 100w Quad Reverb > 100w Super Six > 135w Twin Reverb

Everything past the first 2 sound like dumb amps that no longer need to exist.

Mostly agree aside from the few random Silverface Twins that I have run into that sounded fantastic. For the most part, I'm not interested in amps with more than one speaker at all any more, and would argue that a Deluxe tops all those. A buddy had a Super 6 and not only did it sound like total shit, it was like moving a small refrigerator around. I also knew a guy that had a Silverface Super reverb that had been modded for a single 15" and it was one of the best sounding amps I've ever heard if you like drippy reverb and super clean amps, which I do.

The 70/135 watt stuff is for country and reggae.

The pull boost on the Deluxe is actually good.

Steve said Cobain used this amp on In Utero with three of the four Pre or Power Amo tubes being broken, causing an asymmetrical clipping sound to be produced. I think this is responsible for the strange clean/OD guitar on Heart-Shapes Box. I also think they ran one amp clean and another with the Small Clone, recording them mixed down to mono, creating a further dissonance effect.

Huge Cobain fan, so definitely NOT CRAP.

I'd hold out for a Twin. They're heavy enough.