Is it bad to mix channels with a twin?

[SarnoMusicSolutions]

I'm sure it's fine to do it. It's been done a zillion times with good results. It's just a theory thing, that two channels shouldn't be mixed without resistors offering some isolation and preventing them from presenting a load to eachother.

B

[jenkins]

What exactly is the black mystery knob on jerry's amp? Do you guys have pictures of it?
If I had the perfect custom amp it would be a twin modded exactly like jerry's except it would have a knob on it to mix the two channels so i would have exact control over how much wet and dry tones are in the mix.

I think its a channel blending knob but thats strictly a theory, what do u guys think?

Does anyone know if he used both channels into the 80's? I think he must have and that icepick tone that came along in the 90's was due in part to the fact that he was only using one channel at that point.

[mijknahs]

What exactly is the black mystery knob on jerry's amp? Do you guys have pictures of it?
If I had the perfect custom amp it would be a twin modded exactly like jerry's except it would have a knob on it to mix the two channels so i would have exact control over how much wet and dry tones are in the mix.

I think its a channel blending knob but thats strictly a theory, what do u guys think?

Does anyone know if he used both channels into the 80's? I think he must have and that icepick tone that came along in the 90's was due in part to the fact that he was only using one channel at that point.

In all the pictures from the 80's, Jerry is either using the blackface only or the silverface only and only plugging into the "vibrato" (i.e. reverb) channel. The only pics of him using the "normal" channel is from the 60's -mid 70's.

[Pete B.]

...mix the two channels so i would have exact control over how much wet and dry tones are in the mix.

I have two pre-amp taps on one of my amps, one wet, one dry.
Using only the reverb/vibrato channel input on the amp, I can run wet/dry outputs of that channel to either side of my Mac, and out to either speaker in my 2x12.
Put the reverb on 10 on the amp.
Bring up the Macs dry signal to taste on one channel/speaker, then mix in the 'verb to taste with the other channel/speaker.
I'm using a Mac MC250.
Mixing in the reverb in this manner (with the reverb knob on 10) sounds huge.
I like it.
Note: So far I have only done this here at the house at in-home volume.

[RiverRat]

What exactly is the black mystery knob on jerry's amp? Do you guys have pictures of it?
If I had the perfect custom amp it would be a twin modded exactly like jerry's except it would have a knob on it to mix the two channels so i would have exact control over how much wet and dry tones are in the mix.

I think its a channel blending knob but thats strictly a theory, what do u guys think?

Does anyone know if he used both channels into the 80's? I think he must have and that icepick tone that came along in the 90's was due in part to the fact that he was only using one channel at that point.

According to Dennis Leonard via Waldo:

"Only one channel was used, the other amp was a spare, the knob was to switch to tuner..."

The only time Jerry blended wet and dry with the Twin was in '74... when the twin(s) returned in '76, just the Blackface Vibrato channel was used.... Spring '77, Jerry jumpered the vibrato channel of the Black via Input 2 to Input 1 of the Silverface and used both Twins to drive either side of the Mac... one side had 2 2x12' and the other had a single 4x12.

Summer '77 sees him switch back to just the Blackface, which he stuck with until around '82... Then it was primarily the Silverface vibrato channel driving one side of the Mac, until the switch to the GT Trio... Which was when the thin ice pick tone started, since the Mac and the speaker cab were no longer used onstage. The ice pick tone had nothing to do with the Twins and it doesn't appear that Jerry jumpered the Twins in any configuration after Spring '77.

[jenkins]

Very interesting, Thanks for the info, that makes sense. Both of those specific times were, IMO , the best jerry tone there was. Spring 77 his guitar just sounded fucking awesome. Perfect, I think you can really hear what the jumpered amp does right there. His tone was perfect then because it always sounded crisp and clean, but at the same time soaked in reverb and using both preamps at once was such a smart way to acheive it.

Hey waldo how certain are you of this info? It definitely sounds like your certain. I'm not doubting it im just wondering if your 100% on this info, or is there still things that aren't known. Who exactly is giving you this info about his amps? Are you talking to healy of parrish? Which one of them actually worked on jerry's amps? its crazy how they come up with all these ideas. Did they think of em? was it all based on bear's work? After seeing all the different mods they were doing, and how much they changed em all the time really seems like you can do almost anything you can think of on an amp, and they actually did. THey must have just sat there thinking up different mods to do to jerry's amp to make it sound better. What an awesome job, must have been so much fun.

[Chinarider1A]

I'm still trying to figure out how Jerry got that monster tone from Wolf when it returned in Sept '77... According to Waldo's site it still had Fender type single coils, but the sound is huge and overdriven when compared to '74 Wolf. The Dimarzio Dual sounds were not added till late '78. Any thoughts????

Great info in this discussion btw.....thanks

[claytushaywood]

I was under the impression that jerry was getting the half dry half reverb originally by using a dual showman and a twin reverb. Later- i believe in 74 he was using 3 twins stacked on top of each other all preamp tapped to seperate power amp sidees. on the top one he plugged into the normaal and vibrato channel. this gave him 1 output dry and 3 outputs with reverb. But he was using a splitter to divide his guitar signal into 4 signals- not jumpering channels. Waldo's site explains this.. I'm still a little fuzzy on how the jumpering works with the post alembic preamp taps and the input modifications... there's a ton of options, but I'm not understanding how it works. Or what he's doing with the jumper from the vibrato channel to the normal channel.

I do love the sound of having one amp dry and one amp wet with reverb. But you're not gonna get anything like that jumpering channels. I know you can do it with a splitter running each output into the normal and vibrato channels- then you can either use a stereo power amp with the normal channel on one side and the vibrato on the other side... but would they still be out of phase?

I really like the idea of one of the preamp mdos o waldoos ppage that allows you to preamp tap one channel and let the other channel run through the ttwin's output section. that would be cool for creating a huge sound without too much more equipment.

[claytushaywood]

...mix the two channels so i would have exact control over how much wet and dry tones are in the mix.

I have two pre-amp taps on one of my amps, one wet, one dry.
Using only the reverb/vibrato channel input on the amp, I can run wet/dry outputs of that channel to either side of my Mac, and out to either speaker in my 2x12.
Put the reverb on 10 on the amp.
Bring up the Macs dry signal to taste on one channel/speaker, then mix in the 'verb to taste with the other channel/speaker.
I'm using a Mac MC250.
Mixing in the reverb in this manner (with the reverb knob on 10) sounds huge.
I like it.
Note: So far I have only done this here at the house at in-home volume.

do you know how to do this mod? Does one preamp tap the reverb channel right after its first coupling cap? then one taps it right after the reverb section in the amp? or does the reverb channel input run to both the normal channel and the reverb channel side? or what? id love to know

Thanks!

[Pete B.]

It was a mistake that turned out to be kinda cool.
iirc, The original schem to have a separate channel_1 and channel_2 pre-amp taps was on Waldos site.
I gave my tech the amp and the link to Waldo's site, but I also asked him to do the "Reverb on both channels" mod (not a Jerry mod, but something I like to have done on some of my gigging amps for when I play both Pedal Steel and Guitar).
Anyway... The result was that I have both channells on both pre-amp taps. One tap has reverb on both channels. One tap has no reverb on either channel.
... and so it goes.

[hippieguy1954]

Ive heard of people using amp selecters/ swtches to go between inputs 1 and 2 on amps but what if you use a Y-cable into both inputs, and plug into that, mixing both inputs? It sounds alright but my lights dimmed a little when I plugged in.

Have you tried: guitar, effects etc >input one reverb channel>jumper from input two reverb channel > input one normal channel?