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several years ago (2002) i got lucky and found a twin twelve head (no cabinet) in a dumpster dive. actually, it was on a shelf in the boiler room of a senior citizens center that i was helping to clean up after some water damage, and i intercepted it on its way to the dumpster. the thing had been shelved for so long that it had to have 30 years of dust on it.
i took it home and brought it up on a variac over the course of a day, and much to my surprise the amp worked great. (that is to say, as great as any silvertone could perform). it turns out that somebody had shelved the amp because it had a pot that had come loose from the chassis and was causing a lot of intermittent ground noise. so i just tightened down the nut on the pot and fixed the amp.
the nicest thing about the amp was that it still had the original Silvertone-branded tube compliment; that included a pair of RCA blackplate 6L6 and RCA preamp tubes.
as much as i like the amp as a novelty item, i don't understand all of the fuss over the White Stripes using these amps. I've never liked the Silvertone's "creamy milkshake" tone or JAck White's tone either -- they both sound rather dark and lifeless to me. the Silvertones are not tone machines by any stretch of the imagination. there isn't much gain, the clean tone is dark, the distorted tone isn't very interesting, and the reverb truly is awful. i thought about doing the fender reverb tank thing, but ultimately i thought it would be more trouble than it was worth. instead, i chose not to modify my amp and i just restored it to original condition. there were a number of factors that i considered in making this decision:
first, the silvertone is a genuine point to point amp. not a tag board amp like a SF fender, but an honest to God, *REAL* point-to-point amp. IMHO a real PTP amp is something special from an archaeological standpoint, and should be treated as such, even if its only something as lowly as a silvertone.
second, there aren't many unmolested silvertones out there, and there are coming to be fewer and fewer unmolested specimens out there every day. i'm not saying that the amp is something that has a high intrinsic value, but an unmolested silvertone is becoming a rarity.
third, modding the amp won't get you far in improving its tone, and may even lead to the destruction of the amp. as a modding platform, a silvertone is a very weak place to start. the power supply, the chassis layout, and the lightweight iron are all working against you. if you try modding the gain stages and pumping up the power from 25W to 50W I guarantee that you will end up with an amp that is a PITA to work on, and the end result will be that it is noisy until you blow it up.
the short lifespan of the OT in these amps is probably attributable to failed hot rodding attemps more than anything else. just about everyone who's hotrodded the amps has blown up the OT or just replaced them with a bassman type OT from the start.
what really surprises me is that this amp -- as awful as it is -- has reached the status of respected vintage gear in some circles, presumably because of hte Jack White thing. Mercury Magnetics is even reproducing the original OT in their Tone Clone line of transformers. you wouldn't believe what you'd have to pay to buy it.
all things considered then, i think that modding a Silvertone Twin Twelve is ultimately a waste of time. its tough to work on, an old Fender is much easier. and an old fender can take you in a lot of different directions that the silvertone just won't be happy going. so unless you're a glutton for punishment, i'd just just mod an old fender instead.
all of this is just my opinion, of course. in my case, i put a lot of time and effort in performing what the car guys would call a "sensitive restoration" rather than a "frame off" on my twin 12. I kept everything as original as possible, including the original vinyl covering with its dirty patina. my twin 12 is essentially a perfect unmolested museum piece. why? the amp truly doesn't sound all that great, and as awful sounding as the amp is, i guess that i look at it as a piece of history more than anything else. so i've got a mint condition museum quality specimen of an interesting amp that doesn't really sound that great in my amp collection. who knows, in 20 years i may have the only one that's left.
i have often had fantasises about finding an old 1484 head that was beyond salvage, and 'wrecking it to create the ultimate stealth tone amp. but i'm just too lazy...
congrats on your find. i hope that you have a lot of fun working on it and that you enjoy whatever path you choose to follow.
i took it home and brought it up on a variac over the course of a day, and much to my surprise the amp worked great. (that is to say, as great as any silvertone could perform). it turns out that somebody had shelved the amp because it had a pot that had come loose from the chassis and was causing a lot of intermittent ground noise. so i just tightened down the nut on the pot and fixed the amp.
the nicest thing about the amp was that it still had the original Silvertone-branded tube compliment; that included a pair of RCA blackplate 6L6 and RCA preamp tubes.
as much as i like the amp as a novelty item, i don't understand all of the fuss over the White Stripes using these amps. I've never liked the Silvertone's "creamy milkshake" tone or JAck White's tone either -- they both sound rather dark and lifeless to me. the Silvertones are not tone machines by any stretch of the imagination. there isn't much gain, the clean tone is dark, the distorted tone isn't very interesting, and the reverb truly is awful. i thought about doing the fender reverb tank thing, but ultimately i thought it would be more trouble than it was worth. instead, i chose not to modify my amp and i just restored it to original condition. there were a number of factors that i considered in making this decision:
first, the silvertone is a genuine point to point amp. not a tag board amp like a SF fender, but an honest to God, *REAL* point-to-point amp. IMHO a real PTP amp is something special from an archaeological standpoint, and should be treated as such, even if its only something as lowly as a silvertone.
second, there aren't many unmolested silvertones out there, and there are coming to be fewer and fewer unmolested specimens out there every day. i'm not saying that the amp is something that has a high intrinsic value, but an unmolested silvertone is becoming a rarity.
third, modding the amp won't get you far in improving its tone, and may even lead to the destruction of the amp. as a modding platform, a silvertone is a very weak place to start. the power supply, the chassis layout, and the lightweight iron are all working against you. if you try modding the gain stages and pumping up the power from 25W to 50W I guarantee that you will end up with an amp that is a PITA to work on, and the end result will be that it is noisy until you blow it up.
the short lifespan of the OT in these amps is probably attributable to failed hot rodding attemps more than anything else. just about everyone who's hotrodded the amps has blown up the OT or just replaced them with a bassman type OT from the start.
what really surprises me is that this amp -- as awful as it is -- has reached the status of respected vintage gear in some circles, presumably because of hte Jack White thing. Mercury Magnetics is even reproducing the original OT in their Tone Clone line of transformers. you wouldn't believe what you'd have to pay to buy it.
all things considered then, i think that modding a Silvertone Twin Twelve is ultimately a waste of time. its tough to work on, an old Fender is much easier. and an old fender can take you in a lot of different directions that the silvertone just won't be happy going. so unless you're a glutton for punishment, i'd just just mod an old fender instead.
all of this is just my opinion, of course. in my case, i put a lot of time and effort in performing what the car guys would call a "sensitive restoration" rather than a "frame off" on my twin 12. I kept everything as original as possible, including the original vinyl covering with its dirty patina. my twin 12 is essentially a perfect unmolested museum piece. why? the amp truly doesn't sound all that great, and as awful sounding as the amp is, i guess that i look at it as a piece of history more than anything else. so i've got a mint condition museum quality specimen of an interesting amp that doesn't really sound that great in my amp collection. who knows, in 20 years i may have the only one that's left.
i have often had fantasises about finding an old 1484 head that was beyond salvage, and 'wrecking it to create the ultimate stealth tone amp. but i'm just too lazy...
congrats on your find. i hope that you have a lot of fun working on it and that you enjoy whatever path you choose to follow.
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