Worship Musician Magazine September 2020 | Page 100

GEAR REVIEW
REVV D20 AMPLIFIER | Doug Doppler
KEY FEATURES
• Volume + Gain Controls
• Treble, Middle, Bass
• Buffered Series FX Loop
• XLR Out w/ Ground Lift
• Internal Reactive Load
• Two Notes Torpedo Embedded
• MIDI Input
If you love the classic sound of a great tube
amp into a 12” speaker, but are also drawn to
the benefits of reactive loads and IRs, say hello
to my little friend, the Revv D20. Seriously, the
level of great sound and technical innovation
this amp delivers is nothing short of mind
blowing!
BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
The architecture of this amp solves one of the
biggest problems worship guitar players face
as they make the round trip between practice,
rehearsal, and service – how to hear themselves
in a sonically consistent fashion. Best of all, this
little wonder sounds amazing!
At the most basic level, this amp gives you the
freedom to run into the matching 1x12” cabinet,
run direct out using the embedded Two Notes
Torpedo technology, or both. Thanks to the
Level trim pot on the front of the amp, you can
independently adjust your stage volume and
the amount of signal you’re sending out via the
XLR jack on the back of the amp. And if you
need to run a truly silent stage, the internal load
box and six-position Virtual Cabinet control
on the face of the amp make it easy to dial up
great tone, right out of the box.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE
Going all the way back to the POD XT Live and
DL4, worship guitar players were among the
first to not only embrace modeling technology,
we also make up the largest group of musicians
who rely on it, week in, week out. The Two
Notes Torpedo software that is running inside
the amp allows you select one of six virtual
cabinets to send FOH on the fly, and it’s MIDI
controllable. In combination with the bundled
Two Notes Remote application, you can also
craft and load an array of presets incorporating
virtual speaker cabs, EQ, rooms, and even
power amps. The latter being key since the Pre/
Post button gives you the freedom to send the
signal from the D20 pre power amp. The Virtual
Cabinet control enables you to load the first six
of 128 presets, which can easily be reordered
or fine-tuned by connecting the D20 to the Two
Notes Remote application via the included USB
cable. Even better, you can randomly access
any of the 128 presets via MIDI once you’ve
saved them to the D20. Mind blown!
REAL TUBE TONE
While the D20 delivers an astonishing array
of technological prowess, that’s really just the
cherry on top of a great sounding tube amp.
The power amp leverages a pair of 6V6s tubes
to craft the sonic signature of this amp. Most
commonly associated with the Deluxe Reverb,
these tubes deliver a blend of warmth, touchsensitivity,
and jangle that is great to play and
hear. If you ‘are allowed’ to use the cabinet,
you and your sound tech will appreciate the
20W/4W button that allows you to run that amp
at either twenty or four watts, that latter giving
you the freedom to overdrive the power amp
section at markedly lower levels.
Since the Pre/Post button gives you the option
of using a virtual power amp instead of the
internal one, the pre-amp section on this amp
plays a vital role in the mix of things. Since the
Tone Stack is fueled by a pair of 12AX7s, you
get great tube tone, even when leveraging the
virtual power amps you load into the amp via
the Torpedo Remote software.
STAGE, STUDIO, OR BOTH
The D20 is a virtual Swiss army knife of tone,
which is why it can be found in the gear
arsenal of studio aces like Dave Cleveland and
Shawn Tubbs. The Push/Pull pot on the Gain
control adds an additional layer of gain, and
in combination with the Volume control and/
or virtual power amps, delivers a huge array of
great tones for stage, studio, or both!
100 September 2020
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