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 Subscribe for Free...