Budda Twinmaster 12

2001 18w 1 X 12" all-tube combo. Point to point hand wired. 2 X EL-84 power amp section. 12AX7 preamp tubes, plus a big ol' rectifier tube.

Simple, elegant design. Three knobs; two inputs; one channel (upper input adds a preamp gain stage).

I was looking for a tweed Deluxe type of sound, but this is better and louder.

I consider lack of features a big plus.

Pure tube tone for early R&B, Blues, Country.

I use a Hwy 1 Strat (3 single coils).
Blues, Rock, R&B, Jazz, Gospel, Country.
It's very quiet and hum-free itself.

The "normal" channel is fairly clean with decent headroom, but will eventually give way to more and more grit, then distortion, at higher settings. Modeled after Blackface Deluxe, but stays crisp when you turn your guitar down.
Loud for 18 watts!

The Hi-Gain input adds another preamp gain stage (modeled on Marshall "Plexi").
You can turn your guitar down farther and get pretty close to the same tone as "Normal," but when you add more volume it gets more distorted and twice as loud as "Normal."

I keep a direct box handy, but don't worry about this amp at all.
It's all premium components, hand wired point to point like an old Fender.

I don't have a backup (except for the direct box).

It rides on a seat in my car though (tubes are just lightbulbs. Ever drop your garage "drop" light?)

No experience.

One year warranty.

42+ years experience. It's my only amp, and is exactly what I was looking for, though more powerful than a tweed Deluxe (also more versatile).
It's not a warm and lush vintage Ampeg tube sound, it's a crisp and sparkling Fender sort of buoyancy. Twangy and lively.

I don't miss reverb at all. It just sounds great.

Around the house, a Verbmaster version might be nice, but playing out is the only time I turn it on.

This amp concept is the simple, no channel switching, approach to great guitar sound.

Clean: turn your guitar down. Grit: turn it up some. Distortion: turn it up some more.

It sings, it grinds, it screams in a smooth, balanced way.

Perfect volume level for say, Blues in a club. I mic it outdoors.

Perfect.

The Twinmaster features hand point to point wiring, class A/B EL84 based power amp section, 5U4 rectifier, "Normal" and "High Gain" inputs, etc... Mine was made in 2001.

When I first started playing guitar (20 or so years ago), my friends and I would rate amps by how may knobs they had. This rationalle made me the proud owner of many Peavey amps. Sound familiar to anyone?

How would I have perceived the Twinmaster sporting only three knobs? (OK, there's a fourth one on the back panel.) Well I can assure you that the "Bass", "Treble", and "Volume" controls are more than enough.

This amp has great features, like cafefully tuned internal filtering that preserves the amps tone as the guitar's volume is rolled back, that don't appear as front panel controls.

Want more knobs... check Ebay for a used Gallien Kruger (another iteration in my tone quest). Or get a bunch of stomp boxes; they have a lot of knobs.

As you may have figured out by now, this amp is not a Swiss army knife. It does one thing very, very well... distort power tubes.

Budda makes reference to Fender-esque, Marshall-like, and Vox-ey tones, but I think they are selling themselves short. The "Normal" input is somewhat Fender-esque in that it cleans up nicely as the volume diminishes. But believe me, it sounds better than any Fender I have played (including the reissues and Custom Shop offerings I have owned and tried).

The "High Gain" input is like a Plexi THAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY CONTROL.

I play a Terry C. McInturff with T-90's (P90's) through this amp. Throw the "Volume" to 12 O'Clock, and forget it! The tone is simply heartstopping.

One tiny problem not actually related to the amp. 5U4 rectifier tubes rattle like mad.

I recommend finding a dealer that will let you smack four or five of them against your hand, and select the least resonant one.

The Buddaguys generally answer the phone, and are happy to discuss technical issues.

Great amp. Budda really nailed it with this one.

In my tone quest, I have spent the last few years (and major bucks) looking for a tube amp that gave a nice breakup at low volumes. Take my word... it doesn't exist. I have owned Fender Hot Rods, Fender Reissues, Line 6, Mesa Boogie, and VHT (another great amp!). The only way to get power tube distortion, natural tube compression, tube rectifier sag, etc... is to turn it up loud.

Do just that with the Twinmaster... and enjoy!

CAUTION: This is a rather unforgiving amp. Due to it's simplicity, what you play is what you will hear. This amp is not for novices; it will not disguise your mistakes.

It took me almost 1 year to realize where this amp was coming from. It is not a high gain metal amp, not a clean Fender clone, but a combination of classic Marshall & Vox. This amp take's some tweaking to absorb it's true nature. This amp is # 317.

To my ear this amp is not as well suited to single coil pickup's as it is to humbucker's. I have several guitar's & it took me awhile until I hooked it up for any lenght of time to my Les Paul. It is with this guitar that my Twinmaster sing's. Anything from Brain May to Tal Farlow is possible .

The rectifier tube rattles at high volume & I have replaced all stock tubes with Groove Tubes. I keep a spare set of tubes, ( would for any tube amp), but have played out many time's without a backup & have had no problem's .

I bought this amp used from Daddy's Junky Music. Budda gave me a full warranty as if new. I have spoken with Scot on the phone & via e-mail & have always recieved great service.They stand behind their product.

I have been playing 24 years & have owned Fender, Marshall, Peavey, & Crate. The Budda Twinmaster has a vibe like no other. I would replace or repair should something happen to this amp.

This Budda has a great, rich, fat,and powerful tone to it. I have owned it for two years now, and I love its tone. Its one drawback is that it is a nonmaster volume amp. It is extremely loud in order to play any type of hard rock with distortion. It is too loud for any of my gigs. I always run a pedal in front of it, and I don't like doing that because it ruins the natural Budda distortion. I realized this through recording. Live, the Budda with preamp pedal still sounds pretty good.

The amp rocks hard only when blasting loud! I hate that fact. Any pedal (Distortion) I've used has altered the fat tubey distortion that the Budda produces.

Excellent

n/a

A great amp, unlike the regular guitar amp.

I was on a vacation in Munich where I stopped by at Lake Placid guitars..and there it stood...a Budda combo. I never played one so I asked the store owner if I could now, no problem at all. I did not ask or look for a price 'cause I was afraight for the answer. Now I play Rivera, so I know a little something about good tones.
The amp was versatile, wich is not to think if you look at the controls; volume, treble, bass. Two inputs; normal, high gain.

I mostly play blues. And I think that this is the only musicstyle to BE played with this amp, but thats personal. The controls don not have much influence on the sound, not as with a Boogie wich is an amp where the right settings are important for a good sound. This amp sounds good, at all settings. I played it with a Heritage Les Paul, and Heritage builds better guitars than Gibson..and I played a Stratocaster true it. Now I plugged in at the normal input, with the volume turned at 1/2.....it already had a sweet, sweet and did I mention sweet, overdrive tone. An tone you would only hear from a Robben Ford CD,..but he playes Dumble!...so what I say is; maybe its close to Dumble?? The sound was really full in the low and mid. It isn't a sound you would expect from an amplifier if you ONLY turn open the volume pot!! It isn't that shrill sound of an overdriven Fender. It has a bit of a Vox, but Vox begins to sound flubby when turned uo loud. Thise amp is tight en sweet sounding, focusing on a low to mis section of the sound spectrum of your guitar. It also amplifies EVERY THING you play, you'll have to ajust your playing style, because amplifiers like Marshall valvestate do not give you everything you play, they are "cheateble" amps, what i mean is, you can hide a lot with these kinds of amps, so it is with all mid class tube amplifiers or hybrid kind of amplifiers.

Really great!.. As I wrote before,..I play Rivera so I know good tone, 'cause Rivera "kills" a lot other amplifiers! But this very little amp is very very good, even better than my Rivera, 'cause the simplicity and combination of hand wiring makes this amp SUPERB! JUST TRY IT!!!!

Point to point hand wired (beautiful work). Volume, treble, bass. That's it for controls. It has 2 inputs, normal & high gain. The high gain adds a tube in the circuit and changes the voicing substantially. Tubes are 12ax7, el84 and a gz34 rectifier, class ab. Same amp as the Twinmaster 10 but with a single 12" celestion vintage 30. Plenty of power for clubs, and despite being only 18 watts, it is almost as loud as a blackface bassman. There is a single-jack effects loop which I've never used (you'll need a stereo or TRS cable). Only drawback I've found so far is that you can't channel-switch between its 2 great sounding and very different channels, even with an ab box. I would give it a 10 except for this. I guess this means they are inputs and not really separate channels.

I play rock, usually with a slight to medium-distorted sound using several different Gibson p-90 and humbucker equipped guitars. Lack of a master volume is not a problem as the amp breaks up at different volumes depending on the volume knob setting and which channel you choose. Guitar volume and pick attack factor into the sound in a BIG way, probably more than the bass & treble controls do. Lots of natural low-end (I keep the bass turned all the way down most of the time).
This amp is best for blues-type distortion or clean playing (not designed for metal shredding buzzsaw distortion). Though the clean channel is fenderish and the high gain channel is marshallish, the el84s add a wonderful vox-like smoothness to the breakup as no 6L6 or el34 can. I tried one at a music store with my Les Paul Jr and it was absolutely the best sounding amp I had ever plugged into. Kept me awake at night thinking about it until I finally was able to find a used one. Blows away my blackface fenders, boogie and my buddy's 72 Super Lead, though it all boils down to one's personal preference in the end. For such a simple amp it gets a truly amazing variety of sounds!

No problems since I bought it 4 months ago

Never dealt with them. Haven't needed to so far.

I'd definitely buy it again. I like Matchless amps just a teeny-tiny little bit more (I've tried a few since I bought the Budda), but the Budda is way more amp for the money. Priced about 40% less than a comparable matchless, it definitely has matchless beat in the bang-for-your-buck category. It costs about the same as the printed circuit vox ac15 reissue and blows it away hands down. . Again, the amp's inability to channel-switch was an unpleasant surprise, but a boost pedal seems to take care of the job just fine. This is a boutique amp at a price within reach of the average musician.