# NAD! Phaez Duophonic "Twain"



## urko99 (Mar 30, 2009)

I think if I was putting together a dream amp, I would use two trains of thought that influenced me most over the years.* The Blackface Deluxe reverb,* with its creamy tube overdrive. And the *Marshall 2553 Silver Jubilee *for that superior crunchy hard driving Rhythmy chunka chug chug thing, if that makes any sense. I've owned both over the years, a lot of other Amps, and so far in my tone quest, nothing really measured up that delivered what the two Icons I had just mentioned.........until now.

We happen to be blessed to have a builder here in Windsor, Ontario, that not only makes great klones, but also does Custom builds as well, with a lot of his own design influence.* Randy Fay and Phaez Amps.* He has made hundreds of amps over the years and has distributed them all over the World. I've been watching him for a while now, and he does have a Blackface design called the *"Corona" *and a Jubilee design called the *"Jubenville"*. Over the years, he's done custom builds called the *"Duophonic"* which basically Is 1 head cab sharing two amps. Not a dual channel.

Well, needless to say I ordered a *Corona/Jubenville Duophonic *and had a chance to test drive it last week, and all I can say is, it met all my expectations and then some! The amp is set up with two inputs, one for each amp. Both amps share a pair of 6v6's with 5, 12ax7's, which puts his design in the 25 Watt camp for both sides. He also at my request, put a half power switch, effects loop, 4,8,16 ohm speaker taps. The Corona side has 3 way tone stack and a master volume, which give me my blackface tone but another stage of shaped gain, and where it leaves off, the Jubenville takes over in the gain department. I use an A/B switch to jump between both amps, and truthfully there is nothing this amp can't do! I can pretty much throw all my Overdrive Pedals out the window because they're simply not needed anymore!

Randy also gave me the option to name the amp and have in on the front Faceplate, so I appropriately called it the* "Twain"*
Duophonic. I thought that that was pretty cool for him to give me the option.! All wrapped in a Vox "Fawn" Tolex with Gold name tag.

I also made a Matching 1 x 12 Bluesbreaker style speaker cab, made by extreme Audiophile Cabinet designer Jim Peach, (also a local builder) and loaded that little monster with a 75 watt Celestion Creamback.

Have I finally reached the Pearly Gates of Tone Heaven?, Well, too soon to tell but , Randy Fay has given me tools I need to walk through those gates with a big smile on my face, and boy am I liking what I'm hearing so far.


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## Stratin2traynor (Sep 27, 2006)

Very nice. Randy makes great amps. I was initially going to buy a duophonic but got sidetracked with all the choices. I ended up buying a 50W Daisycutter and then traded it for a 25W Novadrive. Both were awesome amps in their own rights. But unfortunately not my current obsession. Anyways congratulations.!


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

Congrats, beautiful rig!


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## Adcandour (Apr 21, 2013)

That is beautiful. Congrats.

ANY way we can get a mic'd sample???

I'm on an amp hunt - and phaez is definitely on the radar.


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## Stratin2traynor (Sep 27, 2006)

WHAT! Didn't you just buy a Lazy J?? (sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread)



adcandour said:


> That is beautiful. Congrats.
> 
> ANY way we can get a mic'd sample???
> 
> I'm on an amp hunt - and phaez is definitely on the radar.


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## urko99 (Mar 30, 2009)

adcandour said:


> That is beautiful. Congrats.
> 
> ANY way we can get a mic'd sample???
> 
> I'm on an amp hunt - and phaez is definitely on the radar.


Thanks. Love to get you a sample but the wife is on the mends after knee replacement surgery(#3), so not the best time to shake the house, Lol! I do know that there is a lot of you tube posts of Both models. Perhaps when she's feeling a little better. And, Randy is real easy to deal with, and very accommodating per your requests.


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## Disbeat (Jul 30, 2011)

Not to derail this fellows thread but I want to make a suggestion for you.
Check out the Naylor Superdrives, amazing amps that can cover a lot of ground and take pedals really well. I've tried a lot of the boutique amps before realizing nothing really beats a vintage Marshall for me but this was one of the best amps I ever played hands down!



adcandour said:


> That is beautiful. Congrats.
> 
> ANY way we can get a mic'd sample???
> 
> I'm on an amp hunt - and phaez is definitely on the radar.


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## Adcandour (Apr 21, 2013)

Stratin2traynor said:


> WHAT! Didn't you just buy a Lazy J?? (sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread)


 I did...and it is the nicest amp I have ever played. I don't think I can let it go, but I've never owned a Marshall style amp, so I need to explore. I have my eye on the pink taco, some Germino, or a Phaez, or a top hat emplexador. I'm just having a hard time with the demos, cause they don't seem to be mic'd well. I plan is to keep two amps and use an ABY pedal. I'm going to update the thread with some harder demos soon. 



urko99 said:


> Thanks. Love to get you a sample but the wife is on the mends after knee replacement surgery(#3), so not the best time to shake the house, Lol! I do know that there is a lot of you tube posts of Both models. Perhaps when she's feeling a little better. And, Randy is real easy to deal with, and very accommodating per your requests.


No worries - totally understand and hope she gets well quick. I'll check out the youtube vids, thanks. 



Disbeat said:


> Not to derail this fellows thread but I want to make a suggestion for you.
> Check out the Naylor Superdrives, amazing amps that can cover a lot of ground and take pedals really well. I've tried a lot of the boutique amps before realizing nothing really beats a vintage Marshall for me but this was one of the best amps I ever played hands down!


I was looking at vintage Marshalls. Are you saying that the Naylor Superdrives are better? I'll definitely check them out, thanks.


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## Disbeat (Jul 30, 2011)

I'm not really one to say one amp is better then another just some serve better purposes for different tones, I've kept an eye on your tone search and can tell you like some flexibility and I can say that there are eq limitations on old Marshall's. The Naylor is gonna have way more tone options since the eq is much more responsive in my
opinion. Me on the other hand I just plug in throw some sort of boost in front of an old Marshall and blow the roof off, I like it simple. I really think you should check into them though, they will cover the heavier tones I know your into but you can also get great cleans from them and they take pedals really well.




adcandour said:


> I was looking at vintage Marshalls. Are you saying that the Naylor Superdrives are better? I'll definitely check them out, thanks.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Dude that phaez looks sweet. Congrats again!

Adcandour, if I were you I would skip the boutique stuff and just get a marshall ($1100-1600) and see if its for you. And then drop mad coin on the other guys if you so desire.

Or just get a marshall-in-a-box pedal .

As a guy in a dual-jcm800 band, a good dirt pedal in frony of one will get you as heavy as you can ask for. Trust me, I turned up the drive on my OCD today to check while the guys got food haha.


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## bzrkrage (Mar 20, 2011)

urko99 said:


> All wrapped in a Vox "Fawn" Tolex…
> 
> View attachment 13251


Man, now THAT is one my wife would allow to be kept in the living room.
Wonderful work.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## urko99 (Mar 30, 2009)

Or, drop $935 Cdn. with a Phaez Duophonic? Or less if it's a single amp head. Randy Fay from Phaez delivers the best valued goods of Tone, hand wired, point to point for the Buck, hands down. If one feels to spend 3 to 4 times the cost to get the same result, then that's their pirogative. JMHO.


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## Stratin2traynor (Sep 27, 2006)

I agree. Phaez are great sounding amps at a reasonable price. You may also want to check out Trinity Amps. Can't go wrong there. Especially with the Marshall types. I have the Plexi. It's a home run.


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## gibsonguitarguy (Feb 17, 2010)

This amp is a 2 rack space blackface/plexi style 

It's the bomb - randy rocks and I love my new amp


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## bigboki (Apr 16, 2015)

urko99 said:


> Or, drop $935 Cdn. with a Phaez Duophonic? Or less if it's a single amp head. Randy Fay from Phaez delivers the best valued goods of Tone, hand wired, point to point for the Buck, hands down. If one feels to spend 3 to 4 times the cost to get the same result, then that's their pirogative. JMHO.


It looks absolutely stunning. was $935 just for the head without tubes, or with the tubes or with the cab or whole package?

thank you in advance
yours Bojan


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## urko99 (Mar 30, 2009)

Head with the tubes including head cabinet for $935. Speaker cab was extra.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

I missed this the first time around. This is gorgeous and sounds like a killer amp! Congrats!


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

As much as I love John's amp and cab this 2 rackspace head is something I'd really like. If it has a loop it would be a great portable rig with my G Major.



gibsonguitarguy said:


> This amp is a 2 rack space blackface/plexi style
> 
> It's the bomb - randy rocks and I love my new amp
> 
> ...


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

John, not to derail completely but I see that little head cab in the corner of your picture. I ended up essentially lacquering it. Pro Jnr fits in there very nicely and sounds great through any of my cabs actually.

Thanks for throwing that cab in on the deal !!


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## bigboki (Apr 16, 2015)

urko99 said:


> Head with the tubes including head cabinet for $935. Speaker cab was extra.


Thank you very much for the info!

yours Bojan


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## urko99 (Mar 30, 2009)

davetcan said:


> John, not to derail completely but I see that little head cab in the corner of your picture. I ended up essentially lacquering it. Pro Jnr fits in there very nicely and sounds great through any of my cabs actually.
> 
> Thanks for throwing that cab in on the deal !!


That looks awesome Dave, I'm glad you were able to finish what I started to do! Well done my friend!


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