Any Bivalve users?

[Jack C]

Just wanting some feedback from any owners or users of the THD Bivalve. I used to own a Univalve. I really did like the amp but found it to be incredibly bright (as I think Turdus also confirmed when he bought it). It did record really well but there was always a struggle to tame the high end. I also thought the built in hotplate really wasn't very good.

I know that www.univalve.net has plenty of info, but I trust you guys and wanted to know if any of you have compared the he Uni to the Bivalve. I like the fact that a Bivalve would be more giggable and is supposedly darker with a bigger bottom end. I'm also wondering if the Bivalve can still do the low volume thing pretty well or if it has to get really loud to sound good. Any thoughts on the amp would be appreciated. Thanks.

[straightblues]

I owned one for a couple years and sold it about 6 months ago. It was a very nice sounding amp. It was not overly bright at all and had plenty of low end. Depending on the tubes, it can sound wildly different. I would say the amp was voiced more for Marshall type overdriven tones than anything else. Do to the nature of the amp, I still had a hard time getting realatively clean tones at small club levels. However, I was also able to coax some great Fender black face blues tones from.

I think that every guitar player should own one of these amps at least for a short while. It taught me an amazing amount about tubes and how they effect tone.

The hot plate works well. But in order to get really low volume, you need to put in the right tubes, or remove tubes to get a great sound. With some searching, you can definately get there at low volumes.

I finally found a sound I was very happy with my Bivalve. It turned out that I come up with a sound almost identical to a Fender Blackface sound. Once I discovered this, I went out and bought two Black Face Fender's; a Deluxe and a Bassman. The Bivalve was a great experience. I bought almost 100 different tubes to use in it. I finally got tired of trying new sounds and settled on one. This is the only bad thing I can say about the Bivalve, you tend to think too much about tone instead of just playing.

[Turdus]

Jack -- I also thought the Univalve was too bright. My band mate had a bivalve for awhile. He used to go through boutique amps like there was no tomorrow. Only thing I seem to recall was that he struggled with the power attenuator trying to get a sound that he was happy with. I think he gave up, and then tried to play it clean. He eventually sold it, and went a JTM45 reissue, for which he speaks very highly of.

[MrGuitarguy]

I've tried them both and I think the Bi-Vailve sounds a lot fatter with a lot more low end. It can be described as just "having more balls" IMHO.

That said I like the THD Flexi-50 the best. It has a great clean tone and dirty tone. All of it is completely accessible via your guitars volume knob. I was extemely impressed. While it has a master volume instead of a hot plate built in, it sounds incredible and actually responds like an amp being driven extremely hard. I would not hesitate to play a gig with it alone.

In regards to hot plates I have nothing but great things to say about them. I use one all the time. It makes my Demeter and Egnater amps easy to overdrive in the power section. Hot plates don't work at non-gig volumes though and that includes the Uni and Bi-Valve hot plates. This about 90% of the complaints about them (I used to sell them). However I never met anyone who played at a gig volume (and I'm not talking jazz gig here) how didn't love what it did to their amps.