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Use the balance to see a shrink to get you away from that clean headroom nonsense.
https://soundcertified.com/speaker-ohms-calculator/
The best investment I ever made was a Lion Tamer - it makes the amp totally useable at any volume. My HRD has a Celestion speaker in it from the factory - and I've never felt any need to change it, as in a mix it sounds amazing. If you put it under the microscope solo I'm sure you can find "better" tones using more expensive amps... but genuinely, it a live (and recording) context with a mix the HRD sounds great,
As for swapping to a Twin... well, they do sound significantly different. There is a lot *less* mid - and the top end is far more sparkly on the Twin. Its a fantastic sound, but... Twins weigh the same as the average hatchback and revalving one costs the same as a holiday in Spain.
Genuinely, buy a Lion Tamer and give that a try before doing *anything* else.
A 12AY7 is a much better replacement for V1 in Fender amps - it’s more effective at lowering the gain and has a really nice open, clear and slightly brighter tone. You do need to be careful with some amps though, if the plate resistors aren’t high-enough rated it can burn them out.
The Lion Tamer shouldn’t alter the sound, other than the natural change that happens when you turn down any loud sound, and it will definitely be a smaller change than a different amp.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
You can only tell whether it actually changes the sound if you record both the full volume and the reduced volume, and play the results back at the *same* volume. Obviously this is a moot point if you feel that turning it down changes the tone, but it also means that any other means of reducing the volume won't work for you either.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Certainly cured my Fender style amp GAS.
Great volume taper too.
(I tried it for my VHT Special 6 where I was trying to increase the headroom. It basically did the same job as just turning down the volume slightly, and probably didn't sound as good as the 12AX7.)
Actually, one unexpected side benefit of the Lion Tamer for me was that when you run the clean channel flat out while reducing volume with the Lion Tamer you do get a fair bit of crunch from the preamp/phase inverter, which warms things up very nicely, especially with a good boost or drive pedal.