Suggestion on Fender Twin Amps?

[Arnold Jackson]

Hi, I am looking to purchase an amp, and settled on trying for a vintage Fender Twin that I might find used.

I went over to ebay and there are some pretty good prices on used Fender Twins from '69 and the 70's.

My question is this: Is there a particular year I should be looking for in terms of a Fender Twin or are models like the '75 or '79 just as good?

I am looking for super clean tone.

Thanks for your help.

 

[M.Brane]

If clean is what you want the Twin is it! The master volume amps from the '70's are good sounding amps as long as you keep the master full up. Try to find one that hasn't been modded or hacked up. I used to gig with a steel player that had a 70's Twin with JBL's in it. Awesome clean, warm tone! Thing felt like it was bolted to the floor though. As for the older silver face "CBS" Twins, they are easily converted to black-face specs. In fact Fender actually produced very few of the poor sounding ones before they realized their mistake and changed back to the black-face circuit.

Good luck!

 

[SBax]

Post that message here. These guys know what they're talking about. Shipping a big heavy amp like the Twin is expensive and risky especiallly with UPS. Get internal photos and the two transformer serial numbers and post the numbers there too to verify the amp is the year that they claim.

http://www.webervst.com/vstbbs/bbs.html

 

[SBax]

When you get to the site click on the blue "amp" button on the top right.

 

[Arnold Jackson]

Thank you so much for the advice guys!

 

[bongolation]

Personally, unless you're getting a great deal, be a bit wary of amps over twenty years old.

If it's much over ten years old, it's time for a cap job, which can be a hassle if your amp uses obsolete multi-caps. If you don't do a cap job, you may experience some very expensive and spectacular failures, probably at the worst possible time.

You also don't know if the amp has been damaged by improper or no biasing during past power tube replacement, plus any number of other tech problems. Some extinct Fender Twin variants are known to have reliability problems as well.

My suggestion would be to get a low-mileage, recent year's production "Evil Twin" ('94-'01) Twin Amp, which is an excellent Twin variant and widely available inexpensively.

Vintage amps are pretty overrated.

 

[Clive Hugh]

I'll second that. I have a Twin variant, the model known as "The Twin" It's magic, it did weigh a ton tho'. I solved that by converting it to a head and separate cab, improved the sound too. I traded a Vox AC30 Top Boost in on it and have never regretted it fo a moment.
Clive

 

[trebles]

look for a v65 twin reissue and try and get it secondhand with low miles saves you on the upfront from the shops and dealers

you may also find yourself a non master volume amp as well this is more the go

 

[foo]

Vintage amps are not overrated!

Only those that have been abused are questionable.

I would rate my Blackface Pro Reverb and Blackface Vibrolux Reverb against any comparable wattage amp you care to mention.

My suggestion would be a silverface non-master volume Twin in mint or near-mint condition - all the sound without the ludicrous price.

. . . and if you can't hear the difference . . .

I'm sorry!


foo

 

[NYMorningstar]

I'll second that. I have a Twin variant, the model known as "The Twin" It's magic, it did weigh a ton tho'. I solved that by converting it to a head and separate cab, improved the sound too. I traded a Vox AC30 Top Boost in on it and have never regretted it fo a moment.
Clive

I've been fortunate enuff to find 'The Twin'. It's sound is fabulous. It has the clean sound of the older twins and also the distortion sound of the 'Super reverb'. If you find one pick it up, its 'The' amp to use.

 

[crawdad]

At least take a look at the "tonesavor" at:

allenamps.com

Its your blackface twin sound. You can even build a kit version. I did and its the best amp I ever had--I actually built its 40 watt little brother. Same preamp and features, just bigger power section and 2x12's