Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: magma on November 26, 2005, 06:28:55 AM

Title: Fender Twin Type amps
Post by: magma on November 26, 2005, 06:28:55 AM
Does anyone know of any amps based on, or that sound like a Fender Twin?

I bought one of the recent ones, loved the sound. But it was so unreliable - I had 3 replacements on warrantee and they all broke within 3-4 weeks and had to go back, similar things going wrong with each one that the Fender repair shop over here just could not get to the bottom of.
Title: Fender Twin Type amps
Post by: HJM on November 26, 2005, 08:28:54 AM
I had similar issues with a Super Reverb RI, replaced the main board with a Hoffman PTP circuit board and put quality tubes in - worked a treat!
Title: Fender Twin Type amps
Post by: lulusg on November 26, 2005, 06:09:13 PM
I have had mine for over two years now and not a single problem yet :roll:
Title: Fender Twin Type amps
Post by: Floyd Pepper on November 27, 2005, 07:26:40 PM
I've got a Fender Bassman 135 like this http://www.ampwares.com/ffg/bassman_super.html

I used to have a silver faced Fender twin but when my brother left home he took it with him and I've never managed to get it back.  :(

Don't just consider the Bassman just as a bass amp.  I've gigged with the Bassman as both a bass and a guitar amp.  The Bassman doesn't have a vibro or a reverb but sounds similar to the twin.  I tired plugging the Bassman into the twin's can and the sound was very similar.

The only word of caution is that I did the comparison over 15 years ago.  Even so, it's worth giving the Bassman a shot as they're cheap second hand and a very good amp.
Title: Fender Twin Type amps
Post by: tewboss on November 27, 2005, 07:41:28 PM
from what I understand, Silverface Bassman's are easy to convert to Blackface (internal) specs. i had my friend's one converted and its bloody loud.
Title: Fender Twin Type amps
Post by: magma on November 29, 2005, 11:16:55 AM
Cheers guys that's magic, I'll definately check out the silver face bassman.
Interesting what you said about replacing the circuit board and tubes HJM, it seems as though there was something inherently dodgy about a batch of those amps. The first one I had overheated, exuded melting plastic smells, blew fuses constantly, hummed and buzzed etc They sent it back to have it completely revalved and same happened again, so they replaced it. Same happened again - so that one was replaced, the third one was going the same way so it had to go to the repair shop too - this one generated a loud low frequency hum when the reverb was on, rendering it unusable, and the clean channel stopped working when I was soundchecking for a gig.
When it came back the reverb was still plagued by a steady crescendo of very low frequency noise, and I'm not talking about the usual quiet hum you get when using spring reverb.

I had to get my money back, another month or so and the years warrantee would've run out. I put the money into getting a nice hand wired head, thinking if it's been made by hand hopefully it can be fixed by hand. It sounds great and so far after a year or so not a single problem. Annoyingly I still miss that distinctive fender sound now and again..... :?:
Title: Fender Twin Type amps
Post by: HJM on November 29, 2005, 11:27:45 AM
One thing that's odd with my Super Reverb is the power transformer is very hot on the HT side, I had to buy NOS JAN 7581s as the plate voltage burned up most 6l6s!
Title: Fender Twin Type amps
Post by: 38thBeatle on November 30, 2005, 07:05:04 PM
Am I right in remembering Victoria amps being Fenders in all but name?
Title: Fender Twin Type amps
Post by: willo on November 30, 2005, 07:09:08 PM
Quote from: 38thBeatle
Am I right in remembering Victoria amps being Fenders in all but name?


I think they are supposed to be highly accurate clones:

http://www.guitarexperience.co.uk/html/modules.php?name=Shopping_Cart&file=category&category_id=27

Never played one though, only came across them through the internet. :?