Fender 57 Twin

[Jonny R]

Hi all

I had a brief play on one of these on the weekend. I have to say, although I was only allowed to play it at a discrete shop volume it had a beautiful smooth tone. I normally play through a 65 Twin RI and the 57 RI just has that smaller amp blues tone down really nicely in comparison, although obviously without the unlimited clean headroom of the 65.

I can only imagine that playing one loud would give some awesome creamy blues lead tones.

Anyone here had any experience with one at gigging volume or similar, or any other experiences/impressions?

The only downer is that I couldn't see myself spending US$4,200 on a Twin - local price here.

Cheers
Jonny

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: Fender 57 Twin

-didn't try it when I saw it (I'm sure we're talking about the same amp, there surelyu can't be two in Auck city). I talked to a vibro-king owning member of staff about it, and he said he thought the clean tone was very pretty, but he wasn't a massive fan of the overdrive.

I'm sure it's a great amp. I'm a huge fan of the fender CS stuff. The vibroking and bassbreaker are two amps I'd consider 'upgrading' to.

Do you find your twin ri a bit light in the mids?

 

[Jonny R]

Re: Fender 57 Twin

Yeah, that was the one I played - at the Rock Shop. $5,999 local / US$4,200 (aroundabout)

Yeah, actually the Twin at flat EQ is fairly mid-light. I run it most of the time now with the treble at 4-4.5, the mid at 7 or so, and the bass around 5-6. That's been working pretty well at cutting through the mix. Still trying out different levels of mids.

Using a Maxon OD808 and a G2D Custom Overdrive with the Twin which seems to cover the ground pretty well.

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: Fender 57 Twin

I talked to Dave Manning about twin ris, and he said he's modded quite a few for more mids. Apparently it's a very minor fix.

I had the choice of the twin ri and my vibrolux when I bought the vibrolux. I was really impressed with the twin's headroom (always an issue in a big band), and it had a nice 'lenny' sort of tone, but I couldn't hang with the character of the midrange. I guess my ideal amp would be my vibrolux with more headroom, which is pretty much what the vibo-king is.

 

[Jonny R]

Re: Fender 57 Twin

Cool, didn't know anyone here did modding of that nature. Might look into that at some stage.

Yeah, I played a Vibro-something a while back and really liked it. There was a Bandmaster head and cab that I was tempted to trade on sitting around at Go West for a while too, but it's gone now.

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: Fender 57 Twin

Yeah, I tried that bandmaster too. I wasn't blown away by the tone, and even less headroom. To be honest, I don't think you missed out.

I tried an early 60s blonde tremolux with matching 1x12 piggyback at the Welly rockshop, and that was a killer amp. It used to be the guy from Weta's. It sounded like my amp, only that bit better. Same problem with headroom, though, and no reverb.