Closed Eye
New member
I played a newer Fender Twin this weekend and I actually really liked it.
I hooked up a Fender Telecaster with a Bird's Eye Maple neck, made sure the 1/4 power switch was on, spent about 5 minutes trying to figure out he Fender amp control thing (it's the little tick marks), and played a few open chords/power chords to get a taste of what it could do.
I'm not used to amps without crushing distortion but the distortion channel on the Twin got pretty high up in there in terms of gain. I didn't even open the amp up but when turning the volume past 2, even with the 1/4 switch engaged, the amp was LOUD. The distortion wasn't exactly what I was looking for, it did lack that solid state compression I'm used, but I could definantly see myself growing to like it. It had a bite, a growl, and with the bass backed off I got a great lead tone. With the bass turned to about 5 and with the mids at about 6/7 I got a distortion that pretty much covered most of the kinds of stuff I play nowadays (White Stripes, Incubus, Audioslave). While I didn't get to try and crank it to see if I could get some harmonic laden high-gain tones I still enjoyed it quite a bit.
The cleans, of course, are those classic Fender cleans I've heard about. Pretty much every amp I play afterwards, in terms of the clean channel, is going to be compared to the Twin. It was full-bodied, very bright, and just a joy to play. I actually played the clean for a bit, switched to the distortion, but then immediately switched back to the clean because I liked it so damn much.
The only thing that left a sour taste in my mouth I told the salesmen what kind of stuff I play and what I'm in the market for but, like most salesmen I've dealt with , he pointed me in the direction of a Marshall JCM2000 half-stack. I specifically said "I don't want Marshall" and he pointed me right back in the direction of a Marshall. Granted, the Marshall sounded killer, but it wasn't quite what I looking for. The JCM was too big, too loud, and just too much amp in general.
All in all playing the Fender Twin was a great experiance. I didn't get a chance to sit down and find out all the finer points of the amp but I definantly want to play it again.
I hooked up a Fender Telecaster with a Bird's Eye Maple neck, made sure the 1/4 power switch was on, spent about 5 minutes trying to figure out he Fender amp control thing (it's the little tick marks), and played a few open chords/power chords to get a taste of what it could do.
I'm not used to amps without crushing distortion but the distortion channel on the Twin got pretty high up in there in terms of gain. I didn't even open the amp up but when turning the volume past 2, even with the 1/4 switch engaged, the amp was LOUD. The distortion wasn't exactly what I was looking for, it did lack that solid state compression I'm used, but I could definantly see myself growing to like it. It had a bite, a growl, and with the bass backed off I got a great lead tone. With the bass turned to about 5 and with the mids at about 6/7 I got a distortion that pretty much covered most of the kinds of stuff I play nowadays (White Stripes, Incubus, Audioslave). While I didn't get to try and crank it to see if I could get some harmonic laden high-gain tones I still enjoyed it quite a bit.
The cleans, of course, are those classic Fender cleans I've heard about. Pretty much every amp I play afterwards, in terms of the clean channel, is going to be compared to the Twin. It was full-bodied, very bright, and just a joy to play. I actually played the clean for a bit, switched to the distortion, but then immediately switched back to the clean because I liked it so damn much.
The only thing that left a sour taste in my mouth I told the salesmen what kind of stuff I play and what I'm in the market for but, like most salesmen I've dealt with , he pointed me in the direction of a Marshall JCM2000 half-stack. I specifically said "I don't want Marshall" and he pointed me right back in the direction of a Marshall. Granted, the Marshall sounded killer, but it wasn't quite what I looking for. The JCM was too big, too loud, and just too much amp in general.
All in all playing the Fender Twin was a great experiance. I didn't get a chance to sit down and find out all the finer points of the amp but I definantly want to play it again.
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Anyway, I stand corrected.
