Smaller Twin that CAN OD?

[Bludave]

Re: Smaller Twin that CAN OD?

The "low power" Twin was a Tweed circut and sounds NOTHING like a BF/SF Twin at all.

Infact nothing really sounds like another Twin...if you want BF style cleans but in a package that will overdrive look into a Super or maybe a Deluxe but remember that clean sound comes from having 85 watts of power...having an amp that will overdrive only comes from lower power amps so what you are asking for is something that you will only get so close to. You could also look into a Pro...they have not reissued the Pro but it 45 or so watts in a 2x12 set up.

Yeah I agree. A Twin is one of the best clean amps you can get. A Dual Showman is the same basic setup in a head and they are a lot less $. The tweed Twins are great amps also, but sound nothing like a BF SF twin. Another option you might want to consider is a "red knb" Twin. These were made sometime in the 80's. I don't remember exactly the time frame, but they are channel switching. Probably the only Fenders that had a decent sound out of both channels. They can be had pretty reasonable and are a very underrated amp. Not as good as a BF or SF IMO, but a good amp. Generally a good rule to follow using the real Twins are to use a good OD pedal. It just seems to work best with a Twin. The volume of a BF/SF twin is very loud and very clean but if you use a good OD pedal like a TS9 ot 808 they sound awesome.

The transition between BF to SF occurred in 1967. The 1967,1968,1969 amps are essentially the same circuit as the BF they just changed the face plate. They may have done some circuit changes also but I have played these side by side and I can't really hear any noticiable difference. I have a drip edge SF Deluxe Reverb(1967), and a Drip edge Super reverb(1968). Both are SF and they sound great. There were some 1967 amps that still had the BF. What it really amounts to is if you buy a SF you want one that does not have a Master volume in it. Those IMO do not sound anywhere as good as the Non master SF amps.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Smaller Twin that CAN OD?

It gets complicated with silverface amps. Any of them can and should be converted to blackface specs. When CBS took over Fender in 1965 at first they left the designs alone but soon they started to cheapen the product and made some stupid revisions to the classic blackface Fender design. The biggest that comes to mind is a change to the bias circuitry that would not allow a tech to set the bias properly...you'll see a balance control rather than a bias control. That balance control needs to be converted back to a bias adjustment control. A very simple job for a good tech. Then you can set the bias and the tone will improve alot!

Lew

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Smaller Twin that CAN OD?

It gets complicated with silverface amps. Any of them can and should be converted to blackface specs. When CBS took over Fender in 1965 at first they left the designs alone but soon they started to cheapen the product and made some stupid revisions to the classic blackface Fender design. The biggest that comes to mind is a change to the bias circuitry that would not allow a tech to set the bias properly...you'll see a balance control rather than a bias control. That balance control needs to be converted back to a bias adjustment control. A very simple job for a good tech. Then you can set the bias and the tone will improve alot!
Lew

+10000!