Fender Amps

GeorgeF

Jeez looking for a fender amp is a bloody nightmare! First and foremost I'd like a vintage Twin Reverb or 2000-2004 model Twin with vib and fx loop, they sound amazing and i dig the vib and reverb but they weigh a fooking ton! That's gonna be a bitch when doing gigs etc althought has a lot of headroom

I've looked into cabinet + head option and saw an amazing twin reverb head but that was on ebay and slowly but surely disappeared. I'm currently looking at bassman and other things like tremolux's which are all expensive relics now!

Anyway, this thread is really me just wanting to find out what Fender amps work for different people etc so I can get some background information cos alot of them are hard to come by even to just try out (I don't wanna go travelling about too much). Basically I'm looking for clean twin tones in a cab and head mode, ideally with vibrato. What do you guys think? What's worked for you?

LIFE

I love my Twin. It's one of the most versatile, simple, and natural sounding amps out there.

GeorgeF

^Ya see, that's exactly what I'm on about!

Do you find it a massive effort to carry it about places though?

Pedro

Behold... excalibur!

Bassman 135 =

GeorgeF

Yeah I'd seriously consider a bassman but haven't even tried one. If it's like the tone of a twin then that'd be awesome, especially as it's in head/cab mode so gigs would be a lot easier. Doesn't have vibrato or reverb unfortunately, or does it? Looks fugging sweet either way!

Thanks for the advice too, I think I'll be going for the 70s/80s silverfaces. I've been scouring ebay hard these last few weeks!

LIFE

GeorgeF said: ^Ya see, that's exactly what I'm on about!
Do you find it a massive effort to carry it about places though?

It's a bit of a bitch to carry up stairs and such, but not to bad, and if someone helps it's nothing. I put casters on mine though, so I normally just push it along.

Pedro

GeorgeF said: Doesn't have vibrato or reverb unfortunately, or does it? Looks fugging sweet either way!

Thanks! And nope, it doesn't have anything except tone + vol controls! You struggle to get any overdrive as well, unless it's really turned up LOUD. Yeah, I do wish it had reverb.

GeorgeF

Pedro said:
Thanks! And nope, it doesn't have anything except tone + vol controls! You struggle to get any overdrive as well, unless it's really turned up LOUD. Yeah, I do wish it had reverb.

Yeah, that makes sense. I'm quite a small guy which puts me off but casters+bandmates=pieceofpiss!

I'm really smitten with the one I've tried out which was a 70's silverface with customized speakers. I'd like to look at a newer one with an effects loop so that you can put delay after the vibrato etc. Maybe a mod job could be done on an older model? I don't think the newer ones would sound as sweet, or look as charming.

Yeah, the reverb and vib is the extra allure of the Twin. Either way, overdriving the amp wouldn't be an issue, I want a real clean-machine that hardly breaks up! I'd rather use pedals etc and keep the headroom 😀

LIFE

LIFE said:
It's a bit of a bitch to carry up stairs and such, but not to bad, and if someone helps it's nothing. I put casters on mine though, so I normally just push it along.

In my opinion the reissues are better than the '70s ones. I tried about three silverface '70s Twins before testing out the RI, and although they're really not much different at all, the RI seemed more solid, and sounded more full, in my opinion. The RI is more money, but for me it was worth it.

GeorgeF

LIFE said:
In my opinion the reissues are better than the '70s ones. I tried about three silverface '70s Twins before testing out the RI, and although they're really not much different at all, the RI seemed more solid, and sounded more full, in my opinion. The RI is more money, but for me it was worth it.

Ah cool, that's reassuring. As I say, I haven't tried one yet!

So do you have one of the new '65 RI's or one of 'The Twin' models that were about around the late 90's to about 2005? If it's one of The Twins I'd love to know how the gain channel performs as well as all the other extras like FX loop etc. If the cleans are as glassy and rich as the 70's one I tried then I'm pretty much sold! With The Twins there's always a nice turnover on ebay aswell as the old twin reverbs. Either way I'm open to all amps, including the new 65 RI although I'd probably go for cheaper!

GeorgeF

Oh and by the way, this looks like the shiz!

http://cgi.ebay.com/1983-Fender-Twin-Reverb-II-2-Tube-Amp-Head_W0QQitemZ160108060376QQihZ006QQcategoryZ38074QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

LIFE

I have the '65 RI Twin, although I was talking to this guy the other day who had an evil Twin, and he said the overdrive was really brilliant on it.