My 1972 Silverface Fender Twin Reverb
So, here is the crown jewel of my setup:
The Amp
I bought this amp about 10 years ago at a Guitar Center for $600, not exactly knowing what I wanted in an amp, but I knew vintage was king, and Fender was king. How could I go wrong? (Thanks for the help, Guitar Center...)
This is a silver-face master-volume circuit from 1972. The "silver-face" series is much less popular than the coveted "black-face" era of Fender. The big deal about the SF era is that they were manufactured after Fender's sale to CBS, and parts were exchanged for more a cost-effective method of production. This affected the sound quality of the amp, and the tube compression that players loved so much went away.
The original Oxford speakers are still installed and the amp's just got this thing I can't bring myself to part with.
The Sound
I've heard my amp called a "useless anchor," a "carpet paperweight," and a "rich man's PA-system." All of these people clearly have never turned it to 10.
The cleans put out are pure, sweet, scoopy Fender through and through. Sure she doesn't compress much, but that's why The Good Lord invented boost and distortion pedals.
The Settings
Through the "Vibrato" channel, I run my Normal Volume at 10, always. It works the tubes and helps the pedals achieve the amount of compression I desire.
Since the "Fender sound" scoops mids quite a bit, I tone down the Treble and Bass to about 2-3 and keep the Middle at about 6-7. Anything higher on the Bass band and it gets boomy when you're trying to add a Marshall-style distortion pedal.
(I've also seen a guitar player just wind the each knob around on the EQ until he hears a distinct change in tone and then sets them accordingly around there, and it works great for him!)
I prefer some movement in my amp so I always have the tremolo depth and rate going slightly. It may be barely there, but it's there.
Lastly, the revered spring-reverb tank. Enough to create an air about the sound and you're there. Anything else in a band setting, and you're losing clarity. Unless you're an old-style blues player, then crank that baby to 10.
Even the silverface Twin is a monster amp, way better than any solid state amp of that era, and better than most of the new ones.
Have you tried using the amp with the master vol set way down and the channel volume cranked up? It's all preamp distortion, but it's still pretty good sounding once you dial in the eq.
Those amps have an amazing reverb.
Another thing about the later silverface Twin, it can pretty easily be back-dated to the blackface circuit configuration, it's mostly a matter of changing resistors in certain areas of the circuitry.
Heresy!
Burn him, he's a witch...
Yeah, these pictures are a bit out dated, but I have recently been using it how you suggest, with my channel volume cranked with the master set to about 5. Great sounds!
I have wanted to "black-face" it but it's totally original and I kinda want to keep it so.
It's not a bad idea to keep it stock. It has a certain value that way that it might not have if it was modified.
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STOPNice post and sweet amp! I like the clean fender tone. Its got a nice pretty sound but I like to hear a little more balls in my tone. Check out my post of an amp that was hand made (not by me)
Keep steemin!
@jakeimnotshure Thanks! I am partial to the Marshall-type distortion, but the clean tone just has me hooked. Can't bring myself to leave it. I run a Jekyll and Hyde v3 for my distortion sound.
@jakeimnotshure I left a reply on your post about the home made amp.