Fender Twin derivatives......

Haych

Possibly a bit of deja vu going on here but just looking for a brief overview of which Fender Twins are good and which ones not so good.

The main ones I'm aware of and possibly interested in are:

• 65 Reissue (I think I know enough about them to know what they're about).
• Twin Amp
• The Twin
• Red Knob Twin
• Twin II (I vaguely recall there being one, early 80s I think, possibly associated with Rivera???)

I've heard some are good, some aren't.  I'm also confused as to which one is the 'Evil Twin' - some say it's the red knob, others say it's either The Twin or Twin Amp (I forget which way round) - can somebody put me straight on that once and for all.

Thanks in advance.

andy1839

I’ve got the PR266 circuit one, ‘Twin Amp’ on the front. 

Its a great amp, I’ve swapped the speakers for a V30 and WGS G12C.

Sounds class. Even at low volume, it’s got a better volume taper than a HRD. 

Tilt back legs, and has a low power mode, you can even pull the middle two power valves and drop the output even further. 

They go for peanuts as well. 

GavRichList

Twin amp, 1994 made in USA is the Evil twin. I have one, and it’s a beautiful sounding amp. 

Haych

GavRichList said:

Twin amp, 1994 made in USA is the Evil twin. I have one, and it’s a beautiful sounding amp. 

Thank you bud, that's the succinct confirmation I needed.  Much appreciated.

Jimbro66

I had a 65 Twin reissue. Crystal clear and clean to very high volume using single-coil pickups. Very unforgiving of anything less than perfect technique - it's like having your playing under a magnifying glass. Maybe that's why it didn't suit me and after probably six months of gigging it I traded it for a 4x10 Super Reverb.

Despite being a Twin it was a lot lighter than the borrowed silverface Twin with JBLs that I used for a while in the early 80s. That was heavy!

ICBM

What Gav said .

'The Twin' and the Red-Knob Twin (which also does say The Twin on the front) are the same amp with different cosmetics. Neither of these is anything to do with Rivera or is the 'Evil Twin', contrary to popular myth. Build quality is OK, but they can sound a bit 'sterile'.

The 'Twin Amp' (1994) is the Evil Twin, although it doesn't say so anywhere on it. This one doesn't have tremolo. This the best of the post-CBS Twins in my opinion - best sound, best build quality, and reasonably easy to work on if necessary.

There is a 'Twin Amp' (Pro Tube Series) which does have tremolo, and is from (I think) 2000 onwards - this one is less well-made and is an utter pig to work on. Also easily identified by the extra small black screws holding the chassis in. I would avoid this one unless you really must have onboard tremolo.

The Twin Reverb II is the Rivera-series one and is also extremely well-built - the last of the hand-wired Fender amps, before the Custom Shop - and great-sounding, but will most likely need service work now.

All of the above also weigh a ton...

If you just want a straightforward clean Twin Reverb with tremolo, the reissues are also very good amps - well-made, great-sounding and surprisingly not *that* heavy (for a Twin ).

GavRichList

one other amp i'd suggest purely on personal experience was one I had in the mid 2000s (So im guessing must be pro-tube series) and that was a Pro Reverb. It sounded great. im sure @ICBM would have infinitely more info on their reliability, but mine never gave me a days trouble. I think they sell pretty cheaply these days too; i'd have one again as a back up. 

GavRichList

edit: one of these:

http://ampwares.com/amplifiers/fender-pro-tube-reverb/

OOH and theres one on ebay at the minute:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Pro-Reverb-Pro-Tube-50Watt-12-5Watt-Valve-Amp-Combo-with-Effects-Loop/323039525470?hash=item4b36a7fa5e:g:oUAAAOSwZ5hab2h8

ICBM

GavRichList said:

one other amp i'd suggest purely on personal experience was one I had in the mid 2000s (So im guessing must be pro-tube series) and that was a Pro Reverb. It sounded great. im sure @ICBM would have infinitely more info on their reliability, but mine never gave me a days trouble. I think they sell pretty cheaply these days too; i'd have one again as a back up. 

Yes, the Pro-Tube series Twins and Supers (and Concerts, which is the 1x12" model) do sound good, and don't seem to be unreliable - but you really don't want to have to do any major work on one!

meltedbuzzbox

Personally I prefer The Twin over the other models of twin (I used to own said Twin Amp mentioned above).
It doesn't have ice pick treble and its packs a fair old punch. Second hand prices are through the floor too so it costs absolutely sod all to buy used. 
Mines been serviced/repaired twice in 16 years of ownership so its been pretty reliable for me. 
The drive channel is absolute garbage though.

jpfamps

ICBM said:

GavRichList said:

one other amp i'd suggest purely on personal experience was one I had in the mid 2000s (So im guessing must be pro-tube series) and that was a Pro Reverb. It sounded great. im sure @ICBM would have infinitely more info on their reliability, but mine never gave me a days trouble. I think they sell pretty cheaply these days too; i'd have one again as a back up. 

Yes, the Pro-Tube series Twins and Supers (and Concerts, which is the 1x12" model) do sound good, and don't seem to be unreliable - but you really don't want to have to do any major work on one!

I've had a few of these in that are motorboating due to hanging 8 (yes eight!!) gain stages off one filter cap. A very bad piece of design.

Changing a pot, or doing anything that involves removing the main PCB is a total sod, ie expensive.

One of my least favourite amps to work on; I'd even take the Peavey Classis 30 over this.

Very heavy too.

GavRichList

jpfamps said:

ICBM said:

GavRichList said:

one other amp i'd suggest purely on personal experience was one I had in the mid 2000s (So im guessing must be pro-tube series) and that was a Pro Reverb. It sounded great. im sure @ICBM would have infinitely more info on their reliability, but mine never gave me a days trouble. I think they sell pretty cheaply these days too; i'd have one again as a back up. 

Yes, the Pro-Tube series Twins and Supers (and Concerts, which is the 1x12" model) do sound good, and don't seem to be unreliable - but you really don't want to have to do any major work on one!

I've had a few of these in that are motorboating due to hanging 8 (yes eight!!) gain stages off one filter cap. A very bad piece of design.

Changing a pot, or doing anything that involves removing the main PCB is a total sod, ie expensive.

One of my least favourite amps to work on; I'd even take the Peavey Classis 30 over this.

Very heavy too.

Then I did get lucky!

ICBM

Interesting, I haven't come across one motorboating yet. I did recently have to change a pot on one, and in the end did it by carefully destroying the old pot leaving the pins sticking up out of the board, and soldering a smaller pot to them. Not ideal, but anything is better than taking the whole PCB out, or snipping and re-soldering every single link between the pot board and the main one, which are the only other options.

ChuckManual

GavRichList said:

one other amp i'd suggest purely on personal experience was one I had in the mid 2000s (So im guessing must be pro-tube series) and that was a Pro Reverb. It sounded great. im sure @ICBM would have infinitely more info on their reliability, but mine never gave me a days trouble. I think they sell pretty cheaply these days too; i'd have one again as a back up. 

I've yet to play through one of those I didn't like. Cracking little amp.

DJH83004

The Pro Tube series are very similar in PCB architecture to the Red Knob Twin, a nightmare to do any major work on, but I have to say one of, if not the loudest Fender Twins I have ever heard !  

ICBM

DJH83004 said:

The Pro Tube series are very similar in PCB architecture to the Red Knob Twin, a nightmare to do any major work on, but I have to say one of, if not the loudest Fender Twins I have ever heard !  

I don't find the Red-Knobs that bad. At least you can get the boards out of them individually... although at some risk of breaking the nasty thin flying leads (usually when you're putting it back together, so you have to take it apart again!). The real pain in the backside is that you have to get the pot board out just to clean the pots.

The major reliability issue I've found with them apart from that is the two huge unsupported resistors on the middle PCB desoldering themselves and coming loose, but I've fixed that by mounting them on a tag strip screwed to the chassis with wires back to the board - then they never fail again.

The loudness goes with that 'sterile' sound they have - they have a very stiff power supply. I've always felt they sounded like a very good solid-state amp rather than a valve one - the cosmetics don't help with that impression either! They look like giant versions of the matching 'Deluxe 85' series...

Modulus_Amps

I did some work on a red knob Twin recently, sounded fine and was easy to work on, guy got it for £100 so I was well jealous, once you turned the normal channel right up it really started to sing.

What was funny is how every pot has a push/pull option, I like options, but that panel design belonged in Spinal Tap - Pull for one more

DJH83004

Totally agree IC, the flying leads to the valve bases break off  just by looking at them! and the big dropper resistors, which can actually burn the board up, as they are mounted much too close and unsupported. As Mike says I also liked the clean channel cranked - but way too loud   

ICBM

And annoyingly, the 25W half-voltage setting doesn't actually sound very good. Although not as bad as the triode mode on a Marshall JCM900.

These amps should also be given credit for being (I think) the first production amps with bias test points and adjusters on the back panel, as well as the useful multi-level FX loop and series/parallel extension speaker options and impedance switch - they're very well-thought-out in some ways. The 'Twin Amp' (both versions) carried this on, but then they went and blew it with that nonsensically complex auto-biasing system on the Supersonic 100 which is essentially the 'new Twin'...

maw4neu

I've had a number of Fender Twins, the 94 to 2002 Twin ( PR 266 circuit I think, though I may be wrong) was a good sounding amp but mine suffered with quite a lot of background noise. Way too much and because I'm such a Princess it had to go . . . I had a Red Knob Twin before it that was a much better sounding amp but it was truly the most unreliable fucking thing ever. Maybe I was using the worst amp technician in the world ??? I really don't know but it was no end of pain and heavier than a 2 up 2 down terraced house. The best Twin ( in my humble opinion but I wouldn't trust me ) was the 73 / 74 Non Pull Boost Silverface Twin I owned  . .Twice ! ! ! The minute I sold it ( first time around ) I instantly regretted it and had to wait 17 years to buy it back . . .  When it was offered back to me I immediately said yes ! ! ! My wife was so pleased . . . When the dust had settled and I eventually got it home and then realised that it needed a lot spending on it . . . The amp tech confirmed my worst fears and it needed a serious service, caps, valves, valve bases, the list went on . . .  I did the minimum required and sold it . . . . with hindsight I should have bitten the bullet and paid for the work but once again I'm such a Princess and I spat my dummy out and had it on eBay before you could say " Hold on a minute" . . . . .