Section for the review of Fender Amps..

Please State Model and Gear You Use....

fender '68 twin, silverface with aluminum trim and vertical lines between knobs. it still has the dreaded ac568 circuit. i have been enjoying the sound so far with my akai shred-o-matic on the tube setting only. will i get it blackfaced???
hmmmmmmm....

'71 Twin Reverb. Loud, Clean, sounds great with the right overdrive pedal. Works great with a THD Hotplate for rehearsals.

Only one drawback... HHHHhhhhheeeeeaaaavvvvyyyy.

Currently using with Les Pauls, American Std. Tele.
Currently using George L's cables.
Pedals are Menatone Blue Collar, Turbo Rat, Micro Amp, Boss DD-5.

Custom Vibrolux Reverb.

Same setup as listed for '71 Twin.

Replaced the speakers with Weber C10N's and Phillips NOS tubes. Much improved.

Tonemaster

I just picked up a used Tonemaster in a trade with a friend here in Chicago. In its as-traded condition I really liked the TM's sound overall, but found the gain channel to be a little grainy and splatty, and the clean channel was lacking in richness.

I checked the pre-amp tubes and found that they were the stock Sovtek 12ax7wa GrooveTubes. The tube from the PI slot looked a little hazy and blue, and I generally dislike Sovteks anyway, so I pulled all of these and replaced them with some NOS RFT 12ax7's in V1 and V2, and a "perfectly matched" Groove Tube 12ax7c in V3.

I then checked the power tubes, and found that they are the stock Sovtek 5881's. Using my Weber Bias Rite, I measured these to be running at 32 mV. This is 16 mV beneath the reading called for by the schematic. I didn't have time to pull the chassis and find the bias pot, so I left the power tubes as I found them.

I then fired her up for band practice last night, running it through my Zinky 2x12 cab. Whoa! The tone is unbelievably nice. The clean channel is BIG and round, with a lot of different usable tones available. Using my Tele, I left the Fat switch off and left the tone controls pretty neutral - all around 12:00, except for the treble which I turned down.

The gain channel was the surprise winner of the night, however. Whatever splattiness that had been present before was now gone after the tube swap. I found that this channel sounded best with Fat switch off, mids cranked, and bass and treble turned pretty far down. It was easy to dial in a nice mid-level overdrive sound with the gain at about 10:00 or so. The sweetness of the break-up was better than that of any amp I've owned before, except perhaps for the Budda, which did overdrive beautifully but couldn't do clean.

Both channels of the TM took to my Vintage Rat really well whenever I needed a gain or volume kick. All other effects pedals (delay, tremolo) also sounded really nice. I can't wait until my Les Paul is out of the shop and I can give it a run through the TM.

My only "complaint" isn't really a complaint at all. The amp is a little too loud for my band's 16x20 rehearsal space. Of course, this amp is meant for stage work, so I expected this problem. I put a Weber MASS attenuator on order today, and hopefully this will knock down the volume a little without sacrificing the sound.

All in all, this is a fantastic amp, and I think I may have found my "perfect" match. I'll try to post about the Weber MASS unit once I've had some time to work with it.

Tonemaster

I just picked up a used Tonemaster in a trade with a friend here in Chicago. In its as-traded condition I really liked the TM's sound overall, but found the gain channel to be a little grainy and splatty, and the clean channel was lacking in richness.

I checked the pre-amp tubes and found that they were the stock Sovtek 12ax7wa GrooveTubes. The tube from the PI slot looked a little hazy and blue, and I generally dislike Sovteks anyway, so I pulled all of these and replaced them with some NOS RFT 12ax7's in V1 and V2, and a "perfectly matched" Groove Tube 12ax7c in V3.

I then checked the power tubes, and found that they are the stock Sovtek 5881's. Using my Weber Bias Rite, I measured these to be running at 32 mV. This is 16 mV beneath the reading called for by the schematic. I didn't have time to pull the chassis and find the bias pot, so I left the power tubes as I found them.

I then fired her up for band practice last night, running it through my Zinky 2x12 cab. Whoa! The tone is unbelievably nice. The clean channel is BIG and round, with a lot of different usable tones available. Using my Tele, I left the Fat switch off and left the tone controls pretty neutral - all around 12:00, except for the treble which I turned down.

The gain channel was the surprise winner of the night, however. Whatever splattiness that had been present before was now gone after the tube swap. I found that this channel sounded best with Fat switch off, mids cranked, and bass and treble turned pretty far down. It was easy to dial in a nice mid-level overdrive sound with the gain at about 10:00 or so. The sweetness of the break-up was better than that of any amp I've owned before, except perhaps for the Budda, which did overdrive beautifully but couldn't do clean.

Both channels of the TM took to my Vintage Rat really well whenever I needed a gain or volume kick. All other effects pedals (delay, tremolo) also sounded really nice. I can't wait until my Les Paul is out of the shop and I can give it a run through the TM.

My only "complaint" isn't really a complaint at all. The amp is a little too loud for my band's 16x20 rehearsal space. Of course, this amp is meant for stage work, so I expected this problem. I put a Weber MASS attenuator on order today, and hopefully this will knock down the volume a little without sacrificing the sound.

All in all, this is a fantastic amp, and I think I may have found my "perfect" match. I'll try to post about the Weber MASS unit once I've had some time to work with it.

Any of you fender cats interested in a
64 vibroverb? AB763 production line #9
all original 15" JBL, the SRV amp.....

ive owned some black faces, and played threw some tweeds, fender just aint what it used to be. look at the strats 800.oo and up, if you find one good one out of 10 your a lucky man/woman what do you all think? for the musician fender has gone
down
hill
bluesmann8

I play the SF era fenders. always loved them, tho they do look a bit...ugly sometimes.

I dunno...but I get the impression after all the years of GAS and all that goes with that phenom, that the difference from amp to amp is, often so subtle and user overblown that the distinctions ust become so much hooey...bells and whistle distinctions mostly, as in who's got 'em, who doesn't!

we all plug in noise pedals and throw a bunch of gain at these amps, so do you think it matters as much as we kid ourselves? no, except maybe we believe more in some products, so that confidence might be a factor...but sonically, it's all pretty much slightly different shades of dirt...

I believe it doesn't matter too much that we kid ourselves...you know, we all gotta have hobbies!..let's see..I plugged into my ole Crate ss I sold a friend years back (yeah, he's still my friend) and I could get really really close sounds similiar to Fender and Marshall and Voxs with my pedals. The areas where I couldnt replicate those amps were mostly cascaded preamp fizz tone, which I only missed by a smidgen.

You may say, "Hey, either you are an awful guitarist or a good one." Probably the former is accurate, but heck, I just think we all sometimes forget that about 70-80% of your tone is you and your sweaty fingers, and some pedals.

..like you could tell a Dr Z carmen ghia over a class A Gibson amp with a bunch of pedals on?...yeah. sure you could

sorry junior...hey, I got a Buick that runs just as well as a Volvo, but folks treat me differently when I climb out of the Volvo...there ya go.

fwiw..

quote:

---

Originally posted by Oakland:
I play the SF era fenders. always loved them, tho they do look a bit...ugly sometimes.

I dunno...but I get the impression after all the years of GAS and all that goes with that phenom, that the difference from amp to amp is, often so subtle and user overblown that the distinctions ust become so much hooey...bells and whistle distinctions mostly, as in who's got 'em, who doesn't!

we all plug in noise pedals and throw a bunch of gain at these amps, so do you think it matters as much as we kid ourselves? no, except maybe we believe more in some products, so that confidence might be a factor...but sonically, it's all pretty much slightly different shades of dirt...

I believe it doesn't matter too much that we kid ourselves...you know, we all gotta have hobbies!..let's see..I plugged into my ole Crate ss I sold a friend years back (yeah, he's still my friend) and I could get really really close sounds similiar to Fender and Marshall and Voxs with my pedals. The areas where I couldnt replicate those amps were mostly cascaded preamp fizz tone, which I only missed by a smidgen.

You may say, "Hey, either you are an awful guitarist or a good one." Probably the former is accurate, but heck, I just think we all sometimes forget that about 70-80% of your tone is you and your sweaty fingers, and some pedals.

..like you could tell a Dr Z carmen ghia over a class A Gibson amp with a bunch of pedals on?...yeah. sure you could

sorry junior...hey, I got a Buick that runs just as well as a Volvo, but folks treat me differently when I climb out of the Volvo...there ya go.

fwiw..

---

I bet you don't even own an amp -- so why the pearls of unwisdom?

---- "You may say, 'Hey, either you are an awful guitarist or a good one.'"

I don't think anyone thinks you even can play guitar, not really. You just hate to be alone, don't you?

_______________________________________________

good thing i did'nt say that!

72 SF NMV Super Reverb I found on vaction in the FL Keys!! $175.00 cause "It blows the fuse after a few minutes".. Made a new frt baffle board / ordered aged grille cloth and a new emblem (saved beat to crap originals). New JJ power tubes / a nos tug-sol 5U4/ It had new Ruby (oh well)pres. and drivers, cleaned the pots, put the right fuse in it. Knock on wood but, It's been 3 years. I kina want to send it to Gerald Weber for a rebuild. What do you guys think? I think I got lucky on this one. Couldn't wait to come home from vacation to play with it..

Fender© Amps:
'66 Blackface Super Reverb Amp (yeah baby!)
'76 Vibrolux Reverb Amp (sweetness!)
'94 Pro Junior (secret weapon!)

The Vibrolux is my main amp these days. Just crank up the single volume to 7-9 and wail. I've a slew of pedals that further enhance my sound, but it's all in the fingers and then a good (great if possible) amp.

jam on...