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Brian Neal wrote:
> Here is some text from Fender's website on the amp:
> "The Twin's Vibrato, Reverb, and crystal
> clean tones are great as always, and the
> 15's extra fat clear bottom end, smooth
> treble, and high power handling make this
> amp a godsend for guitarists in
> specific genres."
>
> I think they had surf and country in mind
> as "specific genres", but probably didn't
> want to mention them by name to avoid
> pidgeon-holing the amp. :)
In the 70's they did mention genres in their ad copy.
I don't have any quotes but I remember it being billed
as perfect for pedal steel and for archtop jazz
due to it's clean power that would go into smooth
overdrive without distortion (it had [has?] a master
volume push-pull switch). They went on to describe
how the single 15's massive magnet/coil and heavy
cone would tend to dampen sounds and be a bit more
mellow than typical rock-n-roll amps. It was clearly
being billed as an amp for styles that weren't dependant
on heavy distortion.
It was indeed a great jazz amp. With the master volume
and midrange control and plenty of horsepower, it was
very capable of playing different sized rooms without
the tone changing drastically as you reset the volume.
That's something that the British style amps didn't
do. They sounded vastly different on vol 4 than they
did on 9.
Keep in mind that in the early 70's a vibrasonic
reverb or a twin was considered a small amp. Just
a couple of years previous the massive backline,
multiple marshall/vox stacks, volume on 11 and
Treb/bass both up to full was the norm. Even the
garage bands and bar bands then tended to use
4' tall vox or silvertone cabinets with multi
12's or 10's.
At least that's what I was seeing in LA back then.
Lumpy
--
In Your Ears for 40 Years
