Used Fender "The Twin" for $200

[Structo]

You guys ever watch the movie "Idiocracy"?

A delightful treatise of what may lie in our future....

[Reeltarded]

Tom, you mistenser you.

I have seen the future, and it started yesterday.

[SoundPerf]

You guys ever watch the movie "Idiocracy"?

A delightful treatise of what may lie in our future....

Ever since seeing that movie, I am completely blown away at how it is coming to life more and more each day. I don't know if I should be terrorfied or not that the inventor of Beavis and Butthead is a turning out to be a modern day prophet. At first I thought it was just once it was suggested to me I all of sudden started seeing it everywhere. Some of it may be that, but I swear with the rapid acceleration of absurdity that's going on much of it didn't exist even a few years ago.

I happen to see for the first time one of the guys from Jersey Shore on some TV show and realized that he is a breathing, flesh & blood Butthead or Beavis...take your pick.

[renshen1957]

Now I see why he's not asking much. Well, "much" is a relative term here. That's in pretty bad shape. Also, don't confuse this with older or even later 70's Twins. This Twin is representive of when Fender didn't have their manufacturing ducks in a row. (some would argue they still don't) It has cheap areas of construction at different areas.

Hi,

The amp in the picture looks too much like stone soup, if you know the story. I'd walk.

I agree with Soundperf, I've worked on the Super 60 red knobs which weren't that Super. The amp was a bitch to work on.

PCB board had traces lifted from heat going into the chassis through the vent holes, cheap pots, cheap caps, inadequate wattage rating on the resistors, (a short reverb pan), pressure adhesive front and back panels. basically cheap components, The 100/25W switch can be dodgy and require replacement. The plastic jacks (cliff imitations) aren't the best in the world, either and will need replacement.

In short, an amp where Fenders accountants had the major say in the design.

You will be tempted to replace the speakers and get rid of the PCB with some form of point to point wiring.

What you will be getting for your money is a tolex covered cabinet, some generic speakers, Magnetic Component Transformers. I would pay a little extra and buy a new cab, chassis, transformers ect.

http://ampwares.com/schematics/TheTwin_ ... Manual.pdf

http://ampwares.com/schematics/the_twin.pdf

"The cabinet and chassis are well-made, it's the jacks, pots and the mounting of some components (high power resistors) which give the most trouble. A lot of techs don't like them because they can be a real pain to work on - to get at anything on the preamp circuit board (even to clean the pots) requires complete removal of the board, and the flimsy flying leads to the tube sockets then have a tendency to break off. "

another review:

".........the biggest problem was reliability and chassis access. Just have your tech give it a thorough going over. Get rid of all the old, cheap caps, check all jacks, pots and anything else that connects to the PCB, re-solder or improve their stability if possible, replace any resistors that could benefit from a higher wattage rating..... Legend tells that it was not uncommon for undervalued resistors to get hot and "fall off the board". Just have the tech check everything, fix or improve anything that you can. Re tube if necessary and give it some new speakers. "

$75 bucks for a Quad. Well maybe a cheaper alternative before risking good tubes on a suspect amp.

This seller offers matched pair of "6L6GC" vacuum tubes $10.99/pair on ebay.com They are made by the Reflector factory, 6n3c's Sovtek 5581's designed for up to 25-30 watts plates (some have tested these at 550VDC). A buddy has these in his lightly used Red Knob Twin and likes them.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-matched-pai ... 5ae646872c

There are people who do like the amp, but it is a Fender Twin in name only. Being a Fender, good cleans. It is not a high gain amp, if you are patient you can get some good medium gain tones out of the Amp.
People also have called it Sterile, Solid State sounding.

YMMV.

Steve

[The New Steve H]

What you will be getting for your money is a tolex covered cabinet, some generic speakers, Magnetic Component Transformers.

This is pretty much what I thought. I figured that would be okay for $50. And I could alter the circuit if it sounded bad.

But I already have a new project.