Fender Super Twin.

[blinddrew]

Sounds good to my ignorant ears.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:

Just posted a link to a second demo just under the one for that first clean demo.

[Simon Barden]

You can certainly tell your Strat has a RW/RP middle pickup. Sounds good.

[DrNomis_44]

You can certainly tell your Strat has a RW/RP middle pickup. Sounds good.

Yep, since positions 2 and 4 on the pickup switch are hum-free, I'm in the process of buying a full set of Fender Hot Noiseless pickups on eBay, once they're installed the hum in the other three positions will be gone, as much as I like the stock fat 50's pickups, they're a bit too noisy for me, they are a bit weak in output for my tastes too.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:

So, I bet you guys are interested in hearing about what I've been up to this week, well, I've been in the process of making a complete new footswitch for my Super Twin amp, yes, it does feature footswitching, the built-in 5-band EQ, Distortion, and Volume-boost are all foot-switchable, I went to my local Jaycar Electronics shop on Tuesday and bought all the bits and pieces needed to make the new footswitch, here's a couple of pics of it:






The new footswitch seems to be working perfectly, with the new footswitch unplugged from the amp, the 5-band EQ, Volume Boost, and Distortion is always on, although you can switch the Distortion on or off with the Distortion control knob, now, when you plug the new footswitch into the sockets on the back panel of the amp, the 5-band EQ-, Volume-boost, and Distortion can all be switched on or off remotely just by stomping on the footswitches, this means you can pre-set the 5-band EQ and Distortion controls to get the sounds you want, and still be able to get the basic clean sound of the amp, the Distortion itself is nothing to write home about though, you can always just use a distortion pedal since the amp does take pedals well.

[Sonic Mountain]

Happy B'day Doc.

Looks like a neat setup.

[DrNomis_44]

Happy B'day Doc.

Looks like a neat setup.

Hey cheers mate, yeah I think I've got it all working the best it can, it's good to go with regards to recording or gigging, I can't wait to do my first gig with the amp to break it in.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:

Some new bits and pieces for my Super Twin amp arrived in the post this afternoon, in the parcel were two new Fender style amp knobs, two new Blue lamp bezels, and a complete new lamp holder which I'm going to use as a spare in case the Super Twin amp's stock one breaks, the two new blue bezels fit the new lamp holder perfectly, I don't know if they'll fit the stock one though, I'll have to wait till tomorrow, I've got one of the new knobs installed and it looks great, it's a bit shinier than the stock ones, but I'm not too worried about that.

[Simon Barden]

Right at the other end of the Fender power scale...



I've borrowed a friends '81 Fender Vibro Champ. 5W with a 4-Ohm 8" Eminence speaker. One 6V6 power tube, one 12AX7 for the preamp, one 12AX7 tube for the tremolo circuit and a 5Y3GT for the rectifier. The tremolo circuit uses power tube grid bias adjustment to change the volume. The circuitry (AA764) hadn't changed since the Blackface model Vibro Champ was introduced in 1964, though the fitted speaker has changed over the years.

As you might have guessed, with 5W and an 8" speaker, it's not very loud and it hasn't got much clean headroom. With a Strat, it starts to break up with the volume at 4. With a Les Paul (humbuckers and P90s), that point comes at 3. Above 5, it doesn't get louder, just dirtier.

The tone controls aren't that effective. Bass works from 1 to 5, above which nothing else happens. It may well do more, but the fitted speaker can't produce the bass frequencies necessary to hear the effect. Treble works from 5 to 7; below 5, nothing is added and above 7 almost no change can be heard.

The tremolo is quite a nice effect, but it's really wasted IMO as there isn't enough clean volume to make it worthwhile. It hasn't got quite the depth of effect that some tremolo circuits have. It also doesn't sound that good with a driven sound. What would have been more worthwhile would have been a reverb; there's enough space in the cabinet for a short-spring unit. My cheap Tone City Temble pedal does a very good imitation of this amp's tremolo, though the intensity control on the pedal can produce a full 'silence in the gaps' tremolo.

It's main use is really an easily driven small recording combo where it's ideal for crunchy sounds that still retain some clarity. Think raunchy Stones numbers. It sounds dirty, but it hasn't got bags of sustain - it's not going to give you anything like a long creamy lead sound without external help from pedals. It's better with humbuckers or P90s for this as Fender single coils can sound rather thin and scratchy with the drive sounds, as the lack of any real bass makes the single coil sounds rather scratchy. Even humbuckers don't sound overly bassy, but in a mix, that light low end will stop the guitar sound from fighting with the bass guitar.

For a small Fender combo that's got some decent clean headroom and that works well with Fenders, you really need the next step up on the Fender amp hierarchy and move to the 12W Princeton Reverb. This has a 10" speaker, reverb and tremolo.

Am I tempted to make my mate an offer for it? Yes and no. He's now got some Adam A7X monitors from me that he's trying out. If he wants to keep them, then I'll offer to swap those for the amp (he's got a small Blackstar that he finds more useful). But I don't think I'd offer him cash for it.

[DrNomis_44]

They're not bad, those Fender Vibro Champs, you might be able to upgrade the speaker to a 10 inch one, although you might have to replace the stock front baffle to be able to do so, I've got a Guitar Classics magazine that has an article about upgrading the speaker in a Fender blackface Champ with a 10 inch speaker, so it is do-able, apparently the author of the article reckons the speaker upgrade made the amp sound a lot better.


The Super Twin is sounding pretty good with my pedal board setup, I'm really surprised at how well the amp takes pedals, it's got tonnes of headroom due to the six 6L6 power tubes being connected up in what's called the "Ultra Linear" configuration, this means that the six 6L6 tubes can put out quite a fair bit of power, 180 Watts R.M.S. (R.M.S. is short for Root Mean Squared), and a peak power output of 395 watts, all at low distortion, I don't really need to crank the preamp and master volumes up much, about three for both is loud enough for my loungeroom, having tonnes of headroom means that the sounds I get with the pedals are going to be pretty clear, the bright switch definitely has an audible effect, the amp sounds warm when the bright switch is turned off, but there is still plenty of highs in the tone so it doesn't sound muffled, I've been spending a bit of time familiarizing myself with the amp, getting to know it and how to get good tones out of it, the funny thing is, some Super Twin amp owners say that it's hard to get a good tone, but my experience has been the exact opposite, I've found it really easy to get good tones, I've done some experimenting with the 5-band EQ and you don't have to do much with it to get some good tones with that either.

The amp definitely sounds better with the footswitch plugged in though, I like what the volume-boost footswitch does, but I'm not a big fan of the amp's built-in distortion, fortunately I can easily use a distortion pedal instead, the red JD-F2 Fuzz Face sounds great through the amp, as does my TS-9 Tube Screamer and BD-2 Blues Driver, the other pedals broaden the tonal palette I've got to work with, and I can use them to doctor clean tones if I want.