Fender Super Twin.

[DrNomis_44]

Hi Everyone,

One of the students doing a different music course than the one I'm doing, has offered to sell me a Fender Super Twin amp chassis for $300.00, it looks in reasonable condition, except for a missing control knob, and apparently it does work.

I'm going to organize paying him the money for it over the next couple of fortnights, it looks like it could be a good amp restoration project, I'll post a pic of it once I get it home so you can check it out, it is an all valve amp that is apparently capable of putting out 180 watts of audio power

Stay tuned for more updates.

[wazkelly]

Bargain price if not too much wrong with it. You mention amp chassis which implies no speakers and possibly no longer contained with original amp/combo setup?

[DrNomis_44]

Bargain price if not too much wrong with it. You mention amp chassis which implies no speakers and possibly no longer contained with original amp/combo setup?

Yep, the chassis itself is housed in an old Fender Bassman head cabinet that has the front missing, the front panel of the chassis is still good though, what I can do tomorrow is take my Samsung Galaxy Y phone into uni and use it to take a pic of the amp chassis and post it in this thread so you can see exactly what it looks like, it's a Fender Blackface Super Twin with the EQ and Distortion control next to the Master Volume control.

And I'm guessing that it's probably an early 70's model.


Apparently, this is what they looked like brand new:

[DrNomis_44]

Update,

I've been having some trouble getting my laptop to connect to the Uni's Student WiFi network in order to get online, and seeing as the guy who's selling the amp chassis to me said I could take it home with me today, I'm going to see if I can get a couple of pics of the amp chassis "as is" sorted for you guys to check out shortly, will post them in this thread, stay tuned.


I've got the amp chassis at home now, it's in my loungeroom.

[Simon Barden]

It's going to be very loud. They were known for regularly burning out the 2 x 100W JBL speakers that were fitted as standard in the combo when the amp was pushed. Probably not surprising as the wattage rating is normally given with the signal to the speakers at 3%THD, so still very clean, whilst when pushed into heavy overdrive you might get another 50%-80% more power from the amp. But those JBL speakers were also a few dBs more efficient than the normal Jensen or Eminence speakers Fender normally used at the time, so it was an even bigger volume jump over their standard models (though in the 70s you could also get the Twins fitted with the JBLs).

It was obviously designed to be a very loud clean amp, but it did make a very good even louder distorted amp (replacement speakers at the ready) when used by people like Ted Nugent, who used six of them on stage!

[DrNomis_44]

I just took a couple of pics of the amp chassis with my Galaxy Y phone, just waiting for Windows Update to finish updating Windows 10 on my laptop, after that I'll get the pics sorted out so that I can post them in this thread.


While waiting for Windows to finish updating, I thought I would see what valves were installed in the chassis, here's what I found:


Three 12AX7 valves, one 7025 (basically a lower-noise version of the 12AX7), one 12AU7A, and six 6L6 power valves!!


Here we go, as promised, the pics of the amp chassis "as is":







Should make a pretty good amp restoration project.


So, it's looking like I'll have to build myself a 400 Watt Dummy Load for testing the amp's performance once I get round to doing whatever restoration work on it that it needs to get it up and running again, I wonder where I could source a new combo cabinet for it from?, or, should I just keep it as an amp head and invest in a new 4 X 12 Speaker box?

It'll probably be good for annoying my noisy neighbors....heehee.....180 Watts of audio power.

[dave.king1]

It ain't 180w of audio power it's 180w RMS which is significantly more, there was a bass equivalent that one of my mates owned back in the day.

Heavy as hell and even louder, excellent if you are planning a Ted Nugent tribute show

[stan]

Awesome project indeed, it will be a beast

[Simon Barden]

I'd keep it as a head and get a 4x12 and make sure it's got at least 75W speakers (300W total) in it. It must be heavy enough as it is. Stick it in a solid wooden combo cabinet, add two 100W+ speakers and it's going to be a two person job to move it safely.

[DrNomis_44]

I'd keep it as a head and get a 4x12 and make sure it's got at least 75W speakers (300W total) in it. It must be heavy enough as it is. Stick it in a solid wooden combo cabinet, add two 100W+ speakers and it's going to be a two person job to move it safely.

If I got a 4 X 12 and put four 75 Watt Eminences in it like the ones in my Marshall amp, the Fender Super Twin should sound good through them, shouldn't it?, I think some Fender amps did use Eminences, some used Jensens for sure, maybe some 75, or 80 Watt Jensens might work too.

And yep, it is a heavy amp, I was just able to manage carrying it up one flight of stairs by it's carrying handle when I got it home yesterday, I estimate that it must weigh at least 50kgs or so, that's going by my weight which is about 60kgs and I can just about manage one chin-up on a horizontal bar.