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1966 Fender Twin Reverb Black Face AB-763
The Ultimate Clean Amp...
There is nothing like the iconic sound of a Fender Twin Reverb. This amp, purchased in 2017 had spent the prior 25 years in a recording studio in Denver, Colorade. Armed with it’w OEM Altec Lansing 417-8C speakers, it produces the classic Fender clean chime with awesome power.
My first amplifier was an Epiphone tube amp with a 10" speaker. It was maybe 5 Watts. In the late 60's, when I was a teenager, the capability of these amps was underwhelming and the good ones were way out of my price range. With my dad's help, I would progress to a solid-state Heathkit that he made when I was in 7th grade, followed by an Ampeg GV22. These amps were all very under-powered. To get into a good band, you had to have good gear. I had a pretty capable guitar which I purchased after saving money from mowing the neighborhood lawns and teaching guitar lessons in the basement of my house. It was a 1970 Gibson SG Standard. It had 2 humbucking pickups which helped to keep the sound clean and the noise low. The amplifiers however, when pushed to their limit, would distort like crazy, in a bad way. I then used the money that I had saved to buy a serious amplifier from Hamilton Music - an Ampeg VT-22 with 2-12" Altec Lansing 417-8C speakers. This 6550-based tube amp was comparable (and a little more powerful at 100 Watts) than a Fender Twin with JBL D120 speakers, but less expensive. I should have bought the Fender Twin Reverb. Both of these amps weighed in north of 80 pounds and were difficult to get into car trunks and lug around to band jobs.
But now, I have my Twin Reverb with good Altec speakers!
I currently have it setup in my studio configured as the clean amp in a Wet-Dry setup wehre the Twin handles the dry signals, and the Mesa Boogie Mark IIC+ or Mark V 40th handles the wet signals. This produces an awesome blended sound with great flexibility on power and control.