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Post subject: twin reverb choice
Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 10:37 am
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Hello everyone,

I am in the market for a twin reverb. There are few different circuit designation's and I want a point to point wired amp. I realize that tone & sound is a personal preference and playing through each one is the only way to tell which one to buy.

Should start looking for Silverface, Blackface? pre CBS. I guess I need a general direction as far as which model to look for or not look for.

Thank you, Mark


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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 10:56 am
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The AB763 is the preferred circuit. This would encompass all original blackface models and silverfaces built prior to 6/68. Beyond June the amp was revised to the AC568 version which sonically is known as a "tone turd". The AA1069 was the next model and it hit the showrooms in November of 69. This revision reversed many of the more onerous facets of the previous variant though it still suffered from some sonic thievery at the output stage. The final non-MV Twin Reverb was the AB1270 which added some CPSC-mandated safety mods, specifically the grounded three-conductor power cable and the 3-position polarity switch.

It's possible for an amp tech who knows the Fender chassis architecture to back-date any of the silverface models to true blackface specs, with the AC568 revision being the most difficult to mod.

Best of luck, HTH

Arjay

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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 3:28 pm
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Wonderful,


Arjay,
Thank you so much. I will seek out blackface models prior to 6-1968.

I am a Automotive transmission research tech. The car factories will come out with a new trans and it will have it's share of bugs. They attempt to fix the bugs and install new ones most often leaving the old bugs un resolved. Just when they almost got all the bugs nailed they discontinue that model trans and release a new trans and the processes starts all over again. Of course I am referring to Domestic produced vehicles.

Thank you again, Mark


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Post subject: Re: twin reverb choice
Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 7:12 pm
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transman wrote:
Hello everyone,

I am in the market for a twin reverb. There are few different circuit designation's and I want a point to point wired amp. I realize that tone & sound is a personal preference and playing through each one is the only way to tell which one to buy.

Should start looking for Silverface, Blackface? pre CBS. I guess I need a general direction as far as which model to look for or not look for.

Thank you, Mark


For my money the SF's are a good choice. Most the original BF's are Pre CBS, but the CBS's are a good buy and built as good in fact maybe a little better in some ways. Either way you can't go wrong. There weren't that many of the tone turds made, only for about a year, but even those are well made amps. I'm not a big fan of buying an amp just to mod it but, if there ever was a Twin to Mod it would be a TT.

I really don't hear that big a difference between them. When you consider FX pedals and different strings, pickups, speakers and playing styles, who can really tell without looking? I can't, and really don't care what amp someone uses, it's their playing that matters to me not their amp or their guitar.

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Post subject: Re: twin reverb choice
Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:09 pm
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Johnny Z wrote:
Most the original BF's are Pre CBS


No they are not.

The "pre-CBS" era for all blackface AB763's spanned from the autumn of 1963 to 4 January 1965......approximately fifteen months.

By contrast, CBS/FMI continued to crank out blackfaces for another two and a half years before the cosmetic makeover to silverface. During this period, production was dramatically increased due to completion of a new-and-larger manufacturing facility adjacent to the original plant in Fullerton.

It wouldn't surprise me if CBS-era blackface Twin Reverbs outnumbered the original FEIC versions by a 7:1 margin.

Arjay

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Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 5:33 am
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Yep,it was awhile before CBS started changing things,not for the better imho.
I have 2 DRs,a BF Sept. '66 and an early SF,Dec. '67,they are identical inside,except for changes done since.


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Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 2:49 pm
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I don't know if I read corectly all those answer about CBS/Pre-CBS, but for me a Pre CBS should be a Blackface with the original Leo's desing and cosmetics with nothing modify by CBS. So, some blackface in first years of CBS are Pre-CBS.

What do you think about that ?


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Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 3:37 pm
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Any piece of Fender equipment built prior to 5 January 1965 is considered to be "pre-CBS".

Arjay

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Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 6:14 pm
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Right, the ownership of the Fender company took place in January, 1965. Like, Arjay says, that doesn't mean that anything changed on the production line or design department. The same employees and the same materials were used to build the amps in the same factory, for some years. Any acquisition takes time to change the end product, if it changes at all. But this explains why the '65 BF Pro Reverb is not considered a pre-CBS amp. Art

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