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Post subject: What Year was the Super-Sonic Twin Discontinued?
Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2018 10:58 am
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I have a Super-Sonic Combo Twin (100W), which I love. A recent web search didn't turn up any new SS Twins, and from several posts from other forums it appears the SS Twin has been discontinued.

What year was this particular amp discontinued?

Thanks!


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Post subject: Re: What Year was the Super-Sonic Twin Discontinued?
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2018 7:29 pm
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https://forums.fender.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=93198
Looks like early 2014.
I found a Reverb listing from October 2015 where the seller claimed it was 10 months old.
Those references are for the head, not the 212... but it would have been hard to continue production of the 212 without the chassis ;)

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Post subject: Re: What Year was the Super-Sonic Twin Discontinued?
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2018 7:56 pm
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That sounds about right.

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Post subject: Re: What Year was the Super-Sonic Twin Discontinued?
Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2018 7:27 am
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The Super Sonic Twin was a nice amp but lasted only a couple years in production. It was capable of resembling a lot of traditional Fender tones, both clean and distorted, from low volume to unbelievably loud, with lots of tone-shaping control. And it had Mesa-like gain, as well. Downsides were weight (nearly 80 lbs), cost (at least at the original retail price), background hiss, noisy effects loop, internal complexity, upkeep cost (13 tubes to replace), and a nifty automatic bias feature that would crap out regularly and require warranty service.

I had one for awhile and really liked it, but sold it to get something lighter and simpler, albeit less versatile and not so bone-crushingly loud.

We can speculate as to its early demise, but probably it didn't sell well enough at its initial retail price to cover the high US-made production cost. Even the best amp in the world won't remain in production if it doesn't make money.

Super Sonic Twins flooded the used market and it bottomed a couple years ago (right about the time I sold mine :x ). You could get nice condition copies for as low as $600. Definitely a steal for those who don't mind the weight (assuming you get one in which the auto bias had already been fixed.) It looks like they are a lot harder to find on the market now.

I think the head version could be really great -- even though the head alone weighs about 50 lbs., thanks to that huge iron, which helps bring the thunder!


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