Fender Twin

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A Blackface Fender Twin

1963 Fender Twin-Amp in blonde (or white) tolex with an oxblood colored grille cloth.

The Fender Twin is a guitar amplifier made by Fender. It was introduced in 1952. It was released at about the same time as the Stratocaster (1954). As the Stratocaster's sales partner, its success was a large part of the increase in popularity of the electric guitar in music.

The Fender Twin is an all-tube combo amplifier with dual 12" speakers, outputting 15ws. It was modified in 1958 for more volume, with a power increase to 80W. This "hi-powered," tweed-covered design continued into the early days of 1960- after the other Professional Series of Fender amplifiers had made the transition to the modern, brownface design. By approximately June of 1960, the Twin-Amp was visibly updated in the blonde tolex, 6G8 model design pictured below. The exact plight of the Twin-Amp during the months between January and May of 1960 however, remains open to considerable speculation, debate and study. The prevailing explanation is that production was temporarily interrupted during these months as they coincide with the debut of Fender's new "flagship" or top of the line amplifier, the Fender Vibrasonic-Amp. Nonetheless, Fender Musical Instrument Co. kept the image of the Twin-Amp before potential consumers during this short period. The image of the Twin-Amp in the 1960 Fender Catalog has been the subject of considerable scrutiny. The results of this research have been published in the Tone Quest Report.

The re-emergence of the Twin-Amp in mid 1960 revealed a new aesthetic design that would become prominent among Fender's top of the line amplifiers, with the exception of the Vibrasonic-Amp. By 1961, the Bandmaster-Amp, the Bassman-Amp and the newly debuted Showman-Amp were all covered in the new look exemplified by the late 1960 Twin-Amp: blonde tolex and maroon or "oxblood" grille cloth. The Twin-Amp of this period (late 1960-1963) was manufactured with a variety of speakers including Jensen, Oxford and JBL designs. This variation lends support to the idea that the 80-watt circuit was beyond the power handling capacity of the speakers of the late 1950's.

After a slight change in appearance, from the rough blonde tolex and maroon grille appearance to a smooth blonde tolex with a silver grille cloth, the Twin-Amp changed both circuit design and appearance in 1964. Along with the rest of Fender's line of instrument amplifiers, the Twin-Amp was covered in black Tolex at this time. Like many of the most popular designs, including the Super Reverb-Amp and the Deluxe Reverb-Amp, the Twin wpould also incorporate an on-board reverb circuit. As opposed to earlier designs that required the use of a stand alone, outboard reverb unit, this new design incorporated a spring-reverb circuit in the combo design. Paired with the Vibrato feature (technically a "tremolo" effect) and the monstrous 80-watts of output, the ability to create instrument sustain through the use of reverb made the blackface Twin-Amp an instant favorote among electric guitarists.