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I see Fender Twins in the New York city area going cheaply. I have one but most clubs here will not let you use one so they are pretty undesirable here thus going for a lot less than other fender amps.Twins have not appreciated in the way Deluxe, baseman and Princeton amps have.At one point they were the general backline amp and then in the 80s the Roland JC amps took their place for a while as they were supposedly more reliable solid state.The red knob ones sounded pretty nice but there was a period where the tubes were directly in the psb and those you should avoid and those may be it but see them around cheap. 70's silverface ones are cheap too I don't think they changed too much after the 60's In a lot of them the type of speakers you have in them have a lot to do with how they sound and where you get distortion. Mine are set up as to not distort at all. But they get loud real fast and the reason they added the master volume was to help people have a bit more control as without one 3 the beginning of audible on stage and 5 is way too loud.Odd seeing someone completely re doing the insides, people are crazy.

TomWanderer wrote:I loved the sound of the 65 reissue, but it's a PCB based amp. I feel like a dummy spending that much money on an amp with a PCB. Why? PCB amps are totally fine as long as not everything is on the PCB, especially the tube sockets. The sockets in those reissues are all off-board wired. Nothing wrong with that.

TomWanderer wrote:I was thinking the PCB version would be harder to service, but that's probably not totally true, right? PCBs are maybe harder to service, buuuut...1. They'd be harder to service than a turret or tag board where everything is top mount. Fender never used turret or tag boards, though, they used eyelet boards which usually require access to the underside to service, same as a PCB.2. ALL DIS IS 99% MOOT because for the most part any amp servicing is replacing the filter caps, which are all off board in the doghouse anyway.

FWIW i dont believe a word of that. Turn down, sure, but no place is gonna tell you flat out no.

Big John wrote:I see Fender Twins in the New York city area going cheaply. I have one but most clubs here will not let you use one so they are pretty undesirable here thus going for a lot less than other fender amps.Lies baby Jesus cry.I played through a Twin for years during my most active years of touring, including tons of club shows in New York and was never once told I couldn't use it. I've played over a thousand shows and have never played anywhere where I or anyone else in the band was told I couldn't use whatever amp I brought whether it was a Twin, something bigger or something smaller. I have been asked to turn down and have been asked if we didn't mind using a provided backline or sharing gear with other bands but that's a different story.

I've owned 4 Twins over the years and while they have all sounded pretty much like a Twin, they have all been different. Due, I'm sure, to both age and different specs from the different years. I've probably played through at least 20 more, including early tweed twins, Brown Twins, Blackface twins and those horrible red knob ones. 1) Late 60's Silverface. - This thing weighed a fucking ton but sounded really good. Clean, loud. Basically what I think of as the Fender Twin sound. 2) 70's Silverface master volume. - I don't want to be one of those master volume Twins suck tone lawyers but this amp didn't sound nearly as good as the other Twins I owned. I sold it pretty quickly after buying it. 3) Another silverface non-master volume. Someone has blackfaced it. I bought this off of a friend who was broke. Better than the master volume but not as good as the other non-master volume I owned.4) 1965 Blackface Twin (not a re-issue). I still have this one although have been trying to sell it locally. Definitely my favorite Twin that I've owned. Still loud and clean but just a more pleasing sound overall. If the '65 Re-issues sound close to this, I can see why you fell in love with it. One big con for Twins is that some of them are freakishly heavy.

Two more pros for a twin is that they're really easy to dial in a good sound on and they're really reliable. I think this is one of the main reasons that you see them all the time in club backlines. Also, any amp tech worth his or her salt can fix one.

Personally, if the OP thinks reissue Twins sound so good he should get the reissue Twin. It's true that there are lots of similar options out there, but if the alternative doesn't measure up in some way then he could end up chasing the dragon.

biscuitdough wrote:If you do want an early 70s one, this is near you. See if you can talk the owner down in price by mentioning the dented faceplate (which indicates that it took a hard fall at some point). http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/msg/5489925535.htmlThere's about 4 or 5 vintage silverface twins on the Denver/Boulder CL right now, and they're all priced lower than that one. I think $900 is about as much as I would pay for one.http://boulder.craigslist.org/msg/5497342954.htmlhttp://denver.craigslist.org/msg/5513663159.htmlhttp://denver.craigslist.org/msg/5460327865.htmlhttp://denver.craigslist.org/msg/5506198067.html

3x on the PCB thing.I'm of two minds when it comes to twins (or any of the Fender reissues, really). A vintage amp will hold its value better than a reissue, and probably increase in value. However, it will probably need more maintenance up-front. So, your $900 vintage amp could end up costing $1200 before you're able to reliably gig with it. But, you'll probably make that back if you sell it in a few years.On the other hand, the reissue is only going to cost $600 -$700 or so up front. Will you be able to make all of that back if you sell it in a few years? Hard to tell.