Classic, Legendary, Sleek, Sexy, Hit Maker are just a few terms that come to mind when trying to describe the Fender 65 Twin Verb. This amp has contributed to some of the greatest hits in the music business.

From the Beach Boys to The Beatles, from Jimi Hendrix to Stevie Ray Vaughan. This amp has “been there, done that!” Literally almost very professional studio around the country has at least one of these classic gems sitting around.
The Fender 65 Twin, truly has a classic one of a kind sound comparable to none.

I got my 65 Twin “re-issue” back in the early 90’s when I switched from solid-state amps to tube amps. I have been a Twin lover & user ever since. By my side on stage & in the studio, it has cranked out Classic Rock, Blues, Jazz, POP, R&B, Country and yes even hard core “Death Metal.” (I’ll explain that later)

The Spec’s (Pro)

Fender spec’s this amp at 85 watt’s. Needless to say I think that Fender is modest when specing most their amps because at 85 watt’s this amp sounds like it could be an easy 185 watts. It should say on the front:

Warning this is one loud amp!

The volume knob goes to 10 but I can only handle about 3 or 4 at the most. One important point is that this amp can get very very loud without starting to distort & crunch up.
The amp has two channels and two master volumes. The two channels aren’t switchable from one to another. The first channel is the basic drill: treble, mid, & bass. It also has a bright switch. Which I never use, it’s too bight sounding for me. The second channel is set up the same as the first added a reverb knob and a tremolo depth & speed knob. This is where the legendary sound comes in. The spring reverb is very lush sounding & 3 dimensional. The tremolo can go from deep to smooth and fast & slow.

I noticed that e-pinions listed in the above spec’s that this amp has effects loops. This is wrong. This amp is an exact reproduction from 1965 and does not offer effect loops. It does offer an extra output for another speaker cabinet.

The Twin is called a “Twin” because it has two matching 12-inch speakers that are re-issued from Eminence. These speakers are full sounding, yet clear and detailed sounding.

Spec’s (Con)
This amp is heavy; it’s a back breaker to lug around.

Because this amp is the king of clean amps it doesn’t produce distortion unless you crank it up to 10. Doing this will result in getting fired from the gig, kicked out of the band or house or both, and last but the most important, the loss of your hearing.
There is a way to achieve this without the above mentioning happening; this is called a power soak. You put this between the amps' output & speakers. This allows you to turn the amp up but then attenuate the volume to a practical level. This does work rather well and produces some great classic distortion but at a cost. Warning by running the amp this way you will definitely burn up your output tubes much quicker. Maybe even stressing other internal components.

Versatility

To be honest this amp for some might not be a very versatile amp compared to other modern amps with a lot more bells & whistles. Lets face it, at the time when this amp came out, manufactures were trying to build amps to handle more volume with less distortion that would last longer without blowing up. Back then we didn’t have 25,000 watt PA systems. So your guitar amp on the stage had to fill the whole room or concert hall.
This amp was designed to do just that. Play loud & clean, and that it does better than any amp in history.
So if you are looking for an amp to wear all kinds of hats by just plugging your guitar in turning on the amp, this amp falls a little short.
***BUT***
By utilizing this amp as a host amp for your favorite guitar stomp boxes & processors & pre-amp pedals? This amp shines nicely in that area. That’s where the “Death Metal” situation I was telling you about earlier come in. Put your favorite heavy crunchin’, chain-saw rippen’ rock pedal in front of this amp and you better have the paramedics standing close by!
So with that in mind, this amp is quite versatile.
Note: For those of you think that Jimi Hendrix used his Marshall stacks in the studio on his recordings are mistaken. A good share of the songs you know by him were recorded with Fender Twin Verbs & Duel Showman Verbs with Fuzz Face pedals and the like plugged into them turned to “11.”

So in closing, in my opinion, in the recording studio, this amp really can shine above all others. Live on stage, other than being the loudest fricken’ clean amp around, it may not work for many applications. But hey we’re talking about a legendary amplifier & Rock –n- Roll. So get a Twin, turn it all the way up, and let it go! Who knows maybe you won’t get fired & kicked out of the band after all, just be sure to wear some ear protection!

Thanks
Mark Darnell





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