Fender Twin Reverb troubles..

[DaDoc]

I have a Twin Reverb from I think 1974-75, years ago I had the tech I had at the time take out the master volume and (supposedly) re-work it to '65 Blackface specs. And in the years since it's given me trouble on a somewhat regular basis. Before I left N.C. I had it gone through and new tubes put in, and I thought my troubles were over. It was OK for around 10 years, but last spring it went kaput again. This time it didn't even want to power on!

I was going out of the country about that time, so I parked it and it's been sitting ever since. Yesterday I called the tech guy I've been going to after moving here and I'm supposed to take it to him tomorrow. After I got off the phone I decided to try the thing again, flipped the switches on and off a couple of times and lo and behold it comes on!

So last night I left it running, it stayed on and gave no problems. The way it's acting, I wonder if it's one of both of the switches?

I could put in some new switches myself, but I'm thinking maybe I should go ahead and take it to the tech guy anyhoo..But that's going to cost me more $$, which I would rather not spend right now. He ain't cheap!

I have another non-master Twin Reverb from 1970, and it's never given me one bit of trouble..I wonder if the other one is just a "dud", or maybe the ongoing problems is due to having the master volume taken out? One thing, it seems to run "hotter" than my other one does, that is, hot to the touch.

Just thinking aloud really, but what say Y'all?

 

[RLW59]

You seem a little unsure about the year of the amp. If the speaker outputs are labeled as 135 watts, it's a later ultralinear version and full blackfacing requires replacing the power transformer (along with a lot of other changes).

Even if it is an earlier one, your comment about it running noticeably hotter than your other Twin Reverb makes me suspect that the attempt at blackfacing might be the cause of some of the problems you've had.

 

[DaDoc]

Yeah, I bought it so long ago I can't remember the exact year, maybe even '76..It is the 135 watt version.

It originally had JBL's in it..Heavy sonuvagun! I changed the speakers out for Fender Jensons, which lightened it up, still heavy though..Nature of the beast with a Twin Reverb!

I've wondered myself if the "Blackfacing" job might be the root of the problems. I know for sure the transformer wasn't changed out, and since I'm not a tech I have no idea exactly what the previous tech did to it.

Sounds great, that is when it's not giving trouble!

 

[Marshall Stack]

I have a 75 Twin Reverb and it is 100 watts. I thought about blackfacing it but there were a couple of people in another forum that said that it isn't worth doing because the difference was small. Did you notice a big difference?

 

[DaDoc]

Oh yeah, BIG difference!

IMO, that master volume Fender put on those back then was a disaster! I could never get a good sound with it, no matter how I set the thing..But of course, there was a lot of screwball things that Fender did to both their guitars and amps in the '70's..Gibson too, for that matter.

The amp sounded OK with the MV, but nothing like a non-master one does.