These amps were CBS-Fender's first venture into solid state amplification, circa 1967. The man who was responsible for final approval refused to sign-off on these, having serious doubts about the design & quality. This man, Forrest White, who had been a longtime employee and friend of (then-departed) Leo Fender, chose to resign from his high position rather than bring disgrace to the Fender name. Of course, CBS went ahead anyway and released the amplifiers. They turned out to be an embarrassment of workmanship, sounded rather lifeless, and many would fail or even catch fire in a few cases. The crazy part is that they actually cost MORE than their equivalent traditional tube-powered models!
Thanks for the info! They must have been a real pencil pushers product, late 60’s marketing made SOLIDSTATE a real selling point I’m sure. I had seen a few of the solid state reverb units and echos from that era too.
@@buckwalkerThey had literal rocket scientists design these late-60s solid states with no real input from actual amp designers or musicians...took till '81 for CBS to get their heads in the game and bring a real electronics visionary, Paul Rivera, on board to correct their past failures and put out a series of professional quality solid state amps...which were also expensive for their time, but this time around they were well built and well optioned with useful features...Fender's analog solid state offerings nowadays are just practice amps by comparison
I've always found these interesting.......as I'm an amp tech. In the early days of SS amps....... The RCA books for transistors had plenty of inaccuracies and made design a nightmare for the engineers. Peavey was one of the first to NAIL a reliable SS amp... and Standel actually had some real impressive beasts also. And we can't forget Kustom. Everyone else mostly stuck to tubes until things stabilized.
Roland kind of snatched the torch away from everybody else with the Jazz Chorus. It's still the benchmark for Solid State electric guitar amplifier design although a few companies, like Orange and Blackstar, are catching up.
I know people look at these wanting delicious Fender Amp crunch, but for what this does which is ultra clean it sounds pretty darn good. Pretty good reverb and tremolo too, I wonder how these would take pedals through bigger speakers?
Thanks for the demo. I always wondered what they sounded like. I only saw the ads in the early guitar player mags. I wonder what the reverb unit was like?
This is a great demo of this amp. I have one sitting beside me that worked until about a week ago. I was wondering if you had any idea where I could find a circuit diagram or know of anyone who has restored one of these who might give me some advice. Thanks! Sounds awesome!
Thanks, sorry our works well. If you can find a tech that has any experience with solid state amps that would be key. At this age electrolytic capacitors are a problem part, replacing then would be a good place to start. Take that advice with a grain of salt, I only have experience working on tube amps.
@@buckwalker and yeah, I've replaced the caps already, we just had a blow out a few weeks ago we cant figure out and wondered if anyone had the schematic. Nice playing though, blues is the shit.
@@incubusfan4211 Hey don't, know if you still have the amps but this article someone wrote up on it has the schematics. It's in the PDF, which is also a good read about the circuit design. It might be a different model than the one you have but it should be decently close. www.researchgate.net/publication/326356723_Revisiting_the_amp_that_gave_Solid-State_a_bad_name_the_Fender_Solid-State_Twin_Reverb_Part_2_Circuit_design
Thank you for the video, was just researching these and your video is the only one I could find on this amp. Does this thing do breakup tones as well like the tube amps of the time?
It’s very different then the 60’s or early 70’s fender amps. It’s clean all the way up to max volume and has no real breakup. It’s more comparable to late 70’s SF amps.
These amps were CBS-Fender's first venture into solid state amplification, circa 1967. The man who was responsible for final approval refused to sign-off on these, having serious doubts about the design & quality. This man, Forrest White, who had been a longtime employee and friend of (then-departed) Leo Fender, chose to resign from his high position rather than bring disgrace to the Fender name. Of course, CBS went ahead anyway and released the amplifiers. They turned out to be an embarrassment of workmanship, sounded rather lifeless, and many would fail or even catch fire in a few cases. The crazy part is that they actually cost MORE than their equivalent traditional tube-powered models!
Thanks for the info! They must have been a real pencil pushers product, late 60’s marketing made SOLIDSTATE a real selling point I’m sure. I had seen a few of the solid state reverb units and echos from that era too.
@@buckwalkerThey had literal rocket scientists design these late-60s solid states with no real input from actual amp designers or musicians...took till '81 for CBS to get their heads in the game and bring a real electronics visionary, Paul Rivera, on board to correct their past failures and put out a series of professional quality solid state amps...which were also expensive for their time, but this time around they were well built and well optioned with useful features...Fender's analog solid state offerings nowadays are just practice amps by comparison
I've always found these interesting.......as I'm an amp tech. In the early days of SS amps....... The RCA books for transistors had plenty of inaccuracies and made design a nightmare for the engineers. Peavey was one of the first to NAIL a reliable SS amp... and Standel actually had some real impressive beasts also. And we can't forget Kustom. Everyone else mostly stuck to tubes until things stabilized.
Don’t forget Lab Series amps. Probably the best sounding of all.
Roland kind of snatched the torch away from everybody else with the Jazz Chorus. It's still the benchmark for Solid State electric guitar amplifier design although a few companies, like Orange and Blackstar, are catching up.
I know people look at these wanting delicious Fender Amp crunch, but for what this does which is ultra clean it sounds pretty darn good. Pretty good reverb and tremolo too, I wonder how these would take pedals through bigger speakers?
Thanks for the demo. I always wondered what they sounded like. I only saw the ads in the early guitar player mags. I wonder what the reverb unit was like?
This is a great demo of this amp. I have one sitting beside me that worked until about a week ago. I was wondering if you had any idea where I could find a circuit diagram or know of anyone who has restored one of these who might give me some advice. Thanks! Sounds awesome!
Thanks, sorry our works well. If you can find a tech that has any experience with solid state amps that would be key. At this age electrolytic capacitors are a problem part, replacing then would be a good place to start. Take that advice with a grain of salt, I only have experience working on tube amps.
@@buckwalker no worries man. Hope you're in a band, if not message me haha
@@buckwalker and yeah, I've replaced the caps already, we just had a blow out a few weeks ago we cant figure out and wondered if anyone had the schematic. Nice playing though, blues is the shit.
@@incubusfan4211 Hey don't, know if you still have the amps but this article someone wrote up on it has the schematics. It's in the PDF, which is also a good read about the circuit design. It might be a different model than the one you have but it should be decently close.
www.researchgate.net/publication/326356723_Revisiting_the_amp_that_gave_Solid-State_a_bad_name_the_Fender_Solid-State_Twin_Reverb_Part_2_Circuit_design
Thank you for the video, was just researching these and your video is the only one I could find on this amp. Does this thing do breakup tones as well like the tube amps of the time?
No not much for breakup, this amp stays pretty darn clean.
@@uncleikesmusicandsound alright, thanks for replying
@@uncleikesmusicandsound know anywhere I might find a circuit diagram for this?
rare amp.. not any review only you bro..thanks..
How would you say this sounds compared to the tube amps fender were offering at the time? Anything comparable?
It’s very different then the 60’s or early 70’s fender amps. It’s clean all the way up to max volume and has no real breakup. It’s more comparable to late 70’s SF amps.