Like most other Fender amps, the Twin exchanged its tweed covering for Tolex in 1960, but only after it seemingly “disappeared” for a few months starting in January of that year. ![]() ![]() Describing them in The Soul of Tone, Wheeler notes that they and the other narrow-panel amps “offered technological advancements, signature tones, handsome appearance, ruggedness, and a something-for-every-player variety that would take Fender to the pinnacle of amplifier manufacturing.” It’s hard to overstate the significance of the powerful E and F series Twins of 1955-1959. These amps had six knobs: normal volume, bright volume, bass, treble, presence and new “middle", and by 1958 their speakers were once again in a straight side-by-side configuration in a larger cabinet. Refined circuitry boosted model 5E8 to 50 watts, with even more power introduced in 1956 and through the remainder of the 1950s in subsequent variations-the short-lived model 5F8 (1957) and the vaunted model 5F8-A of 1958-1959 were 80-watt and 100-watt Twins that pushed their Jensen P12-N speakers to (and often past) the brink. The biggest changes were electronic, though. This new Twin, model 5E8, was given a slightly smaller cabinet with the speakers at the lower right and top left corners rather than simply side by side. Wide panel amps were only around for a couple years before Fender adopted the narrow panel cabinet style, which dispensed with the wide panels across the top and bottom of the amp face in favor of a larger grille made of a more modern fabric. Major cosmetic and electronic changes ensued in 1955. The second wide-panel version, mid-1954’s model 5D8, had different preamp, phase inverter and rectifier tubes, and boasted a tonally versatile advance in the form of a presence control and tone controls that were more responsive. In true Fender form, revisions and improvements were instituted almost immediately. This original version of the amp, model 5C8, was advertised very early on as the “Twin 12 Amplifier” and “Twin 12 Artist’s Model Amp” before Fender settled on a permanent name, the Twin-Amp, which was soon widely known in even shorter form as the Twin. It was, for example, the first Fender amp with separate bass and treble controls rather than a single roll-off tone control a development that the company called “the latest in electronic advances." Further, it had two volume knobs (bright and normal). Third, it was more powerful (25 watts) and it had more sophisticated tone controls than any of its predecessors. The “Hi Fidelity” amp was only the second dual-speaker Fender model, after the 2×10-inch Dual Professional (later Super) of 1947, but the combined 24-inche cone diameter of its two heavy-duty 12-inch Jensen speakers made it the largest Fender offered. Second, in terms of speaker area, it was bigger than any previous model. ![]() Thus, the new “Hi Fidelity” amp was the first “wide-panel” Fender amp a design that would soon be adopted for all previous TV panel models. Fender was phasing out the “TV panel” design introduced in summer 1948 in favor of a more streamlined design in which the grille, no longer recessed, ran from side to side to the inside edges of the cabinet, with wide panels running across the top and bottom of the face. ![]() Although it was introduced at the 1952 NAMM show only as Fender’s new “Hi Fidelity” guitar amp, it was, as author Tom Wheeler notes in The Soul of Tone: Celebrating 60 Years of Fender Amps, “a milestone."įirst, although still tweed-covered, it looked different from any previous Fender amp. Like the Bassman, which preceded it by mere months, the Twin was unveiled before it had even been named, and its design included some significant firsts. It has been universally hailed as one of the all-time great guitar amps ever since it was introduced in summer 1952 prized across genres for its loud, clean tone. Along with the Bassman, there is perhaps no other Fender guitar amp as enduring and revered as the venerable Twin.
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