Transistor-amps do not enjoy a particularly good reputation among guitar players. Presumably, a main contributor to this (certainly not always deserved) image was the Solid-State amplifier series unveiled by Fender in 1967. What went wrong with these amps? Is the catastrophic image they "enjoy" justified? Are they really that bad? These questions are not easy to answer – the amps are (understandably) quite rare today and very few people can actually play them and check them out.
At GITEC, we could get hold of a Solid-State Twin Reverb and investigate it inside and out - and, last not least, play it. The result is a 3-part article:
Revisiting the amp that gave "Solid-State" a bad name: the Fender Solid-State Twin Reverb:
- Part 1: Introduction, appearance, build and serviceability