White Fender Twins acquired by Joe Bonamassa!

Huh. Lotsa of stuff in this old thread has hit the nail on the head, other stuff though :hmm


Never had a white twin, a boy can dream!


But, have had an early blonde/brown bandmaster, bassman and have access to a tremolux. I can say they are certainly very dry amps but I've not had one that didn't get full out raucous when turned up? Bandmaster & tremolux I was running through an era correct 1x12 (and combo cab), Bassman a brown or blonde 1x15 IIRC, both with old matching speakers. The bandmaster actually surprised me how early it started getting a bit of hair and it had a full cap job on it. Bassman was the punchiest and the tremolux was a straight rock-n-roll amp IMO.

But, I've had two princeton amps from that era and they were as different as could be. One loud and kinda biting, the other broke up fairly early and was pretty smooth for it's size, both way the **** too small :hee


I guess there's a lot to the internals, tubes and speaker choice...stuff I don't keep a close eye on.

Big Al said:

Why is that? They have done a pretty cool job so far, IMO. It's much harder finding clean affordable vintage examples and the Brownface amps have distinctive vibrato and models like the 1x12 Vibrolux.

The Princeton and Deluxe are just little tone monsters. A limited run reissue like the Tweed, Champ, Deluxe, Twin and Bandmaster seems a good idea. I don't think they need do every model but a Princeton or Deluxe and one of the Professional Series big boys like I mentioned,(a super or Vibrolux would be nice), with the harmonic tremolo would find plenty of interest.

Why not?

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yes its a great idea, the original brown deluxe and princetons have gone way up in price so fender could easily compete with vintage prices when re issuing the amps (a center volume super would be awesome too) i read also Joe b is doing a re issue of the V front super, that will be cool, they have a great look and i always liked the tone of them.. i like to call them deluxe killers.
ps. an early brown deluxe with a blue bell in it out of the closet with original tubes was the best sounding fender amp ive ever heard.

JBLPplayer said:

I have a center volume 60 Concert I bought in the desert with my friend Rick Gould. My Concert is loud and Clean!!! Turn it up to 8 and its smokin loud but not very distorted. It's very much like my 57 Bandmaster. Everyone told me that they have the best overdrive. I guess I should be happy.. Now I can break out the Dick Dale riffs!! :salude

Tix on the house always Big Al! Hope to see ya this year in Rochester!

Joe B

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the desert! no rust! ? i bought my 57 bandmaster at a clickie hippiefest in the woods. the guy had a girls name, he popped the trunk and it was covered in hay.70 bucks! then a circle of dudes started beating drums and chanting (it wasnt native american it was whino dirty hippy something) my friend busted out laughing i had to tell him to shut up or they were gonna kick our ass. i just cradled the amp like a baby and started walking real fast back to the pickup.
another time i was trying to sell some guitars in the city and he wound up waving my pistol around a bunch of vespa biker gang dudes. priceless

LarryN said:

He has his priorities straight...amps. If they sound anything like the white single Showman I had, he's a lucky boy.

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i dont remember what curcuit it was but the white amps that really cranked to me were the ones that had all 7025's for pre amp tubes. showman had it as well as the bandmaster they crack! joe scored some nice white twins here, 60 was the rare year i think only around 100 built. also had the same number on the transformer as the tweed twin. i have a real late 60 tweed twin number 762. i wonder how many other components would be the same as an early 60 white tolex twin? i see the brown amps being discussed here as well and as for the center volume amps the vibrasonic is the one built in the lowest numbers. i think also only around 100 of them. love me some center volume!

akstrat61 said:

Mike, great pict! eace2

Joe has great taste for sure. He now is on the hunt for matching reverb units!!!!:dude: Good luck Joe!:jim

Not sure how many white/black, flat logo units were produced. Did Fender keep numbers like Gibson did on their amp productions by amp and year??:hank

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the white flat logo with the maroon cloth seems to be the elusive one, from a pic i saw joe has it together on those.
the one i am still looking for is the 64ish white one with the cream with sparkle grillcloth. seems to be a lot of brown and black ones, at least in my neck of the woods. i had a mint one from the early seventies once. must have been one of the last ones they made

Cliff Gress said:

There is some class on this Forum.

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well everyone has put up with me so far. la
its nice that a rich dude like me that worked for every penny can talk about owning so much expensive gear on this sight without getting called out for being the bragger that i am.