Every single one of you has heard a Fender Tweed amp before. There’s no way that you haven’t. I guarantee...guaran-damn-tee...that all of you have heard one of these five songs before.
The magic of the Fender Tweed amps (various models) is in how they break up. It doesn’t matter if it’s the smallest model (5-watt, 1x8″ speaker Champ) or the biggest (80-watt, 2x12″ speaker High-Powered Twin), they all break up fast with this beautiful harmonic complexity. All of them had different circuits which made the controls act in different ways, but if there was a defining feature amongst all of them, the early break up would be it. I guess other defining features would be the “briefcase tweed” used to cover the amps, and all the cabinets are made out of pine...
Anyways, today we’re going to focus on five of the tweed amps...the Champ, Deluxe, Bandmaster, Bassman and High-Powered Twin.
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THE CHAMP
Where Tweeds made their hay was in the studio. The smallest of the tweed amps, the Champ, is one of the most valuable. Featuring nothing more than a volume (and later tone) control, this amp did one thing, and one thing only. And it did it so well that it’s almost ubiquitous in classic rock recordings. Here’s a great example, both Clapton and Duane Allman used Champs...but if you want some other good ones off the top of my head, think ZZ Top’s “La Grange” or Joe Walsh’s “Funk #49.”
At 5-watts, with an 8″ speaker, the Champ was overdriven simply by turning it on. It was designed to be an at-home practice amp, and it’ll get completely eaten up in a band situation...but for recording? It’s almost impossible to beat.
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THE DELUXE
My favorite of the Tweeds that we’re talking about today (my personal favorite is the unsung Fender Tweed Pro, a 35-watt, 1x15″ speaker amp that has a little more juice so it can stay clean when playing at band volumes).
There were amps between the size of the Champ and Deluxe, but the Deluxe became the king because of it’s versatility. At a crazy-loud 15-watts with a 12″ speaker, a Deluxe can hang in a band situation and not get overwhelmed while still cranking out that beautiful overdrive at reasonable volumes.
The best known user of the Deluxe is session god Larry Carlton. Carlton was called to play on Donald Fagen’s (of Steely Dan) solo album, which was recording in New York City. When Carlton arrived from LA, he figured that he’d just rent an amp from one of the hundreds of available places...but when Fagen saw him walk into the studio with just his ES-335, he asked Carlton “why didn’t you bring your amp?” Fagen sent out to have Carlton’s 1955 Deluxe overnighted that same day.
The MOST well known user is Neil Young. Anything electric you’ve heard by Neil Young...live or recorded...was likely done on Whizzer feeding into his Tweed Deluxe.
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THE BANDMASTER
Out of all the Tweeds, the Bandmaster is the most rare, and the most expensive.
3x10″ speakers is a somewhat odd configuration...offering what would seemingly be the worst of both worlds...narrow dispersion and lack of defined bass EQ. This wasn’t the case at all, somehow. I don’t know how, but they’re universally lauded and seemingly offer all of the great qualities of tweed amps without any downsides.
Pete Townshend got his Bandmaster (and Gretsch Country Gentleman) as a gift from Joe Walsh right before this album was recorded. Townshend used both extensively on the album.
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THE BASSMAN
Hendrix might have been famous for using Marshall amps...
But those Marshall amps he was using? They’re essentially the Fender Bassman copied by a British guy who used el34 power tubes because 6v6′s and 6L6′s weren’t available in the UK. And Jimi was anything but loyal to equipment anyways...he used any guitar he could grab, any amp he could plug into and then just destroyed them.
And, in the studio, Hendrix used a Fender Bassman to record the Voodoo’s. If you want some other examples...anything Buddy Guy, anything Brian Setzer, anything off SRV’s In Step, anything Robbie Robertson played on The Last Waltz, or any Merle Haggard.
The Bassman was the big brother of the Tweeds in spirit (not in size). While it couldn’t match either of the Twins (Low- and High-Powered) in terms of raw beef, it made up for with smarts. The second cleanest of the Tweeds (2x10″ Vibrolux is the only one that truly stays at least relatively clean)...and the only one with a mid EQ control...the Bassman, an amp originally designed for bassists, turned out to be the most versatile by far.
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THE HI-POWERED TWIN
If you’ve heard the Rolling Stones, you’ve heard a Fender High-Powered Tweed Twin.
This was the amp designed for musicians on tour, back in the days where there weren’t great PA systems and guitarists needed sheer muscle to project sound. If you needed muscle, there was almost no better amp at the time (until Marshalls really started cranking out giant amps). And as we’ve caught up in technology, the High-Powered Twin remains a fantastic, versatile amp that has a place in modern music...where I’m not sure we can say the same thing about giant Marshall stacks.
Pumping out 80-watts through 2x12″ speakers, the High-Powered Twin still managed to break up relatively quickly, at volumes that didn’t blow up ear drums. All those characteristics of Tweed amps was still there...just BIGGER.
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CONCLUSION
Fender Tweed amps are the fucking shit.
They don’t have a lot of bells and whistles, rarely have anything more than a few EQ knobs and volume, but what you get out of them is nothing short of perfection. Anything they’re missing can be made up with pedals, a testament to how forward thinking Leo Fender’s designs were, given that the circuitry he pioneered in the early 1950′s is so able to serve as a platform for modern technologies.
And while they might seem quirky, or antiquated, or a relic of days past...the truth is they’re better than just about 95% of the amps designed after. When you listen to some of the greatest music recorded from the early 50′s onward, a lot of what you’re listening to is coming out of a Fender Tweed.
This was just a few examples of Tweeds. Getting into the circuits themselves, and how they work in practical situations, might take weeks to get through.
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