what are the so called "Black face amp" ?

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Fender. Some had silver face plates and some had black.
 
Very general reply:

Fender Amps.

50's = Tweed

60's = Blackface

70's = Silverface

All these had differences in the amp circuits as well. Some minor, some not so minor that influenced the tone from era to era. Hopefully someone with more knowledge will chime in.
 
Fender newb question : There are many variations on the Fender clean tone. Can someone differenciate them with brief descriptions ? I never know what these general terms mean :

tweed tone,
blackface tone,
twin,
super reverb,
bassman

Those are the ones I hear of the most
 
This is a common name used in reference to certain models of pre-CBS Fender amps.
 
thegame":1to1osrt said:
Fender newb question : There are many variations on the Fender clean tone. Can someone differenciate them with brief descriptions ? I never know what these general terms mean :

tweed tone,
blackface tone,
twin,
super reverb,
bassman

Those are the ones I hear of the most

Tweed Tone - Non-master volume amps usually with tube rectifier in circuit. Clean from 1-3. Past that, crunch city. Listen to Neil Young for reference. He's used the same Tweed amps pretty much his whole career.

Blackface - Similar to Tweeds in tone but more headroom. Louder, but still crunchy past 3/4 on the volume.

Twin - Tweed amp. Called Twin because of the 2x12" speakers in the combo. Tweed Twin will get crunchy when pushed.
Twin Reverb = more headroom than Tweed Twin. Added reverb. Very hard to get to break up no matter how much you push it. Widely considered the benchmark of clean tones. Eric Johnson uses these pretty much exclusively for clean tone with added chorus, compressor, and delay.

Bassman/Super Reverb = Pretty much the same amp, except Super Reverb has added reverb. For Super Reverb tones, think SRV.
Bassmans are the precursor to Marshall amps. The first Marshall, the JTM 45 was very close to the Bassman circuit. Bassmans will get very crunchy when pushed. Think old-school rock n' roll crunch. Some punk bands today still use them for crunchy distortion tones.

Bassman combos and Bassman heads can sound different from one another mainly because of speakers used with them, but also because of differences in cicuit designs.

Search Youtube. There are a lot of videos for referencing the differences in tone from amp to amp when it comes to Fenders.
 
ha so true or this
 

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RJF":pe23wb3i said:
Sometimes it's referred to one of these too.... :thumbsup:


a Recto a so called Black faced too? well dont know much about amps and tone but am certainly getting learny on it... So basically a tweed fenderish tone is labelled black face amp huh...
 
Mr. Willy":a4vgvwwy said:
thegame":a4vgvwwy said:
Fender newb question : There are many variations on the Fender clean tone. Can someone differenciate them with brief descriptions ? I never know what these general terms mean :

tweed tone,
blackface tone,
twin,
super reverb,
bassman

Those are the ones I hear of the most

Tweed Tone - Non-master volume amps usually with tube rectifier in circuit. Clean from 1-3. Past that, crunch city. Listen to Neil Young for reference. He's used the same Tweed amps pretty much his whole career.

Blackface - Similar to Tweeds in tone but more headroom. Louder, but still crunchy past 3/4 on the volume.

Twin - Tweed amp. Called Twin because of the 2x12" speakers in the combo. Tweed Twin will get crunchy when pushed.
Twin Reverb = more headroom than Tweed Twin. Added reverb. Very hard to get to break up no matter how much you push it. Widely considered the benchmark of clean tones. Eric Johnson uses these pretty much exclusively for clean tone with added chorus, compressor, and delay.

Bassman/Super Reverb = Pretty much the same amp, except Super Reverb has added reverb. For Super Reverb tones, think SRV.
Bassmans are the precursor to Marshall amps. The first Marshall, the JTM 45 was very close to the Bassman circuit. Bassmans will get very crunchy when pushed. Think old-school rock n' roll crunch. Some punk bands today still use them for crunchy distortion tones.

Bassman combos and Bassman heads can sound different from one another mainly because of speakers used with them, but also because of differences in cicuit designs.

Search Youtube. There are a lot of videos for referencing the differences in tone from amp to amp when it comes to Fenders.


that was perfectly put :rock:
 
thegame":if0qmoz6 said:
Mr. Willy":if0qmoz6 said:
Tweed Tone - ........

Thanks man. Just the answers I was looking for :thumbsup:

No problem. I'm no expert, but that's the very basic differences between the amps you asked about. Besides that, there are different circuit versions of the same amps. Example - the Bassman combo and head/speaker cab versions are not the same circuit. Some guys prefer one over the other. At the end of the day, with Fender amps, you're delving into a rich history of amplifier design and ingenuity with many variables often times between the same amp models.
 
Mr. Willy":l30ipypc said:
No problem. I'm no expert, but that's the very basic differences between the amps...

Excellent summation. Thx.
 
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