I don’t understand the BAD REPUTATION of Fender Red Knob THE TWIN! 

Hello. So good to see this amp getting some love. I've played and owned one for thirty years now. I used to get live sound engineers commenting about harsh tone of my Red Knob from time to time. Replaced the red knobs with black knobs and only got positive comments after that. Now days I only use it for recording but back in my live days it was always a faithful workhorse. The downsides are that it is pretty heavy. And top heavy to boot. If your using it for roadwork its pretty much gonna need a road case and that will make it even heavier. The knobs stick out proud of it's own casing and that's a drag because it is a very vulnerable sheer point. Once while transported with some other gear uncased in a truck it rocked sheering off a couple of these knobs but still got through the gig. Mine is original with original speakers similar to the one presented here. It needs a little attention from time to time the same as one would with any tube amp. There are examples on my channel, every time there is an electric guitar, it runs through a Fender Red Knob Twin. Sincerely Todd Greenwood

I really like Simon's playing- it sounds familiar but with a twist.

I've grabbed a few of these over the years dirt cheap. Got the black, white and snakeskin versions. As long as you don't over bias them they sound great and last forever. Built like tanks. The bad rap comes from Fender traditionalists who complained about the sterile cleans and the distortion channel. Turn the knobs.

My uncle passed me down his old red twin back in 2011 (he used it for gigs all throughout the 90's and early 2000's) and it still holds up to this day. I mainly use it for studio recording since I find it a bit heavy to gig with, but boy is it loud. Still sounds the same as the day I received it with no modifications or repair. As far as I'm aware, my uncle had no technical issues before it was in my possession. Excellent sounding amp.

I got drafted by a known singer at a big country festival on the spot to fill in with his band for an absent guitarist. I walked on stage with a strat and a tube screamer and to my horror the supplied backline was an red knob twin. I knew it only by reputation as the "evil twin". Had a great gig. It was smooth and Fendery without any harshness or odd corners to the sound.

I had this amp back in the late 80s/early 90s and it was a stunning piece of kit. Loud, sweet sounding, versatile, unbreakable, a really great amp. No idea why some people started bad mouthing it but the bad vibes seemed to spread and ruin its reputation.

needless to say, it's the best demo of the amp, and gives it back its righteous reputation. Well done once again.

I played 200 gigs on this amp, and another 300 rehearsals, throughout the 1990's. Never had a problem other than replacing the reverb tank after it conked out.

I restored one last week. Very extensive job due to previous hacks working on it. But the beautiful big clean tone and lush deep reverb was just gorgeous afterward!

I got one of these in a trade a while back and only one channel worked and the other was kinda scratchy but after replacing one jack , cleaning and tightening the other along with a good air blowing out w / chemical cleaning of all pots and such now this thing screams and I mean LOUD ! And it's also quite the nice blues amp. But for around 90 bucks in the trade and a 50 dollar fix I gotta say this is one of the best amps I've played by fender of any other make. I'll take all I can get for what I got in mine . Love it !

Being a Forner owner of that amp I can only agree! It' s very lucious sounding and more versatile than the traditional previous Twin models! Cheers Johan! P.S.: about reliability: mine worked fine from 1991 to 2000 without even changing tubes!🤣

I honestly believe people look down on them because back when they were new everyone was expecting them to be just like a old blackface or silverface twin and they're not. That said they have a lot to offer and really are super versatile amps.

My guitar player had one and never had an issue with it. HUGE volume for sure and great cleans, we never found a useful sound (for our band) from the crunch channel though. We used it for cleans on our record and was amazing. Great reverb too

I bought mine in February 2022. It Rocks Hard !

Well done Brothers! Sounds quite good to my old ears! Always enjoy Simon, and his tones on the Strat! Thanks for sharing Johan, Be Well All!

Ive had one since the mid - late 1990s. its still my gigging amp. i have played it at practically every gig i've done for over 25 years. it had a bad run when something went wrong and i couldnt find a good engineer who .understood it but once i did and i was back up and running - perfect. The clean channel is amazing - i usually plug into the dual channel mode and if i want a bit of crunch i just turn the gain channel up - the clean is still on so you get two sounds coming out of the amp. I have often run it with a marshall 50w lead bass from the 1970s and that sounds amazing. a lot of weight to carry though. nice demo and thanks for helping to give it a good name. I think people don't like it because - it is very heavy and can be difficult to fix unless you find someone who really knows what they are doing. hopefully i'll have mine for a good few years more!

I have an amp repair guy going through it and so far no major issues. He biased it and a couple small other things. I’ll have it back in a few days

I used to run mine on full power through a Marshall 1960b with 75’s in it. It gave the amp room to breath, and it sounded great that way. I wish I still had that rig.

I have this very same Fender amp and I absolutely love it. What incredible tone this amp helps bring to life. Man, this amp rocks.

I got a red knob Champ Johan. It's a KEEPER. I LOVE IT. Got it modded with a American Patriot Cannibus Rex. Replaced the cheap plastic jacks also. They are not that hard if one has tools and patience.

I have the black knob version and must say it holds its own in my studio tone wise against anything, and I do have a lot of amps. The Fender the twin apparently came about due to the need for more gain and Paul Rivera was hired by Fender to work on a new line of amps. The Fender the twin as mentioned in the video has 4 inputs 2 are for standard channel switching and the other 2 for blending the 2 channels together. I was talking to Popa Chubby at a gig once about this and he said that this was his amp preference as it was very flexible. I've taken 2 6L6 output tubes out of mine as at 100w I even at about 9 o,clock on the dial get told to turn down at largish gigs, its incredibly loud. This is an over engineered amp and has so many inputs and outputs, fx loop including bias adjustment at the back. The clean channel can be tweaked to get a lot of Fender amp tones including the Bassman and yes you guessed it the twin. Will it do Metal? Erm of course it will, It was designed to take on Mesa Boogie and there are pull push knobs on the overdrive channel to create a ridiculous amount of different tones. Would It not phase me to take it to a gig over my other amps like a Marshall JVM410C, JCM 2553 Jubilee, Engl Screamer 50, Mesa F50, Hughes and Kettner Grandmeister 36, Blackstar series one 45, definitely not. The Fender the Twin has no fear there, Could it keep up with the JVM 410c volume wise? I haven't tested it but it may be louder. In the manual it does state. VOLUME: VERY LOUD. So if you want to blow a big fat raspberry at fender purists who generally have ALL THE GEAR NO IDEA. Then go find one of these beauties and stand proud because you now have one of the greatest sounding amps ever made and it cost hardly anything. P.s try and download the schematic and manual from the net it has some very helpful settings to get you started.

My friend owns this amp...this was the amp that turned me to fender ...it has its own sound...and takes pedals really well ...awesome review...keep up the good work boys!

I brought ‘The Twin’ in 1988 or 89 with EV speakers fitted which was an option at the time. Last year had the caps replaced after a long period of not using the amp. I’ll never sell it, and will eventually pass it on to my sons. I still love this amp. I’ve also got the Red Knob Champ 12. Great video.🥇🎸👍

It's gear snobs.. Any amp can sound great with the right speaker and or cabinet, just get the EQ right and away you go.

I own the Red Knob - it's almost the same circuit and features with Fender's 90s SUNN Model T 100/25 Reissue but more flexible. Sold my 90s Model T few years back and bought this one for 1/4 of the price. Great amp, very underrated!

Great video! Great job! I own 2 Eight-Fives and a Super 60. The Super 60 weighs more than an elephant but I love 'em. I'll never sell them

Aaaaand gone are the times with this video, when you can get them at a bargain. Great tone, excellent playing. Thx so much Johan & Simon 100x Thumbs up

I want to say thank you Mr Segeborn. You have introduced me to some game changers. I have been a Marshall guy since I upgraded from a Crated full stack in 1996 to a Marshall 4100 and 1960 a. I wouldn’t consider another brand especially not a fender until I saw your video of the super twin reverb. Now I own 2 super twin reverbs, my old dual reverb/ 1960a half stack, a 4210 anniversary edition in white, and now I’m looking at a couple of these to pick one up. Thank you for putting out these videos that really give an impression of the integrity and authentic sounds these great amps produce.

A dream amp for me. Finally got one a few years back and love it. The clean is huge/super high headroom and the reverb is cavernous. I run a few dirt boxes in front of the clean channel. It was made in 1988.

People don’t understand how to use them, fuckin work horse and has so many functions. Going subtle, the overdrive blended with clean on lower settings can work beautifully. The clean sounds are absolutely gorgeous. The people are purists that hate on this, yet if you blind fold them and use the clean channel they’d act differently

Hi Johan, that's my AMP, but He Not Work. I send him to Tube AMP doctor in Worms, Germany this year. The People from Tube AMP doctor make a very good Job, and the AMP CAME Back to me, with Power and good Sound. Super Video, stay save my Friends.🎹🎶🎛🎙🎼🎤🎵🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸👍😉

I bought a new red-knob ‘super-60’ back in the early 90’s. The PLASTIC input jack broke early on. I opened the amp and super glued it back together. Sold that amp as fast as I could.

I have the Dual Showman head, which is the same amp without reverb and with a 'cloaking' feature. Great amp and still has the original tubes in it.

Don't tell your girlfriend she's pretty on the inside. I was trying to keep this amp a secret. Everytime I'd play out people were asking about my tone, experienced players too. Guess I'm not too worried about prices skyrocketing on these bc it's never going up for sale. When I first got this I actually played it next to a SF 78. Whatever settings I had it at sounded the same but this was like $300 cheaper. Don't regret it and prefer it, especially bc it is the most versatile amp I've ever seen and used. Others, get this right already...the evil twin is the black knobbed 125w. It is Evil bc it's a 125w, as if 100w wasn't loud enough already. Got it, thanks, stop the madness.

I loved these amps. I heard them live at a number of club shows in the 80s in L.A. and thought they sounded great. Also great pedal platforms. I thought to them as Twins with more gain on tap. Very loud live. But clear.

My dad had the Super 112 amp from this series when I was a kid. Nice round clean tones, dreadful distortion/OD. Was in the shop for repair more than it was used. A friend recently gave me the exact same model in non-working condition. I’m afraid to take it to my tech. Haha. This Twin DOES sound great though! Cheers!

Hey Johan, really liked the "cartoon" effect towards the end..... People often confused this amp as the "Evil Twin" version because of the red knobs...I believe the "Evil Twin" was actually the '94 Twin. Black knobs....This was the " Twin", I have one of its grand kids, the " Twin Amp".

I have one of those. Heavy like a pallet of bricks, this tone machine has volume for days. I threw at it lots of different pedals, and it never said no once. If I remember correctly, this is part of the serie producted in collaboration with Paul Riviera in the very late '80 early '90. Because of it's name "The Twin", lot's of people thinks that it should be a sort of reissue of the Twin Reverb, and they get disappointed. This is a different beast, the controls are different but very tweakable. If you spend some time on turning the knobs, you'll find the right sound for sure. Know your gear. Luckly I got mine for cheap before Johan's video, who knows how much they will cost tomorrow.

I've owned one of these since 1997. Its a great amp, the clean side is BIG and clean. The drive channel is very versatile, you can get anything from blues drive, to tight metal sounds depending on your pedals. The only downside is the weight (moving it around is a pain) and the tubes are expensive. I have never had any reliability issues with it.

I remember when these first came out. I had only just decided to start playing guitar and had not yet got my first electric. My friends' older brother bought one of these and when he was shopping around to try one out I remember the salesman in the music shop saying "These things are better than a Boogie!". Makes me laugh to think about that now I truly understand Fender's pedigree in amp history.

The best amp i've ever used. Incredibile clean channel and very good with all overdrive pedals. Sold only for the weight and changed with mesa dc3 combo

I have the 80's black knob The Twin and a 76 Music Man HD-130. I've owned both for many many years and for 2 amps with rough reputations... they are both very different, however the tone out of each of these amps is glorious! Both have been completely reliable! Never a problem except for tube changes of course! So any of you people who knock each of these amps, open your ears and just listen! Johan has covered both on this channel. YOU CAN'T ARGUE WITH THE SOUND POURING OUT OF THESE AMPS and learn how to twist knobs! Trust me... they don't bite, much! Thanks once again Johan! Always proving the purists or haters wrong!

I remember Robert Cray used to be in the ads for these back in the day. I know Alex Chilton used this amp in the early 90s as his main stage rig.....

Thanks for featuring this amp. I have the black knob version & I love it. Reverb is killer & like you said both channels played together is a very full tone. Mine broke down many years ago but I was lucky to find someone who previously worked for fender as an amp guy. He bypassed some circuit or something (sorry it’s been a long time & I don’t know much about the inner workings of amps) & it’s been a tank ever since. Cheers, great playing!

These red knob amps are awesome. Doesn't matter if it's solid state or tube/valve. I'm the proud owner of a solid state, red knob Deluxe 85 combo from that era. The only thing I've replaced on it is one of the input jacks. The od boost on the drive channel is a bit mushy for my taste, but using a tube screamer takes the amp to old school thrash metal tone very nicely.

I think the red knob Twin is one of the most underrated amps around. They sound great stock but I played through one with a few mods on the drive channel that nailed the Robben Ford Dumble tone. I’ve been wanting a red knob Showman for a while, same amp in head cab, I can just imagine how they would sound though a big cab.

This sounds killer. I'd be happy to swap some marshall copy with this. If I had multiple of them. You could probably mod this to a higain monster. It sounds like it has all the potential. And like a million of tubes.

The disdain is result of build quality and difficulty to repair

Everyone hates the red knob twin.... but loves the sunn model t reissue... which is basically the same amp. :)

The reason I've had mine for 35 years is the great clean Jazz sound from those 6L6 valves.

I got the red knob version, 1988. Picked it up for $100. Love it. One of the best sounding amps I have.

For crying out loud that sounds great! The dynamics are fantastic. I might hunt one of these down.

The amp sounds excellent and obviously inspires 'soulful' playing which to me, is the end goal. I enjoyed your playing! Cheers!

That's a great amp, it sounded awesome with single coils, a bit on the flubby side with humbuckers. The biggest problem in my opinion is that guitarrists from the 80s were looking for a totally different tone, that's why they have a bad rep.

it looks like the Impedance isn't selected properly. Those speaker are wired in series. 16 Ohm is given the load. The impedance selector seems to be in the middle for 8 ohms.Thank you for your great contribtions. I learned so much here about guitar amplification.

Oh.. glad to see Simon on your videos again!!

Sounds amazing. Now I must buy one.

I just recapped an early 90’s version and it was fairly well built compared most modern PCB amps. Sounded great after a recap and speaker upgrade. Actually sounded pretty good even before new WGS Et65’s were installed.They help with the spikes. Just better all around speakers for that amp.

Thanks so much for making this video years AFTER I bought mine in 2013! 😜 fine work!

The Evil Twin don't care about your feelings.

The clean channel is super loud. Once you figure out all the options with the Presence knob, you'll see the beauty of this amp.

I have a super 60 combo(red knob tube, single 1 x 12) that I hook up to a marshall 2 x 12 mx212r cab with a vintage 30 and alnico gold, it kicks!! People hate these amps because of the red knobs. I switched em for black knobs, an $8 fix. You can get one for $300! Glad to see a "red knob" getting the most prestigious stamp of approval.

I have a early prototype London 185 head. The red knobs were painted a grey silver. I read in a forum somewhere how in the very beginning they were making them with different knob / grill color combinations for the first couple weeks until fender approved the red knob look. They also painted the classic fender grill cloth black on mine.

I bought one new in '88. Still have it today. Bulletproof! Flawless. Perfect. I have 100s of hours on it.... No complaints at all.....I must have gotten "the good one"...LOL

Couple things. This amp sounds great with Simon playing! I didn't notice the focus hunting that we're used to, but that must have been deafening loud. I just love some of chord voicings that Simon uses. When he starts in on E major, I know I am in for some lovely sounds. He has an expansive lick library, it's always great when he's on the channel. Thanks Johan and Simon!

I had a red knob twin the clean channel was great the dirt channel wasn't great , the channel switchings were fantastic, loved the fact you could use both channels together or separately The speakers are excellent I'm sure that's where the lovely chang Tone comes from, the jacks break and open it up the build quality isn't great at all, mine burnt out it's bias board, the worst thing about this amp is the weight, I'm sure it's fitted with a gravity intensifier it distorts the curvature of the earth When you put it down, if you survive lifting it in the first place Mine let me down the first time I gigged it, it went really quiet and never came back, went back to my Marshall, I sold it for spares/repairs, hotrox UK do parts like jacks and knobs. Arguably the best tone you've had on your channel, but I wouldn't get another one, just to heavy at my age now I'll stick to my katanas

I own a 91 Dual Showman - Red Knob - Evil Twin, its WAY badass! I modded mine to use 6V6 tubes and I love it. I don't even remember what the 6L6's sounded like. Anyone who doesn't like an evil twin, hasn't played one, period!

To understand, wait till it needs to be repaired Two of the circuit boards (first mistake) are upside down. You can’t even do a visual inspection of components to see what could be obvious problems like burnt resistors. Boards need to be lifted and you can’t really do all troubleshooting when the amp is in that state the same way you can a well thought out layout that doesn’t disregard service work Serviceability is terribly overlooked when people review amps

Hi, Johan! I think, the bad reputation coming from to much technical issues. Those amps are very hard to keep in order more, then 6 years. To much knobs making it fragile. That's the only reason. The sound is GREAT! See you! Z

Excellent amp! I've made some modifications on mine (mod in dirty channel tone stack and jensen speakers). Sold because it's too heavy... Now i use supersonic 60 combo (same modification)

The reason they are a boat anchor is they use 10 watt resistors to drop voltage in the power supply. The resistors get extremely hot and fail, or they catch fire in the cabinet. That is not a good thing. I fixed mine by putting a transistor in to drop the voltage in the power supply. Cheers 😀

There is a red knob transistor amp non valve which was notorious for not being reliable, but the tube amp is a keeper still got mine and it cranks as good as it did new.

Hi Johan someone gave me one of these '88 models but a princeton chorus ..its a great amp i turned it into a head and use it through my 412 with a DDelay through the stereo loop 😂😂

I had one of these back in the day. They aren't my thing, but the Red Knob Twin is a better amp than people give it credit for. They sound way better than the Rivera era Twin Reverb II. If you can't get a good sound out of it, then I would blame the player more than the amp. Solid demo of an amp that's still a bargain on the used market.

IIRC Paul Rivera was the designer of these amps. I always liked them, and while I don't have those, I do have a Rivera R100 Duo 12 which is one amazing amplifier.

Great demo and great tones, love it!

Oh NO, Johan are you trying to destroy the used market for all amps? LOL These are the only big Fenders available around the SF Bay Area for around $500. I was going to buy one and my tech said "if it breaks, do NOT bring it to me". All joking aside, thanks Johan for keeping up the great quality of these videos. Good sound and good playing as always!

I bought this amp the year it came out... and it just didn’t do it for me... then I bought a marshal half stack and I fell in love with the thump and power of a 100 watt Marshall half stack... that was the tone that was in my head

I always talk smack on amps I like- keeps prices low and availability high ;)

I used one for 20 years in a wedding band playing covers. I regretfully sold it because it was too heavy. 15 years later people ask me if i still own the amp. It was a great amp.

This is 'The Twin' made between 1987-1994. The 'Evil Twin' was made in 1994-95. Both have red knobs.

Huh. Looking at the guts, not bad to work on at all. I believe it's the next lineup of amps that have the PCB-mounted tube sockets & the board covers up the entire inside of the chassis - the Pro Tube Twin-Amp, Concert, & Pro Reverb. Thisis actually really nice inside,on par eith the 65 & 68 series, & still better than most contemporary Marshalls & Ampegs.

Not again ...the price of 'red knob' Fender Twin's rockets !..Simon is a great Strat player really knowns how to let the strings ring ....super tones

I have 2 from this The Twin! I love this Tone! The Reverb makes Problems! And is so heavy ! Great with Tube screamer! A Marshall Killer. It`s extremly loud!

This amp simply shines with a LP! 🤘🤘🤘

I own the Fender HOT amp that came along with the R.A.D amps around the same time as the red knobs, the heaviest combo amp.

I got a dual showman version and honestly leaves amps like hotrod devilles in the absolute weeds if you ask me

They are a known to go wrong a lot! but they sound good when they work, and bloody heavy.

I've had two and love them. They came over from Sunn when Fender bought them out. So more a Sunn than Fender.

Some spicy playing but that amp has some mojo!!!

Hi there, I'm about to buy a used one at a very cheap price. Your review is what a was looking for... thanks very much for sharing!

im shocked by this , much more aggressive than i thought and the gain actually sounds good..i have a red knob champ 12 ,which is probably not comparable , but the fender badged speaker in that was pretty poor so i thought these might be the same .

OMG,Thanx Johan and Simon,awesome!!!!!! \m/

In the early to mid 90's my guitar teacher had a red knob Princeton Chorus and my friend got either the same amp or the Power Chorus maybe? Red knob also. They were both really great amps!

No wonder about the 'bad reputation' - a Fender Twin with GAIN ?!!? The horror.. Haha! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure Paul Rivera had a role in the Red Knob era amps.

It sounds cool, man! I'll wait for the same test with the Super 60 :-)

The only reason I can see people would hate on them is that it is obvious they are a PITA to repair if something does go wrong. I've worked on a lot of old fenders and whenever you get into PC boards it doubles the repair time. You have to remove them to change a component and as mentioned it is a 'Pain In The Arse' compared to turret or grommet construction. Other than that it looks like and sounds like a Twin.🙂

I remember reading that Hendrix often used a Twin in the studio. Would be cool to compare some Hendrix riffs played on a Twin vs. Plexi

I actually have this amp and it’s really good

The bad rep is because they break down and are difficult to work on.