My twin reissue is acting up so I may take it in to the amp guy in town. I'm wondering if people think it's worthwhile to modify the electronics in the amp. I hear about black facing them but what other sort of modifications have people done and are they things that give a noticeable improvement? Are there schematics and what not out there for mods? If I ask him to modify the amp I'd want him to be clear on what I'm looking for and since I"m not clear myself maybe this community can help me with descriptions.
Lots of people on this board know a hell of a lot more about this than I do, but I do know some basic things I will try to explain.
The good news is....... your amp is already blackfaced. that is why the faceplate on it is black. From 63 to 67, fender had black painted faceplates on their amps, and that is what blackface means. When CBS bought Fender in 65 they changed the faceplates on the amps to silver starting in 68. Your amp is a reissue of the most famous and well loved circuit in Fender history, the AB763 circuit, which was commonly associated with many amps in that era around the CBS buyout. The Twin, Super, Bandmaster, Showman, Deluxe are some of the amps that were AB763, the circuit Jerry used, albeit a modified one.
All of Jerry's amps, and all amps back then were wired with eyelet boards and point to point soldering was used. In your reissue, a PCB board is used and all the components are soldered onto it. Now people will argue all day about if this build method sounds different, better, worse, etc..... One of the main issues with the PCB board reissues is modding them. I have heard it can be difficult, but I am not sure. I barely know how to drain the caps and bias the tubes in my amps. All I know is you have 95 percent of the circuit there in your reissue, a Blackface Fender AB763 Twin Reverb, so I, personally would not mess with it. If you want a modded amp, I would get Sarno's SMS classic tube preamp Jerry mod version, a power amp and a JBL D,K, or E 120. I finally made the plunge and went the SMS CTP route and coudn't be happier. I have two blackface AB763 amps, a Deluxe Reverb 65 reissue and a Super Reverb, and the SMS is more Jerry, for sure. That being said both of my other amps sound great and get me as close as I need to be, but this kind of becomes an unhealthy obsession, and you end up with several amps and spend time comparing them and writing about them instead of playing, but I digress....
