CBS Fender craziness

[Tonray's Ghost]

Wow..never knew these existed..from what I can glean they didn't last long

Fender Solid State Twin Reverb

[andrewsrea]

Yes. That was Fender's equivalent of the Ford Edsel.

Transistors were becoming abundant, and about 2% of the cost of a vacuum tube, plus eliminating three expensive transformers (output, choke and reverb). Utilizing PCBs, assembly could be automated. In all, these were expected to be affordably priced with high profit margins.

It was extremely underpowered compared to the tube amps of the same wattage. I've played a couple at guitar shows and they aer so sterile, 'lifeless' and 'unmusical' are the only ways I can describe that amp. They didn't travel well, as if they fell over in the car or van, the knobs would get knocked off. Their control panel was hard to read on stage.

Musicians picked up early that these were POS and Fender quickly dropped them. The designers behind it realized the short comings, quit and went to found other companies like Sunn, Acoustic and Kustom where they produced decent solid-state amps, to which Peavey copied the best of them.

[Tonray's Ghost]

Yes. That was Fender's equivalent of the Ford Edsel.

Transistors were becoming abundant, and about 2% of the cost of a vacuum tube, plus eliminating three expensive transformers (output, choke and reverb). Utilizing PCBs, assembly could be automated. In all, these were expected to be affordably priced with high profit margins.

It was extremely underpowered compared to the tube amps of the same wattage. I've played a couple at guitar shows and they aer so sterile, 'lifeless' and 'unmusical' are the only ways I can describe that amp. They didn't travel well, as if they fell over in the car or van, the knobs would get knocked off. Their control panel was hard to read on stage.

Musicians picked up early that these were POS and Fender quickly dropped them. The designers behind it realized the short comings, quit and went to found other companies like Sunn, Acoustic and Kustom where they produced decent solid-state amps, to which Peavey copied the best of them.

If I saw one at a reasonable price I'd grab it in a minute. Like an old jukebox you put in your man cave. It's kind of like a cross between a Sperry UNIVAC and an old Console Stereo from 1972

[andrewsrea]

...It's kind of like a cross between a Sperry UNIVAC...

You sparked an ancient memory. I passed the BSA Computer Science merit badge the first year it was available (1975?), which was held on a Friday night and all-day Saturday at Girard College in Philadelphia, part of it using the original Sperry Univac (and its successor Unisys mainframes). I believe they were donated to the college. They used a punch card reader as the interface.

[Tonray's Ghost]

...It's kind of like a cross between a Sperry UNIVAC...

You sparked an ancient memory. I passed the BSA Computer Science merit badge the first year it was available (1975?), which was held on a Friday night and all-day Saturday at Girard College in Philadelphia, part of it using the original Sperry Univac (and its successor Unisys mainframes). I believe they were donated to the college. They used a punch card reader as the interface.

I was using punch card readers and keypunch machines in my computer science classes in 1976/77 at University of Delaware..what a trip..my 8 track car player seemed like alien technology from the future at that point..

[mozz]

:Down in the man-cave with a Univac:
Here guys, have a beer and log on to the Internet with this Baby! Download a G-N-R CD will only take about 47 years.

[Tonray's Ghost]

:Down in the man-cave with a Univac:
Here guys, have a beer and log on to the Internet with this Baby! Download a G-N-R CD will only take about 47 years.

Not to worry, 47 years and 247 pounds later Axl is still belting out Sweet Child O' Mine

[andrewsrea]

:Down in the man-cave with a Univac:
Here guys, have a beer and log on to the Internet with this Baby! Download a G-N-R CD will only take about 47 years.

It will only take 30,000 punch cards in a neatly ordered stack to make that happen!