This is my original, my first ever tube amp. I bought this amplifier at a pawn shop in downtown Houston, TX back in 1989 or so for $250…and I had to borrow $50 from my Dad to get it. Just to illustrate how hard times were at this point in my family’s life, we had been bankrupted, foreclosed, evicted, divorced, and my sister and mother left Houston for Austin while I stayed behind. I lied about my age to get a job at a burger joint at 15 years old so I could have some income. At one point my Dad and I bought a beat up, ugly-ass 1979 Ford LTD (which was an ex-unmarked Houston Police car) for $50. It was running on four bald tires and the backseat was full up to the windows with trash. About 5-6 months later we got a flat tire, couldn’t afford to buy a new one, and sold that three-tired car for $50! So borrowing $50 from my Dad to buy a beat-to-shit Fender Twin was a massive leap of faith for all parties involved, as well as a sure sign that our lives were finally starting to stabilize.
Maybe that’s too much to put onto an amp purchase, but no matter how good times got I never sold the Twin to buy something prettier, and when times were rough, I’ve hung onto her when everything else was for sale. She’s 100% natural relic, and she has given me hundreds and hundreds of splinters over the years. I’ve taken her to more than one amp repair outfit and so far nobody can tell me what kind of speakers those are, but the magnets are HUGE and HEAVY. I call em my “Battleship Tannoys”. If you wanna play that angst-ridden teen garage/metal/punk bidness, well this amp gives you instant cred. Now that I’m in my 40’s, I get asked every time I bring her out in public wether or not she’s for sale. My oldest and closest friend asks me bi-annually, “Can I have the Twin when you are dead?”
