Help with 1968 Twin Reverb- Finally done!

Thomas Butler · Post by **Thomas Butler** » 2 Aug 2010 5:40 pm

I just acquired a '68 Twin Reverb with the D120 JBLs. I like the amp but I have questions about the baffle and replacing the grille cloth - are the grills not set up to be removed? It looks to me like the grill cloth is attached directly to the speaker baffle and the baffle itself has been glued in.
My amp has the aluminum trim and I didn't want to pry on it too hard - I'm afraid I might wreck it.

Does anybody know how they are supposed to work?

New baffle, re-coned speakers and insides and new grill cloth. It wasn't the drip edge that was the problem - it was the corners - saving and re-using them.
Still some tolex tears and bumps - but the thing is almost 43 years old.

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Rich Hlaves · Post by **Rich Hlaves** » 2 Aug 2010 6:45 pm

The drip edge Twins like the earlier black face models, have a baffle screwed in from the rear. You have to pull the rear pannels, chassis, reverb tank bag and remove the speakers to to get it out safely. You will then see the screws hold it in around the edges. It is possible to leave the speakers on it and remove it but I would advise pulling them first. You know what they say, just one slip and.......ouch.

Your Twin should be the same electronically as the black face Twins from '64-'67 AB763 circuit. Nice find and the JBL are a plus.

Once you get the baffle out there are many staples and brads holding the grill and trim to the baffle board. I would leave the grill change to a pro. Someone like Rodgers amps. Finding aged blue stripe Fender cloth could be tough.

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 2 Aug 2010 7:43 pm

what Rich said..

here's my 71 all apart...

you can see the grill board removed, your 68 will have the entire speaker baffle bd removed by screws from the inside. The 71 allows for the grill bd to be removed from the front. The edges of the grill bd are where all the staples are...

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 3 Aug 2010 3:41 am

I have bought the authentic aged grills on ebay from this buyer:

Fender Twin Baffle!

In fact I have on of his aged baffles on my Champ and it looks totally factory as far as fit and aged coloring.

Greg

Ken Fox · Post by **Ken Fox** » 3 Aug 2010 5:49 am

Grill cloth replacement is a difficult skill to learn. A drip edge is one of the worst to work on, if you want to successfully restore that and put the trim back on.

I would recommend sending the baffle to Rick Johnson for proper restoration, unless you are skilled in this area already

Rich Hlaves · Post by **Rich Hlaves** » 3 Aug 2010 6:28 am

The grill cloth on a '68 Twinn is a different color that that shown in the auction above. The correct grill is a blue line design also called blue sparkle.

The common grill used on black face amps is silver sparkle. A SF amp with BF grill looks a bit off to me. My vote would be to keep the aluminum trim for sure.

Ken Fox · Post by **Ken Fox** » 3 Aug 2010 6:38 am

One trick is to pull the staples up on the trim but leave each staple in the trim after it is pulled off. that way they will go back into the original hold a lt easier!

These take a lot of patience but can be nicely restored.

Ken Fox · Post by **Ken Fox** » 3 Aug 2010 6:42 am

If you can get it out you can also measure the baffle board and have Rick Johnson or Mojotone make one up with the aged cloth on it. I suspect if they glued that baffle in, as you said it will not be worth trying to save. In fact you may have to replace some or all of the cleats that the baffle are attached to.

Then you can re-apply the trim.

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 3 Aug 2010 7:57 am

The 68 and 71 baffles are different. 71 is glued in. 68 is screw-removable.

As I understand it, the nation's leading expert on drip-edge and re-grill-cloth-ing is Gregg Hopkins at:

http://www.vintage-amp.com/

But I'm sure Rick J could do a perfectly fine job as well. I'm always impressed by Rick's work.

'68 Fenders are hands down my favorite, all-time amplifiers. That's a great amp.

B

Ken Fox · Post by **Ken Fox** » 3 Aug 2010 8:05 am

Brad, you are right about Gregg. But be prepared for a long wait. I did a brown Vibrasonic and it took him over 3 months. He had Albert Talley's 1954 Bassman for around 6 months or more.

He is by far one of the best ever for cabinet restoration, just has a large backlog of work.

Jeff Jackson · Post by **Jeff Jackson** » 9 Aug 2010 9:25 am

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I am looking for some aluminum trim for my 68 twin grill cloth and no one seems to have any ideas of where to get any.... I am stumped!

Rich Hlaves · Post by **Rich Hlaves** » 9 Aug 2010 9:56 am

Jeff,

There is an ebay seller with repro drip edge trim for sale. I have not seen this stuff or tried it myself but it was well reviewed on another forum.

Search ebay for "drip egde" under the "musical instruments" catagory.

Best of luck,

Rich

Thomas Butler · Post by **Thomas Butler** » 9 Aug 2010 10:26 am

I emailed Rick Johnson - he said to be very careful that aluminum trim is not available any more

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 9 Aug 2010 12:48 pm

I ordered a new Twin Reverb in '67 or so with JBL Speakers.
Mine has a JBL emblem in the lower front corner opposite the Fender emblem.

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 10 Aug 2010 8:20 am

Brad Sarno wrote:The 68 and 71 baffles are different. 71 is glued in. 68 is screw-removable.

yes very true, but the grill cloth is stapled the exact same way whether it be to the actual baffle or grill board face board.

t

Jon Hyde · Post by **Jon Hyde** » 10 Aug 2010 11:15 am

I replaced the baffle in my 68 Twin. I wanted to go with a 15 and I didn't want to mess with the original so that I could always go back to it, should I change my mind. I had Rick Johnson make me one with aged grill cloth on it. He was really fast and did a great job. His baffles are plywood as opposed to particle board like the one you've got now. That should affect the sound but Rick swears he prefers the sound of plywood and all I know is, mine sounds awesome (swapped the 2 12s for a ceramic Weber California).

I also wanted to add the drip edge aluminum to the new baffle without removing it from the old baffle. I searched far and wide and I found a great replacement. The model number was:

Taco # A50 0275 AL12

And I found it online here:

http://tacomarine.com/cat--Aluminum--ca ... _trim.html

I ended up finding some at a local Marine supply store here in Seattle (Fisheries Supply). I don't remember how much it cost but I remember it was way too much!! They were nice and sold me a bent piece at a discount - I was able to work around the bent stuff and still have plenty to work with. It's drilled on the side so I used screws instead of staples and I was quite happy with the results. It is just like the original material.

Thankfully I had a set of corners I could use - that is the part I was unable to find (also had a period correct logo!) Still I think this would look real good if you just mitered the corners at a 45 degree angle... Somebody make some replacement corners out there already!!

Thomas Butler · Post by **Thomas Butler** » 17 Aug 2010 11:46 am

It looks like the cosmetics are the least of my problems.

tubes, resistors, caps, speakers - YAY!

I give my tech guy money - and he fixes my old stuff and gives me home-made raspberry jam.

And I have to take him pheasant hunting in the fall.

Jeff Jackson · Post by **Jeff Jackson** » 28 Nov 2010 4:31 pm

Rich Hlaves wrote:The drip edge Twins like the earlier black face models, have a baffle screwed in from the rear. You have to pull the rear pannels, chassis, reverb tank bag and remove the speakers to to get it out safely. You will then see the screws hold it in around the edges. It is possible to leave the speakers on it and remove it but I would advise pulling them first. You know what they say, just one slip and.......ouch.

Your Twin should be the same electronically as the black face Twins from '64-'67 AB763 circuit. Nice find and the JBL are a plus.

Once you get the baffle out there are many staples and brads holding the grill and trim to the baffle board. I would leave the grill change to a pro. Someone like Rodgers amps. Finding aged blue stripe Fender cloth could be tough.

I have a 1968 Twin Reverb and the tube chart states that is is in fact the AB763 circuit but in fact it is not.

Rich Hlaves · Post by **Rich Hlaves** » 29 Nov 2010 8:59 am

[quote="Jeff Jackson[/quote]
I have a 1968 Twin Reverb and the tube chart states that is is in fact the AB763 circuit but in fact it is not.[/quote]

Jeff, I was speaking specifically about the amp in question hear. It is an early model with the vertical black line silver faceplate.(from the pic at least) From the amps I've owned and worked on, most of the blackline Fenders from late '67-early '68 where in fact blackface circuit amps. Not all silverface '68s follow this only the early ones. Again it's most not all so YMMV. Fender also never threw anything away. The incorrect tube chart in your amp was used to use up old parts. There are many examples of this behavior from Fender over the years.

Just my opinion but to have a blackline drip edge amp without the blackface circuit would be more rare than with.

Best,

Rich

Jeff Jackson · Post by **Jeff Jackson** » 29 Nov 2010 11:07 am

I heard that before about Fender never throwing anything away. I do have a pic of my amp on an earlier thread. It looks to me like mine used to have the aluminum trim. I think someone has removed it. Have you ever seen a 68 twin with the JBL plate on the grill without the trim? Just curious.

Rich Hlaves · Post by **Rich Hlaves** » 29 Nov 2010 1:01 pm

Jeff Jackson wrote:Have you ever seen a 68 twin with the JBL plate on the grill without the trim? Just curious.

All the verifiable '68 TRs I have encountered have had the drip edge moulding on the grill unless it has been removed and not reinstalled. Drip edge went away sometime in '69. Not all factory JBL equipped amps got a JBL badge but fender got better at that in later years. It would be intersting to know your transformer codes and the date stamp inside your chassis. It is hard to tell from the pic you posted (and I forgot was there!)what year your TR is. It certainly doesn't have the blackline faceplate. The TR looked like that for a few years. Is the grill seperate from the baffle? Removes from the front? Are the speakers offset in the baffle? From the pic your amp looks more like an early '70s model to me.

The good news is they all sound fantastic when properly cared for!

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 29 Nov 2010 9:19 pm

Rich Hlaves wrote:[quote="Jeff Jackson

I have a 1968 Twin Reverb and the tube chart states that is is in fact the AB763 circuit but in fact it is not.[/quote]

[/quote]

That's correct, it's not right ! Fender used up the tube charts as they went along..just stuck em' in the cabs, nobody was actually paying attention... There were at least two more drawings since 63, AB568 and AA769 ( letters are the drawing revisions, numbers are the date 568, MAY 1968) so to have a 68 or 69 TWIN with AB763 which is a July 1963 chassis is probably not legit.

My 71 Twin has the correct tube chart with no chassis drawing number, someone finally got smart and made one tube chart for all , it says "Twin Reverb Amp" ....but it is probably an AA270 which is yet another drawing, probably a couple of tone stack caps changed or added...don't much care !

t filling my brain with useless knowledge !

Thomas Butler · Post by **Thomas Butler** » 20 Feb 2011 7:01 am