'Pick of the Day' - 68 Pro Reverb & 64 Twin Reverb

Today we take a look at a pair of classic Fender 2x12 combos the 1968 Pro Reverb and the 1964 Twin Reverb! Blackface, silverface, two different power output levels, both with fantastic tone!

Trever grabs his gorgeous Gretsch White Falcon reissue show off the differences between the two amps.

For more information about the amps, please check out:

Music: Thieves of Sunrise " Shadows" (Thanks for the submission!)

[univox_guitar]

Crank the volume, but roll back the guitar volume and you get a killer tone at home use volume. I played a '73 Pro Reverb today with a Strat and it was an instant SRV tone.

[rmGuera]

Have '70s Silver Face Pro for 30 years now & ts difficult to put in words how good & robust this thing is. Incredible really, just how usable it is in any situation, tho specially in studio. Adapted left channel to right (so ts one channel amp) & miracle. By far the best i have & was using ever. Live - heads turn on tone, really.

[Tonetwisters]

Great axe. Great playing. Both amps sound fabulous. Best buy both for stage use ... run through the Twin for your cleans, and footswitch over to the PRO for a bit of dirt!!

[MAHGlie]

I have a 68 black line Pro Reverb, same as you’re playing. It has the same circuit as the blackface Pro Reverb. Beautiful Fender cleans below 5 on the volume but because of the smaller OT, again same as its BF predecessor, past 5-6 the overdrive is great. I’ve mixed speakers, Weber 12F125 and 12F150, and it gets compliments every single time. Guitars? My go to is a 54 reissue Les Paul Gold Top. This amp loves P90s. Also takes pedals very well. Twin Reverb? Too loud in its sweet spot for clubs. Fwiw, my other amp is a diy 5F4 that screams bloody murder.

[mtbmadman]

66 Pro Reverb owner.... I think it sounded warmer as expected to the twin at recording volume.

[sparkyguitar]

Back when I was a kid and 1st learning guitar, my teach used his gold top L Paul and I used his Ric 360. For amps he used his Ampeg V 4 stack and I used his silverface Super reverb. Made me love the better sound of a Fender amp. Later I got an opportunity to buy a B Egantor modded silverface Twin. Pretty cool amp. Got stolen later. So when my anger subsided and felt like having equipment again I got a used deluxe plus Strat and a pro tube Twin. This was in the mid 90's. Still got both but this Twin is so LOUD that most the time it's unusable. Got other amps since then but still love that straight clean Fender sound. IMHO it's better than my Lab series L 5 also. But not as controllable as my Boogie.

[Patrick_Garrett]

I play a twin on big stages
A pro on pub tour
And a silver face princeton for everything else.
IMO for what I need they are the best thing out there. I have celestion heavy creamback on one side of my twin tho cause it seems to reduce the over the top, top end. But the rest of mine are faithful rebuilt speakers that originally came with the amps. A good amp negates the need for so many pedals.

[sheehy]

So you play normal lefty guitars and righty guitars with the strings upside down when played left handed ? Pretty impressive.

[ireneruthfox]

I thought the 64 Twin would win the 68 Pro is nice too.

[justinlee]

Little known fact a silverface with "black lines" on the faceplate is a blackface circuit from factory!

[michaelcraig]

Which one is better for getting a way huge Hendrix- Stevie Ray type tone? Which one gets more crunch, overdrive? Since neither of them have effects loops, how god are they at taking pedals, and does the newer ones that have effects loops sound better with pedals? I am trying to get this all figured out.. Thanks.

[rbauer]

If you notice the thin vertical black lines on the silverface that indicates the earliest silverface amps. They only had those black lines for about six months. What does that indicate? You can almost bet that it is a blackface (components) amp. It looks like a silverface cosmetically, but it sounds like a blackface, because it is a blackface inside.

[jonunderscore]

Any chance you can tell us what speakers were in that Twin?

[michaelcraig]

Can yo test both of these with a vintage US made Stratocaster and a new US Strat also? Thanks.

[stemmers]

What are volume level is the Twin and the Pro Reverb to get that slight growl out of the Gretsch bridge pickup?

[michaelcraig]

Do they make the Pro reverb in re-issue? If so what do you think of them? Can you do a test to compare a re-issue Pro Reverb with an original blackface Pro Reverb? and test the overdrive on it also, thanks

[cgavin]

My first big amp was an ac30 which I run @ 22w. It got me evicted shortly afterward.
I play clean now and then sure. I do. Honest. I'm struggling to imagine a scenario where anyone needs nigh-100w of volume of anything.
People always say, "back in the day" but even back in the day that was a lot! The weirdest thing about those higher powered amps is they are so brutally directional.
So even playing your outside gig or your auditorium sans PA, it wouldn't work all that well. *shrug

[Richard_P_James]

What make of tubes are best for vintage Fender amps?

[WillyMcCoy]

I had a pre CBS Twin. It was shrill and too clean. By the time it would begin to breakup it was obnoxiously loud. The good news is you can load a lot of front end in it and it would perform stellar.

[guitarzilla]

The 65 twin is the obviously better sounding amp. The silverface tonestack always has had a strange midrange crunch. The only silverface amp I've ever heard that really stood out was a deluxe.