
Fender amplifiers are electric instrument amplifiers produced by the
Fender Musical Instruments Corporation
The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (FMIC, or simply Fender) is an American manufacturer and marketer of musical instruments and amplifiers. Fender produces acoustic guitars, bass amplifiers and public address equipment; however, it is b ...
. The first
guitar amplifier
A guitar amplifier (or amp) is an electronic amplifier, electronic device or system that strengthens the electrical signal from a Pickup (music technology), pickup on an electric guitar, bass guitar, or acoustic guitar so that it can produce so ...
s attributed to
Leo Fender
Clarence Leonidas Fender (August 10, 1909 – March 21, 1991) was an American inventor and founder of the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. Fender designed the company's iconic early instruments: the Fender Telecaster, the first mass-prod ...
were manufactured by the
K&F Manufacturing Corporation (K&F) in 1945. Later, Fender began building its own line of
electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...
s. Fender amplifiers would become favorites of guitarists like
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...
,
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English Rock music, rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s l ...
, and
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stephen Ray Vaughan (also known as SRV; October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American musician, best known as the guitarist and frontman of the blues rock trio Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble (band), Double Trouble. Although his ma ...
, also known in these cases for playing Fender guitars.
Fender amps have come in many configurations and styles. The early K&F and Fender amplifiers relied upon
vacuum tube
A vacuum tube, electron tube, thermionic valve (British usage), or tube (North America) is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. It ...
circuitry, with
solid-state models appearing in the late 1960s. Fender frequently updated the internal circuitry of its amps, and changed their appearance throughout its history.
Early amplifiers: K&F, Woodie and Tweed

The first "Fender" amplifiers were manufactured by Leo Fender and
Doc Kauffman
Doc Kauffman (born Clayton Orr Kauffman May 4, 1901, died June 26, 1990) was a lap steel guitar, electric guitar engineer, inventor and pioneer of the world's first patented guitar vibrato system. The patent for ''"Apparatus for producing tremol ...
, doing business as the
K&F Manufacturing Corporation.
The amplifiers were housed in a steel case and most were finished in a "gray crinkle" finish that was baked in the Kauffman family oven. They were made in three sizes: 1×8" (one 8-inch speaker), 1×10", and 1×15". They are all very rare today and few have survived.
The first amplifiers made in-house by the Fender Electric Instrument Company were a significant step up in size and function to the small, nameless amps that preceded them, however, they didn't have technological advancements such as circuit boards in their designs. They were constructed out of spare hardwood held by the Fender company at the time and were hence given the name 'woodie' later on by collectors. These amps were the
Princeton
Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...
, the Deluxe and the Professional. The Princeton was a small six watt amp with an 8"
Jensen field-coil speaker. This amp had no controls as it was designed for the guitar to solely control the volume and was simply turned on by plugging/unplugging into the wall plug. The Deluxe was a larger amp with a Jensen 10” field-coil speaker and five tubes in a 14-watt design. It was the most popular amp of this era, with most amps surviving from this era today being Deluxes. The rarest of all the original 'woodie' series was the Professional. It was the largest of the trio featuring Jensen 15” field-coil speaker and 6 tubes delivering 25 watts of power.
The production of these first amps ceased in 1948; however, their names have remained in use with new Fender amplifier lines.
In 1948 Fender entered a new phase of amplifier construction dubbed 'the tweed phase'. This phase saw the company drape their amplifiers in a cloth covering, which consists of varnished cotton
twill
Twill is a type of textile
Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and d ...
. This is incorrectly called
tweed
Tweed is a rough, woollen fabric, of a soft, open, flexible texture, resembling cheviot or homespun, but more closely woven. It is usually woven with a plain weave, twill or herringbone structure. Colour effects in the yarn may be obtained ...
because of its feel and appearance (actual tweed is a rough woolen fabric). The amps made during this period were a considerable leap forward for Fender, and they are often praised for their sound and their circuitry. Fender generally stopped using the twill covering in 1960, though the
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
was still covered in twill until 1963, and the
Champ
Champ, CHAMP or The Champ may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Champ (cartoon character), an animated dog introduced in 1960
* The Champ, played on radio and created by Jake Edwards (radio personality), Jake Edwards
* Champ ...
until 1964.
At the beginning of the "tweed" era, Fender constructed many of its cabinets in "TV front" style, amps which bore a strong resemblance to TVs of the time. In 1955 they shifted to the "wide panel" design, a more conventional design where the top and bottom panels are wider than the side. Fender later constructed them with "narrow panel", in which all the panels have more or less the same width.
Brownface (Brown and Blonde)

The Brownface series was introduced in 1959. The name 'brownface' stems from the brown-colored control panels, common to both the brown- and cream/blonde- Tolex-covered amps. The brownface amps originally featured a dark maroon or "oxblood" grillcloth, which was changed to "wheat" in 1962-63.
The shift from tweed to Tolex occurred in limited production in 1960. The
tolex
Tolex is a trade name for a flexible, waterproof, vinyl material used as a cover material for books, upholstery, guitar amplifiers, cases, and other products.
Tolex was filed as a trademark on August 30, 1945 by the General Tire, and was register ...
on the earliest versions in this era was pinkish brown and rough textured. There were only six amplifiers covered in tolex originally, the Professional Series:
Bandmaster
A bandmaster is the leader and conductor of a band, usually a concert band, military band, brass band or a marching band.
British Armed Forces
In the British Army, bandmasters of the Royal Corps of Army Music now hold the rank of staff ...
,
Concert
A concert, often known informally as a gig or show, is a live performance of music in front of an audience. The performance may be carried by a single musician, in which case it is sometimes called a recital, or by a musical ensemble such as an ...
,
Pro
Pro is an abbreviation meaning "professional".
Pro, PRO or variants thereof might also refer to:
People
* Miguel Pro (1891–1927), Mexican priest
* Pro Hart (1928–2006), Australian painter
* Mlungisi Mdluli (born 1980), South African ret ...
,
Super
Super may refer to:
Computing
* SUPER (computer program), or Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer, a video converter/player
* Super (computer science), a keyword in object-oriented programming languages
* Super key (keyboard butto ...
,
Twin
Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two ...
(production halted Feb-May 1960, resumed as the blonde Twin) and Vibrasonic. The cheaper student models (
Champ
Champ, CHAMP or The Champ may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Champ (cartoon character), an animated dog introduced in 1960
* The Champ, played on radio and created by Jake Edwards (radio personality), Jake Edwards
* Champ ...
,
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
,
Princeton
Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...
) remained
tweed-covered until later in the decade. The 1x10" Harvard was discontinued in 1961(though in 1962-63 Fender built a small number of "Harvards" which were actually assembled from leftover tweed-Princeton parts given Harvard nameplates). The 1x8" Champ remained tweed-covered until 1963 when it made the change to black tolex, and the Princeton acquired its brown tolex in 1962 along with a complete redesign that saw it adopt more powerful twin-6v6 circuit and a larger speaker: 1x10".
The first tolex cover used by Fender was a light brown one matched with dark maroon or "oxblood" grillcloth. This look didn't last long and by 1961 Fender was using a darker brown tolex which remained commonplace until 1963. There were three different grillcloth colors used during this period: wheat, brown, and maroon. Fender used various grillcloth and tolex combinations, suggesting that they were using up whatever stock was on hand instead of assigning one combination to one amp consistently.
Accomplishments for the company's amplifier division during these years include the introduction of the stand-alone spring reverb unit in 1961, followed by incorporation of the reverb circuit within a combo-amp design with the 1963
Vibroverb. Other changes include the shift of the top-of-the-line model from the traditional
Twin
Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two ...
to include other models, like the
Vibrasonic in early 1960, as well as the blonde
Showman
Showman can have a variety of meanings, usually by context and depending on the country.
Australia
Travelling Funfair, showmen ("showies") are people who run amusement and side show equipment at regional shows, state capital shows, events ...
in 1961. Fender began using silicon rectifiers to reduce heat and voltage sag caused by tube rectifiers, and introduced an all-new, very complex
Tremolo
In music, ''tremolo'' (), or ''tremolando'' (), is a trembling effect. There are multiple types of tremolo: a rapid repetition of a note, an alternation between two different notes, or a variation in volume.
Tremolos may be either ''measured'' ...
circuit (or, as it referred by Fender, "vibrato").
Blackface

The Blackface amplifiers were produced between 1963 and mid 1968 with the earliest blackface piggyback and large combo amps (Twin) having bodies covered in blonde tolex, with the new black control panel. The white control knobs continued briefly before giving way to black skirted "hat shaped" numbered knobs. These amps had new circuitry featuring bright switches.
Blackfaced cosmetics do not necessarily mean "pre-CBS" since the
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
company takeover took place in 1965 and amps with blackfaced cosmetics were produced up to 1967. After the buyout the front panels were changed from "Fender Electric Instrument Co." to "Fender Musical Instruments". No real changes were made to the amps until the silver faced amps of 1968 where certain circuit changes made them less desirable than the black faced amps. This affected some models more than others. For example, the
Twin Reverb
The Fender Twin and Twin Reverb are guitar amplifiers made by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. The Twin was introduced in 1952, two years before Fender began selling Fender Stratocaster, Stratocaster electric guitars. The amps are known f ...
and
Super Reverb combos, along with the
Dual Showman Reverb and
Bandmaster Reverb "piggyback" heads were equipped with a master volume control while other models such as the
Deluxe Reverb were not altered in any way except for the change in cosmetics.
Silverface cosmetics do not necessarily denote silver face circuitry, however.
Leo Fender
Clarence Leonidas Fender (August 10, 1909 – March 21, 1991) was an American inventor and founder of the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. Fender designed the company's iconic early instruments: the Fender Telecaster, the first mass-prod ...
was notorious for tweaking his designs.
During the transitional period from late 1967 to mid-1968, the circuit designs of the
Twin Reverb
The Fender Twin and Twin Reverb are guitar amplifiers made by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. The Twin was introduced in 1952, two years before Fender began selling Fender Stratocaster, Stratocaster electric guitars. The amps are known f ...
and
Super Reverb were altered to eliminate an uncommon but serious oscillation in the signal chain. These changes took some months to finalize, as Leo worked through some designs, and happened after the cosmetic changes. Furthermore, the schematic and tube charts that shipped with these models did not always reflect the actual circuitry. Fender had many leftover AB763 (blackface) tube charts left over well into 1969 and shipped these charts with silverface models.
Silverface

Fender Silverface amplifiers were built between 1967 and 1981. They are often referred to as Silverface or Chromeface because of their brushed aluminum face plate.
The first Silverface amps, manufactured between 1967 and 1969, had an aluminum frame trim, known as a "drip edge" around the grillcloth. a "tailed" amp logo and the AB763 blackface circuit. An even rarer feature were the vertical, narrow black lines, which separated knob groups in the control panel. This cosmetic detail (later referred to as "blackline") was quickly abandoned. All of the Silverface amps generally had blue labels on the face plate, but in some rare exceptions (such as the
Bronco
A bucking horse is any breed of horse, male or female, with a propensity to buck. They have been, and still are, referred to by various names, including bronco, broncho, and roughstock.
The harder they buck, the more desirable they are for ro ...
) the colour was red instead. Some transitional models produced before the "tailless" period in 1973 featured the AC568 circuit.
In 1973 CBS changed the "tailed" Fender amp logo to the modern-looking "tailless" style (which was first introduced in 1967 on the student
Bronco amp). A master volume knob and a pull-out "boost" pot were added on some amplifiers, followed by
ultralinear output transformers and a "scripted tailless" amp decal featuring a "Made in USA" script in the bottom. Additionally in 1977, the power was increased between 70 and 135 watts on certain models.
All Silverface models usually came with a sparkling silver/blue grillcloth (some later models had a non-standard sparkling silver/orange grillcloth, and a black grillcloth was even fitted to some production runs). The Silverface control face plate was discontinued in 1981 and replaced by the second series of the
blackface
Blackface is the practice of performers using burned cork, shoe polish, or theatrical makeup to portray a caricature of black people on stage or in entertainment. Scholarship on the origins or definition of blackface vary with some taking a glo ...
amps.
In 2013, Fender released the silverface '68 Custom amplifiers as a part of their Vintage Modified series, modeled after the original drip-edge silverfaced amps of 1968. Models included the Twin Reverb, Deluxe Reverb, Quad Reverb, and
Princeton Reverb, and a Vibrolux Reverb was added to the line the following year. Each amp incorporates reverb and tremolo on both channels. Other features include a Custom channel (which has a modified
Bassman tone stack giving modern players greater tonal flexibility with pedals), quicker gain onset and reduced negative feedback for greater touch sensitivity. The single-channel Pro Reverb and Vibro-Champ Reverb combos were introduced in January 12th, 2021.
Prosonic
The Fender Prosonic
guitar amplifier
A guitar amplifier (or amp) is an electronic amplifier, electronic device or system that strengthens the electrical signal from a Pickup (music technology), pickup on an electric guitar, bass guitar, or acoustic guitar so that it can produce so ...
was produced by
Fender Musical Instruments
The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (FMIC, or simply Fender) is an American manufacturing company, manufacturer and marketer of musical instruments and amplifiers. Fender produces acoustic guitars, bass amplifiers and public address equi ...
from 1996 to 2002. Available in head and combo versions, the Prosonic featured several departures in design from traditional Fender amplifiers such as the
Bassman,
Twin Reverb
The Fender Twin and Twin Reverb are guitar amplifiers made by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. The Twin was introduced in 1952, two years before Fender began selling Fender Stratocaster, Stratocaster electric guitars. The amps are known f ...
, and
Deluxe Reverb. Designed by
Bruce Zinky
The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been ...
as a project for the
Fender Custom Shop
The Fender Custom Shop is a division of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, housed within its headquarters complex in Corona, California, Corona, Riverside County, California, Riverside County, California. The Fender Custom Shop produces spe ...
, the amplifier later had a non-Custom Shop production run at the Fender facilities in
Corona, California
Corona (Spanish language, Spanish for "Crown") is a city in northwestern Riverside County, California, United States, directly bordering Orange County, California, Orange and San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino counties. Its curre ...
. (Most contemporary Fender amplifiers are produced in
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
.) It was initially priced to compete with buyers in the so-called boutique amplifier market who were seeking more
distortion
In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signal ...
than any previous Fender had ever offered. It is believed that high list prices, and deviations from established Fender amplifier designs, swayed many buyers away from the Prosonic. It developed a cult following among serious guitarists, aided by the rise of musician-centric Internet communities.
Early solid-state models

Fender's first
transistor amplifiers
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semicondu ...
were introduced in 1966. At the time they were the company's "flagship" range and aimed to make the tube-based designs obsolete. The amplifiers were naturally given traditional Fender model names, the earliest including 'Dual Showman', 'Twin Reverb', and 'Bassman'. Other products in the line were the 'Solid-State Reverb Unit' and the 'Solid-State Public-Address System'. 'Super Reverb', 'Pro Reverb', 'Vibrolux Reverb' and 'Deluxe Reverb' amplifiers followed in 1967.
The amplifiers were mainly designed by Robert "Bob" Rissi, Sawa Jacobson and Paul Spranger, who came up with the novel idea of making a heatsink to operate like a chimney to achieve increased and non-restricted airflow. Paul also designed the distinctive angled chassis and overall cosmetic styling. He was granted patents for both accounts.
In 1969 more transistor amplifiers were introduced, including the 'Zodiac' series and the behemoth 'Super Showman System'. Seth Lover, the legendary designer of the Gibson "P.A.F." pickup, and another former Gibson employee, Richard Chauncey Evans, were hired to help in designing the latter series, which consisted of an 'SS-1000' preamplifier head and 'XFL-1000' and 'XFL-2000' self-powered speaker cabinets. The head featured three cascadable channels, a "Dimension V" oil can delay effect, reverb, vibrato, and a fuzz. The powered cabinets could switch between normal and "tube-emulated" operation.
Zodiac-series amplifiers consisted of 'Capricorn', 'Scorpio', 'Taurus' and 'Libra' models. Aside from being covered with fake alligator skin, they were cosmetically very similar to the Super Showman. However, these were smaller combo amplifiers with fewer features and aimed for the lower end of the market.
Fender's early transistor amplifiers had an extensive marketing campaign but in the end they proved to be a major disaster. Many key executives of Fender had resigned after the CBS purchase and quality control of the PCB-constructed amps was rather sloppy during this time period. Reputedly many of the early solid-state amplifiers failed simply because employees didn't bother to clean up the soldering machines or attach the semiconductors properly to their heat sinks. The infancy of semiconductor technology also meant that many designs failed due to thermal runaway caused by insufficient cooling or lack of knowledge concerning "safe" power ratings of transistors. The cascaded effects from all this created a very poor reputation for the transistor products and the entire solid-state line was already discontinued by 1971. Additionally the experience also scared Fender away from solid-state amplifier technology for the next ten years.
One well known player who took to the Fender Solid State amps was
Jan Akkerman
Jan Akkerman (born 24 December 1946) is a Dutch guitarist. He first found international commercial success with the band Focus (band), Focus, which he co-founded with Thijs van Leer. After leaving Focus, he continued as a solo musician, adding ja ...
who used Super Showman full stacks during the early years of his band
Focus
Focus (: foci or focuses) may refer to:
Arts
* Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in East Australia Film
*Focus (2001 film), ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based on the Arthur Miller novel
*Focus (2015 ...
, favouring their clear sound. He used them well into the seventies, often in conjunction with Marshalls to add low end.
Second series blackface
The Silverface amplifiers were succeeded by a new breed of Fender designs. Fender was now competing with manufacturers who were more in tune with the market; specifically, many guitar players were interested less in "cleanish" country amp and instead wanted more versatile tone controls and, perhaps more importantly, greater amounts of distortion. This market was dominated by companies such as
Marshall
Marshall may refer to:
Places
Australia
*Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria
** Marshall railway station
Canada
* Marshall, Saskatchewan
* The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia
Liberia
* Marshall, Liberia
Marshall Is ...
and later
Mesa Boogie
Mesa/Boogie (also known as Mesa Engineering) is an American company in Petaluma, California, that manufactures amplifiers and other accessories for guitars and basses. It has been in operation since 1969.
Mesa was started by Randall Smith as a ...
—both of which had gotten started modifying Fender amps (the Bassman and the Princeton, respectively).
Certain elements of the Blackface cosmetics were reintroduced in the mid-1970s on a series of amplifiers designed by Ed Jahns. The first amplifiers in this new line included the infamous 180W 'Super Twin' and 'Super Twin Reverb' amplifiers which featured active tone controls and a built-in distortion circuit that blended between clean and distorted sounds. Some bass amplifiers with similar architecture were also released, namely the 'Studio Bass' and 'PS300'.
These amplifiers didn't yet render obsolete the Silverface series and manufacturing of both co-existed for years. In fact, many Silverface designs were revised to the ultra-linear architecture to step up their output power from 100 watts to 135 watts. Also, existing Silverface Princeton Reverb and Deluxe Reverb circuits were offered in a slightly modified Blackface cosmetic package from roughly 1978 to 1982, the difference from the 1960s versions being that the model designation on the faceplate did not include the word "Amp" after the script typeface model name, as the earlier versions had.
The new Blackfaces came in varying cosmetic styles. All of them had a black control panel and traditional knobs, but they no longer featured the Blackface-style lettering to depict the model name and the traditional control panel layout was partially redesigned. Some of these amplifiers had a silver grillcloth typical to previous BF and SF series amps, but more often the amplifiers sported a black grillcloth. Some amplifiers also had an aluminum trimming running around the grille. The styling didn't become consistent until the early 1980s, at which point all these designs were already discontinued to make way for the very similar looking "II Series".
In the late 1970s and very early 1980s the "Supers" were followed by the tube-based '30', '75 (Lead)', and '140' tube amps (with reverb and overdrive features) and two solid-state 'Harvard' amps (one with reverb), which were 15W practice amplifiers. Design-wise the tube amplifiers were quite different from their predecessors, as the active tone controls and blending distortion circuit had been removed and the latter feature replaced by a crude version of the channel switching concept. A new feature addition was a crude insert-style effects loop.
II Series and the Rivera Era
The II Series amplifiers were produced from 1982 until 1986, being the last Fender amps to be made at Fullerton. The specifications for these amplifiers, and leadership of the design team, came from Paul Rivera (then marketing director) and are known as Fender Rivera era amplifiers. Some amplifiers in the series used the II moniker; the Champ II, Princeton Reverb II, Deluxe Reverb II and Twin Reverb II, while others such as the Concert and Super Champ did not. Many of these amps had the normal Fender clean sound and in addition a switchable mid voiced gain channel, designed to compete with the
Mesa Boogie Mark Series
The Mesa/Boogie Mark Series is a series of guitar amplifier made by Mesa Boogie, Mesa Engineering (more commonly known as "Mesa/Boogie"). Originally just referred to as "Boogies", the product line took on the moniker "Mark Series" as newer revisi ...
series amps that had gained popularity at the time. The tube amps in the series feature hand-wired eyelet board construction and are also becoming sought-after collectors items, due to the design and build quality. The range included one small tube-driven bass amp, the Bassman 20. There were also some solid-state amplifiers using the II moniker, such as the Harvard Reverb II. Other solid-state amps produced during the Rivera era included the Yale Reverb, Studio Lead, Stage Lead, London Reverb, Montreux, and a solid-state issue of the Showman. Many of these units shared the same circuitry boards in one capacity or another.
Red Knob
The Red Knob amplifiers were produced from 1987 until 1993. They were made in Lake Oswego, Oregon, at the Sunn factory, a brand/company that Fender had purchased in 1985–86.
These were some of the first models produced by the newly formed
Fender Musical Instrument Corporation
The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (FMIC, or simply Fender) is an American manufacturer and marketer of musical instruments and amplifiers. Fender produces acoustic guitars, bass amplifiers and public address equipment; however, it is b ...
. Aside from the bright red controls, these amplifiers have a slightly similar appearance to the older Blackface cosmetics, bearing black control panels with white lettering and the late 1970s "scripted tailless" Fender logo. Many of these models were simply refitted with black knobs and early 1970s "unscripted tailless" Fender logos in 1996 when most Fender amplifier manufacturing moved to the
Ensenada
Ensenada ("inlet") is a city in Ensenada Municipality, Baja California, situated on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. Located on Bahía de Todos Santos, the city had a population of 279,765 in 2018, making it the third-largest city in Baja Californ ...
factory in
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
. This series of amplifiers all used printed circuit board construction.
Two utilized the same circuit board and wattage, the Fender Eighty-Five and the Studio 10. They contain the same 65W RMS circuit, but contain a 12" speaker and a 10" speaker, respectively. The Fender Eighty-Five was used by Steve Miller (Steve Miller Band) and Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead) on many recordings.
The 21st Century: reissues and modeling
In the first fifth of the 21st Century, Fender turned to digital technology to expand its lineup of amplifiers. The first of these, the Cyber Twin and Cyber Deluxe, used circuits within the computer chips to replicate famous amps and effects. The preamp is tube-driven, and the power amp is solid state.
[ ]
Next came the G-DEC (Guitar Digital Entertainment Center), a true modeling amp. It was released in 2007 along with a PC software package to allow it to emulate a wide array of pedals, stompboxes, and amplifiers. The G-Dec won high praise at the time but its effects, based on three-decade-old
MIDI
Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...
technology, were rapidly outdated. An updated G-DEC 3 was released in 2010, followed by the Mustang in 2012.
2014 saw the traditionally-styled Champion amplifier (not to be confused with the classic and reissue Champion/Champ tube amplifiers) released. This amp eschewed the Fuse software in favor of an on-board system, selected by knobs.
2015 saw the release of the Mustang v.2 amplifiers, along with a refresh of the Fuse PC app.
In 2017, the Mustang GT series was launched, with Bluetooth capability and wi-fi for over-the-air software updates, with a modernized look and smartphone-enabled functionality through the new Fender Tone app.
At the same time, Fender re-released a number of classic amplifiers such as the Bassman and Bandmaster, to high praise both from the music press and the public.
References
{{Fender
*
Instrument amplifiers