Frenzel Twin/Plexi Head

I got this amp in the summer of 2005,in a head cabinet. It is all tube and hand wired. This amp is great for blues and classic rock. That is home base for this amp and it does it really well. It's good for funk, rockabilly and most other low to mid gain styles.

I was advised by Jim to buy an A/B/Y but I should have just got an A/B because the A and B channels are out of phase so they sound like crap together.

I dislike the serial effects loop because when you change your volume the effect is changed, so I never use it. This amp is more than loud enough, I think I could have ordered the 25 watt version. I really wish it had a reverb.

I don't use the fender channel that much because while the eq is less upper mids, it doesn't have the jangle and sparkle of a fender clean without the fender power section (even with 6l6s installed) Frenzel claims tube interchangability which was a big selling point to me but I found out that was a half truth as I discuss later in more detail.

I'm using my twin/plexi with a Gretsch 6120 Jr and an Epiphone Les Paul, but I have used it with a Strat and a Tele and Genuine Gibson Les Pauls. It's pretty quiet. It fits my blues rock style perfectly and even does pretty good when I use it in worship in church. I think a class A amp like a Vox would be better for that but I just love that Marshally power chord chunk too much! There are a lot of sounds in the amp between the two channels. You can just spin the EQ almost any way and get a unique tone that may be weird but not bad. Playing clean its very crisp and mellow and beautiful. I love playing on the edge of drive with it very expressive. The Marshall drive is powerful, the Fender drive is a little more messy but in a classic sort of way. My only complaint is a few stray overtones that are harsh and really high and off pitch. An amp builder I talked to said that was probably due to the metal film resistors that he said should never be used in an audio circuit.

In terms of the claim that you can simply swap in other power tubes for different tones, this amp builder told me that Frenzel's claims of tube interchangeability are misleading. While the circuit may be designed to bias OK, putting anything but an El34 in the circuit mismatches impedance between the output transformer and the tubes, thus shortening the life of both. So while I specially had Jim build the amp with lower voltages for 6v6 tubes, I now run only my mullard EL34s. The tone differences were not as huge as I expected anyways. It's still the same circuit. The amp builder I talked to also said that it was a great circuit but made with the cheapest parts available and that the resistors he was using should never be used in an audio application.

He further said that while it is a good sound for the money, that the amp is built with really cheap components.

The amp shipped with EH tubes which where crap and after shipping were almost non functional. I replaced every tube with higher quality ones.

The amp blew a resistor in my first couple weeks of owning it, not from being cranked either. None of the music stores would touch it because it was custom made but my buddy pointed me to an amp builder who has been building amps since his teens. He fixed it for $20

Since all that was cleared up I haven't had much problem.

Jim is a pretty nice guy, got a little grumpy about the repeated reverb requests though. When I contacted him about the amp not working right he said I could ship it back to him, but that would be stupid expensive. He did offer to pay for the repairs but it was only $20 and I'm in Canada, so I didn't take him up on it.

I've been playing 17 years and owned a fender performer 1000 before this. I looked for two years for a tube amp. I was playing tube amps and looking for one that would do what I wanted fender cleans and marshall drive. I enjoy this amp it's just not quite what I'd hoped. Myself I've heard few amps that can touch it's raw Marshall punch but the fender clean is good but not that fendery. There is still the complaint of the occasional weird frequency overtones and no reverb. The sound for the money is still definitely a good deal, but the quality advertised isn't quite there. I don't think I would buy another. I guess the amp I really want is probably about $4500 dollars, but this one will do quite well for now.

ic new from jim fresh from his lab..this amp is so versatile from clean like fender to a singing lead like an overdrive marshall .i play the blues and rock.this amp has all the mojo magic that anyone would need.the reverb is as good as any fender that i played...i use a aby box to change the channels the frist channel is to be a fender twin the second is a plex both with there own eq gain bass middle treble and master then reverb and presence push pull ..it has an effects loop din't try it yet .this head comes with 100 watts but i got my amp with 25 watts more then loud for most clubs we play ..i like to control my amps amd let front of house pa do the work.this is my second frenzel the other amp is a willcat hotcat 30 also a very good amp ..frenzel makes some of the best tube amp that you can buy for a lot less money.

here is ware the magic starts ..no noise hum or anything .just prue good sound.dose get loud if you want .you can tell that the man that built this amp has the mojo in his blood.i have a 60 strat ash hardtail with hg lace pickups and a 70 strat single stock pickups.the sound is like srv to vh dose what i was looking for ..this amp is clean and sing but can crunch when you want it too .this amp is a pice of cake to control .it will do what you want it to do when you want it to do and how you want it to do.

well i use two amps if one gose i'm still playing...looks like its built to last ..had my other frenzel for almost a year never had anything worng ..and it is played hard

jim will do anything to help you out ..quick to email you back ..always helpful and friendly.. my band and frends call him
Mr mojo his amp are the best to me..

been playing for over 40 years the last time i played an amp that sound this good was a 1972 marshall plex 50 ..i had marshall fender zinky boogie fargen and more .but frenzel has the best sound and no noise ..take one for a ride and feel the magic of mojo

Brand new. All tube. Point to point hand wired. Added FRED bridge. Made in March of 2007. The amp covers Plexi/Twin tones extremely well. The amp has just what you need.If your really interested in the features check out the website on this amp at-- http://www.frenzeltubeamps.com/id19.html

You know, there are those guys that should build guitar amps, and thouse that should not.....These guys are definitely in the "should build guitar amp" catagory beyond a shadow of a doubt. Yeah allot of companys claim to deliver "tone", few actually do. "Real tones" that make you want to play all day, create new songs, never want to put you guitar down. The kind of tones most guys would die for.
The Fender channel out does every Fender Twin I have ever heard. And the Marshall Plexi side? Real Plexi tones! Not the kind most people claim to have, but do not deliver, but "real Plexi tones. The kind most only get to talk about. Rich, dynamic, complex, balanced with clarity and definition. Bogner, VHT, Marshall, Mesa Boogie, Fender, Peavey can't, I repeat can't deliver "these tones".

Built to last. Impeccable quality.

Some of the best in the world.

Been playin' 30 years or so. Played through everything at one time or another. I've sold or am everything except my Frenzel's. My Bogner Ecstacy should be up on Ebay next week....sounds bland next to the Frenzel.....even though it takes a pedal to deliver the same amount of overdrive/distortion......what comes out the speaker sounds much better......really moves me......and that's what's it's all about.

I have 2 of these, one has a "contour" knob to select either the twin preamp, the plexi preamp or both. The other has seperate inputs for each preamp.

The contour knob amp has a normal input and high gain input.

Both amps have preamp volume knobs, three band tone stacks and master volume knobs for both the twin and plexi preamps.

A presence control knob is on the output stage which can be pulled for a higher output sound. Jim says this creates a more "open" sound and I agree.

On the back is a speaker output with a 4/8 ohm switch and an effects loop with volume control.

His usual design has 4 EL34's on the output stage, however, this was going to be too much volume for me (I play through 6 of his amps total and I don't need 100 watts) so he modified the design for 2 EL34's for 50 watts.

The amp has a tube rectifier.

I have a custom made aluminum made by Chris Fouke at Industrial Guitars with a Wolfetone pickup in the bridge and a Kevin Burkett Travis Bean TB1000 clone pickup in the neck. Both amps output into Earcandy speakers.

Both amps have lots of headroom given I play through 6 amps and don't need to turn them up a lot.

The tonal possibilities are enormous given the three band tone stack for each preamp and the ability to the blend the two. I've enjoyed playing around with squashing the bass on one and the treble or the mids on the other, turning up the preamp all the way on one and getting a nice clean tone on the other. There are so many possibilities and when recording, the ability is there to change the sound per song and get different tones.

The clean tones are great, very glassy and crisp and I love the way all the amps take pedals well. If you match the right fuzz and/or overdrive, they sound great.

Same as another review of a different one of his amps:

No problems thus far after 5 or 6 months, but I haven't taken them out of my studio yet, thus the rating of no opinion. In a couple years, if everything is still going smooth, I'll upgrade to 10.

I would recommend adding the grey cage.

Same as another review of a different one of his amps:

Jim is a super nice guy and always responds swiftly to emails and answers all questions.

Another amp I have of his (I have 6) arrived and the amp wasn't working properly. I emailed him and he determined one of the knobs must have been damaged in shipping and he asked I ship it back. Five days later the amp was back in my possession. Boom boom boom, no hassles, no worries, no delays.

The value of these amps, price for sound quality, can't be beat. Highly recommended.

The ability to get many different tones is great.

I admit that these may be too much amp for me given my setup of 6 amps. If these were stolen, I'd probably get two of his lesser wattage amps, maybe one with the twin circuit, one with the plexi. His approx. 18 watt amps are the perfect volume for me.

But I have these two and love them.