Silvertone Twin Twelve

Bought this off ebay based on online reviews. Dual 6l6 head and 2x12 cab. Two channels, but channel one doesn't work on mine, so I don't know if they differ. Channel 2 has tremolo, kinda fast and choppy but cool. The reverb sucks and thankfully clicks off at the bottom of the dial. Don't ever bother to fix the reverb on these. If I make this my main amp, maybe I'll get it modded, put an effects send and return in where the standy and ground switches are -- the standby is really just a mute, and since mine has a three-prong cord added, the ground is pointless -- and I could use the reverb knob for an effects level.

This is 30 robust watts, but not the loudest thirty watter you'll hear. It has about as much volume as the 22-watt DRRI I had, with an efficient Eminence speaker.

The original cab came with mine, but the speakers are later additions: clones of a C12R and a P12R, by Weber and Mojotone, respectively. The umbilical to the head has been cut and a regular input jack added. The cab has a funny buzz that I think has something to do with the masonite baffle or the grill cloth, which sits off the baffle a bit but is attached to it at one spot by the Silvertone logo. Buzz isn't that audible when the amp is turned up, but kind of annoying when playing at low volumes. The best thing about the cab is the storage for the head in back. Just keeps things neat and protects it a bit. If not for that, I'd pull the speakers and shell out $200 for a better cab. It's also made of particle board, like the head cabinet. Every one of these I've seen, there's a slight inward curve to the top of the head, for that extra cheap look.

Cosmetically, it's kind of retro pawn-shop cool, but the "tolex" tears so easily it's not worth paying extra for a clean one that's been in a closet for 30 years, instead of a garage or basement like most of them. The cabinet of mine is beat to hell, half painted black, rip in the grill cloth, and I think I like it better this way. If you must have shiny things, build a new box for the head -- just four sides and some tolex -- and get an Lopoline cab.

By the way, I'm not going to give number ratings, because I don't find them helpful when I'm reading reviews.

Now for the reason I'm keeping it. It's got a mid-range focus, but also some high end -- enough to become piercing with a turn of the treble control. The overdrive doesn't compress too much or become too smooth. It's like a punchier, crunchier clean. There's a spot about halfway up on the volume where the in-between position on my Epi Paul with P90s is clean and chimey, the bridge position is crunchy and fuzzy, and the neck is thick and bluesy. I've never found a similar spot on another amp where every pickup position sounds different, and each one sounds good. Usually if the bridge is crunchy, the neck is muddy and middle looses its chime. You know what I mean. At that spot, the amp has a very vintage sounding Stones-ish grind. You'll need a pedal to get a sustainy lead tone, but for rhythm it's perfect. Dare I believe it's similar to a tweed twin twelve? I wouldn't know, but these sixties Silvertone circuits are probably loosely copied from Fenders that are 5-10 years older.

The only recorded example I know of of one of these is the Cake album "Fashion Nugget" -- or so I've heard. Not my favorite, but the guitar riff on "The Distance" is similar to what I'm getting. I'd guess he's using humbuckers and maybe an OD pedal. You can also see one in photos of the Velvet Underground playing at the Factory, but I'm not sure what albums they might be used on. They also used the solid state model, and the first record sounds kinds SS to me. The Live 1969 double album could have this amp on it, judging by the sound. I doubt Sterling Morrison or Lou Reed remembers.

Jack White fans: that's a Silvertone 1485, the 6x10, 4-6l6 Silvertone.

It's like an old car. Prepare to have it in the shop periodically.

Shall I make a bad joke about how Sears won't service the amp anymore?

Well, you can still get one of these for about the same money as a used Hot Rod Deluxe -- Fender's modern 6L6 model -- and if you like a slightly more vintage sound and don't need the extra volume, I'd recommend it. Like the HRD, this is a workhorse, working class amp. I've had boutique, but as someone who grew up wearing Toughskins jeans and Christmas shopping from the Sears wishbook, I'd say this feels more natural to me.

One last thing: I'm amazed by the people who review these amps based on what they thought of them when they were teenagers in the sixties and Mom and Dad wouldn't buy them a Fender. For one, no one's memory for sound goes back that far. And two, why would I care what a teenager in 1965 thought of an amp? When I was a teen in the 80s I ran a Tube Screamer into a solid state Peavey and thought it sounded like Bob Mould. (Well, maybe it did, but it's not a sound I'm chasing anymore.)

I started on one these years ago.I love chessy vintage tube amps. Was playing A 100 watt Sovtek, before it quit. Using a Marshall 4 twelve cabinit loaded with "Those nasty jenson's" from Twin twelve cab's. Now I'm playing my Les Paul through A twin twelve head and two twelve cab. Using a Tube screamer 808 on all the time. Guitar volumn for clean tones. Original tubes,speakers, etc. Nasty overdrive. Speaker's bust up very nice. Most people laugh then it's what the ****!!!! My rating--10 10 10 10 10 !!!!

Mine's a 64. I bought it on Ebay a few years ago, before the word got out on these...I had wanted one since the late 70's, when a high school friend had one. I now own 2 (have a 65 as a backup).

I only have the heads, the cab is a custom built closed back birch 2x12 cab loaded with one original spec Celestion Vintage 30, and one current spec Celestion Vintage 30. Makes an AMAZING combination, it just barks and roars with a throaty, commanding presence that is like no other.

A lot of people dis the verb. It's not bad, just back way the hell off on it. The tremelo is great.

For it's day, it has all the features commonly available and then some.

This amp responds very well to whatever I throw at it. I feed signal via a Tube Screamer and a Digitech RP-200 that I've tweaked. Another trick I like to use is to use an acoustic guitar simulator pedal on one channel and my normal effects on the other, with an A/B box. On some songs (like Tom Petty stuff), I'll run both channels, the end result is a real chimey, Rickenbacker-ish sound.

Mine has failed twice, but were fairly cheap fixes, (about $50 each time) The first time was an actual failure of some sort, so at the same time I had the tech put a 3 prong plug on it and a jack on the rear. The second time, probably stupidity, could have fixed myself (blown fuse, 6L6's finally gave out)

It's as reliable as any tube amp...old or new.

Sears. bwahahahaha!

I've been playing about 20 years. My other amps are a 1964 Magnatone M-15A 2x12 "Suitcase" model, and a 93 Fender Blues DeVille. The Silvertone is by far the fave. I've plugged both of the others into the 2x12 cab, and neither have as good of overall sound as the Sears.

Even with todays inflated prices on this model, you're NOT going to find a point to point wired tube amp that sounds better, at ANY price.

I bought my amp from Sears in the summer of 1966, but have no idea on manufacturing date. It had two channels and a foot switch to turn on tremolo. The tremolo could be adjusted for instensity and speed. There were standard tone control and a great reverb. To obtain distortion, I would overdrive the speakers (Jensens). I used it as a gig amp in high school and college dances, playing mainly Ventures music. I have no knowledge of later editions or modern equivalents. I am speaking only of my 1966 amp.

At the time, I was pleased with the sounds because it prior to general use of fuzz boxes and wah-wahs. In 1971, I attached a German echo unit and it sounded awesome. I do not think it sounded as deep on full barred chords as its Fender cousin, not even close.

It never skipped a beat and I played it for 6 years, sold it, and as far as I know at this writing (2004) it is still functional.

I never had a need for customer support. The amp performed perfectly every day I played it. But that was 1966.

I chose the Silvertone because I could not afford, with my high school part time job, the Fender Twin Twelve I wanted. It worked out well, however.

I have no clue when this amp was made... I assume mid-to-late 60's. My amp came with the original Silvertone tubes. The output tubes are blackplates, probly made by GE or RCA. Nothing really spectacular as far as features, its reverb is kinda cheesy, but the tremelo is nice.

I actually use this thing for bass, and run a Peavey 4x12 lead cab with it. It's pretty loud in my living room, haven't tested it in a gig yet. I purchased it off Ebay fully intending to replace the dinky lil output transformer, but it actually does better than I thought. THe only time I've been able to get it to really distort is when I popped a set of Svetlana 6550 tubes in the output section, then I got some break-up at high volume.

As soon as it arrived, I hooked it up to a variac, powered it up slowly, then plugged it right in to the wall. Did'nt even wipe the dust off the case, or clean out the cobwebs. Just hooked it up and took it for a test drive. The front panel is badly rusted, as with the transformers, it's missing most of the knobs, and looks like it's been sitting in an outdoor shed for the last 30 years. From the previous owner's comments, that's basically what it's been doing. Considering it's age, and simplistic design, I forsee no immediate problems with it, except for a filter capacitor in the not-so-distant future.

Sears. Not even going to bother asking them about it. Still looking around on the net for schematics, tho I doubt I'll ever need them. Pretty basic amplifier, as far as layout and design are concerned.

This amp seems to do the job, as a bass amp, and does'nt sound too bad. It's loud, and can rattle the windows, but I don't know how it'd do with a bass cabinet. I wish I had the original stock cab, but I doubt it would be any good for my purposes. But it still suprised me. Even after reading all the reviews on here before I got it.

This amp was made in 1964, this is the sweetist sounding amp and cab, i think i have ever heard!!! the cab has the original Jenson Blue Speakers dated '64. It has 2 channels with 2 inputs per channel.
tremolo and reverb. Very Simple to dial in a sound

I am currently using a Hamer Slammer Les Paul knock-off from Indonesia that sounds even better than my Gibson! The pickups are stock and man are they hot! This amplier loves it!!! My amplifier is not very noisy. The cleanest sweetest tones i have ever heard! Dane electro really knew what they were doing when they made this amp, I am a guitarist for over 17 years and I have played through a lot of shit, but this amp has more guts then one would ever suspect. I play everything, and all my pedals from Electro Harmonix and MXR sound awesome. Highest possible recommendation! I use a Hughes and Kettner Warp Factor and it sounds amazing!, ala Three Days Grace! Forget about the reverb though, it sucks!

I just bought it, but it seems to be pretty sturdy, just don't get the cab wet it will disintegrate if you do, i would probably not gig this one It is only for studio. But it could be gigged with a good road case. But as with all tube amps you probably would want to consider having a backup amp.

17 Years.
Lots.
Buy it again.
The tone. The reverb.
Yes. $3000 boutique amps don't sound this good.
Better reverb.
No.

1966 perhaps? tube amp
Clean and crisp vibrancy a lil on the bassy side but turned all the wa down it works like a charm.
Two channels one clean one reverb tremolo speed intensity volume bass and tone controls on each channel i believe. total of four channels actually if you know of a good amp repair man. two plug ins for each side, one could use a y cable through it, or a combined another amplifier to have four seperate individual channels each one controled from the guitar makes for a good ole 60s psycadelic sound, old time blues, or with proper effects anything. Its a versitle amplifier has many possablities seeing it was simpley made. Lets face it, the simplest way to create good clean clear tones is small amp right balance speakers microphoned. So the amp is perfect for any use.

pschedelic sixties, blues, or anything very versitle as is any amplifier there all the same when effects are added to them. But if you like the true harmoney and warming tones of your guitar played clean its a ver good representitor to carry your groovin tones. The bass is a lil bit much, but perhaps using four eight inch speakers instead of two twelve will fix this problem?OR four small tweeters and one ten inch?
In my opinion when you wiegh in cost of vintage amplifiers, compared to possablities with modifications, this ranks at number one. Lets face it is that 60s vox marshell or fender worth a few thousand? Hell no!!! trust me the sound quality isnt that much of a varience to worry about. Remember this, the more speakers the more the amplifier pushes them so the more influence the amplifier has of the over all sound......the less amount of power your amp needs to drive the speakers, the more speaker influence on your sound you will have. So try what you can im sure youll find a wonderful combo. I recomend the brown and gold vintage speacial design jensens : ) Clapton used them to for a opinion better then mine, in fact to this day there the speaker he prefers so do your ebay hunting !!

u mean theres really something that can break on them lol
come on dood were talking about the sixties, hippies had to of worked at sears, i mean its simple and sturdy.

internet surf homie, look up vintage amp repair men, call um ask for tips and tricks thats the best adive i have for u

you can find these all over, but spend the extra money for one that you can hear play and you know works. look at all the pots on it, look for rust on the inside. Dont buy a junk one unless you know someone before hand that ll fix it for u..............oif you like ringing singing clear vibrant but crispy blues tones with a snap this is the amp for you when you calculate cost compared to similar vintage amps producing simlar sounds this is the best value for the dollar without a dought

mine is a '66. all of the original tubes and a non-working reverb
according to the '65 and '67 sears catalogs this amp runs at 60 watts.
2 jensen c12q speakers made during 7th week of 1966,the pots in the head are date coded 47th week of 1965.

clasic 60's rock tones distortion starts about 3 on the volume when using my old '60s silvertone guitar (model 1436)

It works pretty well. but i still need to fix the reverb.

Sear's doesn't remember.
Bart Davis posted the schematics here.
http://pubpages.unh.edu/~cjones/silpics/1484.gif

I have been playing for 16 years.
If this one quit I would try to find another.

60's version, picked it up locally from someone's closet in via an ad in the paper and talked them down to $20 not having any idea what I was getting, if I were that guy I'd be pissed at me! Other descriptions of this amp are accurate. vibrato ticks, reverb a joke, volume and tone are very unique and I love it! It's loud enough to cut through in the informal jam sessions that I participate in, don't play live so can't offer much there. I've run it with a bass or microphone on the second channel and it runs just fine.

Mine sounds very clean and is all original as far as I know except for it was recently overhauled with new tubes and a 3-prong adapter to avoid shocking myself. Pre-service it had pot noise but nothing really horrible. Playing either my Strat plus deluxe or my stock american tele I get some great sounds from it. I'm getting a bridge hotrails for the strat next week and may change my mind then.

never had a problem. This thing just turns heads and amazes everyone. Have had several offers to buy it on site. Only problems are user error/stupidity (see below).

They make good lawnmowers..............

I don't really have anything to add that hasn't already been said here, but funny thing, about 3 different times I was ready to set it curb-side cause I thought it had died and I'm not going to repair it if anything major goes out........it just went all low end mud on me and the tone disappeared. Every time it's cause I was bored and playing with the reverb then forgot to shut the damn thing off! You can get some funky psychadelic sounds too with it, and there is a way to stop the reverb if it gets out of hand, just grab the spring, it's right there in the open back of the head unit!

My silvertone was made in the mid 60's. It's pretty neat how the head fits inside the cabinet. I wouldn't exactly call this thing versatile but certainly unique. There are limited effects, but if you tweak out the reverb and tremolo wierd things will happen. I repainted it and changed the connection for the cabinet to 1/4 inch jack for convenience. I use this amp for jams and I love it. It's a head turner, and I always get questioned about it.

I use a basic strat and a few effects pedals. It took me a little while to find the sweet spots, but now when it's dialed in it pumps out a rough meaty rock n' blues sound. Turn it up past half and it's so growly all the overdrives have to be backed way off. My amp makes nice feedback and has a strong middle suitable for rock n' roll of all kinds(excluding death-metal). To capture that nasty thrashy bass I plug into a marshall 4x10 and then it changes into a goddamned beast. It's a fairly loud amp, but the low end is hard to focus with-out the marshall cabinet.

This thing does the job flawlessly. I haven't had a single problem with mine at all. After coutless jams and hours of recording and farting around it still makes me smile to hear those warm tones. It does look fragile though and the wood seems cheap, so I don't gig with it. The wood in the head's a little more sturdy so I only have to worry about those exposed tubes. Finding replacement tubes was easy, but I still haven't needed to use them!

Sears offers no support for amps they can't remember making.

I've been playing guitar for 10 years. I own a few other things that really aren't worth mentioning compared to the silvertone. Everthing about this amp is unique and it is very attention grabbing. I came across this thing by pure luck and serendipity and wouldn't sell or trade it for any price. I love this amp!

Mine is a typical 60's model of this kind. 2 channels: one straight and one with trem and reverb. A LOUD 35-40 watts out of 2 6L6's. Really small output transformer that saturates really nicely. Pretty simple. Look out for the discontinued tubes in the reverb and trem circuit...

I bought this 2 years ago, replaced the original Jensen's (very carefully, I might add) with Greenbacks and took on the road with a grammy nominated female rock singer/songwriter. I have played several House of Blues and arenas with this thing. I wanted an amp that was not Fender, Vox, or Matchless, which everyone else uses. The tone is somewhere in between. I was playing either a Tele with Texas specials or a PRS into this thing with a Boss Super OD for boosting the leads. I split out of a Boss Line Selector into both channels; the straight channel at 40% and the trem channel full out. The sound is amazing. Every gig I would do would have guys coming up asking what the heck I was playing thru. You need to mic the front AND the back of the amp live. I have buddies who use Eginator and other high dollar amps that were blown away by this thing. The original Jensens in it cool the top end nicely but lack low end. The Green backs cleaned the tone up a bit and brought out the low end in the crappy stock cabinet (a masonite baffle board). I used the stock cabinet because it looks so cool and sounds different. A Strat or Tele on the front pickup with a OD is pure Stevie Ray... It cleans up great with the volume control of the guitar. The low end is not tight at all but has a very cool, almost class A grain to it. I had mine modded to slow the trem down and deepen it but other than that mine is totally stock... The trem is now good. The reverb is way out of hand and watery. I like it, but that is me... You can have it modded to be more managable by a decent tech. If you dig blues and rock, this thing is way cool...

My amp guy laughed at me for taking this on the road. I had a flight case that fit it so I used it on tours for 2 years. He said that the tine output transformer would die from being oversaturated and once it was gone the amp was done... I got news... it never died and even riding in the back of a gear packed semi for tour after tour, it still hung in there and always worked. I kept a backup Silvertone head on the road but never needed it. Schematics are hard to come by I think though... so treat it like your mother....

Give it up.... if you have a good repair guy, you are in good shape.

I have been playing 32 years, the last 17 full time professionally and own a ton of gear. This is a great charater piece that has a tone of it's own. I love it and will probably always try to keep one around if I lost this one. The only thing I hate is that I know it will probably die someday and the parts get more scarce by the day. I have since restored this to original by putting the Jensen's back in and taken it off the road. It is now a studio piece for me as I don't want it to get beat up by the road... Way cool and way fun....

The amp was made in the 1960s. I play blues harmonica and it has all the featues I need (i.e., plug for my Silver bullet mike and volume control). However, I understand other musicians are interested in things like bass and treble control, reverb, tremelo and channel switching, which this amp has. Still others want special effects, which this amp does not have.

The amp gives a big, fat harp sound, which is great for the blues. I always play through channel two with the reverb and tremelo turned to their low end settings, say 3 or 4. With the volume at about 7, I have enough volume to accompany my lead guitar player who uses a Fender Twin. I think the sound is great, but I don't have enough experience to give a rave review.

I have had some trouble with the reverb feeding back and, consequently, I haven't used it much. When I bought my amp the head was in operating condition but the speaker cabinet was empty. The head had been modified with a grounded plug and a speaker jack in the cabinet. I put two new Jensen 12" speakers in the cabinet and it has worked faithfully. I even think I have the reverb feedback problem figured out and I used the reverb funtion at my last gig without a single problem.

I think I'd have the same problem getting customer support on this amp that I had when I called the GE repairman to come and fix my "dream kitchen from the 50s".

I just keep getting more satisfied with this amp. It sounds great. It's cool looking and, believe it or not, it's a head turner. I went into a music store on a Friday afternoon to have a tech look at the reverb problem. The store was packed and the person waiting on me only had time to strum a few chords on his guitar before he had to take a phone call. Another customer from the store who had watched me set the amp up came over and said he thought the thing was a piece of junk until he heard the guitar start playing. I asked him if he could play a little for me so I could try to get the reverb to feedback (which it didn't). After about ten minutes, I swear I could have sold him my amp over any other amp in the store. Although I will eventually by a powerful Fender amp, having the Silvertone is like keeping a 1970 Cutlass 442 in the garage along side your new Mercedes.

My Twin Twelve purchase was kind of a fluke in the way that I had a Marshall 4-10 speaker cabinet that sounded great, but all my amps were combo's. So I went looking for a head in the 30 to fifty watt range and accidently stumbled on it in for a ridiculous price. This amp is a bare bones tone machine. Not a lot of features, the cheesiest reverb on the planet, one of the coolest tremelo sounds I've heard, in a K-Tel kind of way. What is impressive is the dynamics and sensitivity of this amp. You can visit many worlds, clean and dirty, with the volume knob on your guitar.

My guitars all have single coil pickups in them, so I can't really opine about humbuckers. I play every style from chicken pickin'clean n' spanky, to Hendrix inspired distorto' wah stuff. This amp is GREAT with effects, but also holds its own as a plug in and play blues amp. VERY similar to a Fender Deluxe. Plain and simple, when you crank this amp you get "THE GOODS". Not a real loud amp though, you would have to mike it for anything larger than a bar or club, but it's louder than a Vox AC30, if that helps.

First of all, this amp's power cord isn't grounded. I had mine changed to a grounded cord immediately to avoid shocking myself back into a 80's style metal-god hairdo. I also had the 20 foot speaker cord replaced with the normal speaker out jack. Both of these mods combined cost me 20 bucks! I've used this amp exclusively for my last ten shows and not had any problem, in spite of the fact that I own several vintage Fender amps that are also reliable.

Of course, there is no customer support for a SEARS AND ROEBUCK GUITAR AMPLIFIER! I called them and they don't even know what a guitar amplifier is! Then they DENIED they ever made one! Luckily, any amp repair man worth his soldiering iron has run across these amps a few times and can suss out any problems with relative ease.

I've been playing for about twenty three years and jeez, what can you say about an amp that sounds as good as ANY Marshall or Fender and still costs anywhere from 50 to 200 bucks depending on it's condition. How can you go wrong? I wish I'd have found this amp twenty years ago, I would have saved myself a lot of money and time looking for that elusive state of "TONAL NIRVANA".

I do not know what year it was made in but I bought it used in 1963. It had two 12 inch Jensen speakers. The amp was seperated from the speaker cabinet but for transporting, the amp head could be stored in the bottom of the speaker cabinet behind a swinging panel. It was rated for 60 amps. This was a two channel amp. One channel had only tone and volume dials while the other channel had additional reverb (spring reverb) and tremolo. There was a standby switch and to attempt to eliminate some hum there was a toggle (ground) switch. There were quite a few tubes in the amp with huge power tubes that glowed a bluish colour and glowed even more when the volume was cranked up. There was an input jack to plug in the foot switch to turn the reverb and tremolo on and off.

I used all kinds of Silvertone, Harmony, Ovation, Fender guitars from the 60's but my main guitar was a 1953 Gibson Switch Master. The sound from the amp was ok. There was a bit of hum. The standby switch came in handy because there could be a lot of feedback caused by the reverb, big hollow body guitar etc. Tremolo had depth and speed dials while the reverb had a depth dial. This was far from being a bass amp because the sound would easily break up when a bass guitar was plugged in. It wasn't very good to sing through and the 2 channels using the same speakers interfered with each other. As a practice amp, it was ideal. I would love to have it still. It would be excellent for someone who wanted to play harmonica and guitar at the same time at lower volumes for parties and jam sessions in the garage. I once used a big Fender amp and realized how much better the Fender was. I am positive that replacing the 12 inch Jensens with bigger and better speakers along with some tweeters would have done a world of good for the sound.

I used this amp for over 10 years. Actually, it was the only amp I ever owned. I played (mostly rhythm guitar) in hotels, bars, aircraft hangars, gymnasiums, churches, meeting halls, barns, outdoors, indoors, and never had to do the least amount of repair except to replace one of the small tubes. For 50 bucks, the amp really gave me a big return for my money. It took about 2 minutes to heat up.

I sold the amp for about 20 dollars about 20 years ago. I wish I still had this old amp. I now play harmonica and I want to get back to playing guitar after having stopped for over 20 years. It would make a great amp for jamming and parties.

The Sear Silvertone Twin Twelve model 1484 was made in 1968, the year I bought the head for $25 from a friend of mine. It is a great amp for lead or rhythm, and a good standby for bass (but you can't push it too hard for bass, 'natch). It is pretty bare bones in the effects department. It is a two channel amp with vol/bass/treble controls on One and Two, but two has controls for depth reverb (funky sound) and tremelo depth and speed. It has the standard tick for tremelo, but is acceptable.

I have shed equipment over the years and this one was too good to let go. I don't play as much as I used to, so I needed a bass amp, so I made a tuned cabinet and popped in a 15" Peavey and played my bass through it. Man, what a sound! Extremely mellow and totally ideal for R & B. With a 15", you don't have to worry about pushing the amp, it takes whatever you dish out. I used to have Marshalls and Fender Bassman amps, and this one outperforms them both in sound. The amp was checked over a couple of years ago and the baby runs extremely well.

Oh, btw, I remember this band that did a kind of nifty thing with his Silvertone twin twelve. He plugged his guitar into a Y cable, then the Y's plugged into channel one and two together. Neat sound.

The amp is solid, we bombed around in a van, so it tended to get bounced from time to time. Very good construction. One of the guys cut a side hole in the head and installed a fan to bleed off some of the heat, but this is not required.

Overall, the amp is reliable and the tubes have a long life (even Sovteck). A couple of tubes in mine are original.

Generally, you should always take an extra amp for a backup just in case, but we never had to use the backup. This amp kept working without any problems.

N/A

I've been playing since 1968, mostly lead and rhythm, but over the last 15 years I mostly just play bass. my favorite bass is the Vantage Witch, it has a fast neck and a real bluesy sound.

If you can get ahold of a Silvertone Twin Twelve, you will never let it go. It has a sound that is fantastic.

Mine's a '64. I enjoy the surf and rockabilly so its lovely tube sound and tremolo suit me perfectly. Two channels: clean & reverb/trem. The ground is sort of tricky; it's not labeled '+' or'-', so I'm constantly getting shocked.

I use assorted solidbodies, all with single-coil pickups. Distorts wonderfully at about 50% volume. It produces too much bass and no treble. That's why I cut the cord to the cabinet so I can play it through smaller speakers than those muddy 12s. Reverb is crappy- has a ghosty sound rather than the poppier, hotter sound you'd get out of a Fender.

I've never had even the slightest problem with it. Before I came to own it, the power tubes were changed out because supposedly it was shorting out. Other than that, it hasn't had a lick of service in all of its 35 years.

Doesn't exist of course.

I'd buy it again any day. I'll own it or another one just like it all my life. Like I said, my only grievance is the lack of treble- there should be some tweeters in the cabinet and the treble knob should go around a second revolution. Fuzzboxes sound great through it. It's the poor man's Twin Reverb.

Other comments describe it, so I'll try not to repeat them. Each of the two channels does have two inputs (like Fender, etc) and I recommend bridging them to get different sounds. Different preamp tubes do indeed vary the sounds a lot. I like 12AU7's (although I don't know if I'm hurting the circuit-sounds fine, though) in the reverb channel. Sounds best cranked, like a milkshake with bourbon in it.

There is no clean sound. The volume picks up at about 2 1/2 and overdrive starts at 3. The tremelo is good. The reverb has A SINGLE SPRING in it! this means it's a (quiet) muddy, echoey sound up to about 3, then it turns into a crazy, boomy, totally unique weird thing which gives me flashbacks...only you'll notice that it 'picks up' certain notes (low ones)and just keeps them going--even if you stop playing! The only way to stop it is to shut off the reverb and turn it back on again. I'm not sure how useful this is, but it does sound kinda neat sometimes. Nice mid-'60s Jensens in the cab (I often use this cab with other amps). Playing a Les Paul though it is almost absurd, it's so distorted. Fenders though it have more definition, but then again 'clean' or 'subtle' are not in this amp's vocabulary.

not dependable, noisy, make out of pressed wood chips with tin foil lining. Easy to fix, though. At the price, you can buy two or three, and keep the non-working ones in your front yard with weeds growing through them.

this is the softer side of Sears.

do not buy this to be your first or only amp. However, If you look at that picture of the Velvet Underground with all the silver Mylar baloons, you'll see Lou Reed is plugged into a Twin Twelve. Think of the guitar tone in "The Gift" and that's probably it. Cheaper than a distortion pedal and better sounding.

Amp has two channels. First has volume, bass & treble; second also has reverb and tremolo. On/off,standby, thats it. Definately an old amp, probably mid-sixties (no master volume,channel switching, presence or that stuff). All-tube, and sounds like it. I use it for many of our gigs. If the venue doesn't mike the amps it could be a problem in a large room. But its got probably about 40 watts, maybe 35. You definately want to turn this one up - best at about 7 or eight, where its got lots of overdrive but not overloading the thing. I do not have the two-twelve bottom; I play it thru a Marshall 4x10 and think it sounds better, anyway.

I use it with various guitars; good with the Ibanez, great with the LP, even better with the Epiphone '58 reissue korina wood V (altho will improve once I get rid of the Epi pickups) and absolutely fabulous with the '65 Fender Musicmaster with a couple of JB Jr's in it. It has that mid-sixties surf sound and intensifies when its cranked. I use it for punk-pop, and gives a real tube-soaked sound, but is different then, say, a Marshall (and thank god!everyone one's got a Marshall and they all sound the same!). It was made by Supro, who made amps for various brands (ie Silvertone, Gretsch, etc) and definately has that Supro tone. Has a big upper-midrange, big low bottom, sparkley top-end, less lower midrange. Lots of sustain and doesn't muddy up, distorted but twangy. It is noisy tho. This is not an amp for crunchy or scooped metal tones, but but great played at deathmetal speeds; if you can play this tempo evenly on those bottom strings, you get a richer tone than the scooped-mid bit. Not good if you need a real loud clean tone like for country. Much darker kind of twang. I use a distortion pedal only for leads (more volume); other than that, you can control the distortion level with the volume and tone on guitar if you've got higher-output pickups. Great for fast riffing with definition!

I use it for gigs, always have it with me in studio, but not for long road work. It rides up in the cab, often on my lap, and only on nearby gigs. Handle with extreme caution. My tremolo tube stopped working, and must be replaced. Tubes are pretty common, as long as you go to a someone who knows and cares about these great amps.

What are ya gonna do? Call Sears? hah! I bought this from Elite Audio in Chicago. Jim had tuned it up, put some new tubes in it, changed the output ohms to my Marshall cab. Jim is a tube guru, has many types. I brought it back after a while, tried a few different 12Ax70's and picked a Japaneese and a Danish tube for the pre-amp, and it just got better! You can really fine tune the tone on this baby by trying different tubes (if you know a place that can help you).

I have been playing this for a year, since it was loaned to me while my Marshall head was being fixed. I still have the Marshall, but prefer the Silvertone. It is not a pratical amp if you gig, because of its fragility, but once I started using it live I loved the rich harmonics. I am sure I will by another Supro-built amp; I have seen and played a few, and they,re not uncommon (just check out Midwest Buy & Trade in Chicago). I admit that the tone is what many would call vintage, but the truth is that it rocks very hard and takes effect pedals as good as the next amp. This amp is alot of fun at loud volumes and has a great dark, twangy, distorted sound. I bet Poison Ivy's got one.

It's an all tube, 2 Channel funky old amp, with reverb/tremelo. Sounds great for Blues and "Classic" 60's rock. I use it at home for fun and occaisional recording (although it is a little noisy). Actually, I have 2 of these beasts in the stable. They are both VERY different sounding, although only 2 years apart in manufacture. The only way to use these amps for guitar is WIDE open, with humbuckings in the guitar. I really love the "suitcase" design - the amp nestles into the back of the speaker cab for transport! Kinda goofy, but cool too. They are basically "one tone" amps - but it is a very nice sound.

I play all kinds of music - but these amps are used for really retro/classic sounds. Not a lot of variety in tone, but the tone you get is fat and rich, provided the amp is basically opened up all the way. I use an early 80's Schecter strat with 2 humbuckers on mine.

I wouldn't even try to use either of my amps on a real gig, although I have played a jam session or two using them as "novelty" amps. They were not built to be very sturdy. I have replaced tubes and had a little bench work done on one of mine, but old amps like these tend to be a little persnickety about being moved around.

I would not even approach Sears about mine, most good amp repair people know these amps though.

I love both of mine - wish I had a "new" one in perfect working order. They are funky to look at, funky to play through, and generally odd.

This 1958 was in bad shape when I found it, and I can't get the tremelo to work very well (I changed tube and capacitors, to no avail.) It has two channels, each with volume, bass and treble controls. The tone controls are "cut" controls, so you get the unaltered sound of the guitar when they are on "12". Warms up slowly due to the odd way of powering the preamp tube filamants: the voltage for them comes from the isolated power tube cathodes. Has 2 12AX7 preamp tubes, 1 6SN7 driver/phase splitter, 4 6L6GB power tubes, 1 5U4 rectifier, and I forget what the tremelo tube is (a pentode with a "6" or two in the name). Tremelo has intensity and speed controls. 2 12" speakers, each driven by it's own pair of 6L6's, each with it's own transformer.
I play harmonica thru it, using Astatic JT30VC or Electrovox EV630 mics.

Noisy. Mine crackles and hisses, due mostly to age. A lot of "blow" for a 50W amp. For guitar playing, this amp sucks. All midrange tones, no top end. Bass tones are loud but uncontrolled, and when played with a bass guitar booms like a mother. But for harp playing it's pure joy. There are only a few extreme knob settings that don't sound great with the Astatic mike. It plays smooth and rich, minimizing mouth noises and breaths, but yet plays very dynamically. Mine doesn't seem to distort too much, even at the maximum settings. It handles microphone distortion wonderfully, parhaps from the cold-running preamp tubes. The rating of "9" is for harmonica with a good crystal or ceramic mike. Guitar would get a "3"

My amp is old and feeble. It occasionally needs a whomp up the side, but it's always played for me.

This thing's warrant expired before I was born. All the tubes it uses are still available, and fairly cheap.

Given that I found this one on the side of the road being thrown away, sure, I'd stop and pick it up again. I'd even pay $100 for it, in it's condition. But to be fair, I do electronics and have spent a lot of time inside it getting it up and running. It really is a great harp amp.

Not too versatile. It has reverb an tremelo. The tremelo is great, but the reverb is a joke (a pretty funny one, though). Two channels, clean and reverb/tremelo. I don't really use either effect. It is about 25-35 watts, I think. It's not real loud; OK for small clubs. It's all tube 12AX7's and 6L6GC's and has two 12 inch blue frame Jensens. The amp is from 1965 or around there.

It's very noisy on all settings. Very little variety. Oh boy, does it distort at high volumes! My advice: turn it all the way up and it's a killer blues/rock amp. All tube overdrive/distortion. It sounds great for this type of music. Becomes very psychedelic with a wah and tube screamer in front.

I wouldn't depend on this amp; you better have a backup. I've only owned it for a few months, but I'd like to have it tuned up, and matched tubes in it.

Sears won't even fix my brakes; I don't think I'll check the warranty on this one.

I would buy it again (for 150 or less) because it looks cool and has one great sound. Costs less than some effects boxes. Fantastic value for the money. Don't pay much more, though. This amp is kind of like a lovable stray dog; it followed me home, honey! I would love to hear from other Twin Twelve owners.