Browse Dave’s Collection
“Welcome to the guitar collection. On the second floor of our store we have on display over 300 guitars and more than 50 amps that I’ve accumulated over the years. The friends and customers that have visited us seem to really appreciate being able to view this, so we thought we would share it with our online friends and fellow guitar enthusiasts as well. Enjoy!”
- Dave Rogers
The items in Dave’s Collection are not available for purchase.
Amps Fender Harvard, '59
As important and innovative as Fender guitars were in the 1950’s, Fender amps were the industry standard; renowned for their tone, durability, and easy maintenance. At Fender, the amplifier was considered as important to the overall sound as the guitar. The right electric guitar needed to be matched to the right amplifier before music could be made.
If the legendary recordings made at the Memphis Stax-Volt studio in the 1960’s are used as evidence, the perfect mate for a Fender Esquire (or Telecaster) would be a Fender Harvard Amp. This combination was used by session guitarist (Booker T. and the MGs band member) Steve Cropper, on nearly every Stax hit of the 1960s. The sounds ranged from mellow (Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long”), to biting (The MGs’ “Green Onions”), to distorted (The MGs’ “Hip Hug Her”).
Fender introduced the 10 watt Harvard in 1955 to fill the space between the 5 watt Princeton and the 15 watt Deluxe. It had one 10” speaker (sometimes an 8” was used) driven by two 6V6 power tubes. It had one tone control and one volume control. The Harvard was discontinued in 1961.
Amps Fender Twin-Amp, '59
Tweed, High Power
In 1953 Fender launched an amp that would become the industry standard for decades: The Twin.
The Twin, named for its pair of 12” speakers, evolved in looks and power output through the 1950s. In1955 it changed from a wide-panel 25 watt amp to a narrow-panel 50 watt amp. By 1958, the tweed Twin reached 80 watts.
The new high powered Twins were favored by late ‘50s rock n’ roll musicians because the sound was able to fill most dance halls (this was before miking amps through a PA system was standard practice). A number of these rockers also plugged Fender’s space age Stratocaster into the Twin because of the solid body’s ability to reach high volumes without feedback. The Strat/Twin setup was favored by Buddy Holly and Tommy Allsup of The Crickets, and by Johnny Meeks of Gene Vincent’s Blue Caps.
Even though the high powered tweed Twin was eventually replaced by the black tolex covered Twin Reverb and various incarnations of channel switching Twins, it is still a sought after collectable amp. The most notable proponent of the 80 watt tweed Twin today is Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. Since the ‘90s he’s always had a Twin or two on stage to achieve his signature clean/dirty - rhythm/lead sound.
Amps Fender Twin-Amp, '63
White Tolex.
In 1953 Fender launched an amp that would become the industry standard for decades: The Twin.
The Twin, named for its pair of 12” speakers, evolved in looks and power output through the 1950s. In1955 it changed from a wide-panel 25 watt amp to a narrow-panel 50 watt amp. By 1958, the tweed Twin reached 80 watts. This high-powered version lasted until early 1960.
By 1960 most Fender amps were upgraded to a new style brown Tolex covering with the control panel located in the front. Initially, the Twin was abandoned while Fender focused on the new 1X15” speaker Vibrasonic. A brown Tolex Twin was shown in a June 1960 Down Beat magazine insert, but actual examples in this color are extremely rare.
By 1961 the white Tolex Twin was released. It shared the color scheme of the new “piggyback” series (amp heads paired with separate matching cabinets). This Twin had four 5881 power tubes putting out 80 watts like the ‘50s version, but adding the vibrato channel used by most of the Fender amps at the time. The amp’s grille cloth had a dark maroon color from ’61 to ’62, and a wheat color from ’62 to ’63. The blonde Tolex Twin was discontinued in 1963 when the black Tolex Twin Reverb became the top of the line combo amp of all time.
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