Fender Twin Reverb

The Fender Twin Reverb

Andy Summers' Fender Twin Reverb
The Fender Twin was one of two amps used by Andy Summers during the early days of The Police - the other being an Ampeg amp. The Fender Twin model used was a 1965 2x12" "blackface" combo.

Andy bought the Fender Twin around 1974 with £300 given to him by Neil Sedaka, shortly after returning from studying classical guitar at Northridge in California.

In the studio the Twin Reverb combo was used to record the Outlandos D'Amour and (possibly) Reggatta De Blanc albums. For example, on "Roxanne", Andy plugged the Fender Telecaster into the amp to create the "icy, treble tone" of the guitar on the record. Andy also recalls using the Twin Reverb amp on "Walking On The Moon".

He switched over completely to using Marshall 100-watt stacks for the 'Rock Goes To College' show (Hatfield Polytechnic, 21/02/1979), having rented some before for some live shows.

It's a possibilty that Andy used the Twin on a few songs from the Reggatta De Blanc which may have been recorded in the week or so prior to the Hatfield Polytecnic concert in February 1979. The Fender Twin seemed to have fallen by the wayside and disappeared from Andy’s resumé afterwards.

If it wasn't a Fender Twin on "Walking On The Moon", the other possibility is that Andy might have confused it with a Music Man 212-HD 130-watt, which looks similar and was used during the next batch of Reggatta sessions.

Later on, he did have another Fender Twin around during the Synchronicity album sessions as an alternative to the Marshalls "for straight, sharp, proper sort of guitar sounds" according to producer/engineer Hugh Padgham. In photos the model appears to be a "silverface" one, probably a 1968 one. Perhaps the Fender Twin was one that belonged to AIR Studios in Montserrat, as Andy no longer had the Twin by that point.

Rolling Stone 15 February 1982 issue mentions Fender Twin as one of the amps used on Ghost In The Machine, but it's likely Andy had mistaken it for a Roland Cube 60.which had been mentioned in other interviews.