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n’t take Fender long to figure out that
was a market waiting for reissues of
of their most revered models, and thus
ed a steady stream of amps that bore
nder logo and looked just like the
of yore. Most contemporary players
stood the choice of the first series of
e models, but sometime around 2004
7 Twin (model 5E8-A, also known as
w-power Twin) came out, and the less
e-oriented players scratched their gear-and wondered.
84 PREMIER GUITAR OCTOBER 2009
too, plugging in a guitar,
bass or keyboard, or use the mic
of your choice. You can even use both
inputs at once. Once you’ve toggled the
menu button down to pick an input you can dial in
a plethora of effects – essentially, the H4 has a couple of
Zoom multi-effect pedals inside, with amp and cab modeling,
plus auto-wah, phaser, chorus, reverb, delay, and even more. In addition to the factory presets, you can edit and store your own patches.
Working in 4-track mode doesn’t end with adding effects to your input. I was pleased to find a metronome and a tuner, too. There is also
a tiny mixer screen that allows bouncing tracks, panning, setting track
levels – even punching in to fix a few muffed notes. Looking through
the manual, I noticed that you can only use the 44. 1 khz recording
resolution in this mode. That makes sense, though, because you’re
juggling total recording time with recording quality and 44. 1 khz is a
viable level to shoot for.
Those same buttons that choose your recording resolution in stereo
mode become track selection buttons in 4-track mode, allowing you to
select which tracks you record to and which tracks will be playing back.
Handy!
In case you feel cramped putting a tune together with the H4’s buttons, menus, and small display, there’s yet another option. With the
recorder turned off, you can plug in the included USB cable, hook
up the other end to your computer, and voila! – the H4 is powered
by the computer’s USB port. In this mode, a new menu pops up with
two choices – audio in/out and connect to PC. The first of these two
options lets you record through the H4’s guitar and mic inputs right to
your computer. Although the H4 includes a version of Cubase, I used it
with GarageBand. On its own, a USB interface will cost a good chunk
of the H4’s $300 street price, so if you anticipate that kind of use, it’s a
definite plus.
Going with the “Connect to PC” option lets you take whatever you’ve
recorded onto the SD card and dump it onto your computer. Compared to the old minidisc, this is a real timesaver, with transfer taking
place as data rather than in actual recording time. Once in your
computer, the standard WAV and MP3 files are available for whatever
recording interface you like.
To work with the 4-track mode, I recorded a bass duet. On one track
was a melody line played up high on my fretless electric bass – a jazzy
version of “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning.” I played a walking bassline
on the second track using my electric upright bass. I monitored the
sound through studio monitors, which worked fine since no mics were
involved. Once recorded, I was able to pan each instrument left and
right and tweak the balance between them. Finally, I sent the two
tracks to my computer, imported them to GarageBand and added
some reverb, compression, and EQ. In all, these tasks were easily done
once I figured out the basic working scheme. If you’re writing a song
with, say, acoustic guitar, vocal, bass and a lead instrument, the H4
makes it a snap to record and mix.
www.premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR JUNE 2009 161
t’s up with the ’ 57 Twin?
rst Fender amps (and most others) were
out of circuits printed in the back pages
e manufacturers’ catalogs suggest-ays to use their new audio tubes. The
circuits based on these primitive tubes
simple, and the initial amp models were
y, but somewhere against the hum of
primordial beasts the sharp report of
arter’s pistol signaled the beginning of
mplifier race.
ender could not play the guitar, but he
knack for translating into products the
stions and demands of those who could.
of his advisers were the country guitar
eel players of southern California, with a
g-city rock ‘n’ rollers thrown in. The pro-nal players wanted loud. They needed to
sonic space of large ballrooms, dance
roadhouses and outdoor celebrations
ut the benefit of the Front of House
liths that are seen at today’s large ven-eginning in 1952 at 25 watts, the Twin
was Leo’s answer to this demand.
win underwent constant modification and
l model changes in the years to follow.
models changed, the power output
sed. What is unique about the 5E8-A
it used two 5U4 rectifier tubes (higher
r rectifiers had not been invented yet) to
nt the sag of the attack/decay envelope
low a decrease in the negative feedback
o the tone stack. This made the Twin
nd punchy enough to cut through, but
llowed another browner, spongy tone
d mainly by Blues players by simply
ing one of the rectifiers.
The subsequent Twin Amp models featured
four output tubes and high-power or solid-state rectifiers and many more output watts,
making them suitable only for very loud rock
gigs and large venues.
Meet the Beastie
The ’ 57 Twin RI is a replica of its predecessor
manufactured by the Fender Custom Shop
(with a few changes thrown in for versatility’s
sake). The nicely applied lacquered Tweed cloth
covers a finger-jointed, solid-pine cabinet with
a thin leather handle (more on that later). The
chromed steel vertical chassis houses high-quality components mounted on a sturdy black
fiberglass eyelet board, sturdy tube sockets,
and nicely done point-to-point wiring. The
switches, jacks and pots are high quality and
the transformers and choke are from the highly
regarded Mercury Magnetics Company. There
is a bias adjustment pot on the circuit board.
The tube complement includes four Sovtek
12AX7WCs, relabeled Groove Tubes 12AX7-
R; two Groove Tubes-6L6GE (made in the
USA) and two Electro Harmonix 5U4GB rectifiers. The speakers are 12” Eminence Alnicos
designed by Ted Weber (of Weber VST),
which look remarkably like Weber P-12Ns.
The top rear-positioned control panel features five chicken-head knobs, which all traverse from 1–12 (take that, Nigel). There are
separate Bright and Normal channels, each
with its own preamp circuit, separate Volume
controls and two jacks, followed by Treble,
Bass, and Presence controls that are common
to both channels.
A few design considerations are in order for
us “filament brains” and non-tech types as
well. The old Fender amps were not very
consistent in sound, due to the fact that the
factory tended to use whatever components
they had on hand at the time, often of loose
tolerance, which led to variations in circuit
voltages that could affect sound. Add to this
the fact that there was no practical way of
adjusting bias in this fixed-bias amp and you
could end up with two amps that looked the
same but sounded very different.
When Fender set out to make this ’ 57, they
picked one particular amp that was admired
by many top players and measured all the
circuit parameters of that amp. They then
used tighter-tolerance components and
handwound transformers that individually
tested to spec in order to replicate the
sound of this amp.
Comparing schematics of old and new,
there are some relatively important differences. The original used three 12AY7 pre-amp tubes (but the same AX as the phase
inverter). There is no bias adjustment pot
on the original, and output tube plate voltages have been increased in the reissue
to 450V from original 400V. There are also
a couple of internal fuses on the new circuit (good idea). The new circuit is geared
toward a brighter, louder sound, with the
flexibility of being able to adjust bias on
output tubes to provide a more customized
sound and allow changes of output tubes
from one brand to another. Zoom H4 Recorder
www.premierguitar.com
PREMIER GUI TAR GREATEST HITS VOL. 1 151
