Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: When did Fender produces their first guitar amp?
The Fender Deluxe guitar amplifier was produced by Fender from early 1948 to 1966. Its predecessor was the Fender Model 26 produced from 1946 to 1948.
An amplifier can either be a separate piece of equipment or an electrical circuit contained within another device. Amplification is fundamental to modern electronics, and amplifiers are widely used in almost all electronic equipment. Amplifiers can be categorized in different ways. One is by the frequency of the electronic signal being amplified. For example, audio amplifiers amplify signals in the audio (sound) range of less than 20 kHz, RF amplifiers amplify frequencies in the radio frequency range between 20 kHz and 300 GHz, and servo amplifiers and instrumentation amplifiers may work with very low frequencies down to direct current. Amplifiers can also be categorized by their physical placement in the signal chain; a preamplifier may precede other signal processing stages, for example. The first practical electrical device which could amplify was the triode vacuum tube, invented in 1906 by Lee De Forest, which led to the first amplifiers around 1912. Today most amplifiers use transistors.
The development of thermionic valves starting around 1902, provided an entirely electronic method of amplifying signals. The first practical version of such devices was the Audion triode, invented in 1906 by Lee De Forest, which led to the first amplifiers around 1912. Since the only previous device which was widely used to strengthen a signal was the relay used in telegraph systems, the amplifying vacuum tube was first called an "electron relay". The terms "amplifier" and "amplification", derived from the Latin "amplificare", ("to enlarge or expand"), were first used for this new capability around 1915 when triodes became widespread.
Launched in 1978 when the principal preoccupation of hi-fi manufacturers was power output, the sub-£80 (US$135) low-powered solid state amplifier, created and marketed by a then little-known manufacturer, gained a reputation for excellent sound quality and exceptional value. "Stereophile" magazine called the "ridiculously inexpensive". It was the first integrated amplifier built with convincing ability to drive difficult loudspeaker loads, and a sound quality that far exceeded other integrated amplifiers at its price point for the time.
Reginald A. Fessenden was born Quebec in 1866, and entered Bishop's University as a precocious young mathematical prodigy, but left in 1884 without graduating. In 1886, he took a position at the Edison Machine Works, working for inventor Thomas Edison. During an academic period teaching at Purdue University and at the University of Pittsburgh, Fessenden engaged in research on the nascent subject of wireless telegraphy. Much of the rest of his life he was employed in industry, either directly or as a consultant, but was often living near poverty, and produced a stream of inventions. In 1904 he invented the rotary spark-gap transmitter, and in 1906 he built a large transmitter in Massachusetts from which he successfully made a voice transmission. He also discovered the means to recombine separate frequencies to form a coherent audible sound. At his death he was described by inventor and businessman Elihu Thomson as "the greatest wireless inventor of the age, greater than Marconi."
Recording and film engineer David Manley began designing high fidelity vacuum tube amplifiers in South Africa in 1980. The earliest units he produced were modified LEAK amplifiers. In 1983 the first Vacuum Tube Logic (VTL) tube power amplifiers and preamplifiers went into full-fledged production for the European market in the UK. David, joined by his son Luke introduced the amplifiers to the US market at the 1986 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), where the positive reception convinced them to expand their distribution to the U.S.. Production was eventually moved to Chino, California as Vacuum Tube Logic of America, Inc. and a secondary brand Manley was established in 1988, first producing what was conceived as upper echelon high fidelity vacuum tube power amplifiers and preamplifiers for the high fidelity home market. In 1989, the first products tailored specifically for professional studio use under the Manley brand were created, namely the 60 dB Microphone Preamplifier followed by the Manley Enhanced Pultec Equalizer. By 1993, the Manley brand had expanded, encompassing a complete range of studio products from microphones, dynamic units, equalizers, converters and specialized mastering products. In April 1993, David Manley and Luke decided to part ways, with Luke creating a new company, VTL Amplifiers, Inc., and David (and his wife EveAnna Dauray Manley) opening a new factory, Manley Laboratories, Inc..
About 20 years later, John Ambrose Fleming (scientific adviser to the Marconi Company
and former Edison employee) realized that the Edison effect could be used as a radio detector. Fleming patented the first true thermionic diode, the Fleming valve, in Britain on November 16, 1904 (followed by in November 1905).
Thomas A. Edison invented the phonograph, the first device for recording and playing back sound, in 1877. After patenting the invention and benefiting from the publicity and acclaim it received, Edison and his laboratory turned their attention to the commercial development of electric lighting, playing no further role in the development of the phonograph for nearly a decade. Edison's original phonograph recorded on sheets of tinfoil and was little more than a crude curiosity, although one that fascinated much of the public. These earliest phonographs were sold mainly to entrepreneurs who made a living out of traveling around the country giving "educational" lectures in hired halls or otherwise demonstrating the device to audiences for a fee. The tinfoil phonograph was not fit for any real practical use and public interest soon waned.
In 1947, Clarence and Ruby Moore began by modifying existing makes and models of tape recorders to make them more rugged. In 1949, Moore obtained a groundbreaking patent, the first tape recorder with a built-in power amplifier for public address duties, which was introduced in 1950. In 1953, Crown added a line of compact loudspeakers as accessories to the reel to reel tape recorders.
In 1959, Crown began making standalone tube power amplifiers. By 1963, solid state electronics development allowed Crown to produce a more robust tape recorder, and in 1964, their first solid state power amplifier: the low-profile SA 20-20. In 1967, the DC300 was introduced as the first AB+B circuitry amplifier with 150 watts per channel at eight ohms. The DC300 proved very popular with sound reinforcement system owners and moved Crown into a leadership position in terms of power amplifier sales worldwide. As well, the DC300 was seen as a breakthrough product by commercial sound system contractors seeking to power their constant voltage speaker systems without the frequency response limitations and power losses associated with output power transformers which had previously been required. In November 2007, after 40 years of service, the Crown DC300 was inducted into the TEC Awards TECnology Hall of Fame in New York on the opening day of the Audio Engineering Society's 123rd convention. George Peterson, executive editor of Mix magazine, said of the DC300 that it "was a classic that really ushered in and defined the era of the modern power amplifier."
De Forest's Audion did not see much use until its ability to amplify was recognized around 1912 by several researchers, who used it to build the first successful amplifying radio receivers and electronic oscillators. The many uses for amplification motivated its rapid development. By 1913 improved versions with higher vacuum were developed by Harold Arnold at American Telephone and Telegraph Company, which had purchased the rights to the Audion from De Forest, and Irving Langmuir at General Electric, who named his tube the "Pliotron", These were the first vacuum tube triodes. The name "triode" appeared later, when it became necessary to distinguish it from other kinds of vacuum tubes with more or fewer elements (e.g. diodes, tetrodes, pentodes, etc.). There were lengthy lawsuits between De Forest and von Lieben, and De Forest and the Marconi Company, who represented John Ambrose Fleming, the inventor of the diode.
The first practical device that could amplify was the triode vacuum tube, invented in 1906 by Lee De Forest, which led to the first amplifiers around 1912. Vacuum tubes were used in almost all amplifiers until the 1960s–1970s when the transistor, invented in 1947, replaced them. Today, most amplifiers use transistors, but vacuum tubes continue to be used in some applications.
The development of audio communication technology in form of the telephone, first patented in 1876, created the need to increase the amplitude of electrical signals to extend the transmission of signals over increasingly long distances. In telegraphy, this problem had been solved with intermediate devices at stations that replenished the dissipated energy by operating a signal recorder and transmitter back-to-back, forming a relay, so that a local energy source at each intermediate station powered the next leg of transmission.
For duplex transmission, i.e. sending and receiving in both directions, bi-directional relay repeaters were developed starting with the work of C. F. Varley for telegraphic transmission. Duplex transmission was essential for telephony and the problem was not satisfactorily solved until 1904, when H. E. Shreeve of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company improved existing attempts at constructing a telephone repeater consisting of back-to-back carbon-granule transmitter and electrodynamic receiver pairs. The Shreeve repeater was first tested on a line between Boston and Amesbury, MA, and more refined devices remained in service for some time. After the turn of the century it was found that negative resistance mercury lamps could amplify, and were also tried in repeaters, with little success.
Electric sound recording and reproduction are electrical or mechanical techniques and devices for the inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. Acoustic analog recording is achieved by a small microphone diaphragm that can record sound waves on a phonograph (in which a stylus senses grooves on a record) or magnetic tape. The first practical sound recording and reproduction device was the mechanical phonograph cylinder, invented by Thomas Edison in 1877 and patented in 1878. 
The next major technical development was the invention of the gramophone disc in 1889. For much of the 20th century, records were the most common way of selling sound recordings. The widespread availability of records and the development of radio broadcasting enabled a much larger proportion of people to listen to songs and pieces performed by the top artists, enabling the development of national and even international musical stars. In the 1970s, the compact cassette became a major consumer audio format. Advances in electronic and mechanical miniaturization led to the development of the Sony Walkman, a pocket-sized cassette player introduced in 1979, which allowed consumers to listen to their favourite albums outside of their home.
Founded by Brian Gary Wachner in 1971 in his garage while he was employed as a field applications engineer for National Semiconductor, BGW scored its first major success in 1974 when Universal Studios selected BGW to supply thousands of Model 750 and 750A amplifiers for its Sensurround cinema subwoofer sound effects systems. Following the positive industry exposure from Sensurround, BGW amps began to be installed permanently in many movie theaters as well as at theme parks and nightclubs. By 1978, BGW amplifiers were installed in greater numbers in discothèques than any other amplifier. 
Wachner co-wrote a paper for the Audio Engineering Society (AES) in 1975, addressing the problem of differing power claims in the amplifier industry and the hope that power rating standards set by the Federal Trade Commission would narrow the 'credibility gap'.
Lee de Forest (August 26, 1873 – June 30, 1961) was an American inventor, self-described "Father of Radio", and a pioneer in the development of sound-on-film recording used for motion pictures. He had over 180 patents, but also a tumultuous career—he boasted that he made, then lost, four fortunes. He was also involved in several major patent lawsuits, spent a substantial part of his income on legal bills, and was even tried (and acquitted) for mail fraud. His most famous invention, in 1906, was the three-element "Audion" (triode) vacuum tube, the first practical amplification device. Although De Forest had only a limited understanding of how it worked, it was the foundation of the field of electronics, making possible radio broadcasting, long distance telephone lines, and talking motion pictures, among countless other applications.
His professional career did not start until he was 30, and after his younger brother Wes. Monk worked in a foundry and played gigs on upright bass at night in Indianapolis. Wes worked for vibraphonist Lionel Hampton from 1948–1950, Monk then worked for Hampton around 1952–1953, with Hampton insisting he play the Fender bass, and not an upright. Monk's recordings with The Art Farmer Septet on 2 July 1953, arranged by Quincy Jones, are possibly the earliest studio recordings of the electric bass, and display his facility with walking bass lines, bebop melodies, and Latin-style ostinato. Chuck Rainey said that Monk was the first electric bassist to record, in any genre. A live recording of Montgomery with the Hampton orchestra from April 1953 may exist. 
Monk toured and recorded in Europe with Hampton in late 1953. After that he worked briefly with the Anthony Ortega Quartet in Los Angeles, and then with his brothers in the Montgomery-Johnson Quintet in Indianapolis (with Alonzo "Pookie" Johnson, sax, and Robert "Sonny" Johnson, drums). In 1955 he moved to Seattle to form The Mastersounds from 1957 to 1960.
In 1789, Franz Aepinus developed a device with the properties of a "condenser" (now known as a capacitor.) The Aepinus condenser was the first capacitor developed after the Leyden jar, and was used to demonstrate conduction and induction. The device was constructed so that the space between two plates could be adjusted, and the glass dielectric separating the two plates could be removed or replaced with other materials.
Prototypes of all-transistor AM radio receivers were demonstrated, but were really only laboratory curiosities. However, in 1950 Shockley developed a radically different type of solid-state amplifier which became known as the bipolar junction "transistor". Although it works on a completely different principle to the point-contact "transistor", this is the device which is most commonly referred to as simply a "transistor" today. Morgan Sparks made the bipolar junction transistor into a practical device. These were also licensed to a number of other electronics companies, including Texas Instruments, who produced a limited run of transistor radios as a sales tool. Early transistors were chemically unstable and only suitable for low-power, low-frequency applications, but as transistor design developed, these problems were slowly overcome.
The origin of SM57 may be traced to 1937, when Shure engineer Benjamin Bauer developed the first single-element directional microphone, the Unidyne, which had a cardioid pickup pattern. In 1959, another Shure engineer, Ernie Seeler, advanced the art of microphone design significantly with the Unidyne III. Seeler torture-tested the Unidyne III during three years of research and development and thereby, produced the SM series of rugged and reliable Shure microphone capsules. The "SM" stands for Studio Microphone; Seeler was an aficionado of classical music and expected the SM57 to be used for orchestras. Because he "despised" rock music, the TEC Foundation said that it was "ironic" that the microphone has become "a mainstay of rock music."
In 1959, Harman Kardon marketed the Citation II, an early ultra wideband stereophonic tube amplifier. Designed by Stewart Hegeman, it featured 60 watts/channel output with a frequency response of 18-60,000 Hz at 20 watt output. The company promoted their philosophy of designing high fidelity sound using amplifiers that provided widest possible audio bandwidth. Although the human ear highest audible range is around 20,000 Hz, the full range of sound goes beyond that with harmonics and overtones that may be beyond the hearing range of the human ear. These harmonics interact with other frequencies to produce audible secondary sounds or interference. Harman Kardon promoted the design in audio magazines and product brochures.
The development of transistors in 1948 by Bell Laboratories led to major improvements to the hearing aid. The transistor was invented by John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley. Transistors were created to replace vacuum tubes; they were small, required less battery power and had less distortion and heat than their predecessor. These vacuum tubes were typically hot and fragile, so the transistor was the ideal replacement.The 1952 Sonotone 1010 used a transistor stage along with vacuum tubes, to extend battery life. The size of these transistors led to developments in miniature, carbon microphones. These microphones could be mounted on various items, even eyeglasses. In 1951, Raytheon manufactured the transistor and was one of the first companies to mass-produce transistors to throughout America. Raytheon realized that their hearing aid only lasted short-term and began to sell the vacuum-tube hearing aids again along with transistor hearing aids.
Meanwhile, Hibberd had successfully built a new push–pull amplifier using two of the same tubes but working in the 1.25-meter band, an upper-VHF band (around 220 MHz); below 1.25 m the sensitivity dropped off sharply. Gerald Touch, originally from the Clarendon Laboratory, converted the EMI receiver to this wavelength by using the existing set as the intermediate frequency (IF) stage of a superheterodyne circuit. The original 45 MHz frequency would remain the IF setting for many following radar systems. On its first test on 17 August, Anson "K6260" with Touch and Keith Wood aboard immediately detected shipping in the English Channel at a range of . The team later increased the wavelength slightly to 1.5 m to improve sensitivity of the receiver, and this 200 MHz setting would be common to many radar systems of this era.
In 1933, Dobro released an electric guitar and amp package. The combo amp had "two 8″ Lansing speakers and a five-tube chassis. Dobro made a two speaker combo amp that was on the market over 12 years before Fender launched its two-speaker "Dual Professional/Super" combo amp. In 1933, Audio-Vox was founded by Paul Tutmarc, the inventor of the first electric bass (Tutmarc's instrument did not achieve market success until Leo Fender's launched the Precision Bass). In 1933, Vega sold a pickup and amplifier set for musicians to use with existing guitars.
In 1933, Dobro released an electric guitar and amp package. The combo amp had "two 8″ Lansing speakers and a five-tube chassis. Dobro made a two speaker combo amp that was on the market over 12 years before Fender launched its two-speaker "Dual Professional/Super" combo amp. In 1933, Audio-Vox was founded by Paul Tutmarc, the inventor of the first electric bass (Tutmarc's instrument did not achieve market success until Leo Fender's launched the Precision Bass). In 1933, Vega sold a "pickup and amplifier set" which a musician could use with her/his existing guitar. In that same year, the Los Angeles-based Volu-Tone company also sold a pickup/amplifier set. Volu-Tone used "high voltage current" to sense the string vibration, a potentially dangerous approach that did not become popular. In 1934 Dobro released a guitar amp with a vacuum tube rectifier and two power tubes. By 1935, Dobro and National began selling combo amps for Hawaiian guitar. In 1934, Gibson developed prototype combo amps, but these never got produced and sold. By 1935, Electro/Rickenbacher sold "more amps and electric guitars than all the amps and electrified/electric guitars made from ’[19]28 through the end of ’[19]34, combined".
Compared to the major brands Fender and Marshall, the collectability and playability of the guitar amps is a mixed affair. While vintage Fender amps consistently command high prices, Ampeg guitar amps such as the Reverberocket can often be found for prices atypical of vintage amplifiers. In general, Ampeg guitar amps until 1964 are less desirable as they have a darker, cleaner sound even when pushed hard. With the introduction of the Galaxy line (Gemini, Mercury, Reverberocket) in 1964, treble boost circuits and spring reverbs were added, and higher wattage models (such as the 30 watt Gemini II) were made available. Original SVT bass amps are highly sought-after for their pleasing sound and were used by many professional bassists in the '70s. V series guitar amps (V2 and V4 heads along with the VT-40 and VT-22 combos) are sought after for the classic 70s crunchy but clean sound. The V4-B is another sought after bass amp head; it has the SVT pre-amp section mated to a 100 Watt power amp section.
The Fender Pro Reverb is a high-end guitar amplifier made by Fender. It was in production from 1965 and was discontinued in 1982. The Pro Reverb is a 40-watt tube amplifier and has a pair of 12" speakers; however, models later than 1976 were increased to 70 watts. Teagle and Sprung, authors of the definitive book on Fender amplifiers ("Fender Amps: The First Fifty Years") described the Blackface Pro Reverb as "the" best amplifier ever produced likely due to its combination of the two twelve inch speakers, its high quality reverb and tremolo, and just the right amount of power to get either classic Blackface Fender cleans or natural tube breakup at reasonable volumes. They wrote, "the author recommends these amps as the best all-around amp ever made—by anyone".