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My favorite vintage Fender amps is definitely.....


Kuz

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Posted

I currently own 4 amps

-Headstrong 'Lil King with 12" weber 12F150 speaker (direct clone of blackface '65 Princeton Reverb), TungSol RI 6v6 power tubes, NOS RCA preamp tubes

 

-1967 Vibrolux Reverb with 2x10 Eminence Legend speakers, TAD 6L6GCW power tubes, NOS RCA preamp tubes

 

-1967 Deluxe Reverb with 12" JBL K120 speaker, TungSol RI 6v6 power tubes, NOS RCA preamp tubes

 

-1962 Vibrolux (brownface) with 12" Weber signature speaker with British cone, TungSol RI 5881 power tubes, NOS RCA preamp tubes

 

SO after months of playing ONLY the Deluxe Reverb...... And then a month of ONLY playing the brownface Vibrolux..... And tonight playing exclusively the Vibrolux Reverb....

 

I have come to the conclusion that my favorite Vintage Fender amp is...... THE LAST ONE I PLUGGED INTO!!!!! Dang, I thought picking my favorite guitar was hard....

Posted

Who's your favorite child, John?! Haha. Almost like trying to make you make that choice,eh? Very quality options, man. Definitely no wrong answers. Play whatever one calls to you on any particular day. I. Insider myself a Fender amp guy, too, but we are definitely at different levels when it comes to that.. Rock on, buddy. Looking forward to jammin' with you some next summer.

Posted

2008 Headstrong 'Lil King Reverb

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1967 Vibrolux Reverb and 1967 Deluxe Reverb

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1962 Vibrolux

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Posted

Lots to like there :)

 

I was kicking it off yesterday with my new PRS into both my 5E3 and my VR - what a glorious noise :)

 

Do you ever double any of them up?

Posted

Do you ever double any of them up?

 

My Deluxe re-ish is changing all of the time. Circuit mods, speaker changes, tubes, and just had a mid-boost control installed. It's a stupid good reissue. And my 5E3 clone just had a re-tubing, giving it a kick I've never known it to have. Those two together...I can't even stand how good they sound, chained! Glorious noise, indeed, Howard! Oh...and I recently had the pleasure of playing my Tele straight into a '61 Fender Concert. There's your next amp, John!

Posted

My Deluxe re-ish is changing all of the time. Circuit mods, speaker changes, tubes, and just had a mid-boost control installed. It's a stupid good reissue. And my 5E3 clone just had a re-tubing, giving it a kick I've never known it to have. Those two together...I can't even stand how good they sound, chained! Glorious noise, indeed, Howard! Oh...and I recently had the pleasure of playing my Tele straight into a '61 Fender Concert. There's your next amp, John!

Rob, I just got rid of an incredible 4x10 in the Chicago Blues Box Roadhouse, so no more 4x10s for me.

 

But I wouldn't rule out a brownface 2x10 Super.

 

Most like a Tweed Deluxe, Tweed Super, or Tweed pro would be next. But not for quite awhile.

Posted

Lots to like there :)

I was kicking it off yesterday with my new PRS into both my 5E3 and my VR - what a glorious noise :)

Do you ever double any of them up?

In my current band situation (praise band and some loose jamming), one amp is more than enough. The beauty is that all these amps have such a different tonal flavor, which were selected by me on purpose.

 

-Brown Vibrolux is more mids R&R to modern blues gain based

-Headstrong Lil' King is great for mids heavy jazzy stuff and cleans with a little less chime

-Deluxe Reverb is the most versatile from chime cleans to classic blackface OD with a pedal. So rock, blues, jazz, cleans, it does it all, but the brown Vibrolux does more of the Billy Gibbons stuff better.

-Vibrolux Reverb has the most headroom and tighter low end. Really impressive dumblesque tones with the right OD pedal. Less chime than the Deluxe with a little rounder tone for clean jazz stuff.

 

They all have their place based on tone, speaker configuration, wattage output, headroom, and application.

 

Can more than one amp be used together? Absolutely, but I don't have that need or right band situation for multiple amps.

Posted

Rob, I just got rid of an incredible 4x10 in the Chicago Blues Box Roadhouse, so no more 4x10s for me.

 

 

 

How well I know, John! Still give myself a kick in my own ass every third day, or so....

Posted

I currently own 4 amps

-Headstrong 'Lil King with 12" weber 12F150 speaker (direct clone of blackface '65 Princeton Reverb), TungSol RI 6v6 power tubes, NOS RCA preamp tubes

 

-1967 Vibrolux Reverb with 2x10 Eminence Legend speakers, TAD 6L6GCW power tubes, NOS RCA preamp tubes

 

-1967 Deluxe Reverb with 12" JBL K120 speaker, TungSol RI 6v6 power tubes, NOS RCA preamp tubes

 

-1962 Vibrolux (brownface) with 12" Weber signature speaker with British cone, TungSol RI 5881 power tubes, NOS RCA preamp tubes

 

SO after months of playing ONLY the Deluxe Reverb...... And then a month of ONLY playing the brownface Vibrolux..... And tonight playing exclusively the Vibrolux Reverb....

 

I have come to the conclusion that my favorite Vintage Fender amp is...... THE LAST ONE I PLUGGED INTO!!!!! Dang, I thought picking my favorite guitar was hard....

LOL!!

Posted

I'll be getting my 67 Blackface Bassman back in a couple weeks!! :)

Posted

Can more than one amp be used together? Absolutely, but I don't have that need...

Neither do I, doesn't stop me doing it though :)

Posted

I had a Brown Super 2X10 for about a year. Killer amp, and unbelievable Vibrato circuit, but I sold it and bought a Tophat that did it more for me. I was looking for an amp that had a little squish to it, the Super was way too tight.

Posted

I had a Brown Super 2X10 for about a year. Killer amp, and unbelievable Vibrato circuit, but I sold it and bought a Tophat that did it more for me. I was looking for an amp that had a little squish to it, the Super was way too tight.

 

Please define 'squish', dear Daniel. To me, it seems one of those elusive terms like 'quack'. For the life of me, I can never hear what people mean by quack unless it's what I call that sort of honky sound that singles sometimes sound like.

Posted

A brown Super is a force to be reckoned with!

 

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You REALLY love to dig that knife in me don't you MIKE!!!! :)

 

GORGEOUS SUPER and bet it sounds incredible. But my lowly Brown Vibrolux will have to do for my brown tones!!! :)

Posted

Please define 'squish', dear Daniel. To me, it seems one of those elusive terms like 'quack'. For the life of me, I can never hear what people mean by quack unless it's what I call that sort of honky sound that singles sometimes sound like.

 

I won't speak for Daniel, but he probably means he likes the wetter, looser, less immediate response of a Blackface Deluxe Reverb. A rounder, flabbier tone than the immediate articulation Although with my brown face and a few minor Cap and resistor changes I don't feel it is thin or too articulate. But what Daniel is referring to is what I didn't like about the VibroKing.

Posted

All the adjective's like; squish, sag, touch sensitivity, etc. are just interactions between an amps power supply's point of compression in relation to the input signal. Some amps do this at lower levels than others due to a combination of filtering, rectification, transformer size, voltages used, bias choices and input signal. A cathode biased amp will almost always give you more sag than a fixed bias amp, with all other things being equal.

Posted

I won't speak for Daniel, but he probably means he likes the wetter, looser, less immediate response of a Blackface Deluxe Reverb. A rounder, flabbier tone than the immediate articulation Although with my brown face and a few minor Cap and resistor changes I don't feel it is thin or too articulate. But what Daniel is referring to is what I didn't like about the VibroKing.

 

 

Okay, thanks . . . Flubby is how I think of the different between the low strings of a 150 sound (thru my BF Jr) as opposed to the snappiness, tight sound of my tele on the low 3 strings.

Posted

 

Please define 'squish', dear Daniel. To me, it seems one of those elusive terms like 'quack'. For the life of me, I can never hear what people mean by quack unless it's what I call that sort of honky sound that singles sometimes sound like.

Quack is that strange combination of the bridge and middle pickups on a Strat (or similar type) that sounds a bit like playing through a cocked wah pedal. A classic example is Mark Knopfler's lead tone on Sultans Of Swing.

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