Blackface/silverface Fenders

Hi guys,

need some advice with choosing an amp. Unfortunately, there aro no good music stores around, so I can't just go and try out a bunch o amps. I'd like to select a few models and then look for this specific amps to give em a test drive.

I'm 100% blues player, I play a lot of memphis and soul blues tunes, think of BB King vibe mostly. Additionaly, I kinda like those early electric chicago blues tunes, with rounchy, throaty, rough guitar parts. I'm using my beloved ES 345 for cleans and P90 equipped ES 330 for dirt.
I think of blackface/silverface Fenders mostly, for smooth, cleanish sound, plus, to make them dirty, with some dirty booster or drive pedal. I'm a home player, not gigging at all.
Twin Revarb was my first thought, but this thing is stupidly loud. It was blissfull, but to much of a sound I was thinking about Deluxe Reverb, Vibrolux Reverb or Super Reverb. Does this amps provide me louder, crean tones with buckers?

Nowadays I use my Tweed Delux clone, modified to bring me more clean headroom, but still it gets crunchy around 5 with humbuckers and beneath 5 it's a bit to thin and to bassy at the same time. It sings with P90 nicely.

Any sugestions? I think I choose 3 or 4 amps with your help, guys, and then try to find em for testing. Oh, and I'm looking for tube amp, not modeling or ss.

Thanks!

Vibrolux reverb- 1964 to 1970. Almost the same amp throughout.
2x10 are killer. And unless you are a hyper anal corksniffer (a condition I have), quality replacement transformers are not a big issue. Don't be put off- but all original is the best. Replaced speakers are not an issue and are almost a blessing.
Post pics- this is exactly whet the doctor ordered for what you are needing.

Good advice from corpse. The Vibrolux Reverb in that era is a GREAT blues amp. Plenty of clean and will give up the goods just beautifully if you can get it up above 4 on the vol knob. Keep Bass dialed back.

Also...hard to top a Super Reverb from that same era...but OMG...LOUD.

If you want to try something very unique, look into a brown Deluxe 6G3 circuit. This is a very unusual Fender, IME, and there's really nothing else like it. Mean and mid-rangey, it's great for a more aggressive sound yet it's loud enough to gig with and the cleans are there when you back your vol knob down.

Or for one a little less loud the Deluxe Reverb.........put a Celestion Blue in it.........any humbucker Gibson with this amp is just magic!!

Thanks guys! Happy to see vibrolux enthusiasts. One of my favourite modern blueser plays his silver vibrolux nicelly. Won't the breakup be to early with '50 style humbuckers? I've read a lot of comments about early breakup of vintage vibroluxes, while modern RIs stay clean higher. Is that true?
Is a Pro Reverb sth like bigger brother of vibrolux? Worth to consider?

Konrad00711 said:

Thanks guys! Happy to see vibrolux enthusiasts. One of my favourite modern blueser plays his silver vibrolux nicelly. Won't the breakup be to early with '50 style humbuckers? I've read a lot of comments about early breakup of vintage vibroluxes, while modern RIs stay clean higher. Is that true?
Is a Pro Reverb sth like bigger brother of vibrolux? Worth to consider?

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> Won't the breakup be to early with '50 style humbuckers?

No--not for me. As for modern vibroluxes reissues...I have no experience.

But just what is "too early?" The definition is probably going to vary based on personal taste and what the rest of the band is doing.

A Pro Reverb is quite similar to a Vibrolux Reverb but has a solid-state rectifier and much heavier filtering. It will operate at higher voltages and feel stiffer and will be a bit louder...but not as loud as a Twin Reverb. Also...you've got 10s vs 12s. Good 10s can sound a bit punchier. I tend to prefer the Vibrolux Reverbs myself (I've had both Pros and Vibroluxes).

I have a 1976 Silverface Twin Reverb that has the push/pull master volume. I love it. It has sweet tube-driven Fender reverb and tremolo, and I did the simple mod to put them on the "Normal" channel as well.
I practice with the knob pushed in and it's not bad at all -- can listen to songs on computer speakers and play along to learn new stuff in my little studio. But if you want beast mode, pull that knob out and it will deliver. I think these amps get overlooked because the sound has to be redialed-in if you pull out the master to get 100 watts -- it's not just a louder version of the pushed in setting. But you CAN dial it in, and it's both extremely versatile and reasonably cheap to find.
Highly recommended.

LeonC said:

>



A Pro Reverb is quite similar to a Vibrolux Reverb but has a solid-state rectifier

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It has the same GZ34 as the Vibrolux Reverb.
I have a '65 Vibrolux Reverb, and a '66 Pro Reverb.

ampdan said:

It has the same GZ34 as the Vibrolux Reverb.
I have a '65 Vibrolux Reverb, and a '66 Pro Reverb.

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forum member Professortwang has good examples of most blackfaces, and after hearing all of them, for a rhythm player, the Vibrolux, and for lead, the Deluxe Reverb.

ampdan said:

It has the same GZ34 as the Vibrolux Reverb.
I have a '65 Vibrolux Reverb, and a '66 Pro Reverb.

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That's right, my bad; was thinking of the Twin. But the Pro still uses higher voltages and a lot more filtering. I felt that my old Pro was stiffer than my Vibrolux.

I had a good feelings about vibrolux I see


LeonC - sorry for lack of precision. I think of " early brakeup" when amp starts to distort aroud 2 or 3 on vol pot. But I think vibrolux has more headroom so it stays clean when turned up louder.


Triburst - I was testing '74 silverface twin. While it souds ok on bedroom friendly levels it becomes super cool sounding if pushed beyond 4, without master engaged. It was definitelly louder than I need and than I can handle in my small music room - I want to play it every day without hearing loss




So, I definitelly try vibrolux first, deluxe vould be next. Maybe I'll try to get to the twin one more time I give up with super as it is generally omited here.
Do you guys think that all amps mentioned above comming from silverface era are worth to try? I know that there is a lot of magic in blackafaces, but silver ones would be a bit cheaper and still I can see guitarists using them.
Are there any other worthy non Fender amps which can deliever similar, warm but clean tones with humbuckers?

I had and loved a 69 SF Deluxe Reverb

One thing to keep in mind as that at this point, 40+ years later, many of these old amps have aged and been maintained/repaired rather differently. You can't really assume you're comparing apples to apples when you have let's say two Deluxe Reverbs from 1969....one may sound great, the other may not. These old amps really have to be heard / evaluated on a case by case basis, unfortunately.

Things generally changed a bit more the further you go into the Silver Face era. Most Fenders (all?) had removable baffles until about 71 or so, IIRC...not sure how much this varied from model to model. The voltage were often a bit higher. They also changed the fixed bias circuit on some larger models (e.g., Vibrolux) so that rather than biasing, you were balancing the bias between the tubes.

Later in the mid-late 70s, they added features like push-pull and foot switchable boosts and/or master volumes. These are often superfluous/benign if you don't engage them. E.g., I had a '78 or '79 Princeton that had and footswitchable feature and a push-pull boost, IIRC. They both sounded pretty awful as I recall, but if you didn't engage them, the circuit was essential the same as earlier SF Princetons.

Lots of folks choose to "black face" their SF amps...I never chose to, but I would tweak them to make them more to my liking. This can often be done such that the mods can be easily reversed if desired. E.g., I changed the tremolo to bias-vari in my old SF Deluxe Reverb and totally re-purposed the boost circuits and footswitches in that Princeton. The amps are quite tweakable...

So to answer your q - I'd probably opt for a SF myself...but mostly because at this point, I have the skill/experience with doing my own mods. If I had to pay someone...not sure I would.

I've owned many Fenders from a couple of vintage 1962 brown Deluxes to a bunch of reissues. You can't go wrong with a Deluxe Reverb, and I've owned originals and a couple of reissue Deluxe Reverbs. My favorite is the Custom 1968 Deluxe Reverb. It has the Bassman tonestack on the "Custon" channel and reverb and tremelo on both channels. I wasn't crazy about the Jensen speaker in the '65 blackface reissue that I owned, but VERY happy with the stock Celestion in the '68. In fact, I'd thought I could improve it by installing my Alnico Gold, but preferred the stock speaker. I wish I could have landed the version with a pine cabinet, for a little less weight, as these are almost 45 pounds.

if your at home and want a raunchy rough tone dont rule out some of the old valco amps. supro etc. the old fifties silvertone amps can have great breakup.
sano amps are sleepers.
if you can find a national 'sportsman' amp your in for a treat.
a magnatone 190 shreds but good luck finding one of those!.
i noticed on norm harris listings for his vintage guitars he has amps ligned up in the background, one is a national sportsman. they have a picture of a flying duck on the grillcloth. not sure what they sell for, i got mine from my old pal years ago for 300 bucks.
plenty of old semi obscure amps that will have the raw sound your looking for.
most of the early fender amps that still have some of the metal tubes i feel you would really like

agogetr said:

if your at home and want a raunchy rough tone dont rule out some of the old valco amps. supro etc. the old fifties silvertone amps can have great breakup.
sano amps are sleepers.
if you can find a national 'sportsman' amp your in for a treat.
a magnatone 190 shreds but good luck finding one of those!.
i noticed on norm harris listings for his vintage guitars he has amps ligned up in the background, one is a national sportsman. they have a picture of a flying duck on the grillcloth. not sure what they sell for, i got mine from my old pal years ago for 300 bucks.
plenty of old semi obscure amps that will have the raw sound your looking for.
most of the early fender amps that still have some of the metal tubes i feel you would really like

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Goin OT here...but...don't get me started on Valcos :hank
There aren't a lot of those around, but those amps were from a really cool period for Valco. They often had some pentode preamp tubes in them. I've got two old Nationals from that era (mid-50s) that are among the best sounding amps I've ever played through. Lots of love for Supro/Valco stuff from the 50s here! Here are a couple vids. These were called the "Professional" series. The first one is a model 1215 and features four 6V6s into a Jensen P15N. The second is its big brother, the 1299 and features four 5881s into a quad of 10" alnico Rolas.