Gunny47
New member
*You may skip the first few paragraphs, basically say that I am really considering a vintage amp because of the few magical times I've played them*
- look for other stars for where to start or read it all
At the music school I go to now, I've been using a 1967 Blackface Twin Reverb. I am not sure how original the amp is, but I think one of the speakers are newer and I know the tubes have been changed recently for Groove Tubes. I have been bringing my new Keeley TS9 to practices to use with this Twin Reverb and my R7 and the tones are just blowing me away. Clean tones are perfect, I can get some awesome drive tones as well. The vintage amp just is, you know, VINTAGE! It breathes, really has a ton of character, just sounds better than any reissue or newer amp I've ever played. The only amp I've liked better is a blackface Pro Reverb which was my favorite tone I've ever gotten. Other vintage amp experiences I've gone through included a brownface Deluxe a teacher had at my music school (which gave me this ultra fat lead tones even with my R7 and '62 American Reissue strat, took pedals amazingly as well), a 1953 Tweed Deluxe w/ a Murphy R9 and an Blackface Fender Concert with newer ceramic Jensen reissue speakers with a white strat of some sort and my R7 (another dude's gear from my music school).
Basically, all these vintage amp experiences have been so incredibly awesome and magical and makes me want to get a vintage amp. I've been gassing for a blackface amp since I first started looking for a tube amp, but then put it off for my little Gibson GA5 and then the more raunchy Tweed Twin, which I am still in love with. Only thing is that I like my R7 more than my Tweed Twin respectively so I'm thinking amp instead of plunging for another guitar. And besides, I am not the biggest fan of older or vintage guitars from my experiences. Plus, the one's I am interested in are crazy expensive and totally out of my range (I'm a LP, ES-335, and a little bit strat and SG guy, forget about getting decent vintage counterparts of those without selling your house).
I did a bit of looking around over the last week and decided to go with blackface just becasue my main influences used those amps (Freddie King, Derek Trucks, SRV etc) and because I like Fenders the best, and already have a tweed and desire that blackface tone. I looked at early silverface amps especially, the ones which were very similar to their blackface counterparts besides color, and I could always send them to a tech and get them blackfaced. I wanted an amp I could gig with that had plenty of headroom and I could get lower gain tones with a Tube Screamer. But with all of the silverface amps out there as bargains, I discovered another bargain "era..."
*Probably could start here*
Blackface NON reverb amps. Vibroverbs, which was the main amp I had in mind as well as Super Reverbs, go for from what I saw $3800 all the way up to $7500. Big money, forget it. However, the 1964 counterpart, the Fender Pro, I found a few that go for less than half of the lowest price of Vibroverbs. I did some research on the model, and they're pretty much the same exact thing as Vibroverbs except without the reverb. I never use the reverb when I play the 67 Twin and if I REALLY REALLY want some reverb, I could buy a reissue Reverb unit or even a vintage reverb unit and still have a TON of cash left over. Still not too crazy about reverb, I won't miss it all being a 50s style amp guy at the moment.
These Fender Pros I've found were pretty much all original besides a couple of caps (which I would swap out anyway) and were very clean. I also found the Concert and the Super Reverb to be the same story, Concert not having reverb but being a ton less. I'm more attracted to the 1x15 speaker config for sonic reasons and according to the weight of the reissues, the Vibroverb weighs about 13 pounds less than the Super Reverb. I'll still invest in a road case with wheels so I can wheel it onstage and wheel it back when I'm done. So heres the big questions....especially for you old Fender amp gurus out there. What do you think about these non reverb blackface amps, especially the 1X15 Pro? What tech work would be expected on one as soon as I get it? I am guessing caps and tubes and such. And also, I am looking for a very dependable tech in the NYC area that could hook me up and make this amp perform its best. I really do not want to perform any extensive mods on the amp, I want to keep it sounding original and just fix the parts that need to be fixed. So any recomendations/advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much, bros!
- look for other stars for where to start or read it all
At the music school I go to now, I've been using a 1967 Blackface Twin Reverb. I am not sure how original the amp is, but I think one of the speakers are newer and I know the tubes have been changed recently for Groove Tubes. I have been bringing my new Keeley TS9 to practices to use with this Twin Reverb and my R7 and the tones are just blowing me away. Clean tones are perfect, I can get some awesome drive tones as well. The vintage amp just is, you know, VINTAGE! It breathes, really has a ton of character, just sounds better than any reissue or newer amp I've ever played. The only amp I've liked better is a blackface Pro Reverb which was my favorite tone I've ever gotten. Other vintage amp experiences I've gone through included a brownface Deluxe a teacher had at my music school (which gave me this ultra fat lead tones even with my R7 and '62 American Reissue strat, took pedals amazingly as well), a 1953 Tweed Deluxe w/ a Murphy R9 and an Blackface Fender Concert with newer ceramic Jensen reissue speakers with a white strat of some sort and my R7 (another dude's gear from my music school).
Basically, all these vintage amp experiences have been so incredibly awesome and magical and makes me want to get a vintage amp. I've been gassing for a blackface amp since I first started looking for a tube amp, but then put it off for my little Gibson GA5 and then the more raunchy Tweed Twin, which I am still in love with. Only thing is that I like my R7 more than my Tweed Twin respectively so I'm thinking amp instead of plunging for another guitar. And besides, I am not the biggest fan of older or vintage guitars from my experiences. Plus, the one's I am interested in are crazy expensive and totally out of my range (I'm a LP, ES-335, and a little bit strat and SG guy, forget about getting decent vintage counterparts of those without selling your house).
I did a bit of looking around over the last week and decided to go with blackface just becasue my main influences used those amps (Freddie King, Derek Trucks, SRV etc) and because I like Fenders the best, and already have a tweed and desire that blackface tone. I looked at early silverface amps especially, the ones which were very similar to their blackface counterparts besides color, and I could always send them to a tech and get them blackfaced. I wanted an amp I could gig with that had plenty of headroom and I could get lower gain tones with a Tube Screamer. But with all of the silverface amps out there as bargains, I discovered another bargain "era..."
*Probably could start here*
Blackface NON reverb amps. Vibroverbs, which was the main amp I had in mind as well as Super Reverbs, go for from what I saw $3800 all the way up to $7500. Big money, forget it. However, the 1964 counterpart, the Fender Pro, I found a few that go for less than half of the lowest price of Vibroverbs. I did some research on the model, and they're pretty much the same exact thing as Vibroverbs except without the reverb. I never use the reverb when I play the 67 Twin and if I REALLY REALLY want some reverb, I could buy a reissue Reverb unit or even a vintage reverb unit and still have a TON of cash left over. Still not too crazy about reverb, I won't miss it all being a 50s style amp guy at the moment.
These Fender Pros I've found were pretty much all original besides a couple of caps (which I would swap out anyway) and were very clean. I also found the Concert and the Super Reverb to be the same story, Concert not having reverb but being a ton less. I'm more attracted to the 1x15 speaker config for sonic reasons and according to the weight of the reissues, the Vibroverb weighs about 13 pounds less than the Super Reverb. I'll still invest in a road case with wheels so I can wheel it onstage and wheel it back when I'm done. So heres the big questions....especially for you old Fender amp gurus out there. What do you think about these non reverb blackface amps, especially the 1X15 Pro? What tech work would be expected on one as soon as I get it? I am guessing caps and tubes and such. And also, I am looking for a very dependable tech in the NYC area that could hook me up and make this amp perform its best. I really do not want to perform any extensive mods on the amp, I want to keep it sounding original and just fix the parts that need to be fixed. So any recomendations/advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much, bros!
Last edited:
