fender 68 custom reissue Vibrolux reverb

[philthis]

at the suggestion of Gearjoneser on a different post I tried out a Vibrolux. Im not a fan of 10 inch speakers. wile they have "chime" they lack in depth unless you have 4. The Vibrolux has 2. I plugged in and played and I have to say this amp has "Chime" and "sweet ringyness" in abundance. It does have a surprising amount of "snappy upper midrange" tone as well. The Vibrolux is a very sweet sounding amp. The Schumacher trani compresses very nice and it has a delightful sweetness to the clean tones. It also compresses when pushed to get a cool vintage early 60's growl to the chords like a light Tube Screamer setting. I next plugged into a 68 custom Twin reissue to see what I was missing. The Twin is big and and instantly percussive as its power slams the speaker. When pushed this model Twin is "sweet and chimey" as well. Its deeper obviously then the Vibrolux but it also has 2 twelves and 2 more 6L6 tubes. Volume wise the Vibrolux holds its own but the Twin is a monster. I next plugged into a 1950 something Twin reissue- tweed looking- 40 watt amp and compared to both the 68 reissue amps the tweed Twin sounded like sterile bland poop. I worked with it trying to get the beautiful spank and chime that the 68 reissues have but the tweed Twin was a flat sounding dog in comparison. Like Jeremy suggested, a finger joined pine cab from Mojo tone would complete this Vibrolux and a 12 inch Celestion g75H speaker with its round midrange tone would get me closer to the 68 Twin but also keep me near the 2x10's that the Vibrolux has in it now. The g75H has a defined high end that would lend itself to the "sweet chime" of single coils but still growl with a nice midrange. I think the 2 6L6 tube platform will still get me a good midrange punch with the circuit they are using in this amp. I think we may have a winner for a small to midsize blues amp and with the Celestion I can push a tube screamer or a golden cello and it will break up nicely. At 35 watts I dont think I will be able to push it with a booster pedal because it will be too loud unless the club is a little larger but a little preamp distortion pedal should work fine with this amp. If I was going to use a booster pedal to push the tubes I would drop down to the Deluxe Reverb at 22 watts its easier to boost hard into overdrive then the Vibrolux or Twin without blowing out the audiance and getting kicked out.

guitar used.........Eric Johnson stratocaster.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: fender 68 custom reissue Vibrolux reverb

you an get 10s to push out warm low end. You just need the right ones.
A real clear example for me was when i compared an older 90s bassman with the current ltd bassman.
The 90s one sounded warm fat and just gorgeous, whereas the current one sounded dry and flat. (i will wager that it is the same reason you don't like the tweed twin)
The difference is the speakers. The old one had the eminence alnico blue frames and the new one had current jensen (p10r or p10n?) alnicos.

I had a 1975 210 sixtyfive musicman. I spent a lot of money getting the original alnicos reconed, but was still not 100% happy due to lack of punch and low end, so i swapped them for a pair of lorantz (australian) hemp and paper cone 75 watt speakers. It sounded great, so great in fact that is why i ended up selling it! lol The reason i no longer own that amp is because a friend of mine (a heavily gigging pro) kept borrowing it because his band raved about his sound and kept asking him to bring it along for recordings etc. So in the end he bought it and i got a twin.
Anyways...it's all about the actual speakers you choose, not just the diameter.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: fender 68 custom reissue Vibrolux reverb

I'll admit, I prefer 12's over 10's too. Fender really should add the 40W 212 Pro Reverb to the 68 RI line, but part of me hopes they don't because I have a vintage one.

I've owned a 90's and LTD Bassman 410, and never cared for either of them, no matter what speakers were in them. They're just not my thing. I sold every tweed amp I've ever had.

 

[Demanic]

Re: fender 68 custom reissue Vibrolux reverb

How about 1x12 and 1x10?
Or better 1x10 and 1x15?

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: fender 68 custom reissue Vibrolux reverb

or just a deluxe reverb.
They are pretty damn near perfect.

 

[philthis]

Re: fender 68 custom reissue Vibrolux reverb

I love the deluxe reverb. To me if you have ever played the fender Excelsior 1x15 its an introduction to the Deluxe Reverb platform minus all the cool features of the 68 reissue.. 6v6 is a great tube. Bogner made the Goldfinger which has a glorious clean sound with 4 6v6's. That tube as we all know has wonderful midrange and a soft top and bottom. I may yet pick one of those up. To me the 35 to 40 watt platform has enough clean headroom to play in a midsized room or loud practice jam. It should stay clean enough play over any drummer (except Bonham and Moon) but start to breakup around 20 to 25 watts. The Vibrolux also has enough midrange to cut through a mix. It's not overly bright and ice picky like the hotrod deluxe can be. My worry was with the 6L6 would it sound too scooped enough to be minus enough midrange to cut through a mix. It's got just enough headroom but how much midrange. After I played it i knew it had plenty in there to cut through. With a 12 it will have even more midrange nearer to a Vibroverb tone like ol Stevie Ray Vaughan used. I think with a pine cab and a 1x12 platform it will have just enough headroom and midrange to play out with but still breakup a little early with the 68 reissue platform to get that slight dirt when I really dig in. For bigger rock tones I already have my EVH 2x12 combo with the attenuator so it will easily match the Vibrolux volume range. Good gad for that matter the EVH 2x12 combo will even give the Twin a run for its money. That 68 reissue Twin is a thumpin kick @ss Amp but a bit much for a small venue. To push it to slight breakup it would blow out a small place. I'm hoping the 68 reissue vibrolux fills that gap.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: fender 68 custom reissue Vibrolux reverb

small, easy and reversible trick for extra mids in a classic fender amp circuit...
If it is a twin, or a super or any amp with a mids knob, swap the 10k pot for a 25k pot. It loses nothing and you get all the classic tones that you get on the old pot between 1 and 4. After 4, you get a whole load more mids and push for the power section.
The other mod which is so common it has a name (the "nashville mod") requires swapping the 4.7k ohm resistor that governs the mids on deluxes and vibros (cos they dont have a mids pot) to a 10k resistor. This is the equivalent of cranking the mids up to 10.
My fenders both have mid controls. The twin (an actual late 60s model) has had its mid pot swapped to 25k and i usually run it at around 5. It can get a whole lot gnarlier if required tho.
My princeton reverb II i have not swapped the pot but i run the mids on 10 anyway.
They both sound superb.
The nashville mod is worth considering if you get a vibro (or deluxe) cos it is a single resistor swap and there a many pro pickers who have done it. Even after the mod, it will still have a pretty heavy scoop in the mids, cos that's what fenders do, but it also gives you some vocal character and more strength in a band mix.

 

[JeffB]

Re: fender 68 custom reissue Vibrolux reverb

SPEAKERS SPEAKERS SPEAKERS!!!

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: fender 68 custom reissue Vibrolux reverb

I wonder what a set of Copperhead/Ragin Cajuns would do.

 

[philthis]

Re: fender 68 custom reissue Vibrolux reverb

you know what I forgot was the amps impedence is 4 ohms. The speaker I want to use is 8 ohms.

 

[IM4Tone]

Re: fender 68 custom reissue Vibrolux reverb

I wonder what a set of Copperhead/Ragin Cajuns would do.

I always had a mindset favoring 12" speakers (still do in general) and a very negative view, in general, on 10" speakers. Then I bought a Ragin Cajun and now I'm not negative on some 10"!

 

[IM4Tone]

Re: fender 68 custom reissue Vibrolux reverb

you know what I forgot was the amps impedence is 4 ohms. The speaker I want to use is 8 ohms.

Two 8's in parallel, right?.........4ohms

 

[philthis]

Re: fender 68 custom reissue Vibrolux reverb

i was thinking 1x12 but maybe 2 would work better your right

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: fender 68 custom reissue Vibrolux reverb

My own opinion is to own a Fender you love, then go British.... Marshall/Bogner land. Maybe add an AC-30, and you're done, but I'm a tonal purist who tried it all, and still ended up at the amplifier holy trinity. Most tone chasers end up there, not because it's predictable, but because it's the real end of the road.

In modern times, it may end up boutique, but it still comes back to the Marshall/Fender/Vox formula.

 

[ken361]

Re: fender 68 custom reissue Vibrolux reverb

I had the 68 twin with bogners pedals, the amp was great for cleans but too smooth for pedals if that makes sense. Ended getting the marshall DSL 40 and been very happy with it and it roars like it should! Actually liked the Deluxe 68 reverb better with pedals it had a warmer sense. The bright cap on or off just didnt cut it well for tones it still added unwanted brightness. Vibro seems the same also. Maybe different speakers would of helped on the twin.

 

[philthis]

Re: fender 68 custom reissue Vibrolux reverb

I still got the Twin, I love it. It has so much punch and thunk on chords and notes. its just too big for small places. I have to go play a little bar where they do blues stuff on that night. Its fun old tunes from hard core blues guys like Muddy, Howlin Wolf, Chuck Berry, a lot of Willie Dixon type stuff. I'm thinking the Vibolux will handle it. It will stay clean to around 20 watts and I really may only need 15 clean. I still may want to do a few songs on the bassman side of it like Chitlens Con Carne for the blues "Mods" hipsters, and sneak in a little ZZ fool for your stockings, or Maybe -Fooled around and fell in love-by Elvin Bishop for the last slow dance "please take me home" scenario.

 

[philthis]

Re: fender 68 custom reissue Vibrolux reverb

Man I'm digging these Celestion greenback g12h 75's. I think 2 of them will go with this thing perfectly. They will round off most ice picky highs, push the mids, and tighten the bottom. With a different cab and 2 of those speakers at 30 watts that should be a big enough tone but break up nicely with a tube screamer, or SL drive. I think with only 60 watts between both the Vibrolux's 35 watts will still push them well.

 

[Scott_F]

Re: fender 68 custom reissue Vibrolux reverb

I'll admit, I prefer 12's over 10's too. Fender really should add the 40W 212 Pro Reverb to the 68 RI line, but part of me hopes they don't because I have a vintage one.

I've owned a 90's and LTD Bassman 410, and never cared for either of them, no matter what speakers were in them. They're just not my thing. I sold every tweed amp I've ever had.

Nothing like owning an amp that they should make a reissue out of. I love my old Pro Reverb.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: fender 68 custom reissue Vibrolux reverb

I'll admit, I prefer 12's over 10's too. Fender really should add the 40W 212 Pro Reverb to the 68 RI line, but part of me hopes they don't because I have a vintage one.

I've owned a 90's and LTD Bassman 410, and never cared for either of them, no matter what speakers were in them. They're just not my thing. I sold every tweed amp I've ever had.

Hi GJ....I still have/love my 66 Pro Reverb also..Hope you're well pal.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: fender 68 custom reissue Vibrolux reverb

My own opinion is to own a Fender you love, then go British.... Marshall/Bogner land. Maybe add an AC-30, and you're done, but I'm a tonal purist who tried it all, and still ended up at the amplifier holy trinity. Most tone chasers end up there, not because it's predictable, but because it's the real end of the road.

In modern times, it may end up boutique, but it still comes back to the Marshall/Fender/Vox formula.

Totally agree and those are the amps I own..Marshall,Fender,Vox.