Fender Blackface amp question.

[B Bent]

I have had many Fender Blackface amps....Deluxe, Twin etc. I have noticed that I have never had a need or wanted to plug into the "plain channel"..you know the one with no reverb or vibrato. Also I have never seen anyone else plug into this side of the amp. I guess I have just never been able to break away from the lush reverb and vibrato. Who out there uses this channel and for what kinda tones?

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Fender Blackface amp question.

I have had many Fender Blackface amps....Deluxe, Twin etc. I have noticed that I have never had a need or wanted to plug into the "plain channel"..you know the one with no reverb or vibrato. Also I have never seen anyone else plug into this side of the amp. I guess I have just never been able to break away from the lush reverb and vibrato. Who out there uses this channel and for what kinda tones?

I use mine...I use it for BF/SF Fender tones without rev or vib.

 

[B Bent]

Re: Fender Blackface amp question.

I use mine...I use it for BF/SF Fender tones without rev or vib.

I guess I am just used to everyone I have ever seen play through the vibrato channel.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Fender Blackface amp question.

Mine is modded with reverb on that channel and I've changed the tone stack and preamp gain in mine....I use both channels with an A/B box....I've taken the Vibrato pots out and disconnected the Vibrato and put a presence and midrange pot in it's place...This is in my 66 BF Pro Reverb amp..

 

[drp555]

Re: Fender Blackface amp question.

Mine is modded with reverb on that channel and I've changed the tone stack and preamp gain in mine....I use both channels with an A/B box....I've taken the Vibrato pots out and disconnected the Vibrato and put a presence and midrange pot in it's place...This is in my 66 BF Pro Reverb amp..

John that's the amp you got a great deal on from an old guy right? I actually thought maybe you didn't mod that one! :smack: :laugh2:

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Fender Blackface amp question.

John that's the amp you got a great deal on from an old guy right? I actually thought maybe you didn't mod that one! :smack: :laugh2:

yep $50.....You know me better than that by now buddy? Me,not mod something? LOL.....hAAAAA... :smack:

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Fender Blackface amp question.

I did change a few things in the tone stack in my Twin, but nothing too crazy...it still sounds pretty much like a Fender Twin.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Fender Blackface amp question.

I did change a few things in the tone stack in my Twin, but nothing too crazy...it still sounds pretty much like a Fender Twin.

My BF Pro Reverb still sounds like a great BF amp,except the Normal channel is very usable and has slightly more gain,reverb,and a tone stack with cap changes to Mica 250pf .02/.02 instead of the .047/.1 arrangement....The only other mods were to the cathode resistors and cathode caps..These small changes however,make the Normal channel sound quite a bit different..

The Vibrato channel has all upgraded caps and other than the Vibrato being disconnected,has a presence and mid pot...It's the other stuff,like a Hoffman Bassman transformer,MOJO Power transformer, Black Plate RCA preamp and output tubes,and Weber speakers,that really make this amp great...

This amp is pictured behind me in my avatar photo...

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Fender Blackface amp question.

My BF Pro Reverb still sounds like a great BF amp,except the Normal channel is very usable and has slightly more gain,reverb,and a tone stack with cap changes to Mica 250pf .02/.02 instead of the .047/.1 arrangement....The only other mods were to the cathode resistors and cathode caps..These small changes however,make the Normal channel sound quite a bit different..

The Vibrato channel has all upgraded caps and other than the Vibrato being disconnected,has a presence and mid pot...It's the other stuff,like a Hoffman Bassman transformer,MOJO Power transformer, Black Plate RCA preamp and output tubes,and Weber speakers,that really make this amp great...

I have my old EV's (one of which is blown :blackeye: ) that I am gonna be putting back in that amps soon, as well as maybe a few more tweaks, and new tubes...I really think that BF and SF Fender amps are pretty senitive to crappy tubes...with great tubes they sopund great, with bad tubes they sound bad...I know wll amps are like this, but the BF/SF Fenders seem to be real bad about that, and my Twin is so damn picky about speakers. The EV's were great in it, right now it has Fender reissue's and they are OK, but I really miss the EV's!

 

[Quencho092]

Re: Fender Blackface amp question.

i dont have reverb on mine. It's a blonde bandmaster from 63 through a JBL 15 incher.

I mainly use the other channel for bridging with patch cables. I plug my guitar into input 1 on the normal channel, then i run a cable from input 2 to my wah pedal then to input 1 on vibrato. I can then EQ and set the volume controls for my wah independent of my regular tone. It's really handy since wah sounds great when you have a subtle bassy tone so i can get a smooth wah tone and tailor my guitar tone at the same time. I have yet to try other effects like this, but it's really cool since you could setup 2 chains of effects and add eq/volume/or even tremolo to them separately.

 

[Hellion]

Re: Fender Blackface amp question.

I can't speak for all the black-faces, but I used the plain channel a lot if I was using a signal processor. It seemed to get the best "power amp" type of response.

 

[Quencho092]

Re: Fender Blackface amp question.

anybody else try the patch cabling trick with the extra inputs? I only have a wah and a tubescreamer so i don't have that much to experiment with.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Fender Blackface amp question.

I have a Bassman, so I guess my channels are normal by default.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Fender Blackface amp question.

The plain channel is lower in gain because it doesn't have reverb. The reverb reconvery circuit adds gain and balls even when the reverb is set to zero. If you do a simple mod that allows reverb on both channels the plain channel has the same gain as the reverb/vibrato channel. There is also a .047 cap at the end of the plain channel that needs to be changed to a .02 cap like that used in the reverb/vibrato channel....otherwise it has to much bass if you add reverb. Actually, I'd change both of them to a new .02 cap on both channels and use a quality cap like a Sprague Orange Drop because the .02 cap in the reverb/vibrato channel is a cheap disc cap even in the original blackface version from the 60's. I do much the same mods to the plain channel of my blackface Fenders as John does to his: silver mica 250 pf treble cap and two .02 caps instead of the .1 and .047 bass and mid caps...gives the amp alot more pluck and more of a tweed Bassman/Marshall Plexi tone in that channel. In fact, after the mods I only use the plain channel...sounds better to me. I also replace the 6.8K mid range resistor on the plain channel with 10K or even higher to boost the mids a bit.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Fender Blackface amp question.

The plain channel is lower in gain because it doesn't have reverb. The reverb reconvery circuit adds gain and balls even when the reverb is set to zero. If you do a simple mod that allows reverb on both channels the plain channel has the same gain as the reverb/vibrato channel. There is also a .047 cap at the end of the plain channel that needs to be changed to a .02 cap like that used in the reverb/vibrato channel....otherwise it has to much bass if you add reverb. Actually, I'd change both of them to a new .02 cap on both channels and use a quality cap like a Sprague Orange Drop because the .02 cap in the reverb/vibrato channel is a cheap disc cap even in the original blackface version from the 60's. I do much the same mods to the plain channel of my blackface Fenders as John does to his: silver mica 250 pf treble cap and two .02 caps instead of the .1 and .047 bass and mid caps...gives the amp alot more pluck and more of a tweed Bassman/Marshall Plexi tone in that channel. In fact, after the mods I only use the plain channel...sounds better to me. I also replace the 6.8K mid range resistor on the plain channel with 10K or even higher to boost the mids a bit.

Lew....Do you do the reverb on both channels the "correct" way? Putting 220k isolation resistors between the 2 channels and not Torres's stupid way of doing it? :wink:

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Fender Blackface amp question.

I've done it both ways. I don't really have a problem with Torres way of doing it and leaving out the isolation resistors does give a little more balls to the tone. But generally I leave the isolation resistors in for a little cleaner tone. Lew

 

[Bludave]

Re: Fender Blackface amp question.

I have also seen people, and I have experimented with piggybacking the two channels together. Simply plug a cable into the first channel, and connect it to the 2nd channel. Then you can plug into the 2nd channel and you have acces to both volume and tone controls. In my experience (which is limited) I found this to give the amp a slightly different charachter, and a little more bottom.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Fender Blackface amp question.

I've done it both ways. I don't really have a problem with Torres way of doing it and leaving out the isolation resistors does give a little more balls to the tone. But generally I leave the isolation resistors in for a little cleaner tone. Lew

When Torres first started selling his mods years ago,I tryed some of them...I had both the fender and marshall "triple killer switches"...These mods were terrible...Just a nice area to pick up all soughts of stray noise and weird oscillation stuff...I mean some of his mods were just very lame,plus you could never actually talk to the guy,and the 1 time I did,I thought he was a flaming a$$hole! LOL....

Needless to say...I don't need no stinkin Torres mods! :wink:

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Fender Blackface amp question.

I have also seen people, and I have experimented with piggybacking the two channels together. Simply plug a cable into the first channel, and connect it to the 2nd channel. Then you can plug into the 2nd channel and you have acces to both volume and tone controls. In my experience (which is limited) I found this to give the amp a slightly different charachter, and a little more bottom.

I Like having both channels with different character....I Like to run through one channel straight in via an A/B box and then run my pedal effects into the other channel...This gives me basically a clean/dirty amp via the A/B box...

I don't use my BF Fender stuff out like I used to and prefer to wank through these amps at home,but this setup worked great for me at gigs using either my 40 watt Pro Reverb or my 22 watt Deluxe Reverb....Now the Cyber Twin or the valvetronix amps do me well...I've turned "modern"(This month).... :laugh2: