That90'sGuy
DyzaBoyzologist
It's been years since I've played through one, but I'm enjoying a '71 Vibrolux Reverb right now. Mine was actually passed down to me by my grandfather who passed away when I was pretty young (probably about 20 years ago). It's been in rough shape and didn't really sound quite right. The speakers would always break up in a nasty way and there was a lot of random noise and as a kid I wanted something with more gain (the pedals I used never sounded right with it).
I finally decided about a year ago to go with smaller wattage amps. I've been liking my Vox AC-15 a lot and decided that rather than buying new stuff, I was going to work on fixing up the old amp in memory of my grandfather. This amp had some issues, I found the pilot light had burned out and after a power tube failed on me the amp stopped working. I did some research on a few different amp techs and found a very experienced guy less than a half an hour away from me.
He found a few frightening things. The tech that worked on the amp in the 90s changed the fuse to a 20 amp automotive fuse (instead of the 2 amp slo-blo fuse that should have been in there). The power tube failure had taken out the filter caps and the rectifier tube had gone bad. This new tech had gotten the filter caps replaced and replaced a few bias filter supply caps that tend to go bad, but the good news was that the guy told me all the parts were original for that amp. Even better news was the fact that the transformers and other circuitry was still in good operating condition. After about a week he had the amp back and working. I went to Radio Shack and picked up some 2 amp slo-blo fuses just in case and I've been playing the crap out of it and it's been sounding great.
I forgot how much fun it is to play almost completely clean. There's a round and soft tone that's addicting to this Vibrolux Reverb and with it turned up it gets just hot enough to get some slight hair to the notes. The Vox, in contrast, is a much more aggressive amp that has a lot more gain to it and that's a fun one to rock out with, but I like playing a lot of jazz and funk flavored stuff on the VR. The Vox AC-15 taught me a thing or two about using single coils in the hotter inputs and using humbuckers in the lower gain inputs and I've found that works well with the Fender as well. I thought having 2 amps that are lower wattage with great clean bases would be redundant, but I'm finding material that sounds right with the chime from the Vox and material that sounds right with the shimmer and warmth of the Fender.
So, after all these years, I get why so many people love Fenders and now that I have one repaired and maintained the right way, I kinda understand the appeal of the early silverface amps. I don't think it's ever going to be a super desirable amp (since it's not a brown or blackface), but I feel pretty fortunate to have an amp that's regarded as one of the better balanced ones in Fender's history. I think my grandfather would be pretty happy to see this thing being put to use because music was such an important part of his life and he used the amp a fair amount in his later years (he actually got it in a trade for an original Gretsch White Falcon that he used to own).
I've got some new speakers on the way for it and I'll eventually have a few more preamp tubes changed out for fun. I never paid much attention to it before given its operating condition, but I'm liking it more and more now and I think it's a great writing tool.
I finally decided about a year ago to go with smaller wattage amps. I've been liking my Vox AC-15 a lot and decided that rather than buying new stuff, I was going to work on fixing up the old amp in memory of my grandfather. This amp had some issues, I found the pilot light had burned out and after a power tube failed on me the amp stopped working. I did some research on a few different amp techs and found a very experienced guy less than a half an hour away from me.
He found a few frightening things. The tech that worked on the amp in the 90s changed the fuse to a 20 amp automotive fuse (instead of the 2 amp slo-blo fuse that should have been in there). The power tube failure had taken out the filter caps and the rectifier tube had gone bad. This new tech had gotten the filter caps replaced and replaced a few bias filter supply caps that tend to go bad, but the good news was that the guy told me all the parts were original for that amp. Even better news was the fact that the transformers and other circuitry was still in good operating condition. After about a week he had the amp back and working. I went to Radio Shack and picked up some 2 amp slo-blo fuses just in case and I've been playing the crap out of it and it's been sounding great.
I forgot how much fun it is to play almost completely clean. There's a round and soft tone that's addicting to this Vibrolux Reverb and with it turned up it gets just hot enough to get some slight hair to the notes. The Vox, in contrast, is a much more aggressive amp that has a lot more gain to it and that's a fun one to rock out with, but I like playing a lot of jazz and funk flavored stuff on the VR. The Vox AC-15 taught me a thing or two about using single coils in the hotter inputs and using humbuckers in the lower gain inputs and I've found that works well with the Fender as well. I thought having 2 amps that are lower wattage with great clean bases would be redundant, but I'm finding material that sounds right with the chime from the Vox and material that sounds right with the shimmer and warmth of the Fender.
So, after all these years, I get why so many people love Fenders and now that I have one repaired and maintained the right way, I kinda understand the appeal of the early silverface amps. I don't think it's ever going to be a super desirable amp (since it's not a brown or blackface), but I feel pretty fortunate to have an amp that's regarded as one of the better balanced ones in Fender's history. I think my grandfather would be pretty happy to see this thing being put to use because music was such an important part of his life and he used the amp a fair amount in his later years (he actually got it in a trade for an original Gretsch White Falcon that he used to own).
I've got some new speakers on the way for it and I'll eventually have a few more preamp tubes changed out for fun. I never paid much attention to it before given its operating condition, but I'm liking it more and more now and I think it's a great writing tool.
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I'm glad to hear you have some cool stuff to remember your grandfather by though 
