Someone recommend things for me to complete my stup

[britishgeetah]

I think I want get a Fender Blackface, so can someone recommed me one, that also has built in Spring Reverb?

I'm thinking of pairing it with a Dist. Pedal for distortion or Cranking it for overdrive...What pedal would you recommend or do you think I should just rely on overdrive?


I'm playing a kind of surf punk which is why i need a bit of both worlds...

 

[Bludave]

Re: Someone recommend things for me to complete my stup

How loud will you need to play? If you like the Fender clean thing and you reallu want it clean..... It will be hard to beat a Fender Twin. If you don't need to play to loud a Deluxe Reverb might be a good way to go. Here are some choices.

1. Fender Twin. 80watts 2 12" speakers The Holy Grail of Clean
2. Dual Showman. This is essentially a Twin in a head configuration. I like the tone of these better mainly because you can use bigger speakers with them. I believe the cabinet that was designed for it had 2 15" speakers in it. This model came with and without reverb, so look for a Dual Showman reverb.

3. Super Reverb. 40watts and 4 10" speakers. I have one of these and I will never part with it. Its heavy as all heck, but it has a large amount of versatility. I use a TS9 with it and it sounds great.

4. Vibrolux or Vibroverb. The Vibrolux is 40 watts with 2 10". not as much bottom as a Super but a real nice amp. The Vibroverb is 40watts also, but has 2 configurations... 1 15" and 2 10". There are other significant differences but for the most part they are similar sounding amps (comparing a 2 10 model) SRV used both the Super and the Vibroverb.

5. Tweed Bassman. I had to put this in the list because in some ways it is the best Fender I ever heard, but it lacks reverb so I don't think it will be right for you. The Marshall Bluesbreaker was based on this circuit. Great cleans and great cranked.

6. Deluxe Reverb. The Deluxe is probably the best small club amp ever. It is 22 watts and has 1 12" speaker. The major drawback to the DR is they lack headroom due to there low wattage and the bottom tends to get sloppy when you bring the volume up to over 5. A lot of people rectify a lot of this by replacing the stock speaker with a Vintage 30. I have a 67 Deluxe Reverb with an Emminence speaker it sounds great but that bottom and low headroom issue can be a problem in some larger rooms.
7. Pro Reverb. The pro is like half a Twinn it has 2 12" speaker but has 40 watts. IMO these tend to be a bit on the bright side. I have only played thru a few of them but thats what I remember.

You said you were looking at Black face. I would also recommend looking at early Silver face amps as well. The SF amps were made from 67 thru 77(?) I think. Around 73 they added a master volume. If you can find a non master volume SF it is basically the same as a BF but a lot less.

The other option is the Hot Rod series. They are a lot cheaper than the Black face amps and are channel switching. The one major problem I have with these amps is they share the EQ for both channels and IMO it is really difficult to get a good clean and OD sound because of it (Just my opinion). These amps do take pedals well. If you decide to look at these look at the Deville or the larger one. The Devillle has 2 12" the larger one has 4 10" I don't remember the name.

This is a good place to find out about all Fender amps.......

Good Luck.

http://www.ampwares.com/ffg/

 

[britishgeetah]

Re: Someone recommend things for me to complete my stup

hey thanks for that man, do you know of any else you'd think is wrong with the Bassman, because I'm really thinking of choosing that now...what's the difference with Blackface and Silverface?

 

[Bludave]

Re: Someone recommend things for me to complete my stup

hey thanks for that man, do you know of any else you'd think is wrong with the Bassman, because I'm really thinking of choosing that now...what's the difference with Blackface and Silverface?

The early silvers are essentially a blackface. I would recommend avoiding SF amps with master volumes. That being said if you can find one cheap it should not cost much to have it removed. The early silvers are the same design in most cases as the blackface and they are considerably less $.

There is nothing wrong with the Tweed Bassman in any way it is a fantastic amp, but you said you need reverb. The Bassman does not have on board reverb. The silver face bassman is a piggyback design. A much different amp than the tweed, but still an excellent amp.

Another Amp to look at is the 57 tweed twin. This is similar to a bassman. It has a little more power at 50watts. But same issue no reverb. Clapton used these on the recent Cream shows here in the States as well as the Royal Albert Hall shows. I saw the show at the Garden, he was playing thru 4 of them all set up a little different. He also had a reverb unit and a Leslie. The tone was excellent.

Heres a link to a recent discussion about them here.
https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=66927

 

[britishgeetah]

Re: Someone recommend things for me to complete my stup

thanks...just curious now....none of these amps actually have a distortion channel do they?

I've always heard wonders off Fender's Clean but nothing about their distortion, why is that?

 

[mind_transplant]

Re: Someone recommend things for me to complete my stup

thanks...just curious now....none of these amps actually have a distortion channel do they?

These are amps designed well before channel switching and master volumes, when distortion meant you turned that sucker up LOUD.

 

[Bludave]

Re: Someone recommend things for me to complete my stup

thanks...just curious now....none of these amps actually have a distortion channel do they?

I've always heard wonders off Fender's Clean but nothing about their distortion, why is that?

Listen to SRV............ Soul to Soul. That is a Vibroverb dimed. You don't need distortion if you can crank it up. SRV did use OD pedals, but mainly to enhance sustain. Its hard to compare what some of the great players did because they were all playing in very large venues so managing volume was not a big deal. When you can dime the amp you can control everything from the volume control on the guitar. When you play in a club that has 150 to 300 people in it 50watts may be to loud. So what you need to do is set the volume where you can get a good clean sound and drop a stomp box down to give you a slight volume boost and a little thicker edge to your sound. This works very well and allows you to manage your volume easier.

 

[lyon]

Re: Someone recommend things for me to complete my stup

If you can afford the extra expense get a Fender outboard reverb unit. They sound awesome. Then you don't have to worry about getting an amp with reverb.

 

[Corbic]

Re: Someone recommend things for me to complete my stup

What you should do, to get the ultimate Fender clean tone and cranked tone, AND reverb, is to get a '59 Bassman, a Tubescreamer, two extra cables, and a reverb unit of your choice. Put the tubescreamer in front of the amp, and jump the channels on the bassman by putting a cable from input II on channel 1 into input I on channel 2. And for reverb put the reverb unit in between the jumped channels. Put both channels up to 4-5, EQ as you see fit, and use the tubescreamer to add more grit and distortion.

 

[Corbic]

Re: Someone recommend things for me to complete my stup

If you can afford the extra expense get a Fender outboard reverb unit. They sound awesome. Then you don't have to worry about getting an amp with reverb.

A reverb like that would work in between the cables jumping the two channels.

 

[saladin]

Re: Someone recommend things for me to complete my stup

A Tele through both channels on a Bassman head thru a 2-15 cab is the bomb!