Which Fender Amp?

Studiobuddy

Studiobuddy

New member
Well guys from what I've heard people play through and heard before. I have about a grand saved up from 2 years of savings. I'm deciding to buy myself a new amp for Christmas. Choices i'm looking at are....

1. Twin Reverb
2. Deluxe Reverb
3. Pro Reverb
4. Vibroleux

Well I went to go to Guitar Center yesterday to mess around with the amps. Sadly the store has been remodeled basically (everything moved around) it was a mess in there, and like none of the tube amps were plugged in. I tried to play on the twin, deluxe, pro, and vibroleux; they were all unplugged. I would have asked for assistance or plugged it inmyself. Though the people working that day were the new guys for the most part. So I wasn't that comfortable of them pressuring me into buying one that day.

So I looked around for one to mess with and a used Vibroking for 1600 was all heated up, so I jammed on it for a little. It had nice clean tone, though it was more of a crank me up amp. Not much headroom is suspose. Though nice and expensive, it didn't click with me.

I'm looking for an amp that can do clean jazz, blues; maybe a little dirty blues. For the most part glassy glossy tone. I need one that can cover stuff from Joe Pass to Jeff Beck. Though more on the glossy glassy warm tube sound.

Thank you
 
Re: Which Fender Amp?

I LOOOOVED the Deluxe I played through, but if you're interested in headroom, this aint the amp for you. :)

The Twin is very cool too, if you plan pn running a nice OD/distortion box through it for your dirty tones.

One amp I've always liked but haven't found one in the price/condition I want is the Blackface Super Reverb. I think that this is the amp for you, my friend. 40w, 4 10's, and great clean, driven, or distorted with a tube screamer or the pedal of your choice. :burnout:
 
Re: Which Fender Amp?

First let me say that out of all the Amps mentioned in your post, they are all good Amps. Much of your choice will have to do with the type of sound you are looking to get, anf how loud or soft you plan on playing.
The Twin is 80 watts. It has a huge amount of headroom, and is difficult to get it to break up. If clean and loud is what you want the twin is hard to beat.
The Deluxe is 22 watts, with one 10" speaker, so for Club work it is one of the best Amps ever made. It begins to get a good tubey tone at about 4, and that volume is not terribly loud. As the voulme goes up it just gets better, until about 7. Once you go over 7 it starts to get Muddy. The Pro is 40 watts. A good all around Amp as well (I think the Deluxe is better). It has a greater amount of headroom than the Deluxe, but will still sound pretty mean once the volume is cranked a little. This Amp with a good OD pedal can be really nice. The Vibrolux I believe is 65 watts. Out of all of these this is the Amp I have little experince with. It is a great sounding Amp espicially with a Telecaster. SRV used these Amps on his early stuff. Great Amps. I would also recommend you take a closer look at a Super Reverb. I like the Super almost as much as a Deluxe. The Super Reverb is the Amp I currently play with (A/B'd with a MArshall 900). The Super is almost the same Amp as a Pro, but it has 4 10" speakers. The added speakers gives it a little more bottom than the Pro, and I feel it has greater dynamics than the Deluxe also. As I said it really depends on what you want out of the Amp....... All of these Amps are good!!! Good Luck!
 
Re: Which Fender Amp?

i asked my dad about just getting one of those vintage fender amps they got

he said thats not a good idea because they got no warranty on them, and alotta of em are in great shape, yet ridiciously priced

wut do u think on this vintage idea?

he also said theyll sound closely the same to a new one
 
Re: Which Fender Amp?

I don't mind the lack of a warranty, I never use them anyway, weeing as how I know a good, reliable amp tech. I don't mind vintage, as long as you don't pay too much. As far as them sounding like the new ones, that's not entirely accurate, unless the circuit is the same, down to the speakers and capacitor materials.
 
Re: Which Fender Amp?

Both the Twin Reverb and the Deluxe Reverb are reissues of old amps, and to be honest I would buy a new one...with an old amp you never know who has been in it and what they did...plus they aften deen a cap job, new tubes, new speakers, etc. I think a Deluxe is a great amp, I belive it has enough power to gig in up to medium size clubs and is great for rehearsals too. I Twin Reverb would be the LAST clean amp you will EVER need! If it were me to do over again(I play through a 1969 Twin Reverb) I would get a new one unless you could find the deal I did (I pail $350.00 for mine...and it worked!), I did have to do some work to it, but the point is that the new Twqin Reverb is a killer amp. Now, on to the other 2 amps...The new Pro Reverb and the new Vibrolux are NOTHING like the vintage versions...they are modern interprations...they have lots more gain, and a totally different voice. If I were you and the amps you mentioned weere my choices, I would get the new Vibrolux...I have a Twin and I love the sound of that amp...It really has a lot more crunch than vintage BF and SF Ffender amps, and I love the cound of 10 inch speakers......all the other amps you mentioned have 12's...even the Deluxe. OK, All that said and done...if this is the price range you are looking at there are a TONE of great amps you could buy...hell if you shop right you could get into 2 amps!
 
Re: Which Fender Amp?

bassman does have a great clean tone, though i saw some old black bluesman one time playing some crystal clear sounding blues through a new vibrolux at the store, just sounded great to my ears

though which amp from fender has the best glassy glossy bell like tone
 
Re: Which Fender Amp?

I own the current production vibrolux. Fender call it the Custom Vibrolux Reverb. It's a great amp, sort of a halfway point between fender's standard range and the custom shop stuff.

The circuit itself is identical to the brownface vibroverb reissue fender did in the first run of reissue amps they produced in the 80s, with a few tweaks. Bruce Zinky, head of the fender custom amp shop at the time this amp was designed, modded the amp in a few key areas:

-He removed the negative feedback loop for a more tweed-like response, making the amp a little gutsier and lower headroom than the vibroverb.

-He put in a different tremelo circuit, and made it available to either channel. Can't remember the type of circuit, but it's one vintage aficionados drool over.

-He made reverb assignable to both channels, and tamed it a bit.

-He also fitted it out with jensen alnico copies (nowadays replaced by the jensen p10r).

To my ears, the CVR is a fatter sounding tone than a blackface fender, sort of halfway between blackface and tweed in character. It overdrives at reasonable volumes, and sounds amazing cranked. To me, it's the perfect club/blues amp.

I've had mine modded so the negative feedback loop has been put back in and made switchable (not a major mod), as I prefer a little more clean headroom for my gigging purposes. With this mod, the amp sounds a little politer, stays clean longer, and is a bit quieter in terms of operation noise.
 
Re: Which Fender Amp?

Sorry, no clips on hand. My band is due in the studio soon, though, so hopefully soon.

The CVR would be an excellent jazz amp. As far as 'glassy, glossy bell tones' goes, I'd put it like this:

I had the choice of a twin reissue and the CVR when I bought mine. The twin ri sounded great. To me, it had a very clear, open clean tone. Ridiculous headroom, too.

Comparing the amps, I always came back to the CVR, though.

To sort of give you an idea of the difference in the basic tone of the amps, the CVR sounds more like SRV's main, rosewood board strat tone, like on 'pride and joy' or 'texas flood'. The twin sounded more like his maple-neck tone on 'Lenny'. That's how I heard it.

I also made a judgement that the fuller midrange tone of the CVR would cut through better in a mix compared to the twin, despite the twin's huge headroom. And I think I've got that right. My CVR never gets lost in the mix, despite being only 40 watts.

Basically, you're going to have to get back in there and check all these amps out. they're all good, it's just whichever flavour tickles you.
 
Re: Which Fender Amp?

hmmm well i did play a hollowbody through a twin reverb and it was pretty clean pure tone

though i love the lenny tone, and i think my fretboard is maple and strat

i think the vibrolux is more of a crystal bright tone

im also gonna buy a hollowbody later

wut about the vintage fenders they got? worth it or not?
 
Re: Which Fender Amp?

I played thru a Deluxe Reverb Reissue a few week's back. Absolutley LOVED the tone with a Tele thru it. My God, what a sound. What I'd like to know is this: when using a HB equipt guitar thing's got a bit farty at what I call a decent volume. Would the same thing happen if I kept the channel's volume down a bit while using an OD or distortion pedal while bringing the volume of the pedal up a bit?
 
Re: Which Fender Amp?

I'm not really sure what it was that Fender was trying to do with the Vibrolux Reverb. I have one (an early Silverface) that dates back to August of 1970.

It's a very strange beast. The main application I could see it used for I guess would be blues. Jazz it could handle with the "bright" switch off. It does have a cool vintage singing vibe to it (perhaps it's the fact that it pretty much *is* vintage).

The cleans aren't inspiring at all. It breaks up at around 3 1/2 on the volume knob so there's very little headroom. The bass farts out a bit (I guess it's due to the custom Fender speakers that were made at that time). The bass is almost completely useless, so I either turn it completely off or put it on 1 - 1 1/2 for a little more bottom. The dark channel seems a bit *too* dark to my ears and a bit undefined. The bright switch makes it decent for some clean strumming, but the headroom is definitely an issue.

I have thought about replacing the speakers with some Webers, putting in NOS tubes and getting it modded to blackface specs (if I could find the right guy for the job in the first place). That all completely kills it's vintage specs though, so I'm not touching it.

For a 40w amp, it sure doesn't sound like one. It can get pretty loud, but not near as loud as my 30w Bad Cat. Right now it's an expensive piece of furniture (it does run perfectly fine), but honestly, I'll never use it as long as I have better modern day amps around (and my Hot Cat kicks to no end).
 
Re: Which Fender Amp?

The primary difference between the RI stuff and the original is the originals tube sockets are wired and soldered right on the chasis. The RI stuff the tube sockets are mounted on PC boards. This could cause some issues as tha Amps begin to get hot. Will the solder joints on a PC board hold up as well?? All Fender Amps do run Hot. I have a friend of mine that has a RI SR. After about a year it needed to be serviced due to a couiple of loose solder joints. This is not that big of a deal to fix, but it can be a problem if you don't feel confident that your Amp will hold up during a gig. I do feel that Fender did a real good job in the RI series. If I needed a new Amp that would be one of the first I would look at. If you have a little extra money take a look at the Custom shop stuff. The have a Low watt(50) Tweed twin that sounds pretty cool. It is all hand wired with PTP. All very high quality componants as well. ABout 2500. I believe this is basically the same Amp that Fender made for Clapton!!
 
Re: Which Fender Amp?

Studiobuddy said:
Well guys from what I've heard people play through and heard before. I have about a grand saved up from 2 years of savings. I'm deciding to buy myself a new amp for Christmas. Choices i'm looking at are....

1. Twin Reverb
2. Deluxe Reverb
3. Pro Reverb
4. Vibrolux Reverb
Click to expand...

I'd make the decision based on how you plan to use the amp in terms of volume.

A 80 watt Twin Reverb is no fun unless you can crank it up and then it is unusably loud in most situations. It's way to loud for most guys and most applications, unless you want a very, very clean tone: like for Jazz or Country gigs.

A 20 watt Deluxe Reverb is MUCH more fun to play at home...but lacks the power to compete with a raging rock band onstage. So I use two Deluxe Reverbs.

The Pro Reverb and Vibrolux Reverb are very similar 40 watt amps with the main diff being two 12" speakers or two 10" speakers.

The Pro-Reverb will be a little louder, fuller and deeper but the Vibrolux with two 10's overdrives more easily and also has a warm, full tone...which is why alot of Tele players (Danny Gatton, Roy Buchanan, Seymour Duncan, etc.) use/used the Vibrolux-Reverb.

I think I'd go for the Vibrolux-Reverb if you're mainly playing single coil pickups and the Pro-Reverb if you're mainly using humbuckers.

Lew
 
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Re: Which Fender Amp?

lews got some good advice there.
i have a twin and i love it but its way too damn loud to be useful, gonna sell it.
i have a blues jr which has about as much volume as a deluxe, and its great but doesnt have enough clean headroom for some gigs.
the current production pro reverb is 50w 1x12 channel switching amp that doesnt really do much for me. the clean is nice but the overdrive isnt my favorite flavor, not bad but not great.
the old pro reverbs are nice amps 35w or so
the new vibrolux are cool. i played thru one in montreal that seymour was using and a few guys i know have em, they are good sounding amps.
for around a grand id probably go for a super reverb. 40w 4x10, great cleans, if you crank it you get rich sustain but it also works great with a pedal
 
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