Vintage Princeton Reverb & Deluxe Reverb prices

[marqueemoon]

My feeling on vintage amps is often you're buying a shell. Just about any 50-60 year old amp will have non-original stuff if it's functional. That's not a problem in my book if it sounds good and is reasonably reliable of course (chances are good it will hold its value), but considering how widely known and frequently cloned these circuits are I'm only willing to pay so much.

If resale value isn't a huge concern smaller companies/builders like Fromel, Sweet Amplification, Carl's Custom amps, etc... could be worth a look.

I'm personally pretty into this as a concept, but I prefer head/cab setups and (gasp!) plate reverb from a pedal.

http://www.koamps.com/clean-machine.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[muchxs]

...considering how widely known and frequently cloned these circuits are I'm only willing to pay so much.

"Ya seen one, ya seen 'em all!"

Didja know that most Fender amps built between 1964 and 1981 share nearly identical preamp architecture? There are two basic preamp circuits, a reverb and a non- reverb circuit. The Bassman uses the "guitar" preamp on one channel. We could simplify it further because the reverb and non- reverb preamps are identical up to the point where signal is diverted to the reverb driver.

It's how those preamp circuits inter- act with power amps ranging from 5 to 160 watts that define the character of each Fender amp

If resale value isn't a huge concern smaller companies/builders like Fromel, Sweet Amplification, Carl's Custom amps, etc... could be worth a look.

The '60s Fender clone landscape is pretty much:

Allen Amps

Headstrong

Vintage Sound

and if you're around Nashville a Tyler might pop up.


Dave Allen goes his own way with tweaked Fender designs. His basic concept is increased headroom and bigger bass with his "raw" control to dial in the dirt. Allen's raw control means the point of breakup can be moved to the volume you want instead of being a fixed point on the volume knob.


Headstrong builds a more literal clone. I believe Headstrong starts with a Mojotone chassis.


Vintage Sound goes their own way and sources their own chassis. They contain literal replicas of 1960s circuits right down to the cloth wire.


There seems to be some confusion about the power output of a Princeton Reverb. The actual number is 12 watts, not 14 watts, not 15 watts, not 18 or 20 watts. The higher numbers are absurd. "18 and 20 watt" Princeton Reverb clones are hyped at those numbers to attract musicians who will consider an 18 or a 20 watt amp but who don't think a 12 watt amp can keep up with a loud drummer.

12 watts is what Fender rated them at towards the end of the production run. That's the same era they built 70 watt Super Reverbs and 135 watt Twin Reverbs. If any of the Princeton Reverbs were to make more power it would be the late silverface models with their increased supply voltage. The back panel tells the story. An ultralinear Super Reverb says 70 watts, an ultralinear Twin Reverb makes 135 watts while the venerable Princeton Reverb still makes 12 watts.

If you want to hear an ultralinear Princeton Reverb use the output transformer from an Alamo Futura Reverb.