NAD: '62 Fender Pro

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NAD: '62 Fender Pro

Post by Surfysonic » Mon Apr 25, 2022 2:08 pm

I packed up 9 fairly unplayed, impulse buy guitars before and during pandemic isolation that I didn't feel like putting up on Reverb and drove over to my favorite used gear shop, Atomic Music in Beltsville, MD. Fortunately, most of these guitars were bought online via Reverb or other guitar shops (like zZounds) so I printed out each of the orders (receipts) as proof of purchase. Atomic loved me for doing this as it makes their lives easier.

Guitars gone:

Fender Vintera '60s Jazzmaster (that I did a not so great surf green refinish)
Fender Player Mustang 90 modded with D'Urbano Firebird pickups
Fender Player Duo Sonic
Squier Classic Vibe '60s Jazzmaster
Squier Paranormal Offset Telecaster modded with Fender Noisless Gen 4 pickups
Squier Paranormal Cyclone modded with Q Blue Foil Stratocaster pickups
Squier Contemporary Jaguar HH ST
Gretsch G2215-P90 Streamliner Junior Jet
Gretsch G2657T Streamliner Center Block Jr

Hopefully, they'll be bought and enjoyed. Like most used gear shops, Atomic will pay 50% of the sale value. Sure, individually, that's not much. For nine, though, it adds up. My estimated total would be in the ballpark of around $2300. Since they really appreciated the paperwork I provided, they kicked that up to $2600.

Happy with that deal, I knew they had a couple of nice vintage pieces of gear I would consider getting. The first was a '63 Fender Reverb Unit. It was in fair condition but since I have a '64 FRU, I didn't really need another one.

Then there was their priciest vintage Fender, a '62 Pro (6G5-A, 1x15, 40 Watts). Couple of holes in the grill cloth and some small tears in the tolex, but otherwise in decent shape. No idea what it's current speaker is at the moment. Harmonic vibrato is lovely.

Listed online for $3079 and the tag price in the shop was for $2899. Looks like the original cord is still intact but a small bit of the cord cover had been stripped/exposed. With that in mind and some of the photos below, I'm going to bring it into Big Crunch Amp Repair to give everything the once over, replace the original cord with a 3-prong, remove the death cap if necessary, and replace any leaky/broken components. I'll need to get a tremolo 1-button footswitch for it, too.

Atomic guy offered me $2600 + tax. Of course, I took the deal. Oh, I ended up spending another $500 on a used DiPinto Galaxie 4 Safari (Made in China) (Sonic Blue), too. Sounded good in the store and I've always wanted to try a DiPinto. Pretty impressive! 8) It didn't come with a tremolo bar and it looks like the volume & tone knobs are Fender. Also, the rings around the red push buttons are normally white, so I'm not sure if someone replaced them with black rings or simply used a black sharpie marker or something.

Overall, it's been a fantastic day. :)

Photos!

Atomic Music's Photos on their Reverb shop...

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At home and pairing it up with my '64 Fender Reverb Unit

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Last edited by Surfysonic on Mon Apr 25, 2022 6:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: NAD: '62 Fender Pro

Post by DeathJag » Mon Apr 25, 2022 3:13 pm

Argh I wanted that one haha! Glad you got it Steve. Yow! Whatta beauty.

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Re: NAD: '62 Fender Pro

Post by Surfysonic » Mon Apr 25, 2022 5:04 pm

DeathJag wrote:
Mon Apr 25, 2022 3:13 pm
Argh I wanted that one haha! Glad you got it Steve. Yow! Whatta beauty.
Thanks, Daniel! :)
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Re: NAD: '62 Fender Pro

Post by i love sharin foo » Mon Apr 25, 2022 5:30 pm

That is one beautiful amp!

For my brown Princeton, I bought a new Fender foot switch. I sanded it down and painted it brown. Then I cut the ends off of an old brown, two conductor extension cord and attached it. Finally, I soldered on the old style RCA plug. It looks the part now and didn’t cost the several hundred that old brown ones do.
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Re: NAD: '62 Fender Pro

Post by Larsongs » Mon Apr 25, 2022 6:18 pm

So you took about $230.00 per Guitar.. Hope it’s a great Amp! Enjoy..

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Re: NAD: '62 Fender Pro

Post by blacktiger » Mon Apr 25, 2022 6:43 pm

Love the brownface amps! BITD, when they were affordable as the redheaded stepchildren of tweeds and blackfaces, I went through a Super, Concert, Bandmaster, and a Deluxe. They were all great amps. If prices had stayed reasonable, I would have loved to try one with a 15” speaker (Pro or Vibrasonic, I’m not picky). If you have the time, I’d love to see a demo when it comes back from the shop.
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Re: NAD: '62 Fender Pro

Post by Surfysonic » Mon Apr 25, 2022 8:24 pm

i love sharin foo wrote:
Mon Apr 25, 2022 5:30 pm
That is one beautiful amp!

For my brown Princeton, I bought a new Fender foot switch. I sanded it down and painted it brown. Then I cut the ends off of an old brown, two conductor extension cord and attached it. Finally, I soldered on the old style RCA plug. It looks the part now and didn’t cost the several hundred that old brown ones do.
Thanks! I totally admire your ingenuity re: the footswitch. I'll probably just get a modern replica of the 1-button RCA input from Darren Riley Guitar Parts - https://darrenriley.com/store/fender-1- ... 994050000/.
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Re: NAD: '62 Fender Pro

Post by Surfysonic » Mon Apr 25, 2022 8:32 pm

Larsongs wrote:
Mon Apr 25, 2022 6:18 pm
So you took about $230.00 per Guitar.. Hope it’s a great Amp! Enjoy..
Yup, not much but it was expected, thanks! I'd make a little more by putting them on Reverb but not by much after Reverb fees and shipping costs. I felt it was worth doing it this way to save me some time, effort, and hassle. I got burned by UPS not so long ago where a guitar I sold took some damage (see future repair mod post soon), so I'm a little hesitant to ship stuff out unless I have no other option.
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Re: NAD: '62 Fender Pro

Post by Surfysonic » Mon Apr 25, 2022 8:51 pm

blacktiger wrote:
Mon Apr 25, 2022 6:43 pm
Love the brownface amps! BITD, when they were affordable as the redheaded stepchildren of tweeds and blackfaces, I went through a Super, Concert, Bandmaster, and a Deluxe. They were all great amps. If prices had stayed reasonable, I would have loved to try one with a 15” speaker (Pro or Vibrasonic, I’m not picky). If you have the time, I’d love to see a demo when it comes back from the shop.
Awesome, nice to hear from another brownface amp guy! I've been jonesing for a Concert and was considering just getting cash instead of the trade deal to hunt down a Concert. There were some other 4x10 amps in the shop (DeVille, Bassman). I'm closing in on 59, so lifting them up put me back into reality. I can manage fine with the Pro.

I guess I could get a Tone Master Super Reverb and be done with it but they're not quite the same as a Concert. Oh, well. Also hard to justify since I have a TM Twin Reverb that's great for what it is. In the end, it makes me appreciate my 3x10 Vibro-King - really love those '90s amps.

There's a '61 Super (2x10) on Guitar Center's used amps section listed as "Fair" condition for about $2799. The "Fair" condition was concerning and since I couldn't check it out in person (it's in Nashville), I decided to go with the Pro since it's a great amp in its own right and convenient to check out in person.

I had a '60 Vibrasonic for a time - loved it and I regret letting it go. I love 1x15 amps, too. The '62 Pro is definitely more portable if playing out with friends than my '63 Showman head & cab beast.

I'll definitely do a demo of the '62 Pro soon, thanks!
Last edited by Surfysonic on Mon Apr 25, 2022 8:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: NAD: '62 Fender Pro

Post by Larsongs » Mon Apr 25, 2022 8:54 pm

If you ended up with a great Amp & are happy that’s what matters…. I’ve been curious about De Pinto Guitars for quite awhile.. I just never see any… Play in good health..

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Re: NAD: '62 Fender Pro

Post by Surfysonic » Mon Apr 25, 2022 9:04 pm

Larsongs wrote:
Mon Apr 25, 2022 8:54 pm
If you ended up with a great Amp & are happy that’s what matters…. I’ve been curious about De Pinto Guitars for quite awhile.. I just never see any… Play in good health..
Thanks! Yeah, I've been watching Atomic's Reverb shop daily a lot lately and the DiPinto wasn't listed so it was a surprise to me. It must have been put out on the floor recently. It's the Safari (made in China) version and I've never played a US DiPinto. From what little time I've spent with it so far, it's quite nice! Gotta find a tremolo bar for it. I removed the little cream witchhat knobs and put on some larger white witch hat ones for now.

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Re: NAD: '62 Fender Pro

Post by Scout » Tue Apr 26, 2022 12:38 pm

Looks like a keeper Steve! Must be something in the air, I just got that 60's Ampeg version on Thursday.
Enjoy!

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Re: NAD: '62 Fender Pro

Post by i love sharin foo » Tue Apr 26, 2022 12:56 pm

Surfysonic wrote:
Mon Apr 25, 2022 8:24 pm
i love sharin foo wrote:
Mon Apr 25, 2022 5:30 pm
That is one beautiful amp!

For my brown Princeton, I bought a new Fender foot switch. I sanded it down and painted it brown. Then I cut the ends off of an old brown, two conductor extension cord and attached it. Finally, I soldered on the old style RCA plug. It looks the part now and didn’t cost the several hundred that old brown ones do.
Thanks! I totally admire your ingenuity re: the footswitch. I'll probably just get a modern replica of the 1-button RCA input from Darren Riley Guitar Parts - https://darrenriley.com/store/fender-1- ... 994050000/.
That one will work, too! I went a bit overboard with mine but it was a fun little project and cost very little other than the time.
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Re: NAD: '62 Fender Pro

Post by Maggieo » Tue Apr 26, 2022 12:57 pm

That amp is sweet! :-* :-* :-* :-*

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Re: NAD: '62 Fender Pro

Post by Surfysonic » Tue Apr 26, 2022 1:46 pm

Thanks, all! :)
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