I previously owned a used '90s Fender '63 Vibroverb Reissue. I bought it from Atomic Music for the hefty price of $800 back in (I think) 2014. I eventually traded it back in (if I remember right) to Atomic Music some years later for other gear after I acquired my first Fender Vibro-King, thinking at the time, well, now I've upgraded from a 2x10 to a 3x10. Both are obviously awesome, I just didn't appreciate it at the time.
Not too long ago, I bought a Mojotone replica cab on Reverb and put my Fender "Custom" Vibrolux in it. After a while, I concluded it just wasn't the same. I was lying to myself. Also, I felt I was doing a disservice to the "Custom" Vibrolux by taking it out of its lovely original cabinet. So I put it back in its original cabinet. I felt the balance in the Universe had been restored.
I thought about getting the Mojotone kit to make a handwired Vibroverb clone. However, I need to take baby steps and get one of Mojotone's simpler Tweed builds before attempting a Vibroverb kit build. I put this idea on the backburner and one day I'll go for it as I am keen to learn. One day I'll build it and call it the Surfysonicverb...or something like that.
I'm guilty of having a handwired amp preference over pcb amps, even though I do have a few pcb amps that have all been great. Then I saw this video a few days ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPFOdDWVgjI
This made me realize that I all I really wanted was what I once had (or close to it). Karma eventually responded with me getting a decent "Make an Offer" deal on Reverb for this early '90s Fender '63 Vibroverb Reissue (40-Watt, 2x10).
It has a few mods. First, the original cab was replaced with a Mojotone cab. I stll have the other Mojotone cab - likely I'll use it with the Mojotone kit build one day.
The Polarity switch was removed and replaced with a bias pot:
Original speakers have been swapped out for a pair of 10" Eminence Legend speakers.
I don't recall specifically if the speakers in my first '63 Vibroverb Reissue were Oxford speakers or if they had been swapped out by the previous owner with Jensens. I thought they were Jensens, which I usually like, however, my memory is a bit fuzzy. In any case, the speakers in that amp were a bit wooly - like a wool blanket was placed over the cabinet at low volumes at home. It sounded great when cranked for gigs, though.
It never occurred to me at the time (before I became interested in guitar/amp tech geekery) to swap out the speakers. What I read back then, was the Fender '63 Vibroverb Reissue needed the Fromel mod (or Moyer mod?), which I actually had gotten applied to my "Custom" Vibrolux to fix it's well known issues (hissing, hum, lack of reverb from reverb tank). My Vibroverb '63 RI didn't have those issues, though, so I didn't move forward with getting a mod at the time.
I like Eminence speakers as I have other Eminence speakers (15" Eminence Legend in my Fender Pawn Shop Excelsior Pro and 12" Eminence Special Design "CS" in my Fender '62 Princeton Chris Stapleton Edition).
Happily, my new '63 Vibroverb Reissue sounds great at any volume.
Here with my other '90s Fender, the Vibro-King. Along with the 90's "Custom" Vibrolux Reverb, I'm accruing quite the '90s era amps. I doubt I'll get the "Custom" Vibrasonic as I've already got a couple other 1x15 Fender amps and the Custom Vibrasonic's 100 watts is more than I'll ever need at this point in my life.
The serial number on my first '63 Vibroverb Reissue was AB01181, (A=1990, B=February according to Fender Product Dating) making it a February 1990 amp:
Interestingly, my new amp's serial number is actually only a little bit earlier than my previous VIbroverb. SN# AB00410 - also a February 1990 amp.
Well, that's one less obsession to scratch off the list!
