Tell me about today's Fenders

[MrDINO]

I'm looking to buy a Fender combo to take to practises as lugging head and cab is wearing thin. Tried a silver face reissue at RS which was cool. Can anyone shed light on a nice light weight combo. Thanks

[Reg18]

I'm looking to buy a Fender combo to take to practises as lugging head and cab is wearing thin. Tried a silver face reissue at RS which was cool. Can anyone shed light on a nice light weight combo. Thanks

What sort of budget? Princeton Reverb is the first that comes to mind but that's not exactly Blues Junior money.

[MrDINO]

Not sure on budget. Probably up to 1.5k?

[null_pointer]

Going new or second hand? If you can actually find someone selling one, the Princeton Reverb would fit that budget in the second hand market. Also how loud do you need it?

[Conway]

I'm looking to buy a Fender combo to take to practises as lugging head and cab is wearing thin. Tried a silver face reissue at RS which was cool. Can anyone shed light on a nice light weight combo. Thanks

I like blackface.

(That'll have me in trouble with the PC brigade LOL)

[Molly]

I've had a few Hot Rod Deluxe amps. Thought the build quality was cheap. Valve sockets mounted directly on the board led to cracking and an intermittent fault. Clean was OK.

[TmcB]

I've just put a '68 Custom Deluxe on layby because it's the best amp I've played in years.

Absolutely love it.

And if later you feel you want to try a '65 DRRI you just change one resistor and the speaker.

There are complaints in forum land that it's got some hiss at idle. This is due to the lack of negative feedback and it being a no-master-volume amp - I a/b'd it against an AC30 with Master maxed and the AC30 had the same hiss. I'll bet if it shipped with attenuator or Master Volume there would be no complaints.

However, the GrooveTubes "valves" Fender ships their amps with are absolutely awful though - the 2 12AT7's were scratching and popping, and the 12AX7's were microphonic. So that's most of your preamp tubes that need replacing.

So there you go. I've got a set of tubes on the way to replace the preamp.

I love it but Fender don't help the awesomeness get out as easily as it could. Other than that, clean is stunning, reverb and trem are lovely, crunches like a mofo, and sounds hauntingly beautiful when you want it to.

[MrDINO]

I've just put a '68 Custom Deluxe on layby because it's the best amp I've played in years.

Absolutely love it.

And if later you feel you want to try a '65 DRRI you just change one resistor and the speaker.

There are complaints in forum land that it's got some hiss at idle. This is due to the lack of negative feedback and it being a no-master-volume amp - I a/b'd it against an AC30 with Master maxed and the AC30 had the same hiss. I'll bet if it shipped with attenuator or Master Volume there would be no complaints.

However, the GrooveTubes "valves" Fender ships their amps with are absolutely awful though - the 2 12AT7's were scratching and popping, and the 12AX7's were microphonic. So that's most of your preamp valves that need replacing.

So there you go. I've got a set of valves on the way to replace the preamp.

I love it but Fender don't help the awesomeness get out as easily as it could. Other than that, clean is stunning, reverb and trem are lovely, crunches like a mofo, and sounds hauntingly beautiful when you want it to.

The 68 was the one I tried...very nice

[TmcB]

The 68 was the one I tried...very nice

Yessir, there are plenty of folks saying it's the best amp Fender have put out in years. It's worth the gold.

[Slowy]

I've just put a '68 Custom Deluxe on layby because it's the best amp I've played in years.

Absolutely love it.

And if later you feel you want to try a '65 DRRI you just change one resistor and the speaker.

There are complaints in forum land that it's got some hiss at idle. This is due to the lack of negative feedback and it being a no-master-volume amp - I a/b'd it against an AC30 with Master maxed and the AC30 had the same hiss. I'll bet if it shipped with attenuator or Master Volume there would be no complaints.

However, the GrooveTubes "valves" Fender ships their amps with are absolutely awful though - the 2 12AT7's were scratching and popping, and the 12AX7's were microphonic. So that's most of your preamp valves that need replacing.

So there you go. I've got a set of valves on the way to replace the preamp.

I love it but Fender don't help the awesomeness get out as easily as it could. Other than that, clean is stunning, reverb and trem are lovely, crunches like a mofo, and sounds hauntingly beautiful when you want it to.

And I was about to ask, "Has anyone tried the 68 Custom Deluxe?"
Timing... and thanks; GAS officially alight.

[TmcB]

And I was about to ask, "Has anyone tried the 68 Custom Deluxe?"
Timing... and thanks; GAS officially alight.

It should be!

It's like someone took all the things I liked about my AC30 (touch sensitivity, nice dirty/clean sweet spot, taking pedals nicely, sweet midrange) and put it into a Fender (amazing reverb and trem, beautiful clean, solid lows, lighter-weight)

That is a very happy place for me.

[sizzlingbadger]

I tried out the smaller Princeton and that was nice too. Tony, will you be using an attenuator at home to get drive or just pedals ?

[TmcB]

I tried out the smaller Princeton and that was nice too. Tony, will you be using an attenuator at home to get drive or just pedals ?

Both of those - although the sweet spot isn't ear-splitting I think an attenuator will help for playing in the evenings

[null_pointer]

DRRIs sound great around 4 in the vol knob, and that isn't actually obscenely loud. Same with Princetons, from about 3ish they start to give 'that' sound

[MrDINO]

Going new or second hand? If you can actually find someone selling one, the Princeton Reverb would fit that budget in the second hand market. Also how loud do you need it?

Second hand or new. Never tried a Princeton...as long as an LP doesn't fold it up. Needs to be 20W plus really. Absolutely love the xtc Bogner with its awesome blackface cleans and drive ( unequalled imho) but trying for more versatility/less weight. See how we go