New (for me) 1969 Fender Princeton

LOL @ "reasonable"

There you go AGAIN...opening things up when you have no business "in there".

I don't work on amps.

I buy Chinese amps knowing they're disposable - like all other things Chinese.  Except women.  Well....wait.......ehh, nevermind.

(I'm kidding....I actually have a great guy about 10 minutes from my house.  I take anything I buy used straight to him to be sure it's "firing on all cylinders".)

I'm confident that I can get anything I want from my Egnater 4212 that I would want out of an old Fender.  And since I can get all that and more out of the Egnater, I have thus-far talked myself out of an old Fender.

I record a guy who will typically use only Fender Twins...and always has because he love the tone.  He's typically been very picky about his tone.  The last time he was over, I laid out the AC30, Marshall JMP50, and my Egnater 4212 next to his Twin and asked him to give them all a listen to see if he wanted to double up on any tracks.

I already knew he loved the JMP, because we had used it before.  But I walked down the hall to a thunderous roar....just sounded killer.  I was SURE he was in the Egnager.  It actually was the AC30...and I was like DAMN!  He pulled the plug a couple of minutes later and said...."NEXT".  I had to giggle, because I would have recorded that AC30 tone he had all day, every day....but you know picky players.

Next up was the Egnater.  About ten minutes later, he told me that he wanted to use his Twin, my JMP, and my Egnater.  He loved them all.  We miked up all three for all of the rythm tracks....and it just sounded killer....like a big-ol pissed off Fender.

Good stuff!

Maybe someday, Mike...but so far, Fender  has escaped my first-pick list as I collect different amps along the way.

Last summer I walked into the GC store in Fountain Valley, Ca. As I am heading for the pro audio center, out of the corner of my eye, I spot a small, old Fender amp sitting low and inconspicuous on the floor against a stack of guitar cases. I took about 2 more steps and my vintage gear alarm went off. I suddenly stopped in my tracks which caused my son to plow in the back of me. "What?" he said stopping in his tracks. "Just a second" I told him.

I leaned down and there is a mint mid 70s Princeton. I looked in the back of the amp and it had the original speaker and a small zip lock bag with one ceramic capacitor which had been replaced.

The Princeton line is the only Fender amp which had virtually the same schematic from inception to close out. There were a few small variations but essentially the same sounding amp regardless of the year. So any year from the 60s or 70s is a killer amp.

The guy at the GC desk said the price was $500 and I talked him down to $400 because of the capacitor. (I would have paid $500). You just don't see these things very often so you have to strike while the iron is hot. 

Congratulations on your Princeton. Best recording amp I own.  

Here is a blues jam over a Guitar Center Blues Guitar Contest backing track. The backing track is from Guitar Centers website and it was produced by Pete Anderson.

I simply recorded a lead guitar part over it.

http://www.harmoniccycle....Slow%20Blues%2004a.mp3

This is my crude attempt at finger style riffing on a Hamer Artist with a Seymour Duncan PAF into the 1969/70 Fender Princeton. I have a ancient 12" EV Model 12W 25watt alnico woofer in an open back extension cabinet. I hooked it up to temporarily replace the stock Fender speaker.


Here's a photo of a pair of that type of speaker that I found on ebay a moment ago:


The amp really opened up and starting growling and stuff once I hooked up a real speaker. It's hard to describe the difference. I'm gonna hook it up to a D130 tomorrow.

This is a straight guitar cord.. everything is on 10... no pedals etc.

I recorded it with a pair of SM57s in X/Y into a Great River MP-2NV.

I mixed the guitar hot and in your face just to highlight the really straight forward tube distortion tone when it's pushing hard into a speaker that is acting springy and ringy.

best regards,
mike

Yes, I don't really have the nerve either... I like to jam over the tracks they have available for download.

I'm not a good enough player to chicken pick, :-)

So....just as I thought my lust for a Fender was gone.

Last night, a friend called me to see if I wanted to meet him at a club here in Houston to see Marcy Playground.  I don't really know their music, but I certainly felt like a night out...so I went.

They were a very tight 3 piece band.  Excellent mix.  But from where I was, I couldn't see what the guitarist was playing through.  But it sounded KILLER.  It sounded BOUTIQUE good.  I was expecting to see a Matchless or a Bogner combo up there.  And finally, it got the best of me...I had to sneak up closer for a look.

Fender Blues Deville 2x12.  A couple of thin-line Tele's, a Line6 delay, a Line6 Chorus, and a wah.

Just KILLED it all night long.

So....tonight on Craigslist....I've made a couple of offers.  :o)  But after this amp...I swear...no more.

Well...I did it.

Yesterday afternoon, a kid dropped off his 2003 Fender Hot Rod Deville 2x12.  It's in amazing shape.  A couple of dings in the tolex, and that's it.  Freshly tubed and biased, and a bag full of the tubes he just took out.  Footswitch and cover came with it.

I slapped some casters on it last night and spend a couple of hours with workin' it over.

Very nice amp indeed.  Of course, it loved my Tele and Strat.  My bassist says its his favorite amp that I've got.

I giggled a couple of times as well.....I dig it.

I was QUITE impressed with this amp's clean channel on about 9.  It REALLY rocked.

Great News Dean!!!

I have 3 and love them all.

Back when I was playing big 100watt switching channel amps and searching for a good disto tone I stumbled upon a Vibro Champ and instantly recognized the "tone" was right there... and I have been a fan ever since.

That's why I continually recommend them regardless of how resistant people are to the idea of buying a boring old amp. :-)

I hope you keep it forever!!!

best regards,
mike

...stop. Stop.... please?

I also have a Night Train and Microbaby for other varietals where needed, which I run through a 1x12 Avatar cab with a Greeback. I'll take a look at the Weber at some point. But, for now I'll stick with the stock speaker given that I can't afford to spend no monies.

I also have a Weber Blue Dog in a 1x12 Weber mini-cabinet, but I don't pull it out and try it much. I need to experiment more with that. Though I may just sell it off to finance something else, I dunno.

Dean...one more thing!

CBS-era Champs forward were retrofitted with Princeton PT's...they are finiky with new production tubes because of insanely high voltages to the 6V6's. On some amps, tubes don't play as big of a role as the champs...so a good tube is paramount.

I recently popped the original RCA in my Champ...and during diagnosing popped in a Sovtek 6v6. It was OK, but didn't have the luster the RCA had. The original tube was a '71 RCA 6V6 GTA, I usually try to stay away from 70's tubes, but the amp sounded good before I popped the tube.

I bought a late 50's RCA JAN VT107 this past week, and dropped it in. The very first chord was a wow moment...amp has never sounded this good...and I mean REALLY good! Way better than the original RCA even. I'm thinking of keeping it now, and selling the new amp I'm building instead. Tube prices are on a MAJOR dip right now, buy all the JAN's you can find...I got this one for $8+4 shipping!

I just posted a new song over in the Songs section. All of the guitars were done with the new Vibrochamp, and I think it records extremely well, for my type of music anyway:

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=2179958

I split the speaker cable and put female jacks on each end so that I could patch my Weber MiniMass attenuator into it when I want, and it sounds great cranked up. So you can get the super-hard cleans or that great 'breakup on tap' with softer cleans just depending on how hard you pick. It's quite excellent.