Tube Combo Guitar Amps

I purchased this vintage Fender tube amp (circa 1972) in the mid-80s and enjoy it tremendously to this day. Over the years it has had the usual work done (replacing dried up capacitors, new tubes, etc.). It is now 2019, and is still a fantastic amp. I suppose if I fiddled with the overdrive boost via its push-pull function on the Master Volume knob, I’d get some interesting distortion. However, I am a rhythm guitar player/singer, so boosted gain/distortion is not normally my sound style/repertoire.

The speaker mine has is a Fender-by Cerwin-Vega “PS-15” 8 ohm) and it has a massive magnet on it! The extremely knowledgeable tech guy at the shop told me it has the same circuitry as a Fender Twin Reverb and that this amp is very popular among pedal-steel guitar players. Complete specs below.

What musical styles do I use this amp for? 60s and 70s Rock

Given its weight and power, is this amp feasible for practicing, rehearsing with a band, and/or using live? Yes, to all.

Are the clean, crunchy and distorted sounds suitable? Are the parameters efficient and effective? It has a super clean sound! I don’t know about crunch/distortion because I normally play “clean” with limited use of my own distortion stomp-box.

What are the pros and cons of this amp? Pros: Punchy, super-clean, gorgeous reverb, loud, crisp, great speaker. Cons: Heavy, about 85lbs (weighs slightly less than a Twin Reverb.)

Model/Circuit Number:
Years of Production: 1972 – 1981
Era: Silverface
Configuration: Combo
Controls: Silver, forward facing w/ blue labels
Knobs: Black skirted w/ chrome center, numbered 1 – 10

Faceplate
◾Front: Normal: In, In, Bright Sw, Vol, Treb, Mid, Bass – Vibrato: In, In, Bright Sw, Vol, Treb, Bass, Rev, Speed, Intensity – Master Vol – Pilot Lamp
◾Rear: AC Outlet, Ground Sw, Fuse (2½A), Power Sw, Standby Sw, Speaker Jack, Ex. Speaker Jack, Vibrato Jack, Reverb Jack, Reverb Out, Reverb In

Cabinet
◾Dimensions: 20 x 26 3/4 x 10 5/8
◾Hardware: Large Chassis Straps 5 5/8”, 16” Tilt-Back Legs
◾Handle: Black Strap Handle
◾Feet: Casters
◾Corners: Corner Protectors

Covering Material
◾ Tolex/Tweed: Black Tolex
◾Grill Cloth: Blue sparkle grill cloth with aluminum frame (68-69), without aluminum frame (70-81)

Logo: Grill mounted, raised, chrome & black script
Weight: 85 lbs.
Speaker
◾Size: 1 x 15
◾Impedance: 8 ohms
◾Model: Fender PS-15 (72-74), JBL D-130F (74-79), Electro Voice (79-81) or Gauss 15(For more info, check out the Jensen Replacement Speakers)

Effects: Reverb, Tremolo
Watts: 100 or 135 watts
Tubes
◾Pre amp: 2 x 12AT7, 1 x 12AX7A, 3 x 7025
◾Power: 4 x 6L6GC

Bias: Fixed with Bias Pot.
Rectifier: Solid State

This vintage sounding amp, fully handcrafted in England and conceptualized in Finland, has the following features:
- Preamp tubes: 4 x ECC83/12AX7
- Poweramp tubes: 2 x 6V6
- Power: 21 Watts
- Power supply: Max 100 VA
- Combo Speaker: 12" 8 ohms, creamback 65W celestion
- Combo dimensions: 61 x 26 x 50.5 cm / Head: 61 x 26 x 27.6 cm
- Weight: Combo 22.6 kg
The cabinet is entirely made of solid Scandinavian birch wood.

A superb and very crystalline clean up to about half of the gain stroke, after which it starts to crunch slightly depending on the feel of the strings. The master volume potentiometer allows you to make it crunching or bring it up to a large overdrive even at low volume.
Usual settings in terms of eq but with in addition a cut filter (low-pass filter) which allows to attenuate or cut very high frequencies undesirable during a crunch for example but sought in its own right.
The reverb and tremolo are superb.
This amp sounds a lot like a vox ac30.
It is rather intended, as its name suggests to lovers of any musical style, except metal.

This amp really takes up the main characteristics of the old traditional mythical amps without being a faithful copy (deluxe reverb, ac30, plexi) and therefore does not have an effects loop. It will satisfy lovers of old sound, both in clean and crunch and/or overdrive.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

I purchased this amp because it sounded great and the price was right. After a week or so the power supply would go off and on. I returned it and received another and the same thing happened. So I went with a Fender Super Champ X2. If this problem has been fixed I would rate this at 4 stars. It is a fine sounding easy to use amp but two strikes and out for me.