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The new Fender amp...any thoughts, ideas, warnings, etc...

Lots of thoughts. I've been gigging one as my main amp for over two years. That's it in my avatar under the Blue Angel.

What I love about it:

-It's got a great blondeface era tone, not quite tweed, but much warmer and fuller in the mids than the blackface stuff. Always sits well in a mix, cuts through and never sounds fatiguing. When wound up it sounds smooth, fat and balanced.

-the wattage is perfect for club use. Just enough clean headroom and it breaks up at just the right point. Bear in mind I have a simple mod done (switchable neg feedback loop) to mine to improve the clean headroom. The stock model breaks up pretty early, which is cool in itself, but I need a bit more clean push. So I have a choice of the stock tone or a cleaner, slightly tamer tone.

-The tremolo sounds great and (after a tube change) the reverb sounds great. Be warned it's a fairly restrained reverb compared to most fenders. But I don't mind that.

-It's light, has tilt legs, and looks sexy.

What I don't like:

-The tens sound great, but as a whole the bottom end isn't as tight as a 4x10 or 2x12 amp. I've learned to live with it, but I may look at different speakers at some point.

I must point out that I tried a new one a few months back, and it sounded really bright and not nearly as nice as mine. If that had been my first experience with one, I would never have tried one again.

Thanks for the detail!!!

What is the full deal with yours? Is it just a Custom Colour or is the amp a little different?

new amps always sound a little bright. speakers need to be broken in and usually they come with some kinda harsh russian tubes

Great speakers are crucial! The originals had Jensen's best 10quot; speakers: C10N. Those speakers have very solid lows, clear treble and a beautiful sounding midrange. The closest I've found to them that's being made today is the speaker Ted Weber used to call the Weber C10Q. It has a number now instead of a name and it was never like a Jensen C10Q...it was always much more like a '66 Jensen C10N. Bigger magnet and voice coil than the original jensen C10Q or the Reissue Jensen C10Q. Anyways, putting great speakers like the Weber C10Q in a Vibrolux will improve thier tone and performance more than any other trick you can do with those amps. As for the new Vibrolux Custom: they're excellant but working on them is a pain compared to working on the original blackface or silverface version from '64 to '74 because the circuit board in the new model is a printed circuit board. The handwired circuit board in the originals makes tweaking them alot easier, and IMO, a few simple circuit board tweaks makes the Vibrolux Reverb a much better sounding and more modern sounding amp.

Lew

The Amp in Hot Grits Avatar is the Vibrlux RI. I think The Vibroverb Custom is the Amp you mean. A completely different Amp. It has Mods added to it that Cesar Diaz designed and did on SRV's amps. It has a 15quot; emminence speaker rather than 2 10quot; speakers in the RI. The RI is a great amp... no question, but this is a very different Amp. I have heard many people say that this is the best quot;newquot; Fender Amp that has been released in some time. The closest thing to a real BF available. I have not played thru one yet, but this Amp is on my wish list. Here is a link to the specs on it.

from : localhost/fender.com/products/search.php?partno=8140000000


Originally Posted by BludaveThe Amp in Hot Grits Avatar is the Vibrlux RI. I think The Vibroverb Custom is the Amp you mean. A completely different Amp. It has Mods added to it that Cesar Diaz designed and did on SRV's amps. It has a 15quot; emminence speaker rather than 2 10quot; speakers in the RI. The RI is a great amp... no question, but this is a very different Amp. I have heard many people say that this is the best quot;newquot; Fender Amp that has been released in some time. The closest thing to a real BF available. I have not played thru one yet, but this Amp is on my wish list. Here is a link to the specs on it.

from : localhost/fender.com/products/search.php?partno=8140000000

Um, no, I think he means my amp. Full name is: Custom Vibrolux reverb.

Mine is an original year of issue model, 94 or 95 I believe. They were made with blondeface cosmetics for that first year, and then switched to blackface with blonde knobs. I was lucky (given the size of my local market) to find one and snapped it up.

A bit more background:

The CVR is a redesign of the ri brownface Vibroverb that fender put out in it's original line of reissues. Bruce Zinky, head of the custom shop at the time and designer of the vibro king, tone master and dual professional, took the vibroverb and tweaked it. He removed the negative feedback loop, giving the amp a more tweed-like response and dropping clean headroom, reworked the tremolo and reverb circuits and made them available to both channels, and put in eminence copies of the jensen alnico blue speakers. These speakers were a major improvement over the speakers in the earlier vibroverb, and were replaced soon after by Jensen blue reissues.

the stock speakers on the new fenders don't sound too hot when the amp is fresh, but after it's broken in, the speakers sound ok.

I'm with Lew regarding the speaker issue-speakers make a huge difference. My friend ran my 63 bandmaster through a cheapo crate 2x12 PA cab and it was a disgusting tone. With my JBL D130's that baby chimed like nothing else. I might be looking into the Webers in the future for my Deluxe.


Originally Posted by Hot _GritsFull name is: Custom Vibrolux reverb.Originally Posted by Bludave

I think The Vibroverb Custom is the Amp you mean.

Actually, both amps are made and have been made by Fender, hence the general confusion. The Custom Vibrolux Reverb comes with 2-10 inch speakers.


Originally Posted by jeremynew amps always sound a little bright. speakers need to be broken in and usually they come with some kinda harsh russian tubes

yeah, I've experienced new amp brightness before, but this example was pretty extreme. As you say, might be the tubes.

I think they're great sounding amps. New tubes and speakers give you an even more pleasing sound. I've heard of guys putting in a switch to turn a negative feedback loop on and off...I don't know enough about the workings of a NFB loop so I won't BS but I can only imagine the versatility of that setup.


Originally Posted by itbepopplesI think they're great sounding amps. New tubes and speakers give you an even more pleasing sound. I've heard of guys putting in a switch to turn a negative feedback loop on and off...I don't know enough about the workings of a NFB loop so I won't BS but I can only imagine the versatility of that setup.

Neither do I, but having had it done I know what it sounds like.

Loop in: More clean headroom, slightly tamer sounding.

Loop out: overdrives early, more raw sounding. noticeably louder than loop in.

Mine is operated via mini switch under the chassis. One day I'll get it made footswitchable, as it's ideal as a solo boost.


Originally Posted by itbepopplesI think they're great sounding amps. New tubes and speakers give you an even more pleasing sound. I've heard of guys putting in a switch to turn a negative feedback loop on and off...I don't know enough about the workings of a NFB loop so I won't BS but I can only imagine the versatility of that setup.

One trick is to replace the NF resistor with a pot. That way you can adjust the amount of negative feedback. Most Fender amps have a regular speaker jack and an additional extention speaker jack and the way to install a pot without drilling holes is to use that hole for the extention speaker jack. You remove the jack but don't unsolder it. Just remove it from the hole and then tape it all up so it won't short against anything inside the amp. Then you replace the NF resistor with a pot and use the now empty extention speaker jack to mount the pot. It's pretty easy if you know what you're doing. The bigger the resistance, whether from increasing the size of the NF resistor or turning a pot up, the less NFB. Lew


Originally Posted by BludaveIt has Mods added to it that Cesar Diaz designed and did on SRV's amps.

Does anyone know of a site that details the modifications Diaz made to SRV's amps?


Originally Posted by KGMESSIERDoes anyone know of a site that details the modifications Diaz made to SRV's amps?

I know one thing he did was to increase the size of the input resistors on the input jacks so SRV could get a cleaner tone with his heavy strings and heavy touch. SRV's issue was the opposite to what most of us are after: often times, he couldn't get a clean enough tone! By SRV clean, I think we're talking about those tones on tunes like Lenny and Little Wing and Riviera Paradise. Lew