Guitar Amp Blog

After perusing Fender’s site this week, I realized that the Fender Hot Rod line also included the four “Blues” models which I had completely left out.  Upon realizing my mistake, I quickly added four more sections to the Fender Hot Rod category.

The two sections for the Fender Blues Deluxe and the Fender Blues Deville feature two amp models that are really “reissues” of the original Hot Rod models released in 1993.  Although these models are very similar to the current product Fender Deluxe and Fender Deville, they feature circuitry voiced more for country, classic rock and blues.  Most of the other changes are cosmetics including tweed tolex and “Chicken-Head” pointer style knobs.

The other two models, the Pro Junior and Blues Junior, are small combo amps both rated at about 15 watts.  Where the Blues Junior is really a scaled down version of it’s bigger brothers in the product line, the Pro Junior features circuitry and tone more closely resembling that of early Fender models like the Champ, Princeton and Harvard.  Another key difference is the Blues Junior sports a 12-inch speaker where the Pro Junior offers a 10-inch.  Either model sounds great cranked up and pushed to the limit.

I picked up my Dr Z Mazerati in the summer of 2003 after an exhaustive search for a real “tone-monster” amp that would quell my search for tone once and for all.  Dr Z amps are hand-built and hand-wired by a small team of talented craftsman resulting in amps that are slowly achieving a legendary status among touring musicians and tone snobs everywhere.  If you looking for serious tone and have a few bucks to spend, check out all of Dr Z’s amplifiers at www.drzamps.com or his top US dealer at www.fatsoundguitars.com in Cary, North Carolina.

I picked up my Mazerati at a small dealer in New Jersey.  All the talk about 3D sound and harmonic complexity may sound like marketing gibberish, but once you sit down with an amp of this caliber, you’ll realize there is some truth in there.  The Mazerati has a presence and voice that really stood out - especially when A/B’d against other mainstream amps.  To be fair, this is really more of a “Strat” type amp, but still has respective tones when used with humbuckers.

The Mazerati uses four EL84 power tubes to deliver about 32 watts.  The preamp section is powered by one 5751 and 12AX7 which helps notch down the gain and retains the sparkly chime at fairly high volume.  Also rare in a modern tube amp is a tube rectifier handled by a single 5AR4.  Peer inside the chassis and you’ll also see one of the largest transformers around - Dr Z doesn’t cut corners on components.

Simplicity is the hallmark of Dr Z amps.  Plug in and all you have to worry about is the volume and a single tone knob.  One tone knob may seem a bit stingy, but it covers a wide spectrum and has a tone for everybody in there.  Well, almost everybody.  This is not a high gain amp for metal or other saturated distortion applications, but is really geared more for country, blues and classic rock.  Notable players who use the Mazerati are Joe Walsh, Brad Paisley and Buddy Whittington of John Mayall Bluesbreakers.

Although I haven’t heard any clips, the Mazerati is also supposed to be a great amp for pedal steel guitar.

Although many reissues from Fender have been released and scores of companies offer replicas, the term “Tweed” generally refers to the amps that Fender manufactured in the late 1940s through the 1950s.  Named for their “tweed” covering over the cabinet, these amps are highly collectible and have a highly sought after tone.  Although their were numerous models from that era, the most popular were the Fender Champ, Fender Princeton, Fender Harvard (rare), Fender Deluxe, Fender Bassman and the highly popular Fender Twin.

Because the circuits of these Fender amp models changed slightly over time, many enthusiasts include the schematic number to further identify a specific amplifier.  Terms like Fender Champ 5F1, Fender Princeton 5D2 and Fender Bassman 5F6 all refer to specific model revisions.

For this section, I’ve only added two section because many of these models appears in other categories.  I’ve included 1950s Tweed Amps and another section for Fender Tweed Parts, which includes speakers, knobs, logo and faceplates.

At the urging of a few visitors, I’ve included a new top level category for Supro Amplifiers, made by Valco and distributed widely by Sears and Roebuck under the Silvertone private label.  Although the first Supro amplifiers appears well before WWII, they were made in fairly large numbers after the war’s close.

Supro Amps’ primary claim to fame is Jimmy Page’s use of the amp on the solo of “Stairway To Heaven” on Led Zeppelin’s critically-acclaimed fourth album.  Long known for his favored pairing of Les Paul Standard with Marshall amplification, much of Zep’s first two albums are recorded on a Telecaster plugged into various Supro amps.

The Fender “Hot Rod” Series were originally called the Fender American Tubes (F.A.T) Series when they were introduced in 1996, but changed names in 2002 when manufacturing went to Mexico. Supposedly, these are the best selling tube amps in the world. The Fender Hot Rod line claims to deliver tube performance, versatility and value in a package combining vintage tone with revved-up current features.

The two primary models are the Hot Rod Deluxe and the Hot Rod Deville. The Fender Hot Rod Deluxe is a available in a 1-12″ speaker configuration with 40 watts (into 8 ohms) delivered by 2 6L6 power tubes in a 45lbs package. The Hot Rod Deville offers two different configurations, a 2×12 and a 4×10, and delivers 60 watts (into 2 or 4 ohms) using the same 2 6L6 power tube configuration. Both models feature Eminence speakers as well as external speaker jacks for extension cabs.

Other features include three selectable channels (Normal, Drive and More Drive), independent gain and master controls in drive channel, bright switch, effects loop, reverb, 2-button 3-function footswitch for channel select, drive select and “more drive” select, chrome panel, vintage pointer knobs, internal variable bias control.

I do like the vintage stying of these amps, but believe other amps in Fender’s product line offer more authentic vintage tone - I’ve compared a Hot Rod Deluxe side-by-side with a Reissue ‘65 Deluxe Reverb, and the latter was far superior in tone in my opinion.

I was thinking back on my glorious Music Man HD-130 amp and decided to poke around a little bit on the Web to find some company history.  Beyond the fact that Leo Fender started the company after selling Fender Musical Instruments to CBS, I really didn’t know much else.  After hitting a few sites, I cobbled together some history that puts things a little more in perspective.  I posted the everything I found, which wasn’t much, directly on the Music Man Amp page.

Although Music Man technically exists as a division of Ernie Ball, I don’t think anyone would argue that it’s really in name only.  The Sabre basses are still popular, but even those have been widely modified since Leo first drew up the design.  Guitarist owe a lot of Leo Fender - RIP.

Even though the Fender Princeton has been in the Fender product line (on and off) since 1946, the classic version most players think of is the model made between 1961 and 1979. It sported 2 6V6 power tubes, doubling it’s power to 12 watts over the 6 watt Fender Champ, two 12AX7 preamps tubes and a 5U4 tube rectifier as well as a single 10 inch speaker. Like the Fender Champ, the Fender Princeton was employed often as a recording amplifier - you could crank it all the way and get a huge sound on tape.

With the onset of the 1980s, we saw Fender offer a number of addtional lines based on the Princeton like the Princeton II, and later in the 1990s, the Fender Princeton Chorus and some DSP models like the Fender Princeton 65 and the Princeton 112 (which are solid state amps). The Fender Princeton also has a long history of being modified and forming the basis for a number of new amplifier companies - Rivera is probably the best example.

In setting up this section on the Fender Princeton, I created sub categories for 1960s Fender Princetons, 1970s Fender Princetons, the very popular Princeton Chorus (which does sound amazing) and two sections for Fender Princeton Parts and Fender Princeton Cases.

In late 2003, I picked up a pre-CBS, ‘65 Blackface Champ for about $390 on eBay. I was originally looking for a 70s silverface Champ, but when I saw the great condition of this pup, I changed my tune and put in a bid. Once the amp arrived, I was thrilled with condition and even more thrilled with incredible sound of such a pint-sized amp - only 6 watts when full cranked.

Although the amp came with all the original parts, I did slot it a new Celestion 8-inch speaker and all new tubes for the power, preamp and rectifier components. Vintage stuff is great, but making these few substitutions improved the sound tremendously.

The following weekend, I set out to do some recording with my new Fender Champ and compare it to some of the other Fender amps I own. I used an Shure SM57 to close-mic the amp and a Studio Projects C-3 about 3 feet away to capture the ambient sound. After a little adjusting to eliminate phase problems, I found a nice mix between the two mics.

I’ve always read that the Fender Champ records huge, and that’s absolutely true - you would never guess the size of this amp based on the samples I recorded. The clean sounds are great, but my favorite tracks are recorded with my PRS CE 22 played through the Champ cranked all the way up - bridge humbucker wide open. Nothing captures that 70s guitar sound quite like this combination.

One of the most popular amps that Fender ever built, the Fender Champ is a classic model that was a mainstay of the product line from 1948 to 1994. An all-tube circuit design incorportated a 5Y3 rectifier, a 6V6 power tube and a 12AX7 preamp as outlined in the dominant 5F1 amp schematic. Full out, the Fender Champ delivered about 6 watts into 4 ohms typically voiced with Jensen built 8 inch speaker.

Because of it’s great sound clean and overdriven tones, the Fender Champ was a favorite in the recording studio, often mic’d with a large diaphram studio mic. Many classic rock songs throughout the years have been recorded with Fender Champs, the most notable being Derek and the Dominos’, “Layla”.

For this section, I carved the auctions into several sections to capture amps of different model flavors and ages. I started out with 1960s Fender Champs, 1970s Fender Champs and added Fender Tweed Champ to capture models from the late 40s and 50s. Two specific models were pulled out, Fender Super Champ and the Fender Vibro Champ because of their popularity. The newest Champ model, the Fender Cyber Champ, was added since many brand new models appear on eBay. Lastly, a separate section for Fender Champ Parts was created to handle panels, transformers, speakers, tubes, covers, etc.

Of all the Fender amplifiers produced over the past 40 years, the Deluxe Reverb has probably been used on more recordings than any other amplifier in history. Over the years, Deluxe Reverbs have proven to be incredibly versatile, used for surf, rock, blues, soul, country and everything in between.

Surprisingly, many early hard rock and heavy metal recordings were done with the Deluxe Reverb because of its great natural distortion characteristics, an unintended feature at the time. Whatever the playing style, the Deluxe Reverb has always been able to produce “the right sound”.

First introduced in 1964, the Deluxe Reverb is 22 watts and the original model, AB 763, is often referred to as a Blackface Deluxe Reverb (because of the control panel’s color) and was continued until mid 1968 when the control panel was changed to the silver swirl look that lasted through 1986. Fender announced the very popular Deluxe Reverb ‘65 Reissue in 1994 and in continues in production today.

The Deluxe Reverb section has been broken down into six sub categories including, 1960s Deluxe Reverb, 1970s Deluxe Reverb, Deluxe Reverb Reissue, Silverface Deluxe Reverb, Deluxe Reverb Cases, Deluxe Reverb Parts.