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Post subject: Shark Week? Seems more like Silverface Week.
Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 11:44 am
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While Beaubs was working his deal for that sweet '80 Deluxe Reverb, a SF Princeton Reverb appeared in the Cincinnati Craigslist for $750 - but the seller was in Ashland Ky, which is no short drive. (He also had it on ebay - which allowed me to look at photos in closer detail and have the Big Kahuna (Retroverbial) take a gander and provide some insight). Thank Arjay - I appreciated your help. 8)

I watched the ad for the first couple of days, then fired off an email. It was still there.... and the back story was to kill for. The current owner had traded his father for it.... who had in turned got it from his daughter-in-law's cousin. The cousin had owned since the early 1980's. So in effect - this had been cherished within the same "family" for nearly 30 years. (Please no Kentucky jokes - :wink: )

So now, I had to figure out how to get the cash for the amp. (I only purchase my guitar gear from money I raise outside of my normal job - ie: selling my comic book collection or selling other gear). I shoot off an email to someone who has been buying comics off me.... long story short, I sell Amazing Spider-man #2, #5, and #7 for $750 late Friday afternoon.

I shoot an email to the seller - who I had been in constant contact with for several days. Keeping him abreast of my efforts to raise the cash. He's ready to sell and........ Saturday morning I am up and moving and meet the seller at 8:00 AM - about 75 mile from my house (about 1/2 between me and Ashland Ky) and bring this sweet thing home.

It is about as pristine an amp as I have seen. The speaker code dates to 10th Week of 1974. Everything is absolutely original. There isn't a speck of surface rust on any of the chrome. The speaker cloth is clean. The tolex is spotless. You can't see the quality in the photos. The thing sounds amazing.


Image

Image

Image


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Post subject: Re: Shark Week? Seems more like Silverface Week.
Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 11:58 am
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Sounds like you've had quite a productive couple of days!! Congratulations on the purchase. Looks great! 8) :wink:


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Post subject: Re: Shark Week? Seems more like Silverface Week.
Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 2:44 pm
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See my dissertation elsewhere on cleaning OEM grill cloth, Patrick. That amp will look factory-new when you're done.

RAWK ON!

8)

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


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Post subject: Re: Shark Week? Seems more like Silverface Week.
Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 3:29 pm
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Looks great,like new,congrats!


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Post subject: Re: Shark Week? Seems more like Silverface Week.
Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 4:41 pm
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Very nice phansford....looks like you and I scored big this week! I am rolling out the blues licks this weekend for sure they sound so nice through the DR thank you very much. :wink:

Beaubs 8)

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Post subject: Re: Shark Week? Seems more like Silverface Week.
Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 4:50 pm
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Great find! It's amazing that such pristine babies are still out there. Esp when you see all the trashed units on EBay. Princetons and Deluxes are fantastic amps. There is nothing like that 6V6GT sound. Warm, slow onset of overdrive. Yet, good headroom. Not compressed like a typical EL84. And a good 6V6GT will last forever. Take a world of abuse and still be consistent in tone.

Good luck to both of you (Phansford and Beaubs)! Actually, I view them as prime examples of tone-makers to compare other amps to.


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Post subject: Re: Shark Week? Seems more like Silverface Week.
Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 5:32 pm
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BMW2002Ti wrote:
Actually, I view them as prime examples of tone-makers to compare other amps to.


Indeed!

They're the paradigms.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Shark Week? Seems more like Silverface Week.
Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 7:56 pm
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Beaubs, yeah that was a nice score. Silverface amps are great amps and they are still out there in great shape...just got to do the looking...I scored my SFSR about 3 or 4 months ago and it too was really clean and original.

T2

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Post subject: Re: Shark Week? Seems more like Silverface Week.
Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 12:47 am
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Personally, I'm thrilled that the cork-sniffers turn their noses up at the silverfaces......

It leaves more for us!

:lol:

In the case of the '68s and '69s, many of them are identical with their blackface bretheren. Later editions can often be backdated without much trouble by rearranging and/or deleting a few components. The composition of the chassis's wire insulation may not suit a purist but trust me -- your ears cannot discern a sonic difference between neoprene and cloth push-back.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Shark Week? Seems more like Silverface Week.
Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 5:06 am
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Retroverbial wrote:
trust me -- your ears cannot discern a sonic difference between neoprene and cloth push-back.


This is very true.... I turned 50 a few months ago and my ears just aren't the same. :lol:


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Post subject: Re: Shark Week? Seems more like Silverface Week.
Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 6:00 am
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phansford wrote:
Retroverbial wrote:
trust me -- your ears cannot discern a sonic difference between neoprene and cloth push-back.


This is very true.... I turned 50 a few months ago and my ears just aren't the same. :lol:

I can....the cloth wire has a nuance in the even order harmonics that the other wire doesn't.... :lol: :lol: :lol:
seriously,I'm like Arjay,the purists that look down their noses at the SF amps and also the Brownface amps in favor of the tweeds and Blackface have given us a chance to snatch up some real winners.
The Brownface amps I show pics of have all been less than $1,600...I very rarely see a Blackface amp of any kind now for less than $2000....and when you can score a great SF for even less,then you come out so far ahead of the game you can make some other good deals.


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Post subject: Re: Shark Week? Seems more like Silverface Week.
Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 7:34 am
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What would constitute "Blackfacing" a Silverface amp?

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Post subject: Re: Shark Week? Seems more like Silverface Week.
Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 8:17 am
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The silverface amps suffered from needless "tinkering" by the engineers that CBS hired after buying Fender. They left well enough alone for the first few years but beginning in 1968, the circuits were altered in a nebulous quest for additional clean headroom. Thus, biasing circuits were altered and tone-robbing caps added to the output stage allegedly to suppress subsonic oscillations and filter out unwanted harmonics. Plate voltages also saw an increase as the tubes were pushed harder. These modifications are all reversible to one degree or another -- however, the smaller amps in the line seemed to suffer the least of these blasphemous alterations. Which is why, despite the silverface cosmetics, the Champ, Princeton, and Deluxe models still sound like what the original designer intended.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Shark Week? Seems more like Silverface Week.
Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 8:27 am
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Retroverbial wrote:
The silverface amps suffered from needless "tinkering" by the engineers that CBS hired after buying Fender. They left well enough alone for the first few years but beginning in 1968, the circuits were altered in a nebulous quest for additional clean headroom. Thus, biasing circuits were altered and tone-robbing caps added to the output stage allegedly to suppress subsonic oscillations and filter out unwanted harmonics. Plate voltages also saw an increase as the tubes were pushed harder. These modifications are all reversible to one degree or another -- however, the smaller amps in the line seemed to suffer the least of these blasphemous alterations. Which is why, despite the silverface cosmetics, the Champ, Princeton, and Deluxe models still sound like what the original designer intended.

Arjay


Thanks.....

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Post subject: Re: Shark Week? Seems more like Silverface Week.
Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 8:49 am
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Aside from a grounded 3-conductor power cord, a grounded 3-conductor AC convenience outlet, and a 3-way polarity switch, your Princeton Reverb is remarkably similar to the original AA1164 model.

Arjay

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