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Post subject: Please build a Custom hand-wired Blackface combo
Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 3:35 pm
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Fender, please consider building a hand-wired Blackface combo amp under your Custom Amps brand.

The target market would be those guitarists that buy expensive boutique amps.

As someone who has purchased a number of the boutiques, they are generally good amps, but just don't fully capture the tone of the Blackface vintage amps.

Suggested models would be the Blackface Vibrolux Reverb and Blackface Pro Reverb amps. These would not conflict with your reissue models, but would hit a sweet spot of enough power and portability.

If you build one of these amps, I will definitely buy one. I suspect that other boutique purchasers would too.

Thank you for your consideration.


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Post subject: Re: Please build a Custom hand-wired Blackface combo
Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 3:44 pm
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FMIC's already been there and done that.

Ever hear of the '64 Vibroverb re-issue?

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Please build a Custom hand-wired Blackface combo
Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 4:54 pm
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...or better yet, instead of paying the price of the boutique amps and not getting what you want, just plunk down those dollars on a Vintage Blackface Amp, take it to a good qualified tech, and then live your musical life as Leo intended!


T2

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Post subject: Re: Please build a Custom hand-wired Blackface combo
Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 7:02 pm
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T2Stratman wrote:
...or better yet, instead of paying the price of the boutique amps and not getting what you want, just plunk down those dollars on a Vintage Blackface Amp, take it to a good qualified tech, and then live your musical life as Leo intended!


+1000!

That's what I do.

:mrgreen:

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Please build a Custom hand-wired Blackface combo
Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 8:00 pm
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With respect, what's on my Fender amp wish list is not another reissue with printed circuit boards.

There is certainly nothing wrong with those and they supply a price point for the mass market. But not what I'm after.

Also not interested in a 50 year old amp that has been in a ton of smoky bars and probably needs refurbishing.

There are lots of boutique builders out there making Fender clones or their own interpretation based on a Fender circuit. But they just don't quite capture the tone of those vintage Fender amps.

I just think that Fender could probably do a better job of it than anyone else.

But the labor cost for producing a new hand-wired Fender Blackface would be expensive, so that it would need to be priced as a premium product under the Custom Amp brand.

It would not be for everyone. Personally, I would pay for that and other boutique buyers probably would too.


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Post subject: Re: Please build a Custom hand-wired Blackface combo
Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 9:05 pm
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You really don't get around much, do you pilgrim?

The '64 Vibroverb re-issue was a Custom Amp Shop model, with hand-wiring and solid pine finger-joined cabinetry. It retailed at close to twenty-five hundred dollars and production was very limited.

Buy your boutique amp or build a clone yourself -- either way I doubt it'll sound better than what Leo himself created or be any more reliable than one of his vintage jewels.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Please build a Custom hand-wired Blackface combo
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 7:44 am
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My mistake on the Vibroverb. I thought you were referring to the '63 Reissue with printed circuit boards.

But why not have a new version of the Vibrolux Reverb, constructed in the manner of the originals.

There are a number of boutique amps that are priced in the $2,500 to $3,500 range. All I'm saying is that I would rather have one built by Fender.

Fender obviously does do this, as you said with the Vibroverb. Today, it's the Vibro-King and tweed Bandmaster. Just a request for the VR or Pro from the Custom Amp group.

It would not just be a benefit for the high end consumer market. Like Custom Shop guitars, some of those would make their way onto the used market at a discount.


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Post subject: Re: Please build a Custom hand-wired Blackface combo
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:30 am
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there are plenty of vintage BF amps out there for the taking. Some have been played in smokey bars and some look like they stepped out of a time machine:

http://los-angeles-guitar-shop.com/

It's really up to you and the size of your wallet.

Fender did the handwired EC tweed series. Great amps, and pricey. They've announced a tweed Bandmaster, again handwired. Fender is making high end handwired amps; if they don't have the model you like, there's plenty available used for the right price.

I'm fine with the smokey bar amps - they've got character all over them. Plus, with some elbow grease as Arjay has shown, these amps can look and sound like new for a lot less than a new Fender version would be.

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Post subject: Re: Please build a Custom hand-wired Blackface combo
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 10:55 am
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nedorama wrote:
I'm fine with the smokey bar amps - they've got character all over them. Plus, with some elbow grease as Arjay has shown, these amps can look and sound like new for a lot less than a new Fender version would be.


+1

There's nothing "smokey" about these specimens......

Image

And every one of them is more reliable than any contemporary amp -- from the "big boys" or the boutique builders.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Please build a Custom hand-wired Blackface combo
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 4:11 pm
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+1.

Arjay - take a look at the website I linked to above. Princetons with the "It's Tolex!" hangtags still. Crazy clean, and unfortunately with matching price tags, but the page makes a nice wallpaper to have open on your screen...

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Post subject: Re: Please build a Custom hand-wired Blackface combo
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 4:35 pm
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Retroverbial wrote:
nedorama wrote:
I'm fine with the smokey bar amps - they've got character all over them. Plus, with some elbow grease as Arjay has shown, these amps can look and sound like new for a lot less than a new Fender version would be.


+1

There's nothing "smokey" about these specimens......

Image

And every one of them is more reliable than any contemporary amp -- from the "big boys" or the boutique builders.

Arjay


AHHHH...There is nothing like mid week amp porn from Arjay :mrgreen:

T2

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Post subject: Re: Please build a Custom hand-wired Blackface combo
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 4:38 pm
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nedorama wrote:
+1.

Arjay - take a look at the website I linked to above. Princetons with the "It's Tolex!" hangtags still. Crazy clean, and unfortunately with matching price tags, but the page makes a nice wallpaper to have open on your screen...



+1

Good gawd, look at that blackface Tremolux set......not so much as a single fly turd on it!

:shock:

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Please build a Custom hand-wired Blackface combo
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 7:40 pm
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Crazy clean. They had a BF Fender Extension speaker cab that I had never seen before recently - looks like it's off the site now.

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Post subject: Re: Please build a Custom hand-wired Blackface combo
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 8:02 pm
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The 1 x 12 cab (basically a DR sans the chassis) is somewhat common and they turn up periodically on Ebay. But the 1 x 15 is pretty rare -- aside from pics in various books, I've never personally seen one.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Please build a Custom hand-wired Blackface combo
Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 6:57 am
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Isn't the Vibro King hand wired on an eyelet board?

http://www.fender.com/series/custom/vib ... y-edition/

Art


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