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Post subject: 65 or 68
Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 4:18 pm
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I'm sure this may have been asked before. I'm in the market for a Fender amp. I really like the 65 and 68 Reissues. I lean a bit towards the 68 cause of the custom channel and the reverb and trem on both channels but the made in Mexico makes me worry a bit. Is that something I should worry about? Thanks.


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Post subject: Re: 65 or 68
Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 4:53 pm
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The silverface '68s are not re-issues, nor are they marketed as such by Fender.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: 65 or 68
Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 12:58 am
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francric, in my opinion no, nothing at all to be concerned with there. I've had my '68 Custom Vibrolux for ten Months now, and she's still doing great, never had a problem out of her.

As a matter of fact, I can't see any difference in the build quality of these amps, they all seem to use the same material as far as I can tell.


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Post subject: Re: 65 or 68
Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 4:59 am
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I just bought a 68 deluxe and like it a lot. Other then a tube failure after 10 minutes I've put a few hours on it with no problems. Side by side with my original 1968 DR the '68 Custom Deluxe sounds great and the Custom channel is a nice improvement. It made something that was essentially useless, very useful.


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Post subject: Re: 65 or 68
Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 9:12 am
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I would recommend the 68. The sounds you can get are amazing, and with the custom channel. It is like a whole other amp. very different, very nice!


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Post subject: Re: 65 or 68
Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 12:22 pm
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hey man to save u some money - just buy a vintage fender combo amp and get the real feel in your fingers and the sound that is second to none - you will thank me years from now. Cause your prob gonna get one eventually anyways......
Although, to answer your Q, IF you CRANK the amp often when you play it, the DRRI all the way
IF you never really play your amp over 4-5, then the 68's sound pretty good
IF you crank your amp and use your guitar vol, trust me, spend the money and get a real vintage fender- they are serviceable and will last forever and sound AND feel like no other!

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Post subject: Re: 65 or 68
Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 7:03 pm
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I have not had a chance to try the 68. I do own a 65 DRRI and it has been trouble free for over 5 years. I am sure you won't go wrong with either one.
Kenny V


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Post subject: Re: 65 or 68
Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 12:42 pm
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Having owned and gigged with both, my admittedly genius but completely useless opinion is that the '65 has better cleans, because the '68 has had the "corners sanded off" the sound in order to make it more forgiving.
The '68 Custom has reduced negative feedback. This makes the amp break up earlier. The "Normal" channel has been modded to sound like a tweed amp. This makes the amp break up earlier. The power tubes are rated "3", out of "10", where "10" is clean and "1" is dirty. This makes the amp break up earlier. The Celestion speaker is designed to (you guessed it) break up earlier.
All these "mods" are not good or bad. They just make the two amps different. Once you start cranking the volume to 5 or 6, the differences get smaller and less noticeable, especially in a live band sitch. The '68 might work better for low volume bedroom solo playing, using pedals for dirt. The '65 has squeakier cleans. Buy both!


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Post subject: Re: 65 or 68
Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 1:01 pm
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Someone can feel free to correct me if I am wrong since my participation in this part of the forum is not consistent so there may have been some amp stories I did not read.

I believe if you search this section you'll find there are more reliability issues with the 68 series than there are with the 65 series.

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Post subject: Re: 65 or 68
Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 2:54 pm
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BMW-KTM wrote:
I believe if you search this section you'll find there are more reliability issues with the 68 series than there are with the 65 series.


That does *seem* to be the case.

However, once dialed in, the '68 Custom DR is capable of some pretty righteous tones (especially when used with an A/B/Y channel selector). They just need some hand-massaging by a good tech who understands Fender's original blackface architecture and how these silverface amps differ.

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Post subject: Re: 65 or 68
Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2015 1:19 pm
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Should I take it you mean splitting the guitar signal into both input sides of the amp? That does sound like an interesting setup.

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Post subject: Re: 65 or 68
Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2015 1:36 pm
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BMW-KTM wrote:
Should I take it you mean splitting the guitar signal into both input sides of the amp? That does sound like an interesting setup.


Yeah. The '68 Custom Deluxe Reverb's two independent tone stacks (one for each channel) are voiced significantly different -- the normal side is designed to emulate a tweed amp while the vibrato channel leans more towards a traditional blackface/silverface vibe. An A/B/Y footswitch permits seamless on-the-fly channel selection.

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Post subject: Re: 65 or 68
Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2015 4:00 pm
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I've owned two 65 TRRI's, a 65 DRRI, and a 68 Custom Vibrolux Reverb along with tons of other tube amps. You cannot add "clean" to an amp that distorts early on. However, you can add distortion to a perfectly clean amp like the 65 Twin Reverb. When the 68 CVR first came out I had hoped for a lightweight, lower power version of the Twin. The 65 Twin weighs 64 lbs. and the 68 CVR is about 42 lbs. I'm 67 and was getting tired of hauling 64 lbs.! I live 200+ miles from the nearest GC and at the time, GC's didn't have the 68 Custom series in stock. So there was no way for me to test drive one. I mail-ordered my 68 CVR, bought different, much better speakers and hard JJ 6L6's. And NOTHING I did could give me that sparkling clean sound of the 65 Twin. It was very good, but still ate at me that it wasn't a Twin sound. And so, in essence, you need to decide if you like/need that sparkling clean of the 65 Twin or if you can be happy with a little bit of grit in everything you play. Good luck whatever you decide. :)


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Post subject: Re: 65 or 68
Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2015 5:48 pm
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Lynn Nicholson wrote:
And NOTHING I did could give me that sparkling clean sound of the 65 Twin.


Which is in fact the hallmark of any Twin Reverb -- miles and miles of loud/clean with nary a hint of snark.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: 65 or 68
Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2015 6:35 pm
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BMW-KTM wrote:
..........I believe if you search this section you'll find there are more reliability issues with the 68 series than there are with the 65 series.

Perhaps, but I think it's more a factor of a period of time. Fender has had a higher than usual frequency of failures of late (or a short time back). Such was not so in the beginning of the 65 DRRI. During the period I'm referencing, problems existed with the 65 DRRI and Supersonic 22 as well (and perhaps others of which I'm unaware).

Seems like the issues have now been minimized again.

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