The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary

View Poll Results: Fender PRRI '68 or PRRI '65

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  • Fender '68 Custom Princeton Reverb Reissue

    22 18.97%
  • Fender '65 Princeton Reverb Reissue

    62 53.45%
  • Save your money and buy an original Silverface Era Priceton

    23 19.83%
  • Save your money and buy a 1980's Fender Rivera era Princeton II

    11 9.48%
Multiple Choice Poll.
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Posts 51 to 75 of 122
  1. #51

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    It's all about midrange....

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  3. #52

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    Celestion creambacks. Very nice.


    Quote Originally Posted by neatomic
    bebob..you might find this interesting..the new celestion creamback alnico..the blue-gold-alnico thing taken further



    subsequently lance k now has two 4 x12 cabs stuffed with celestion creambacks..about 2K$$$ worth!! haha


    & agreed, i wouldn't push a single blue celestion too far..too precious a commodity and also has its definitive window of sound..which i wouldn't want to upset..

    why i'm big celestion gold advocate..supplies same tight low end and (near) chime of blue, but without breakup (with lower to mid power amps)..ie jazz!!

    cheers

  4. #53

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    With all the talk about headroom and special edition reissues with 12" speakers, I'm surprised no one has recommended an '80's Fender Princeton Reverb II. Again, one will likely not loose money down the road at sell time, contrary to most new amps.

    These amps feature 22 watts; tons of headroom; 1x12 speaker; point-to-point wired and reasonably priced.
    Recent sales on Reverb has it well below $1k.

    Fender Princeton Reverb II 1980s Blackface Price Guide | Reverb

    I lucked up on a PRII that came with the factory option EV12L speaker. This amp sounds great at home and can hold its own at most any club gig. Its as loud as a Deluxe Reverb.

  5. #54

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    I agree and that's why I included it as choice number 4 on the poll. As a Rivera design, that re-thought and took Fender amp on a new direction coming out of the 1970's. The design decisions were being made by marketing in the late 1970's. Great story in Fender's history. If you don't know about it, its a great story.




    Quote Originally Posted by Gitfiddler
    With all the talk about headroom and special edition reissues with 12" speakers, I'm surprised no one has recommended an '80's Fender Princeton Reverb II. Again, one will likely not loose money down the road at sell time, contrary to most new amps.

    These amps feature 22 watts; tons of headroom; 1x12 speaker; point-to-point wired and reasonably priced.
    Recent sales on Reverb has it well below $1k.

    Fender Princeton Reverb II 1980s Blackface Price Guide | Reverb

    I lucked up on a PRII that came with the factory option EV12L speaker. This amp sounds great at home and can hold its own at most any club gig. Its as loud as a Deluxe Reverb.

  6. #55

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    Those PR II's are great amps, Fender's answer to a Boogie as designed by Paul Rivera before starting his own amp company. I'd love to try one with an Eminence DeltaLite neo speaker (EV's are too heavy for me these days).

    The blue paisley Princeton reissue is pretty cool also.

  7. #56

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    Purple!

  8. #57

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    I'm a Rivera fan -- an 83 SC I owned for a few years back in the 90s is probably the best amp I've owned, and one I still regret selling. Not a great jazz amp, but I'll be damned if it couldn't do almost anything I asked of it. First amp I owned where I felt comfortable eschewing pedals and just plugging straight in.

  9. #58

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    I really like the 65 reissue amps. Had a Deluxe (in both funk and rock bands) until I was sick of carrying it plus it was too loud. I have had my 65RI Princeton for a few years now (which I checked side by side with the 68 which I though was not as clear but still a nice sound). Swapped out valves and speaker, Eminence Legend. With a band they really are very clear I guess why so popular.

    ... but the other day I played my Princeton side be side with a hand wired point to point clone. Even clearer and superior mids, much more punch than the re issue and the same price so if I had to do it again I would go that route with the benefit of hindsight (and probably will for my birthday next year).

    .... but the Deluxe 65reissues are stock amps at many venues (Smalls, Bar Next Door, Blue Note so you can check them out on you tube in the hands of pros like Ed Cherry, Peter Bernstein, Lage Lund etc) Gilad Hekselman sure makes them sound fantastic:



    Maybe neatomics Celestion Gold would do the trick but in Australia they are $375.

  10. #59

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    Quote Originally Posted by gggomez
    ... but the other day I played my Princeton side be side with a hand wired point to point clone. Even clearer and superior mids, much more punch than the re issue and the same price so if I had to do it again I would go that route with the benefit of hindsight (and probably will for my birthday next year).
    I wish I could have found an affordable P2P Princeton Clone or even better a good working condition original, when I was shopping for a PRRI 65 last spring; I ended up with a brand new FSR for 800$ and could not be happier.
    With its P10Q and the JAN 5751 in V1 it is perfect for my living room application.

  11. #60

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    FSR?!? What does that stand for?

  12. #61

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    Quote Originally Posted by Little Jay
    FSR?!? What does that stand for?
    Facesilver Reverb, of course.

  13. #62

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    Quote Originally Posted by Little Jay
    FSR?!? What does that stand for?
    Fender Special Run.
    They do special run of their product once in a while with cosmetic or speaker options like on my fudge brownie color with Alnico P10Q as opposed to the regular run C10R in black finish.

    They also have run they call LE Limited Edition
    Fender Limited Edition '65 Princeton Reverb 15W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp Bordeaux Reserve | Guitar Center

  14. #63

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    Purple!

  15. #64

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    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    Purple!
    Oh no! Not again!!! 🙃

  16. #65

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    Fender '68 Custom Princeton Reverb Reissue or Fender '65 Princeton Reverb Reissue????-imgres-jpg

  17. #66

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    I sometimes forget how different Fender Blackface amps sound at different volumes. They are so much sweeter when pushed. So if you are trying them out try with amp volume at say 5 and back off the guitar volume bring the guitar tone up, very different tone to volume at 3, guitar volume up tone rolled off. The highs become so much warmer (you may need to back off the bass as you increase the volume).

  18. #67

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    Quote Originally Posted by gggomez
    I really like the 65 reissue amps. Had a Deluxe (in both funk and rock bands) until I was sick of carrying it plus it was too loud. I have had my 65RI Princeton for a few years now (which I checked side by side with the 68 which I though was not as clear but still a nice sound). Swapped out valves and speaker, Eminence Legend. With a band they really are very clear I guess why so popular.

    ... but the other day I played my Princeton side be side with a hand wired point to point clone. Even clearer and superior mids, much more punch than the re issue and the same price so if I had to do it again I would go that route with the benefit of hindsight (and probably will for my birthday next year).

    .... but the Deluxe 65reissues are stock amps at many venues (Smalls, Bar Next Door, Blue Note so you can check them out on you tube in the hands of pros like Ed Cherry, Peter Bernstein, Lage Lund etc) Gilad Hekselman sure makes them sound fantastic:



    Maybe neatomics Celestion Gold would do the trick but in Australia they are $375.
    That's a fantastically unflattering freeze frame of Gilad.

  19. #68

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    Reply to the OP
    You got to go with the older wax, hand-wired electronics. Buy an old CBS Fender amp late 60s early 70s, find a guy who either works on old tube radios or amplifiers. Have the electronics cleaned up, try and use NOS tubes. The tube guy can tell 'what's what' pretty easy, tell him you want as much 'pressure' as he can create. Have the amp 'black-faced'.
    There is really no comparison to a well done older wax amp, with high quality NOS tubes, versus ANY amp that has silicone electronics and modern built tubes. They do not make tubes like they used to.

    For speakers you need a 12". 10" speakers are a joke by themselves. If you got the money try the Celestion "Gold" 50watt. It is a little heavy for a Princeton, wattage-wise but if you are looking for huge clear tone, there is NOTHING out there that can out-walk a Celestion Gold, Blue or Cream.
    The Blue is made for lots of natural breakup and very low volumes. The Cream is 90watts, that is a little beefy for a Princeton(a 15 watt amp).

    If you really wanna be able to 'release' the low wattage monster, get a late 60s early 70s CBS Deluxe Reverb(a 22 watt amp). You could try the Celestion Cream in it. That model of Deluxe that has been suited with some ferocious old school tubes and a Celestion Cream.. that amp could purr like a little kitty cat but you could turn it up and hang with a Marshall 4x12, but the thing is, even at 'that loud volume' the amp would be VERY VERY smooth and clean.
    If you want distortion, get a pedal, and buy a modern fender amp, ha.
    But for quality, clarity and genuine definition, use blackface imitation, hand-wired, wax electronics, with those old high pressure capable NOS tubes and Alnico speakers. That is The Garden of guitar-tone Eden.
    Last edited by BigKingBud; 05-11-2017 at 06:06 PM.

  20. #69

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    +1 on "sweetness" of blackface Fenders when pushed. For years I played a '66/'67 (one of the last of the blackface) Deluxe Reverbs. That amp was maybe the prettiest sounding amp when pushed hard that I have _ever_ played. Years later, I played in a band (out of town for me) that supplied me with almost the same amp, however this amp had an old Fender Twin Amp 12" speaker in there. Well, this amp was even sweeter. Clean, it had more girth than the first amp. Pushed, there was less speaker cone cry, but superb 6V6/6AT7 singing distortion. This was a VERY useful amplifier. I tried to buy it, but no dice.

  21. #70

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    To me Princetons can sound pretty darned good with a 10" speaker, especially for jazz, but as stated above, it has to be the right match. I dropped a 150 watt EV10 into my '68/69 non-reverb and it sounds killer.

    Yes, it made the amp heavier by 12lbs, but still manageable.

    Looks like this...


    This would be too much...


  22. #71

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  23. #72

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    I bought a Limited Edition Blonde '65 Princeton and attempted to replace the Jensen with a Celestion Gold speaker, but it keeps buzzing when I hit my lower e string.

    Might have something to do with the Jensen being half the weight, and the Celestion having double the holes for screwing in, (no pun intended), but I dont want to start drilling in my amp (yet).

    Funny thing is, everyone online (forums) seems to be lyrical about getting theirs replaced, but no-one seems to have this issue...

    Any suggestions would be deeply appreciated. (no pun intended)

  24. #73

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    Cicero, I read/heared that the the speaker baffle and the back panels can be prone to vibrations due to resonance of a certain frequency. Maybe this speaker produces more bass triggering that?

    You can test that by removing the back panels to see if that makes it go away. If it’s still there it could be the baffle. I think you could test that by pressing onto the baffle from behind with your hand to see if it stops. If it’s the panels they need to be reinforced to stiffen them. Check here: Billm Audio >> Cabinet buzz fix for Princeton Reverb

    The 4-point speaker mounting should in theory be enough, but still could be the problem if you over-tightened the screws and deformed the speaker rim. That might be corrected by loosening them a bit and adding 4 extra screws. Could be test by adding 4 wood screws directly into the wood, but for a permanent solution you would want to drill holes and use bolts. (Requires removing and re-attaching the speaker cloth I guess).

    Lastly the speaker - even if new - could be faulty and have a rattle inside.

  25. #74

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    Thank you very much for your helpful reply.

  26. #75

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cicero
    Thank you very much for your helpful reply.
    Hope you get it fixed, good luck!