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For the collective wisdom: This is withing driving distance for me. Good buy? The ad says
"Speaker is a Jensen (Made in Italy), looks to be a replacement for the original."
Does that sound correct?
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05-09-2017 10:56 AM
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Looks clean. Is it updated to three prong?
69 would be a blackface in silver clothes, right? Seems like a fair price.
Mine's mid-70's, paid $550. But that's without the upcharge blackface innards will bring.
The non-verb Princeton is a lovely amplifier.
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I sold a nice blackface one here for $1000 recently, so yeah, maybe 700-800
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Forgive me if I'm just stating the obvious, but the "PRINCETON AMP" and "PRINCETON REVERB AMP" are two somewhat different models. Make sure the non-reverb model is the one you're after.
PK
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I've seen Princeton Reissues with Italian-made speakers and found the sound OK but lacking in body - "brittle" is the word that comes to mind .
Let your ears be the judge and if it sounds good to your ears buy it! If it sounds "weak" or "brittle" then you could still buy the amp and put something with a bit more beef in it - like a Weber 10F125
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Yes it's pretty clean. And yes, it does look like a replacement ac cord to me. Don't know about the funky speaker connector. A few more pics:
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Thanks, I did notice that, and I do prefer verb. But aside from that, is there a difference?
Originally Posted by paulkogut
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Cool
I have a '68 silver face Princeton ... no reverb ... all original, even the tubes .. except for the three prong plug ...
IIRC the date stamp inside puts mine in March or May of '68 .. one of the earliest silver face versions
I've been told the silver face Princeton retained its black face innards for several years and was one of the last models to change ...
But I'm certainly no expert
I've had mine for a while now ... I got a really good deal for it ... I don't think my local store quite realized what they had
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Yes!
A non-reverb princeton is a clean machine. In fact, with single coils, it can be pretty much dimed and have little or no breakup in the sound.
The overall volume is less than a PR, but it doesn't dirty up. That's the trade-off.
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Is the Jensen in fact a replacement? What would the original have been?
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My first "real good" amp in HS was a mid-70's Twin, so this brings back memories
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would have been a blue label Oxford originally, not a great speaker.
the gentleman that bought mine also bought the aforementioned Weber 10F125, huge improvement.
you can get the plastic "F" Fender cable, I'd lose what's in it now.
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I have a 1964 non reverb Princeton. It is a great amp for jazz, super sweet and clean. The LA Studio guys used to use these for recording and thought of them as a mini twin.
The Italian Jensen will be lousy for jazz and will fart out on the bass notes. The original stock speaker was lousy too. Fender sold a couple of upcharge speakers with this amp back in the day:
JBL D-110 (I have one of these in my Princeton....superb speaker)
Jenson C-10N (Weber makes a repro of this https://www.tedweber.com/10f150 It is a great jazz speaker for a Princeton. I have one and if you have an interest in it PM me.
The models with reverb are a different amp. They break up more easily and are well suited for rock and blues. There are many fine reverb pedals that will do the trick.
The price seems fair, you can buy a Fender speaker cable that will look better and work fine Fender Internal Speaker Cable with 1/4" Right Angle Plug for Amplifiers, 13.5" 0038566000 (I think I have a spare one somewhere, feel free to PM me about that as well) Be careful about its sound at idle. If it is noisy, it may need a cap job.
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Thanks for all your advice. I wasn't really *looking* for one of these. I just stumbled across the ad, noticed its nice condition, and thought maybe it was a great buy.
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I think I sold my 1970 non-reverb silverface for about $575 a few years ago. The nice thing about this vintage is that you can easily swap out the existing baffle for one that accepts a 12" speaker. Takes about 10 minutes, and easy to restore (Mojotone sells the replacement baffles). Selling the amp falls into the category of the many "what was I thinking?" gear decisions I've made.
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I think that the non-reverb Princeton Amp is an excellent amplifier. It is just about impossible for it to sound bad. Cosmetically, that one appears in very good + condition. It's probably worth about what is being asked.
I would prefer the Weber speaker, myself, but there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the recoton (Italy) Jensen speaker. As mentioned, the Fender speaker cable is readily available for a neater appearance.
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As others have stated, that is a clean '69 Princeton, and if the innards have not been boogered with, you might have found a relative bargain. I paid $1,000 for my '69 Princeton last year...only it was/is in much more rough cosmetic condition. Fortunately it is a strong performer with zero issues, and sounds fantastic...with an EV10 speaker I dropped into it.
The silverface-plate on those shows every scratch and most are bent as well as scratched up. Also, the silver/blue fabric is typically darkened, stained or torn on many. My amp has all of those beauty marks and gives it character.
The MOST important issue is if the amp has been properly serviced and not modded. Speakers can be swapped in/out at your liesure, but an amp that has been abused internally can be an expensive journey. If you decide to buy that one, I'd recommend taking it to a reliable amp service tech for an evaluation just to be safe, and give you peace of mind as you play and enjoy that sweet, vintage rig.Last edited by Gitfiddler; 05-09-2017 at 03:00 PM.
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The price is ok. Not great.
You can find a clean '68 Princeton Reverb for $1000 and that has the blackface internals (blue Mallory caps, cloth covered wires) and is much more in demand.
I agree with SS and Ray. imo, the RI Jensen's leave a lot to be desired. Sterile, can be ice picky.Last edited by HeyNow; 05-09-2017 at 07:09 PM.
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Originally Posted by HeyNow
maybe 5 yrs ago, not anymore
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...I bought one a few months ago... Originally Posted by wintermoon
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anomaly, I keep track of useless info like this... Originally Posted by HeyNow
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Prices on the smaller combos definitely have shot up but there are still reasonably priced ones
Brown Princeton's and Vibrolux's seem the highest jumps
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