Fender Limited-Edition '65 Princeton Reverb Tan w Celestion Gold

[rolijen]

This showed up on my doorstep this afternoon:


I have been missing a low wattage Fender for some time. Back in the day, I had 3 BFPRs and over the years let them go. What a dummy I was. Been keeping my eyes open. Almost went for the Sweetwater special edition but decided to stick with a 10" but a good one. This model comes with a Celestion G10 and it sounds pretty good, even brand new. I'm sure it will sound even better with a little break-in time.

I like the Tan/Wheat color scheme, but the knobs on the one they sent don't look like the one in the ad:


A quick call to MF fixed that--they're shipping out a set of the cream knobs. Sweet. Only got to play it for about a half hour, but it sounds real good. Will report back. Anyone else have experience with this combination?

Roli

[citizenk74]

No experience with this particular model, but I have owned two "Prince-Tones" - a silverface reverb and a blackface non-reverb. Parting with each was a mistake much regretted. Someday, perhaps, I'll find another. Princetons are great amps for jazz, and any other type of music not requiring toxic volume levels. I'm sure your new amp sounds as cool as it looks. Congratulations, and play it in good health!

[Gitfiddler]

Nice amp snatch, Roli. I hear the cream knobs sound even better than the black ones. Enjoy!

[rolijen]

Nice amp snatch, Roli. I hear the cream knobs sound even better than the black ones. Enjoy!

I’m going for less dark and more creamy.

[rolijen]

A few days into this, the speaker is opening up a bit more and I’m really liking this PRRI. The Celestion Gold is a great match for this amp. It’s quite efficient and really lets the amp sing at all volumes, especially from 4 to 6 on vol just before break up begins. At higher vol the breakup is ok, but not as creamy as it will be when it’s more broken in. But, I like the clean voice of this speaker a lot. My archtops sound fantastic trough it.

Big thanks to forum members jbucklin and neatomic for their strong endorsement of the Celestion Gold for jazz. I’m very impressed. Though other PRRI owners or GASsers might like to be aware of this option.

Roli

[Jimmy Mack]

I was in the practice of subbing those cream knobs onto amps because they are much easier to read while onstage where lighting can be very spotty, especially when your amp has a chrome faceplate facing backwards (Blues Junior) or black chicken heads on a dark faceplate (Vox AC15). Details details!

[neatomic]

thats a killer little amp..the celestion gold will really bring out the best in it..perfect combination

congrats & enjoy

and thanks for the shoutout

cheers

[ruger9]

I MUCH prefer cream knobs as well, the black ones look out of place. The Gold sounds fantastic in that amp.

I miss my PRRI, I need to buy another one. I love the brown tolex version. I'd put cream knobs on it too, like this guy did

[vashondan]

I MUCH prefer cream knobs as well, the black ones look out of place. The Gold sounds fantastic in that amp.

I miss my PRRI, I need to buy another one. I love the brown tolex version. I'd put cream knobs on it too, like this guy did

Gorgeous. Great choice. I’ve got the black one and put a gold in it. It is a good match. I play an Ibanez Semi hollow through it and set the amp at 8-10 and control breakup with the guitar volume a la Campilongo. I really get some sweet cleans.

Have fun with your new baby


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[asmlaw]

Thinking of the same amp -- is there enough clean head- room for a small group setting (drums, piano, bass -- nothing overly loud) in a modest venue?
Amp looks great as well. good luck with it.

[rolijen]

I believe it sounds best from 5 to 8 volume wise then adjusting guitar volume to achieve a good mix. It'll keep up with a jazz kit/light-handed drummer in a small venue.

[ruger9]

Thinking of the same amp -- is there enough clean head- room for a small group setting (drums, piano, bass -- nothing overly loud) in a modest venue?
Amp looks great as well. good luck with it.

Almost any speaker will increase headroom over the stock C10R. That's an awful speaker for anything other than "friendly" home-playing volumes. If all you play is clean and at home, it's fine. If you want any dirt out of the amp, more volume, or want to use drive pedals, the C10R is the amp's Achilles heel.

I ended up with a 10" Greenback, but in my next PR it will be a Gold.

[BeBob]

One thing to bear in mind about the Celestion AlNiCo speakers is that as you move up in power handling capability they become more midrange focused in their sound, with progressively less top end. This has to do with the physics involved in designing voice coils to handle higher power. With that in mind, it's normal to observe that the Blue would have more high-end chime than the Gold, which in turn would have more than the Cream. In that context it shouldn't surprise anyone that the Cream would sound softer on the top end and more midrangey than a Gold, and the same would be true for Gold vs. Blue.

I own all of them and I've done a lot of speaker rolling. At present I have a Cream sitting in a highly reworked Epiphone 39 Century amp which keeps getting subtle changes as I dial in it's voice. It is essentially in between a Brown and a Black Deluxe circuit right now, so that the primary appeal of what came from Epiphone is the Deco styled shell. I wanted something with a bit more power than a PR but still offered the 6V6 tone. One of the reasons that I prefer the Cream over the Gold in this amp is because the Cream rolls off a little more on top and offers more clean midrange focus, which makes the speaker sound less harsh than the Gold. The Cream also offers a bit better control over the cone and takes a bit more power before it introduces it's own speaker distortion. The result is that amplifier distortion comes along before speaker distortion, which is a particular goal for me. (As you might expect I use the guitar down / amp up control paradigm.)

I think that this combination works particularly well for clean jazz, as it has a lot of midrange focus without the shrill top end and doesn't introduce speaker distortion. And if distortion is needed it's easy to accomplish it with the guitar's volume control.

I can see why Neatomic would recommend a Gold speaker for the PR. In my experience the Cream does exactly what the Gold does, it just takes the smoothing a little farther in the progression of the Blue -> Gold -> Cream series. So if anyone is thinking about shopping for Celestion AlNiCos, hopefully this info will help guide your choices to help you find exactly what you want. Cost isn't really an option if you're spending this much on a speaker, as the cost of the 3 different speakers is about the same.

[neatomic]

when i first started recommending the celestion gold here..there was no alnico cream!!! hah

the gold is perfect for a (low watt) twin tube power amp...(if needed, you can still push the speaker a bit)..cream is overkill..sterile

gold has plenty of solid low end...and top end chime..perfect combo

midrange honk maybe more due to epi amp tone..i've never had a mids overload

if i was loadin a 4 tube fender twin type amp, i'd definitely use creams

cheers

ps- btw good stuff bb ^...its really a matter of matching amp to speaker to tone you are after..also there are matters of being vintage specific...a 1940's amp would not have had a 50 Watt plus rated speaker!! hah...a blue would have been truest

pss- the princeton uses a 10" speaker...the alnico cream doesn't even come in 10"!!..the gold for the win! haha

[gggomez]

Anyone offering interest free finance on a gold.

My Jensen p12r in my Achillies Princeton has to go, its is quite rude farting at me in the low mids but not the bottom end and the top end I find weird.