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  1. #1

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    A new 1x10 Vibro Champ Reverb and a 30 lb, 40 watt Pro Reverb. I think these are both great ideas and the Vibro Champ Reverb could definitely find a future home at my house.

    Fender reinvigorates classic tube amp tones with new '68 Custom Vibro Champ and Pro Reverb | Guitar World
    Last edited by Jim Soloway; 01-14-2021 at 10:53 PM.

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  3. #2

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    That vibro champ looks nice. Anyone any idea what that amp should cost?

  4. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by Marcel_A
    That vibro champ looks nice. Anyone any idea what that amp should cost?
    $749 US. I have no idea what that would make the street price (or the price in Canada). Release is scheduled for April.

  5. #4

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    I just picked up a 2017 Fender 68" Custom Princeton reverb. I also own a 2020 Priceton 65" reverb "issue".

    I want to point that the Fender 68" custom models are not reissues of earlier models. They are Fender's custom circuit design using the ascetics of the orginal 1968 silverface amps. The 1968 was the transition from the blackface era to the silverface era.
    Currently Fender has the following 68" custom models: ( not including new ones)
    Princeton reverb
    Deluxe reverb
    Vibrolux
    Twin
    The models with 2 channels, all but Princeton, have 2 very different circuit designs. The "Vintage" channel is the classic Fender circuit design for the model. The second channel is called the "Custom" channel. The circuit for this channel is model after the Bassman tone stack.
    The twin model includes a "mid" tone pot.

  6. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
    $749 US. I have no idea what that would make the street price (or the price in Canada). Release is scheduled for April.
    A bit on the expensive side, but let's give it 12 months and see what happens. I'd really love one of those

    Thx for the heads up!

  7. #6

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    Is the Vibro champ basically 5F1 circuit with reverb and tremolo? If it is, with the 10 inch speaker and affordable price tag, it'll be a blockbuster.

  8. #7

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    The pro reverb at under 30lbs and 40 watts of tube will be a great gigging amp!

  9. #8

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    These are cool amps and I'm glad Fender put a 10" speaker in the Vibro Champ and single 12" in the Pro.

    Unfortunately, both have digital (hall) reverb and neither has tube rectifiers which, to me, is the secret sauce of their vintage counterparts.

    My first amp as a 13 year old kid was a '66 Vibro Champ and then a '67 Pro (15" speaker w/no reverb or vibrato). Man, how I loved those amps.

  10. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gitfiddler
    Unfortunately, both have digital (hall) reverb and neither has tube rectifiers which, to me, is the secret sauce of their vintage counterparts.
    My first thought was .. Pity about the reverb as it's going to make it heavier .. followed by .. oh ok, cool

  11. #10

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    Nice to see Fender respond to demand for 5w amps. They should market it as a COVID special edition.

    One thing I don't get is the trend of stuffing oversized speakers into relatively small cabinets. I know that it was a common mod in the past, but it's odd for a new amp. Putting a 12" in a Princeton is a good idea if you also increase the cabinet size. Same for a Vibro Champ. But there's a diminishing return when you start making the speaker so big the baffle is unable to resonate. Getting the cabinet right is a huge part of an amp's sound in the same way that the construction of a guitar depends on the proportions and resonance of the wood. A 5 watt champ with a 10" speaker in a Princeton size cabinet would be an awesome amp for gigs, but even then modern 10" speakers are so loud that you'd have an amp designed as a practice amp that's now too loud for practicing at the amp's sweet spot. Fender put a lot of work into selecting their speaker to cabinet ratios and I they got it right the first time.

    Not to mention, this reissue vibro champ costs about $300 more than an original SF vibrochamp if you look in the right places.

  12. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tal_175
    Is the Vibro champ basically 5F1 circuit with reverb and tremolo? If it is, with the 10 inch speaker and affordable price tag, it'll be a blockbuster.
    I think so too.
    If the price is $700 - $800 this will probably translate to somewhere around €1.000,- . . . .
    Which is expensive!

  13. #12

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    On the fender website it's € 899, probably a bit cheaper in stores.
    Sites-Fender-Site

    The pro reverb has "genuine Fender tube-driven reverb and grid-bias tremolo".

    "the cabinet is slightly bigger to accommodate the 10" speaker"

  14. #13

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    Oke, still expensive, but who knows?

  15. #14

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    The Pro Reverb weighs 35 lbs.

    Danny W.

  16. #15

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    Hm, I built my first VibroChamp Reverb six years ago, and have built a few for other people since then. It’s all I use anymore. As far as I can tell it’s a perfect amp.

    It would make more sense (to me) to use a solid state trem oscillator instead of using a tube, and either tube or LND150 reverb, but I’m sure the Belton unit (or whatever it is) sounds fine.

    steven

  17. #16

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    Not cheap, but that Pro Reverb is the missing link in the Fender amp arsenal! Litterally half a Twin! I always wondered why Fender never came with an amp like that!

  18. #17

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    fender pro reverb was always a cool amp...2 6l6's for some nice power and clean headroom

    new model uses neo 12" speaker to cut some weight...but pro with 15" jbl (heavy) was awesome!

    digi hall reverb in vibro-champ is a minus...also agree with omph ^ that a bigger speaker doesn't necessarily translate to better tone in a low watt amp...some of those old supros with 6" or 8" had/have killer tone


    cheers

  19. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by Little Jay
    Not cheap, but that Pro Reverb is the missing link in the Fender amp arsenal! Litterally half a Twin! I always wondered why Fender never came with an amp like that!

    The 80's Fender Concert came pretty close to the 'half Twin' idea. It had 40 watts, solid state rectifier, two channels and either a single 12" speaker or dual 10"s. The 12" upgrade was a Fender branded EV12 and was a toneful, heavy beast!

    On paper, the latest Pro Reverb might be the ideal gigging amp. We'll have to check them out.

  20. #19

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    It would be nice if the Pro Reverb had two channels like the ... uh ... real Pro Reverb.

  21. #20

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    The Vibro Champ with reverb and a 10" speaker strikes me as very good idea. I had a Valco/Supro badged as a Galanti amp that was the same circuit as a Vibro Champ, but with a 10" speaker. It sounded great, and had surprising amount of headroom. I agree that a tube driven spring reverb would be cool, but that would make it as expensive as a Princeton Reverb, so probably not work within the Fender lineup. I also like the idea of the single-channel Pro Reverb (the two-channel layout of Fenders never made much sense to me), but it seems like it would be competing against a Hot Rod Deluxe (but more expensive). I wonder if that makes good business sense.

    John
    Last edited by John A.; 01-14-2021 at 08:33 PM.

  22. #21

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    My 2017 Princeton reverb 68" custom has spring reverb tank and tube rectifier. The previous owner up graded to tubes to Tug sols. Also the recruiter tube and V2 were upgraded to Gold Lion Gelew.... tubes. $40 a piece.

    I looked quickly at the two newbies. Didnt see a retricfer tube for the pro.

    Quote Originally Posted by Gitfiddler
    Unfortunately, both have digital (hall) reverb and neither has tube rectifiers which, to me, is the secret sauce of their vintage counterparts.

  23. #22

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    Quote Originally Posted by Wildcat
    My 2017 Princeton reverb 68" custom has spring reverb tank and tube rectifier. The previous owner up graded to tubes to Tug sols. Also the recruiter tube and V2 were upgraded to Gold Lion Gelew.... tubes. $40 a piece.

    I looked quickly at the two newbies. Didnt see a retricfer tube for the pro.
    Thanks Wildcat. That was a typo on my part. I meant to say that these two new amps (VC & Pro) do NOT have tube rectification. And yes, the Pro has spring reverb.

    Fender '68 Custom Pro Reverb 1 x 12" 40-watt Tube Combo Amp | Sweetwater

  24. #23

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    Just my opinion but I think the best way to think of these amps is as new models with familiar names, not as re-issues of older models. Fender has a long history of doing that with the Champ and Princeton names especially and as Wildcat pointed out early in the thread, the Custom series amps are not intended to be historically accurate.

    The Champ is especially attractive to me. An single ended 6V6 5 watt amp with a 10" speaker, reverb and trem in a small easy to carry package is a really attractive amp. We'll have to see what the street price is, especially in Canada.

  25. #24

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
    Just my opinion but I think the best way to think of these amps is as new models with familiar names, not as re-issues of older models. Fender has a long history of doing that with the Champ and Princeton names especially and as Wildcat pointed out early in the thread, the Custom series amps are not intended to be historically accurate.

    The Champ is especially attractive to me. An single ended 6V6 5 watt amp with a 10" speaker, reverb and trem in a small easy to carry package is a really attractive amp. We'll have to see what the street price is, especially in Canada.
    1049CAD
    Fender 68 Custom Vibro Champ Reverb, 120V

  26. #25

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tal_175
    Well that was fast, thanks. It's not shipping until May. And someone is going to buy it and sell it by July
    Last edited by Jim Soloway; 01-14-2021 at 06:49 PM.