Fender Amps over the Years

[django49]

Some of you might find this interesting.....

I thought it interesting that he says the amps (he was talking about older Champs in particular) sounded better with the tolex or tweed removed. FWIW, I have moved towards not using covering on my various shop built speaker cabinets.....I tend to make them from pine  (lighter weight and more resonant) with hardwood edges for strength. As always, your tone preferences may be different.

Edited March 20 by django49

[hamerhead]

Nah. Not stripping the Tolex off my '64 Vibrolux. 

Joe could plug into a wash machine and sound good. It's really not fair.

[django49]

Yeah....Def do NOT mod a vintage amp! 😁 What is fun is to try out different variations of cabinets side by side to see how much of a difference THAT makes.

[RobB]

2 hours ago, django49 said:

I thought it interesting that he says the amps (he was talking about older Champs in particular) sounded better with the tolex or tweed removed. 

SO fulla shit! Great, now dorks clad in their (OLP) JB bathrobes are going to devalue their vintage combos. Remember to crank your Variacs up to 180v!

Edited March 20 by RobB

[bruce919]

He will have a limited edition no tolex amp out soon. 

[crunchee]

I'm sure this has been said before elsewhere (besides being just plain common sense), and I think that it's been mentioned in amp-related literature, too; but if you're gonna 'improve' on a vintage amp by irreversibly monkeying with the cab, do it with a new/replacement cabinet, not  the original cab!  Joe might like to treat his vintage gear as if they were disposable, but I don't know of anybody else who would do or could afford to do that.  

Edited March 20 by crunchee

[django49]

Pretty sure that what he said was that he had an amp (that he particularly liked the sound of) from which the cab was stripped BEFORE he got it. And also compared some of the oldest Fender amps from before they started using tweed, then tolex. I am guessing that even someone with as deep pockets as he must have would be disinclined to mess around that much.....Certainly appears that, if he wants something bad enough, he will just have his minions go out and find it in the open markets.

And  he has the marketing backup to come up with yet another "reissue" of old classics if there is a market. (See the Clapton reissues and the more recent Fuchs ODS JB edition). As there must clearly be for those that think he has the magic touch (or ears)......Witness also the reverse engineered copies of the pickups of vintage guitars that he deems particularly wonderful. Not exactly the magic fairy dust I feel a need to chase, but Seymour is making a big deal of them.😉

But, FWIW, the recent Suhr guitars with the torched bodies, roasted maple necks and zero layers of finish do win acclaim for their "better" tone and resonance. Sorta like the improvement (IMO) when PRS stopped coating their guitars with deep layers of polyester and urethane. Def improvements since about 2008......

Is there a magic Bonamassa guitar pick out yet? Hey, for only $12.99 you too can be like Joe! 🫢

[RobB]

2 hours ago, django49 said:

Pretty sure that what he said was that he had an amp (that he particularly liked the sound of) from which the cab was stripped BEFORE he got it. 

No shit, Sherlock. There’s a lot to unpack here with a typically long Django post, but I stand by my snark. 

Edited March 20 by RobB

[BoogieMKIIA]

So much of electric guitar technology is old, most things have little changed. Just consider all of the replacement pickups available with so many saying they nail an old Fender pickup or PAF. If they were exact copies, they would have the variation of the originals. I don’t doubt many winders pay close attention to all details but what is cited may not be their secret sauce. Maple vs another wood/material as spacers on PAFs could make no difference. 

I recall story about John Lennon sanding all the finish off some electric guitar to improve the tone. Maybe so on a semi or full hollow body. Certainly the feel of the neck is changed and could change your perception.

Seems more likely the life experience of an amp/cab with no tolex might do something to the mechanical integrity of the cabinet that results in a difference of sound. Or variation of wood, glue, build. 

A controlled experiment might shed light if there is a difference and what makes the difference. It is  certainly more entertaining to try ideas to improve tone and see what happens. And easier to create marketing stories based on inference.

 

[RobB]

2 hours ago, BoogieMKIIA said:

I recall a story about John Lennon sanding all the finish off some electric guitar to improve the tone. Maybe so on a semi or full hollow body. Certainly the feel of the neck is changed and could change your perception.

That was a sunburst, Epiphone Casino. He said it, “opened up the sound”, or some such. I can see that, but removing the finish probably didn’t protect the guitar much from the elements afterwards.

He did the same thing to his second J-160E. He eventually had The Fool paint it with a wavy, groovy psychedelic finish.

Edited March 21 by RobB

[Disturber]

7 hours ago, RobB said:

 

He did the same thing to his second J-160E. He eventually had The Fool paint it with a wavy, groovy psychedelic finish.

And it was probably not nitro. 😄😆

[django49]

Best way to tell if there IS a difference.....Play them side by side. An advantage of rolling my own is the ability to make cabs that are essentially identical, one bare wood, another clad in vinyl or tweed. Your ears may differ and you may prefer the look of one over the other. ("Snakeskin" is always an attention getter!)

If anyone is interested enough, and gets close enough to play thru them in person to decide for yourself, just let me know when.

This particular pair are in the Forte 3D style, each a 1 x 12.