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Topic: Fender 75 - 15" combo |
Jonathan Shacklock
From:
London, UK
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Posted 8 May 2007 1:26 pm |
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I purchased up a Fender 75 combo amp the other day (thanks Matt!) and wondered if other forumites had any experience/opinions of this amp?
For steelers it has a number of things going for it:
All tube, point to point wiring (one of the last Fender made c.1981)
15" speaker
Very loud 75w clean channel with loads of headroom
15w switch (although still very loud - almost a bedroom amp)
6-spring reverb tank
Wide EQ curve with pull-boost on treble, mid and bass knobs, plus bright switch
Still relatively cheap if you can find one.
The reason they aren't highly sought after seems to stem from the apparent difficulty in getting a good distortion setting on the lead channel without having to adjust the EQ (which puts your clean channel settings out of whack). All the better for steelers who can still get a huge, clean, all-tube Fender tone (with classic reverb) for sensible money! 
Heavy though.  |
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David Doggett
From:
Bawl'mer, MD (formerly of MS, Nawluns, Gnashville, Knocksville, Lost Angeles, Bahsten. and Philly)
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Posted 8 May 2007 6:07 pm
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| You got a great amp. You can read about it here: http://www.ampwares.com/ffg/. The 75 is sort of the Rivera era successor to the Pro Reverb, but with a great EV 15" speaker, which also makes it somewhat a successor to the Vibroverb. Paul Rivera later went on to his own company, Rivera Amps. He was at Fender at the end of the silverface era, around 1980-82. Fender was loosing market to Marshall and Vox. They hadn't quite figured out that their amps were too cold and clean for modern rock. Instead of warming them up and lowering the distortion threshold, they added some bells and whistles, like the pull-boost tone knobs, and lead channels with a little grit. Other amps from this era were the Super Twin and the 140, both of which had 5-band active EQ in addition to the usual 3 band passive EQ. The 140 and 75 (which designate their power output) came in head cabinets (as well as the 1x15 for the 75). The 30 came as 2x10 or 1x12. There was also the II series: Twin Reverb II, Deluxe Reverb II, Princeton Reverb II, and Champ II. These are all great clean playing amps with a little more kick than the corresponding silverfaces. They all make good steel amps, depending on how much power you need. Because they are so clean and are not well known, they are usually low priced for the hand wired tube amps that they are. |
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Jonathan Shacklock
From:
London, UK
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Posted 8 May 2007 11:19 pm
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| Thanks David, very interesting info. My speaker is labelled "Fender Special Design Speaker" - does this mean it's unlikely to be an EV or did Fender just re-badge them? |
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Jerry Hayes
From:
Virginia Beach, Va.
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Posted 9 May 2007 10:09 am
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Jonathan, I have a Fender 75 amp which is a 1-12 version. Mine didn't have a footswitch with it so I got one from Pharaoh Amps which works great. You're right about the distortion and clean settings. My best clean sound seems to come from the channel which would be normally used for distortion. It's a powerful little beast and sounds pretty decent for lead guitar. I've never tried it on steel as I prefer solid state for that. My speaker is also a Fender special design which is probably an Eminence or Jensen. I'd heard that these amps were Fender's attempt to compete with Mesa/Boogie but they just didn't make it..........JH in Va.
_________________
Don't matter who's in Austin (or anywhere else) Ralph Mooney is still the king!!! |
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Jerry Hayes
From:
Virginia Beach, Va.
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Posted 9 May 2007 10:12 am
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Jonathan, I also have a Fender 75 amp. David, they also made a 1-12 version in the 75 as that's what I have! Mine didn't have a footswitch with it so I got one from Pharaoh Amps which works great. You're right about the distortion and clean settings. My best clean sound seems to come from the channel which would be normally used for distortion. It's a powerful little beast and sounds pretty decent for lead guitar. I've never tried it on steel as I prefer solid state for that. My speaker is also a Fender special design which is probably an Eminence or Jensen. I'd heard that these amps were Fender's attempt to compete with Mesa/Boogie but they just didn't make it..........JH in Va.
_________________
Don't matter who's in Austin (or anywhere else) Ralph Mooney is still the king!!! |
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