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Topic: Fender vibrasonic custom ? |
Ben Edmonds
From:
Greenfield, Massachusetts, USA
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Posted 26 Mar 2016 11:16 am |
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I just played one at a local shop. This is the amp made in '95-96 with the steel channel and a guitar channel it's 100 watts 15" speaker
Does anyone use these? I liked it for both steel and tele. I was about to pull the trigger and figured I better ask around about the price which was $700 and I don't know if that is a good price for it as I can't find any info.
I did search many old forum posts about these and they got good reviews but I am curious if anyone has any experience with them. It wasn't the holy grail of amps or anything but I do have to say it sounded very good for both steel and guitar which is very appealing to me. |
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Lane Gray
From:
Topeka, KS
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Posted 26 Mar 2016 11:29 am
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It's a 65 reissue Twin with a 15, IIRC.
They later called it a Twin Custom 15.
700 is a fairly good price. I want 800 for mine (says Twin Reverb, the 15 was aftermarket)
_________________
2 pedal steels, a lapStrat, and an 8-string Dobro (and 3 ukes)
More amps than guitars, and not many effects |
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Steve Spitz
From:
New Orleans, LA, USA
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Posted 26 Mar 2016 2:38 pm Custom
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| I had one, and it was a great amp. It had reverb on both channels. I'm pretty sure it was made in the US. The price seems fair. |
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Jon Light (deceased)
From:
Saugerties, NY
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Posted 26 Mar 2016 2:44 pm
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| I believe it uses printed circuits so it is less desirable than the original Vibrosonic Reverb. But there's nothing wrong with printed circuits. I've never heard any bad stories about it (as opposed to the bad reputation of the modern Fenders such as the Custom 15 re: build quality and corner cutting. ) |
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Dave Zirbel
From:
Sebastopol, CA USA
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Posted 26 Mar 2016 2:48 pm
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I had one for awhile....wish I didn't sell it. It was a decent amp.
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Dave Zirbel-
Sierra S-10 (Built by Ross Shafer),ZB, Fender 400 guitars, various tube and SS amps |
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Ben Edmonds
From:
Greenfield, Massachusetts, USA
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Posted 26 Mar 2016 2:54 pm
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Yeah my take on it was it's a real good double duty amp. Lighter than the twins I'm used to which is a good thing. I was thoroughly impressed with the sound of a tele through it-real punchy and the steel was good though I played a shop steel that left lots to be desired
I feel like it's a fair price for the amp. |
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Dave Zirbel
From:
Sebastopol, CA USA
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Posted 26 Mar 2016 3:47 pm
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That seems to be the going rate. If I run across one for a good price I may grab it, and yes it was actually a better amp for the tele but still pretty good for steel.
_________________
Dave Zirbel-
Sierra S-10 (Built by Ross Shafer),ZB, Fender 400 guitars, various tube and SS amps |
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Steve Spitz
From:
New Orleans, LA, USA
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Posted 26 Mar 2016 3:55 pm Custom
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Yeah, it had the printed circuit board . It was a cool amp for double duty. Very cool to have a foot pedal for the vibrato, which was handy when doubling on the baritone.
Like others, I wished I kept it, but I Had the real thing as well ( Black face twin with 15 ), and just didn't use it enough to keep it.
I do think its one of the more undervalued amps of recent (1995?) vintage. Mine didn't give me a bit of trouble.
It would be a good candidate for a lightweight Neo Speaker. Might make a cool tube amp option for a steel player , and one who needed double duty. It actually has one channel labeled "Steel". When was the last time you saw that? |
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Karen Sarkisian
From:
Boston, MA, USA
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Posted 28 Mar 2016 9:03 am
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Ben are you still interested in my twin ? sounds great for both steel and tele with the metzger mod. plus its split so easier to carry
_________________
Emmons, Franklin, Mullen |
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Ben Edmonds
From:
Greenfield, Massachusetts, USA
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Posted 28 Mar 2016 3:20 pm
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| I'll text you Karen |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 29 Mar 2016 6:17 am
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| Great (Custom/Reverb) Fender amp, kinda rare, and made both with and without reverb. It's similar to a Twin, but designed to be a little cleaner sounding. $700 would be top dollar for the Custom (without reverb), while the Reverb version would demand a couple of hundred more. |
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Ben Edmonds
From:
Greenfield, Massachusetts, USA
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Posted 29 Mar 2016 9:25 am
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| Yes this one is with reverb and tremolo. I am almost certainly going to buy it. They have it on the bench right now due to a scratchy volume pot so if it gets a clean bill of health I'm gonna grab it. I was told it used to be rose sinclairs amp which makes sense because she lived here for years. I think it's a go |
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Rich Upright
From:
Florida, USA
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Posted 29 Mar 2016 4:18 pm
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The real Vibrosonic Reverbs were made only 1 year, 1977. I had 2, one that was modified by Tony Bruno,of Bruno Amp fame, and they sounded phenominal. It burned out on me, actually caught fire & I had a local shop here in Tampa repair it; it was OK, but just never sounded the same after that, so I sold it.
I had one of the 90s Twins with the printed circuit; was a very BLAH sounding amp; no balls, very generic & boring sounding,at least for guitar (never tried it with steel) so I dumped it. Now I have an Ultralinear 135 watt Twin Reverb, a mid-70s model, with JBLs, & it sounds as as good if not better than the original Vibrosonic.
I wouldn't buy a printed circuit board amp. While they are prolly more reliable than a point-to-point amp, they seem to lack something in sound, are difficult to repair, and impossible to mod.
_________________
A couple D-10s,some vintage guitars & amps, & lotsa junk in the gig bag. |
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Jamie Howarth
From:
Massachusetts, USA
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Posted 20 Jan 2021 9:55 am
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| Lane Gray wrote: |
It's a 65 reissue Twin with a 15, IIRC.
They later called it a Twin Custom 15.
700 is a fairly good price. I want 800 for mine (says Twin Reverb, the 15 was aftermarket) |
The input section is very different. The first tube in the Steel channel has cathode biasing and therefore local feedback unlike any other Fender circuit. Omits the cap in the plate to ground which changes everything. Sounds great and very very easy mod on any AB763
The tone stack is the same as a Twin or a Bassman or pretty much everything else. There is a switched small value cap that jumps around the volume control that adds another little bit of highs at lower levels of the volume, above 5 it's not doing much but the higher the volume setting the less bright the channel will be. It interacts with the Volume control
The guitar channel has an interesting mod that is almost the same as the cathode bias on the Steel channel. The usual cap in parallel with the resistor and a switch - in the open position the cap goes through a high resistance that is somewhat less of an open circuit than above but it is pretty much blocked... ink the closed position the resistor is pretty much out of the circuit and therefore it is the usual circuit found universally in all Fender 12AX7 stages. It's a 22uF - usually a 25uF but that's probably just because that's what they bought a million of that year.
The tone stack is unique to this amp - nowhere else is this used, which is probably why it is so popular for Tele players - the treble is a 150pf which sets the "flat" throughput to the next stage at a much lower frequency and the bass/mid is 0.022 which is only seen in the Super Reverb and changes the notch point and lowers the Q a bit depth of the notch.
I made both these mods in a home-brew Princeton/Vox hybrid and it's phenomenal with a BL 710
Further the Vibrasonic has no negative feedback in the amp stage which to the best of my knowledge is unique in the Fender line.
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I'll know I'm playing good when the dog stops howling. |
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