Telecaster Guitar Forum - View Single Post - The Fender Princeton (non-reverb) Thread

ibodog · December 8th, 2008, 06:12 PM

Here's my Princeton story. In 1998 I was done with my originals band and moving into a small apartment. The amps I had were way too loud for apartment living so I stopped at the local used guitar shop to find a smaller amp and unload the big ones. This BF Princeton was sitting, lonely, in a corner of the store. I played it for a few minutes and then bought it for $250. I played the amp on and off over the last 10 years at home, mostly with the volume not above 3 and didn't really think that much about it.

Last spring, coworkers at my new job asked me to join the "company" band and fill in for the rhythm guitarist that was going to be on vacation. So I had to use the Princeton. I was surprised at how well it held up for rehearsals and the gig. I used a MXR comp, Tube Screamer, and Matchless Hot Box in front of it. Only problem was the amp was just a little too quiet for the 6-piece band. So I decided to see what I could find out about the amp and get it fixed up.

I found out that the date code on the amp makes it a 1964 Princeton. The 10" speaker was some sort of Utah speaker which was not original to the amp, but was about the same 1964 vintage. I ordered new JJ tubes and a new Weber speaker (the one they recommend for Princetons) and took it to Savage amp's repair shop for a look-see. The inside was very clean with all original parts. But the trem was very weak. Savage ended up replacing the output caps and the caps for the trem and then setting the bias for the new JJ tubes. They popped the speaker in there for me, too. She's pretty loud and clean now and the trem is great! So new tubes, speaker, and caps totals up to about $400 of repairs back into this little $250 amp!

I've got a new 1x12 cab I'm going to use as an extension and I'd also like to get a 2x10 cab to re-use the Utah speaker. When I was at Savage they let me try a few speaker cabs with the Princeton and a 1x12 fills out the bottom end nicely while a 2x10 made it much more aggressive sounding. I almost think I'd like to move the amp into a head chassis and run the 1x12 and a 2x10 cab at the same time.

Anyone know what the ohmage requirements are for the BF Princeton internal and extermal speaker outputs? The original Utah and the replacement Weber are 8 ohm speakers. Would I be OK with 2 8 ohm cabs on this thing?

December 8th, 2008, 06:12 PM	#36 (permalink)
ibodog TDPRI Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Twin Cities Posts: 54	Here's my Princeton story. In 1998 I was done with my originals band and moving into a small apartment. The amps I had were way too loud for apartment living so I stopped at the local used guitar shop to find a smaller amp and unload the big ones. This BF Princeton was sitting, lonely, in a corner of the store. I played it for a few minutes and then bought it for $250. I played the amp on and off over the last 10 years at home, mostly with the volume not above 3 and didn't really think that much about it. Last spring, coworkers at my new job asked me to join the "company" band and fill in for the rhythm guitarist that was going to be on vacation. So I had to use the Princeton. I was surprised at how well it held up for rehearsals and the gig. I used a MXR comp, Tube Screamer, and Matchless Hot Box in front of it. Only problem was the amp was just a little too quiet for the 6-piece band. So I decided to see what I could find out about the amp and get it fixed up. I found out that the date code on the amp makes it a 1964 Princeton. The 10" speaker was some sort of Utah speaker which was not original to the amp, but was about the same 1964 vintage. I ordered new JJ tubes and a new Weber speaker (the one they recommend for Princetons) and took it to Savage amp's repair shop for a look-see. The inside was very clean with all original parts. But the trem was very weak. Savage ended up replacing the output caps and the caps for the trem and then setting the bias for the new JJ tubes. They popped the speaker in there for me, too. She's pretty loud and clean now and the trem is great! So new tubes, speaker, and caps totals up to about $400 of repairs back into this little $250 amp! I've got a new 1x12 cab I'm going to use as an extension and I'd also like to get a 2x10 cab to re-use the Utah speaker. When I was at Savage they let me try a few speaker cabs with the Princeton and a 1x12 fills out the bottom end nicely while a 2x10 made it much more aggressive sounding. I almost think I'd like to move the amp into a head chassis and run the 1x12 and a 2x10 cab at the same time. Anyone know what the ohmage requirements are for the BF Princeton internal and extermal speaker outputs? The original Utah and the replacement Weber are 8 ohm speakers. Would I be OK with 2 8 ohm cabs on this thing?