well..... I'm dragging this thread up again... because I too have just had an incredible Princeton encounter...
in the past, i've been over zealous on the forum with my amp experiences.. so I will attempt to not be as much of a walking infomercial as I have been... although with the plethora of high end amp makers I have the pleasure of living near, it's rather hard not to be enthusiastic about their products...
This is a long story but it has a point in the end:
On Saturday I drove up to Montgomery Alabama to meet with Sam Smith and try out his new amps.... I'm waiting on a new 25 watt head, and just sold my original smith 4X10 combo due to it's size and not needing a huge combo at all my gigs... So... Sam took me to one of his clients house and we played through quite a few amps... Of course we played a few CS-25 combos.. absolutely stunning... the tone controlling options are amazing on the amp... It's like a deluxe reverb meets trainwreck..... i've raved about them before, and I'll stop there... then i tried a 66 fender pro that was rebuilt by George Allesandro... that too was a VERY good amp...... I also played a new Smith CS-10... VERY cool little amp... tons of tone controlling features... Sam's amps remind me greatly of John Landgraffs amps... VERY versatile, and lots of tonal options...... after a long saturday playing amps and guitars.... (VERY cool guitars)... I returned to Pensacola with excitement over the new Smith 25 watt head coming my way....
on the drive back, John Landgraff calls me telling me that he's thinking about building an amp based off of the blackface Fender Deluxe reverb circuit.. but with his own tone shaping modifications... If you've never seen one of his 50 watt heads, it's got more knobs and switches than the space shuttle cockpit.... I honestly believe that you can coax more distinctly different tones out of a Landgraff 50 watt head than you can any Line 6 modeling amp... seriously.... So.. I can only imagine what his deluxe reverb is going to have in it...
So... Today... I walk into Blues Angel Music to kill some time... They have this sweet 67 deluxe reverb that landgraff rebuilt that I wanted to play... so.... i was playing it... but... for 2799.00, that's all I was thinking about doing.... then... one of the employees walks over to me and we start talking about the amp... he looks at me and says, "you know, that's a lawyers amp..."... I laughed and agreed... we discussed how we'd be REALLY worried to take an older amp like that out on a gig... afraid it'd break down... then we walked over to the corner where they keep all the Rick Hayes amps (Vintage sound)... I've played through all of them before, and they just don't do anything for me... although i've got friends who swear by them.... anyways.. i really didn't want to plug into any of those amps... then I saw a little pine box with one 12" speaker and two knobs on top... One knob was labeled Volume the other labeled Tone.... I'd seen it before....That amp has been in Blues Angel for a while.... I never plugged into it because I (like every other guitar player in my area) didn't think anything of it because it only had one tone control, it didn't have any reverb, it was small, and (sadly) it didn't have a familiar name on it...... but... i decided that i'd give it a try... I literally plugged up a stock MIM tele and powered up the amp.... I turned the volume to 5.... tone at 5.... It sounded great.... I liked it alot... but... it's such a small amp... i assumed that there's no way it'd have enough headroom to play with a band.... and it's gotta break up at a low volume...... well.. i turned it up a bit... it played and sounded great... turned it up a bit more... awesome.... VERY musical... no ear splitting tones..
I finally ended up with both Volume and Tone cranked and controlling the dynamics with my picking and volume/tone knobs on the guitar.... it was absolutely awesome.... it took everything I could throw at it... everything..
I asked who made the amp because it was in a Bob Burt cabinet (Bob Burt is a famous local guitar cabinet maker).... Turns out... Bob Burt actually built the entire amp.... I called him to ask him about the amp... it's a 5f2 circuit with a couple of tweaks... but... for all intents and purposes... it's a Princeton amp with a 12" speaker, one volume pot, and one tone pot... The 12 inch speaker gives it TONS of headroom.... and it's a great sounding amp with a tele.... although Bob voiced it for a strat....
Needless to say.... Took some of the money that i sold my smith amp for, coupled that with some store credit... and walked out of the guitar store with a BAD TO THE BONE amplifier that I can play at any local gig..... I don't want to say how much I paid, but... it was ALOT less than what Bob charges to make a new one....... simple... effective.... and it's easy to haul to and fro my gigs..
I guess the moral of the story is:
Smith and Landgraff are doing VERY cool things with their amplifiers... they both are giving the player a TON of choices to dial in whatever tone they would like... Sam Smith is a Telecaster player who wanted to design an incredibly affordable amp that pro/semi/non-pro Tele players could use on any gig... Basically a 25 watt amp based on the deluxe reverb with huge balls and tons of headroom....... he gives you the blackface/tweed options with his fixed/ cathode bias switches and some other tone shaping options you don't normally find on a handwired tube amp...... landgraff is a retired electrician (50 years experience) who played guitar and started making pedals and repairing amps on the side... he took everything he learned about electronics and amp repair and designed an amp that he could get all the tones from the 60's-90's on.... he does everything possible to allow you to shape your tone... i wish there was a picture on the internet to show you just how utterly awe inspiring his quality of work is.... but... if you want one, you're going to have to take a second mortgage on your house... For 2 years he was my neighbor, so... I was lucky enough to play on many of his 50 watt works of art...
Bob Burt is a carpenter. Until recently, I was only aware of him making cabinets. (now i know he builds amps and pedals too)... I assume he got interested in amp building while he was making high end custom cabinets for John Landgraff, Heritage amps, Fuchs, Fargon, and Dr. Z.. etc..... so... he tried his hand at it... He makes a simple amp... Volume knob... Tone knob... it just sounds great.... I'm sure that some would argue that a more experienced amp builder could make this amp sound alot better by tweaking this capacitor, or using that power tranny..... perhaps it's true.... but.. when I plug into it.... it just feels right..... it's truly an amazing amplifier... here's his webpage describing the amps:
bob burt cabinets
Because of my self professed ignorance, I'm not really familiar with Princetons.. so I can't compare this amp to the rest.... but I wholeheartedly believe that a 5f2 circuit Princeton with a 12" speaker (if they're anything like this amp) will hold it's own on the vast majority of gigs most of us (non/semi-pro's) will ever have to play. If it's not loud enough, just slap a mic in front of it.. or tell the drummer to learn some "stick control".
Ampmakers like Fuchs, Landgraff, Smith, heck even Dumble himself give you a ton of options to shape your tone... That's the trend today.... if you're an amp maker, you've got to cater to a generation of players that want a CRAPLOAD of tonal options..... the princeton (clone), on the other hand is amazingly simple... and i think that's where the beauty lies...
it's like race cars... Formula one cars are INCREDIBLY complex machines... it takes an entire team to drive one... heck... for awhile Honda had a team of people, WHILE THE RACE WAS BEING RUN, monitoring and making changes remotely on the tire pressure, suspension stiffness, oil pressure, etc...... after winning every race for, what seemed like forever, they were forced to race like everyone else...
most of us would LOVE to drive a formula one car... but they're incredibly expensive/complex machines...
the princeton is like an old beat up corvette... most of us could probably afford to get into one... it's got two axles and a huge motor.... that's it... it does one thing well.... and boy.... does it do it well...
