(Vintage) Fender Concert Amp Club

Mine's a '65 AB763. Mostly stock. Not entirely vintage. Replaced the cord with a 3-pronger. New tubes and filters. The usual.

Still sounds great! And is my one and only amp.

It needs a vibrato replaced though. It no longer works right. Just kinda squeaks a little. Anyone know where I can get a vintage replacement part?

Also, when I bought mine in 1981, the tolex had been stripped and the cabinet had been redone in black high-grain leather. I have been wanting to restore it to the black tolex, but don't want to leave myself unplugged.

I have been using an external analog spring reverb and patching dry and wet signals to the two channels of the amp. Gives the amp the verb it lacks and gives a wide range of tones by having separate tone and volume for the two signals.

I love this amp. It is legendary amongst my friends. Before the 3-prong grounding plug was installed, the amp used to flood the room with a visceral dose of electric energy. I look back at this and wonder how close we were to getting jolted. No joke.

I am also glad I did not wreck it over the years, not knowing it was vintage. I brought it to a good amp guy recently and had it checked out. He found it had a few bad solder joints. A few bad pots, replaced those with vintage stock. Still could not find a replacement for the vibrato unit. New tubes, filters, etc.

Great amp. The only one I will ever need at this point.

Sounds like a great amp. Post some pics when you get a chance. I think these vintage Fenders tend to fly a bit under the radar. I know back when I was younger I always thought they were more for keyboards, lol. I think I saw an old reggae band using one once for keys and it stuck in my brain. Come to find out even Fenders "Bass" amps sound good for guitar. You have a great one with the classic circuit. hame the trem i not working, but should be an easy fix from what I have seen. Plenty of guys here should be able to help you narrow that down. Those non grounded cords are no joke!
Hopefully this club will show some sleepers, many different great Fender Concerts out there!

Here's an update: I did some homework and I found that this is a 1964 Fender Concert Amp, NOT a 1965 as I had stated earlier.

On the Tube Chart, there's an 'NK' stamped on it. This can be translated to 1964 November, according to this link: http://www.svvintageamps.com/dating.php

All of the transformer codes match as well, placing this amp in 1964 (which is kind of cool, since I was born in March 1964).

Power: 606-426
Output: 606-436
Choke: 606-434

I want to experiment with a power attenuator and have been looking at the THD Hot Plate. To use this, one has to know the impedance of the speaker cabinet and of the output transformer, in this case 2 ohms. Getting that information had lead me to search the OT's source codes and model numbers. That pointed me directly to the vintage of the amp.

BTW, anyone have experience with the Hot Plate and the Concert? A good match?
My thoughts are as follows (and I have not actually tried the Hot Plate yet):
The Concert Amp is loud, really, really loud. I turned it all the way up one day and it rattled the drop ceiling in the basement that I call my basement. In order to appreciate the distortion at that level, I would need to be in a large hall someplace far away from neighbors and anything that's not nailed down. The attenuator is the obvious solution, and if it kills some of the tone, then so be it. I would not have been able to appreciate that tone at full volume anyway, at least not in the here and now. There will be a time and place for the power attenuator to come off, but not in the basement after the kids are asleep upstairs.

At low volume, with my tele, the cleans are full and lush. Warm bottom end and nice bell like tones in the middle, nuanced harmonics, and lots of detail. But every once in a while I want to open the amp up and rock out. I think the Hot Plate is going to find a place in my setup. I corresponded with a guitarist who used the Hot Plate on his vintage amp, and he told me that the more "headroom" the amp has, the more versatile the application of the hot plate can become. I hope he's right. He seemed like a reliable source for information.

My second issue (and I made open a thread to find the answer, or post on the vintage amps forum), is that this amp needs a replacement (vintage, of course) for the tremelo (vibrato) system. I do not recall exactly when it stopped working, but it used to go 'whump-whump' and now it goes 'pip-pip'. My local music store amp tech said he tried to get it to work again, and tried to find a vintage replacement part, but came up empty on both fronts.

Pictures to follow.

Any Concert Amp. owners out there? Let's start a Club thread.

I put Jensen Mod speakers in my Concert and I am using a Boss FRV-1 for reverb. This amp kicks better than my Twin, Deluxe or Vibroluxe for tone. Not so great with my Les Paul, but with my Tele there is no better sound!

If the bug is bad just replace the bug. It's super easy, just 4 little wires to solder. No need for it to be vintage, but any vintage bug from any Fender of the era if it's still in good shape will work. There isn't a "tremolo unit". It's all part of the amp. There is a 12AT7 tube (V5 in a reverb amp like the Twin Reverb and Deluxe Reverb), a few components (resisters and capacitors), 2 pots (Intensity and Speed) and an optoisolater aka opto coupler, aka, "the bug". The bug is a neon bulb and a photoresister facing each other in heat shrink tubing. They are easy to get and cheap.

This 63 brown Concert is my next restoration project.Someone must have liked the new(64)Blackface look better :<.
I've since recapped it 3 pronged and it sounds great.The grill has been wheated and the cab is ready for tolex.
http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/9890/fenderbrownconcert001.jpg
Original Oxfords-
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/9456/fenderbrownconcert004.jpg
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/3608/fenderbrownconcert006.jpg
5 tube Tremolooooo
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/9198/fenderbrownconcert005.jpg

That is a beauty soldersucker! I kinda like the black tolex and looks like they did a decent job. Keep us posted on your progress and can't wait to see it. These are some of my favorite vintage Fenders and you got a great one. Congrats!

That is a beauty soldersucker! I kinda like the black tolex and looks like they did a decent job. Keep us posted on your progress and can't wait to see it. These are some of my favorite vintage Fenders and you got a great one. Congrats!

Here it is done i'm pretty happy with my first major Fender tolex job.The amp has been recapped and is sounding great as it now looks.
Just need a logo.....
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/6994/63brown001.jpg
http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/5134/63brown003.jpg
Lots of pre-practice making these corners.
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/4014/63brown002.jpg

That looks really good man! I bet you are one happy camper now.
That amp there, with an old brown Fender Reverb unit sitting on top would be one of the best rigs ever. Congrats!

That looks really good man! I bet you are one happy camper now.
That amp there, with an old brown Fender Reverb unit sitting on top would be one of the best rigs ever. Congrats!

Don't you know it i had it singing through my 64(Blackface)reverb tank just today!