Current Popularity of the Fender Amplifier '68 Reissues?

[JohnnyThul]

For me, the 68 "Reissue" line has been the first Fender amps in years, which I liked right out of the box. I had a 68 PRRI and a Vibrolux, and they sounded perfect to my ears. I even liked the speakers, but I like Celestions in Fender amps generally.
To my ears, the 65 RI amps often sound a little bit too harsh and anemic (that's an issue I have with most modern amps), the 68 were much more usable without having to change anything.
I am a big fan of the line!
And in regards to noise issues with the 68, the 65 series we got a lot send back due to noisy reverb or tremolo circuits when I was still in sales, the 68 series was not worse or better, so, in this regard they are on par, I'd say.

 

[jwp2]

I’ve got a 68 deluxe reverb and it’s my main gigging amp. It’s much more usable than my Twin reverb reissue. I love the twin and likely will hang onto it but the deluxe is suiting my needs much better.

 

[JIMMY JAZZMAN]

'65 was a classic sounding amp, '68 not so classic with more "noise". The reason?
Modifications to save money, to the company and put it on the lowly musician.

 

[SoK66]

My advice on these things is "try before you buy." I bought a new '68 CDR a couple years ago online from a dealer I have done a lot of business with. Out of the box it was the noisiest new amp I've experienced in years, plus it had a bad input jack on the "Custom" channel. Tone wise it was a "meh." I have a vintage '66 DR that I wanted to leave at home, the '68 had some cool features plus I like the drip edge styling, so I went with it rather than a '65 reissue.

I am hundreds of miles from any Fender service center, so I replaced the input jack myself. I then tried all the web-world "fixes" for the reverb amd other sources of hum, no luck. Cutting to the chase, I ended up reverting the negative feedback resistor to the AB763 spec of 820 ohms, which reduced the hiss significantly. The biggest improvement came from revising the heater circuit and the power section grounds. For the heaters, I removed entire circuit from the PCB and wired them directly from the PT to V8 and added an artificial center tap grounded near the power transformer. I removed the power transformer center tap, the grounds for the power supply, screens, PI and power tubes from the PCB and attached them directly to a PT stud. Essentially, I converted the heater and power section circuit to the vintage layout. With those revisions the amp is dead quiet now.

Fender grounds everything on these amps to the pot PCB, which is prone to ground loops and requires a good ground to the faceplate area of the chassis. Some of these amps work, some don't. Fender designed these for assembly and if one comes out noisy I guess they just shrug. Search under Amp Clubs and there's a post I did covering these mods in detail.

Last bit I'll add, I have to agree re: the Celestion speaker. I have a Weber 12F150 25w waiting to replace the Celestion in my amp. It's mopre of a personal taste thing.

 

[Jasonpatrick]

I love these old timer silverface bash threads. Considering the cost of a black panel now because of the above, I got no problems with a silverface and My 1969 DR is one of the best amps I have ever heard. Especially for “grunge” haha so With this all said, the reason is a marketing one. Us “kids” could only afford the silver panels and we are the new market that Fender is targeting…. Why bring back late 60s 70s guitars and basses that by all accounts were CBS Garbage, well, because that’s all us kids could afford and that’s what we remember .. nostalgia sells


And plus, they have already done tweed and then tweeds with mods, they have done BP forever, next obvious step is with what’s left. Silverface amps

 

[brookdalebill]

I covet the Pro.
Soon!

 

[Jasonpatrick]

Something seldom seen in these threads is also about the quality of Schumacher transformers declining since 65 and many of the things implemented by CBS was to correct these issues. The CBS engineers weren’t dumb lol. Gotta give them some credit…

 

[JohnnyThul]

'65 was a classic sounding amp, '68 not so classic with more "noise". The reason?
Modifications to save money, to the company and put it on the lowly musician.

I don't see how any of the "mods" could have saved money in production, besides the speaker choice, which is reflected by the 68 being a lot cheaper than the 65.
If a 65 is classic sounding, that is fine, still I like the 68 better for my needs, so, the 68 is a nice and useful addition to the 7ender lineup, I'd say. Noise comes from the reduced NFB afair, and if you expect a modern Fender production tube amp in the blackface veins to be quiet, well, I don't know

 

[SoK66]

I love these old timer silverface bash threads. Considering the cost of a black panel now because of the above, I got no problems with a silverface and My 1969 DR is one of the best amps I have ever heard. Especially for “grunge” haha so With this all said, the reason is a marketing one. Us “kids” could only afford the silver panels and we are the new market that Fender is targeting…. Why bring back late 60s 70s guitars and basses that by all accounts were CBS Garbage, well, because that’s all us kids could afford and that’s what we remember .. nostalgia sells


And plus, they have already done tweed and then tweeds with mods, they have done BP forever, next obvious step is with what’s left. Silverface amps

The only thing “‘68” about these amps is the styling, Circuit wise they don’t conform to any real silver panel amp. They are just the AB763 circuits with minor mods. They do look cool, tho.

 

[Trenchant63]

Once I saw folks bringing up the “hiss” issue repeatedly about this amp line - I quickly removed it from consideration. Of course all amps make a little bit of idle sound when on - but when it sounds like the seashore between notes requiring me to take it to an amp tech right out of the box, it’s not worth it.

 

[fretknot]

I've owned two: the '68 Custom Princeton Reverb, and the Custom Vibro Champ Reverb. I sold them both after a while.

The Princeton Reverb had some good tones, but overall lacked what I was hoping to get from it, which was a low noise floor and more clarity. In an effort to reduce the noise floor, I rolled different tubes. I changed some of the 12AX7 for 12AY7, or 5751. I tamed the reverb with a 12AU7 with good results. Installing a JBL E110 in place of the stock speaker was a significant improvement. I got some very good sounds out of the amp, but it was the noise floor that made it undesirable for my purposes. Mine may have been a lemon. If it were a hand-wired circuit, then I would have been willing to sort it out, but the way they're constructed discouraged any attempts. Had to say good-bye.

The Vibro Champ Reverb was another story. I loved the tone and the transition to breakup from cleans was everything I hoped for. It was the quietest 5W amp I've ever owned. Output level was much lower than one might expect from a Vibro Champ. I still found it useful as a living room amp. I thought I was all set, then the reverb started to malfunction. It became progressively weaker, to the point of not being adequate. I decided to sell at a low price and save myself the headaches of future problems. If that model had a tube-driven spring reverb, then it would have been a keeper.

 

[Jasonpatrick]

Once I saw folks bringing up the “hiss” issue repeatedly about this amp line - I quickly removed it from consideration. Of course all amps make a little bit of idle sound when on - but when it sounds like the seashore between notes requiring me to take it to an amp tech right out of the box, it’s not worth it.

The ‘68 PR I had was dead quiet. Like is it on? Quiet

 

[Trenchant63]

The ‘68 PR I had was dead quiet. Like is it on? Quiet

Great to hear!!

 

[jwp2]

I guess I got one of the good 68 deluxe reverbs. It’s not dead quiet but it’s nothing like what some here are experiencing. Noise between notes while playing? Yikes! Sounds like they need to sort up their QC in a major way. Ah but then up goes the dang price tag!

 

[SoK66]

For me, the 68 "Reissue" line has been the first Fender amps in years, which I liked right out of the box. I had a 68 PRRI and a Vibrolux, and they sounded perfect to my ears. I even liked the speakers, but I like Celestions in Fender amps generally.
To my ears, the 65 RI amps often sound a little bit too harsh and anemic (that's an issue I have with most modern amps), the 68 were much more usable without having to change anything.
I am a big fan of the line!
And in regards to noise issues with the 68, the 65 series we got a lot send back due to noisy reverb or tremolo circuits when I was still in sales, the 68 series was not worse or better, so, in this regard they are on par, I'd say.

I remember when the reissues began to appear in the early 90s and I don't recall them being considered noisy amps. They were built in Corona then I believe. Biggest complaint was tube quality. If you know tube amp layout, compnants, etc., looking inside something like my '68 CDR is pretty scary. As I noted previously, conforming the amp to vintage style layout and NFB cured 99% of the noise issues the amp had. That done, and some tube swapping brought out a nice amp, tho as I mentioned the "Custom" channel with the so-called "Bassman tone circuit" (amounts to a cap & resistor value change) to my ears just sounds like the Vibrato channel with added mud. Your mileage may vary, of course.

 

[Tony65x55]

Which Emi Legend are you using?

1258 Legend in the Deluxe Reverb.

 

[Patshep]

I’m seeing blackface pro reverbs for the same price. makes me wonder if I can make one my bedroom ame

 

[jorbjorb]

5 reasons why I chose the 68 DRRI over the 65.

1. Reverb/Tremolo in both the custom/vintage channels. The 65 only offers it in one of the channels.

2. 2 Amps in one - Bassman tone stack in the custom channel, 65 deluxe circuit in the vintage channel.

3. Modified 65 circuit (vintage channel) - The bright capacitor is clipped on the vintage channel. This is a mod I would have done anyways if I bought the 65. The bright cap is brutal sounding (IMO) if you're trying to run any pedals through it.

4. Looks - I like the look of the silver faces over the black-face ones.

5. Price - When I bought it, the 68 was $200 cheaper than the 65.
I'm actually shocked to see what a 68 deluxe reverb costs these days. I'm guessing inflation had a thing to do with it. I'm really thankful to buy one of these 6 years ago.

Six years later, I am still enjoying the amplifier.

 

[68silverw/black]

I have the original '67 and '68 Fenders and they all have the blackface circuits in them with the drip edge and blacklines that Fender used to denote that they had these circuits. My Champ Amp, Vibro Champ Amp, Princeton Reverb Amp, Deluxe Reverb Amp, Bassman Amp, and Super Reverb Amp all sound great. These hand wired amps are much better than the reissues with the printed circuit boards that they are selling today.

 

[SoK66]

I’m seeing blackface pro reverbs for the same price. makes me wonder if I can make one my bedroom ame

A '66 Pro Reverb & Fryette PS2A is my home studio rig. Your basic tone heaven.