I need advice on a 82-83 Fender Concert Amplifier

Just curious, are you able to dial in low Gain/ moderate breakup from the OD channel? Thanks

 

Since it has much more headroom than the Dlx if you need a high headroom amp you can carry around than this is it.
If not than skip.

 

I think you can get a SF Super Reverb for $800. The Concert is a bit complicated and messy inside I understand. Some reliability issues too from what I hear.
All second hand thoughts ..... I've never had one, but seen many questions about repairing them.

 

Cheap Mexican pcb vs US handwired Rivera circuitry?
No debate for me

 

I was able to do that. Still, the amp sounded best when the output section was being put to work no matter which preamp was in circuit or how that preamp was being used. That is my experience with almost any amp. There is a certain point at which an amp works. Ex: with a 50 or 100 watt vintage Marshall, if the amp can not be turned up to at least 6 on the volume and master volume—-if there is a MV, I find little reason to turn one on.

 

A local GC has had a Concert 2 x 10 sitting unsold at $650 since last Winter. They sound like killer amps, but suffer from a market disadvantage due to volume and weight.

Am I correct that the actual design of these is mostly by Ed Jahns, with Paul Rivera just spec'ing the amp in his capacity as Marketing Director?

 

I would not trade a Deluxe or Twin for that.....uh uh......nope

 

With the amps you already own, I would recommend looking at pedals.

I don't know how much overdrive you're after, but for sustain maybe a good compressor. Many compressor pedals have a blend knob. That might give you sustain, you could push the amps by turning up the level on the pedal, and use the blend to prevent "squishing".

And then maybe an overdrive pedal, endless choices there. Maybe look for something transparent if you want to keep the "fendery" sound of the amp. For that I personally like the Xotic AC Booster or its cheaper clone Mooer Flexboost. You'll get hundreds of recommendations if we go down the overdrive pedal rabbit hole

 

I know when I owned my SF Deluxe Reverb...

(Note: it was set up with JJ's to be big and clean: I 'toggled' between this clean tone or running w/ a Tube Screamer or Barber Direct Drive)

...I never had a 'need more volume/headroom/crunch etc., ' situation.
Could have just been the small to medium size gigs, it was just a perfect amp! Powerful and portable. Would not want for more.
Just my experience.

 

archetype, I often wonder exactly what Paul Rivera’s role was in the development of these all-Tube, handwired Fenders from 1982 through 1986. In a phone conversation, Mr. Rivera stipulated that he worked as a consultant to
Enter during that time. One can see the Jahns thought in these amps, imho.

 

FWIW an 80's Concert sounds better than a Deluxe Reverb.

If you like the "clean" channel on a Concert try the drive channel for clean. It has a middle control, presence control, and reverb so it's much more versatile. Turn the master all the way up, the gain on 5 or 6, and the volume on whatever it needs to be to get the volume you need. And use pedals.

You can...it just doesn't sound good...in my opinion...

 

I had a 410 and a 210 at the same time. Both were good for clean Fender tone. I really liked the 410 best for gigging back then.

I bought them used, several months old for half of that asking price in Canadian dollars back then. I sold the 210 back to the friend that sold it to me, and sold the 410 for $600 in the 90’s.

I really missed the 410, and bought other 410 Fender amps, eventually selling them all. Great clean and pedal amps, but they were starting to get heavy, often too large for venues. I was regulated to playing the amp on 2 or 3 on the volume knobs.

I had a Super Six at the same time, that got paired with the others, several times.

I went from these heavier amps to a GK 250ML for gigging after that. I got back to tubes at the turn of the century. I don’t miss the big Fenders amps anymore.

 

I had one as a teenager. Dirt channel, every knob all the way up, and the mid boost engaged. I don't think I could recommend that approach, but it had character and cut through better than the other guitarist's amp.

 

We’re the same age, and were playing through the same model at the same time. Sounds like you didn’t understand how to dial an amp in any better than I did at the time. Oh well... live and learn.

I’m still in touch with the guy who played drums in most of my high school bands. He still gives me grief about how bad my tone was back then.

 

since both channels of this amp have an AB763 type of preamp, it is important to understand how to manipulate the tone controls when pushing preamp gain. This is important even with the BF/SF amps. When pushing that Volume control, which is in fact. Apreamp gain control, the tones need to be set lower on the dial...below 5, ime.

 

Actually it worked in a weird way for what we were doing. Not what I thought we were doing, but in our context for that time it made it cooler to sound nasty, if that makes any sense. Thrash metal devotee in the South Bay (SoCal) thrash punk scene.