NAD '65 Princeton Reverb, Sweetwater edition!

[pope858]

Well, the Tone King Gremlin is on it's way back to Indiana, a nice amp, but I knew pretty quick it wasn't one for me! In its place comes this new '65 Princeton Reverb with a 12" Cannabis Rex speaker in a lacquered cabinet. A nice amp, to say the least. My first impressions are positive. The amp is certainly loud, but there seems to be some ability to get some natural break up without totally annoying friends and neighbors or damaging my own hearing. The reverb is incredible! From subtle to cavernous and most everything in between! The Tremolo does what it's supposed to do. Probably not a big deal in my world, but it sounds nice anyway. The Cannabis Rex speaker sounds fine to me, but then I like the darker, more subdued sound of this hemp speaker over most common Celestion speakers. The C Rex speaker has a nice, smooth sound and I suspect it may get a little better once it loosens up some? Lastly, the Princeton seems to take my small selection of pedals very well. I have a couple different distortion pedals that add some "grit" to the mix when wanted.
If there is any concern about the amp it is the background noise, while the amp is idling! It's noticeable but nothing objectionable until you get the volume above 5. From there up to 10 the noise level increases as the volume level is turned up. I'm not sure if that is a normal characteristic of these amps or not? Any one with more experienced opinion on that I'd love to hear any solutions! Here is a picture of my mini "wall of sound". The tweed sure looks good in the mix!

 

[Tenderfoot]

Pope858, I have the same amp except running a C12Q and 5 to 10 have very little noise increase with respect to 0-5. Reverb at 4, B&T at 5, tremolo intensity 2.5 and speed 3.5.

Hope this helps

 

[DennisM]

HNAD!! Good looking amp! I got the Bordeaux one from MF. Love it. Didn't care for the P12Q it came with, so I put a 1965 12" Utah Bassman speaker in it. Mine runs real quiet. You'll love it.

 

[Esquire Jones]

Congrats.

I’m really liking my SW Princeton RI.

When I first got it I noticed some noise that I traced back to a wonky reverb return tube. I had one available to swap out and it fixed the hissing noise.

I liked the tone with the CRex but didn’t love it. I replaced the speaker with the GA 64 and really like the tone much better.

To me, the amp doesn’t really sound like a vintage Princeton. It’s a modern interpretation. And that’s cool.

It really works in a live band situation, even with a drummer.

 

[Gnometowner]

Get yourself a 1/4" female to 90 deg male plug patch cord 12" long,
plug male into amp NEVER UNPLUG IT!
Always plug guitar into female end of patch cord which is zip tied to carry handle or chassis
I had two of this model (and 4 other Fender amps)get sent back because Fender doesnt have decent input jack mounts on the input circuit and they pull lose, so dont risk it, use the patch cord.
Otherwise a kickass good sounding amp
Enjoy

 

[uriah1]

Congrats. I have a few speakers I swap in and out based on headroom I might need. The only noise I ever got was from pushing the reverb. I Never swapped out reverb send or return tube.
Also I have a 5751 black plate square getter.

 

[TeleTex82]

Congrats! Love my 12" Princeton.

 

[gitold]

Have that same amp myself. Love every thing about it especially the C Rex. Have fun.

 

[stormsedge]

Sweet! HNAD!

 

[Hey_you]

Love it! I have the 12" G12- 65 speaker model.

 

[telepraise]

Congrats! I have the same amp, though I swapped the C-Rex for a Celestion. Mine is whisper quiet at idle, but the volume lives around 3-4 which is as loud as I need/can stand (I use OD pedals for break up).

The C-Rex will open up as it breaks in, but seems to take ~20 hrs or so. Sticking with a speaker with a tight bass response is important in that small cabinet IMO.

 

[sloppychops]

Well, the Tone King Gremlin is on it's way back to Indiana, a nice amp, but I knew pretty quick it wasn't one for me! In its place comes this new '65 Princeton Reverb with a 12" Cannabis Rex speaker in a lacquered cabinet. A nice amp, to say the least. My first impressions are positive. The amp is certainly loud, but there seems to be some ability to get some natural break up without totally annoying friends and neighbors or damaging my own hearing. The reverb is incredible! From subtle to cavernous and most everything in between! The Tremolo does what it's supposed to do. Probably not a big deal in my world, but it sounds nice anyway. The Cannabis Rex speaker sounds fine to me, but then I like the darker, more subdued sound of this hemp speaker over most common Celestion speakers. The C Rex speaker has a nice, smooth sound and I suspect it may get a little better once it loosens up some? Lastly, the Princeton seems to take my small selection of pedals very well. I have a couple different distortion pedals that add some "grit" to the mix when wanted.
If there is any concern about the amp it is the background noise, while the amp is idling! It's noticeable but nothing objectionable until you get the volume above 5. From there up to 10 the noise level increases as the volume level is turned up. I'm not sure if that is a normal characteristic of these amps or not? Any one with more experienced opinion on that I'd love to hear any solutions! Here is a picture of my mini "wall of sound". The tweed sure looks good in the mix!

View attachment 990517

Good to hear you're liking it! I have the '68 Princeton Reverb and it makes some noise when idling, too. Nothing terrible. Nothing like my Pro Junior!

 

[Crobbins]

Congrats.

 

[Wallaby]

Congratulations on a really nice amp

It sounds like it's a great fit and sounds the way you want.

 

[Wallaby]

@pope858 question - Not to pry, but what is that on the stand to the left, in the photo? With the white piping?

 

[DennisM]

Get yourself a 1/4" female to 90 deg male plug patch cord 12" long,
plug male into amp NEVER UNPLUG IT!
Always plug guitar into female end of patch cord which is zip tied to carry handle or chassis
I had two of this model (and 4 other Fender amps)get sent back because Fender doesnt have decent input jack mounts on the input circuit and they pull lose, so dont risk it, use the patch cord.
Otherwise a kickass good sounding amp
Enjoy

I had that problem with my PRRI. Took out the cheapo PCB input jack assy. and installed switchcraft 12A 1/4" jacks. Problem solved. My reverb never worked right until I made this change. Works great now.

 

[pope858]

@pope858 question - Not to pry, but what is that on the stand to the left, in the photo? With the white piping?

Not a problem! The cabinet on the left in the picture is a Monoprice 1x12 cabinet. I replaced the original Celestion V30 (8 ohm) speaker with a Weber, 12F125-S (4 ohm) speaker. Beneath the cabinet is a Bugera T5 Infinium, 5 watt tube head. The Weber speaker gives a little more American sound to the amp and the 4 ohm rating matches the amps' stated output impedance. I replaced both the original tubes in the amp with some new Tung Sol tubes and the head rocks! Relatively inexpensive gear that really sounds better than it should, especially at lower volume!

 

[OldPup]

HNAD! It looks amazing. About the noise when idle - I notice you have a nice looking Tele there with single coils. To rule out the guitar and the cable as the actual culprits for excess noise, unplug the cable from the amp and turn it up past 5. I would be curious to know if you have any noise at that point. I would be a little surprised if you did. If it's still there, I would suggest trying it plugged into different outlets, or if it's plugged into a power strip, plug it directly into an outlet.

 

[pope858]

Hey OldPup, thanks for the suggestions. The noise is there when the amp is disconnected from everything. No power strip involved and I tried the amp at a different outlet and had no change! Maybe I am just hearing the sounds of the circuit? While the noise is always there, it is well beneath the amplified guitar in all cases and at volumes up to 5, it is really not a factor. It's not a 60hz hum, in fact it reminds me of the sound you would get on an inexpensive record player, at the start of the record, when the needle was first placed on the record. A kind of scratchy, crackly, white noise whose volume rises and falls with the sweep of the volume knob. Maybe a noisy tube, but I've no idea which one(s) to check!

 

[zhyla]

The amp is certainly loud, but there seems to be some ability to get some natural break up without totally annoying friends and neighbors or damaging my own hearing.

I've got the same amp. Maybe we have different definitions of breakup or hearing loss, but I don't run mine past 4.5 on the dial and it's not breaking up at that point.

The Tremolo does what it's supposed to do. Probably not a big deal in my world, but it sounds nice anyway.

I had to reduce the R14 1Mohm to a 500k to get any kind of tremolo depth on mine. This can depend on the power tube bias. If I ever open mine up I'll drop it down to 330k to get a bit more depth out of it. I think it's a great tremolo (bias-vary tremolo is so smooth).

The C Rex speaker has a nice, smooth sound and I suspect it may get a little better once it loosens up some?

I hooked mine up to a drum pedal and beat the daylights out of it for an afternoon. That definitely woke it up. When I first got it I had to crank the treble up a lot, after this I started rolling it down to 4 or 5.

If there is any concern about the amp it is the background noise, while the amp is idling!

Mine is so quiet that I've forgotten it was on a couple times. There is some hiss that scales up with the volume, but at 3 I can't really hear from a few feet away. I wish all amps were this quiet.

I think it's a great amp and I love the tweed.

The problem with Princeton Reverbs is there's too many of them. The 68 Custom is totally different. There's 2 other 1x12 versions plus the base 1x10. I kind of want one of each. There's a Bordeaux 1x12 on Craigslist right now for a very reasonable price... but I barely play the Princeton I've already got.