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Fender Princeton Reverb

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Fender Princeton Reverb

Fender Princeton Reverb

The Fender Princeton Reverb is a guitar amplifier combo, essentially a Princeton with built-in reverb and vibrato. The 12 Watt Blackface version was introduced in 1964 and available until 1967, in 1968 it was replaced by the Silverface version with a drip edge around the grill cloth (added and removed in 1969) and a change in circuitry. The rectifier was changed from a 5ar4 to a 5u4gb during the Silverface years along with a change in bias resistor value, a "boost" pull switch to the volume control pot was added in 1977. In 1980 and 1981 the Silverface version was cosmetically changed back to the Blackface. It was discontinued in 1981.

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Fender Princeton Reverb II

This Paul Rivera-specified Fender guitar amplifier was introduced in 1982 to replace the Princeton Reverb. It was a completely different and significantly more powerful amplifier. Designed by Ed Jahns, it featured a built-in reverb, treble boost and mid boost controls, and a switchable lead (overdrive) effect. The Princeton Reverb II was removed from the Fender pricelist in 1986.

The development of the Princeton amplifier, from its inception as a 4-watt practice amp in 1948, can be tracked by working through http://ampwares.com attached to the sales website of the commercial firm "Mojotone".

Reissue

In Summer 2008, Fender reissued the Princeton Reverb. While it is based on the Blackface version, and utilizes a tube rectifier and a tube reverb, it uses printed circuit boards instead of eyelet-style hand-wired circuit boards.

'68 Custom

In Summer 2013, Fender released a redress of the Princeton Reverb reissue with slightly modified circuitry and the drip-edge "silverface" cosmetics introduced on Fender amplifiers in 1968. The model is known as the '68 Custom Princeton Reverb.

Specifications (Princeton Reverb, 1964–81)

  • Preamp tubes: one 7025, two 12AX7, one 12AT7
  • Output tubes: two 6V6GT, fixed-bias
  • Rectifier: 5AR4 (blackface & reissue), GZ34 (blackface), 5U4GB (silverface)
  • Controls: volume, treble, bass, reverb, speed, intensity
  • Output: 12 to 15 Watts RMS
  • Speaker: 10" speaker (Jensen C10R, Jensen C10N, Oxford 10L5 or Oxford 10J4)
  • Specifications (Princeton Reverb II, 1982–86)

  • Preamp tubes: three 7025 (a/k/a 12AX7), one 12AT7
  • Output tubes: two 6V6GTA, fixed-bias
  • Rectifier: solid-state
  • Controls: volume (pull for lead), treble (pull for boost), middle (pull for boost), bass, reverb, lead volume, master volume, presence
  • optional 2-button footswitch (lead, reverb)
  • Output: 22 Watts RMS
  • Speaker: 12" Fender Blue label made by Pyle and later re-sourced from Eminence; factory upgrade option for EV speaker
  • References

    Fender Princeton Reverb Wikipedia