reissue Princeton

[Joe Burke]

I'm planning on buying a reissue Blackface Princeton Reverb, or maybe a silver face. Currently I have a Blues Jr, which I like, but would like something new. I'd play it mainly with an old gibson Br-6 lap steel, or an old supro lap steel.

Anyone have any experience with either the Blackface or Silverface reissues?

[Greg Cutshaw]

Here's a short review of the blackface reissue. The reverb was very metallic sounding and you have to consider that a new speaker, before break in and years of aging, might not be as mellow as an older one:


http://www.gregcutshaw.com/Princeton%20 ... everb.html


Here's another review with an original 1974 silver face amp that has perfect vintage reverb, warmth and just sings:

http://www.gregcutshaw.com/1974%20Fende ... everb.html


I see the silver face re-issue is priced lower than the balck face re-issue. I paid $760 for my 1974 original about 2 years ago but I see they are going for $1000 to $1450 and even more on ebay.

[Joe Burke]

Thanks Greg. Interesting.

There's a 69 Silverface without reverb that I'm going to try on Saturday.

[Dave Mudgett]

I just picked up a spare mid-70s Princeton Reverb at a guitar show for $800. If you're patient, you can find them for around the same money as a reissue. I can't imagine any reason to want a reissue when you can have the real thang for about the same dough. I wouldn't hesitate to drop a grand on a real clean one - especially a late-60s or early 70s model.

The no-reverb Princetons are cool, but I'd hold out for a real silverface Princeton Reverb. Check out some guitar shows or local shops - ebay is bogus, IMHO.

[Rob Jackson]

I checked out the silverface Princeton re-issue as I've been waiting for a 70's one to show up in the UK for like forever...

Anyhoo, the new silverface has been designed for earlier break-up apparently which I didn't care for. I thought the original 70's Princetons did that just fine - if it ain't broke, and all that... Not sure if that would be easy to mod / revert to vintage specs. Also, factoring in the cost of my preferred speaker replacement (there's a Celestion in there), I'll probably still hold out for the real deal.

They do look very nice though and sound great when run clean, but that clean headroom is limited - more so than the originals sadly imho.

[Josh Yenne]

Yea.. damn.. so disappointing.

I'm a HUGE princeton reverb fan. Have a 71. Also have a Headstong "Princeton" type amp. I love the 12 watts, size, etc. For guitar a princton at 7 (with a 12" speaker) is my favorite amp in the world.

Fender has reissued the Deluxe, Princeton, Super for a long time but never did the Princeton till maybe 3-4 years ago? They released the '65 reissue and I was very excited for it to be on the market. But damn it just does not hold up. Flat, thin sound to my ears, harsh when really cranked up.. not like a quality hand-wired princeton.

Now i've never heard a new one with a swapped out speaker or anything like that but in general the ones I have heard disappointed. Especially when there are multiple boutique amp makers out there making hand wired amps for not too much more money.

[Greg Cutshaw]

I would pass on the new '68 Silver face Princeton but give a close look at the '68 SF Deluxe Reverb. It has the new lower breakup on the Bassman style input but also retains the original Deluxe inputs. The reverb on it seems much better than the '65 reissue. Both have PC boards, not an issue with me except I don't care for the pots and input jacks being wired to a separate PC board for longevity reasons. The later '68 SF reissues also have a PC board for vibrato that seems to have replaced the tube photo-eye circuit. An odd fix at best.

[Greg Cutshaw]

Musicians Friend just gave me another 15% off the 68 Deluxe Reverb just for asking. The CYBERWEEK code does not work online. You have to call.