The Steel Guitar Forum

Anybody have opinions on Fender 75 amp from 1980-1982? In theory could be a sleeper steel amp with 75 watts of tube power, reverb and a 15" speaker. There's one near me for quite a low price. Any experience with these out there?

Dr. Guilford,
I had an opportunity to purchase one years back knowing very little about them. The consensus seemed to be that Fender was trying to duplicate a Mesa Boogie tone and this was before Rivera became involved in some design improvements for fender. I decided not to pursue it, which I’m not certain was the correct choice. Old Carvin combo 100 watt tube amps looked almost identical to Mesa Boogie amps of the era and they’re fabulous steel amps! I still have one of those.
Here at least one discussion on the forum previously.
https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtop ... be+amp+6l6

Thanks David - don't know why that previous topic didn't come up in my search. Seems that it will be serviceable, but too heavy to be worth it vs. an old silver face.

BTW David - I still use that JBL K-130 you sold me all the time with my Milkman "The Amp". Beautiful pairing- those two!

The 75 was an amp designed by Ed Jahns in between the silverface and Rivera era, right around '80-81 as the silverface plates were being replaced with the new style blackface plates. At this point, there was some recognition by Fender that they needed to compete with Boogies, and everybody wanted something to compete with Marshalls.

I think it's worth a shot if it's inexpensive - e.g., in the $300-500 range, depending on condition. I've played a few, they were pretty good clean amps. Prices on the 'prime' era tube amps are silly right now, and I think amps from this general are indeed sleepers. Due to weight, I'd probably go for head version if available. Here's a head that's already sold on Reverb for $400 in real nice shape - https://reverb.com/item/534768-fender-7 ... ade-in-usa - I see examples on there for more money, and I'd probably pass up on anything over $500, and only there if it's in real nice shape.

I currently have an '82 or '83 Concert 112. It's actually pretty similar, and I think it's a good pedal steel amp at around 60 Watts RMS, plus or minus. It's tagged as a Rivera-era amp, so carries a bit more cachet, but I still wouldn't pay a lot more than $500. I put a 12" neo Furlong speaker in it, so it's not so much of a beast weight-wise. Set up right, I find these amps to have a pretty nice silverface type of sparkle when run clean. My jazz archtops and pedal steels like them fine.

Not a particular fan of the 'lead' channel of any of these amps. Not saying they can't be made to work, but it requires some diddling with the tone controls, and I actually put a lower-gain preamp tube in that stage, to cut the gain and try to make it a bit less harsh. Actually, I find the distortion of Boogies of this era kinda' harsh too. But good for a certain sorta' thing. Just not my thing. I find the very early and later Boogies more to my liking. Maverick, Blue Angel and then onward.

I have one that was gone over by Bob Metzger, it’s a great steel amp. Underrated, price valued and perfect for good amp tech to tweak the tone and dress the wiring. The clean section is as good as it gets. I compared it to a 56 Bassman, to my ears, couldn’t tell the difference. Even the lead channel with all the mods turned out to be pretty good compared to the original design.

I have one also, I bought it new as a 6-string amp around '80. It has the 15" blue label speaker, I believe it's an Eminence. I see them on Reverb etc. for $700-$800, which is too much IMO given its quirks, but $400-$500 would be a good value if everything works.

It definitely has some quirks but it works well as a steel amp. It's loud. And really heavy, about 61#, only ~4# less than my old Twin. It was designed to be overdriven, but it's better IMO as a clean amp. The basic clean tone is nice and Fender-y; the overdrive tone with the cascaded preamps is odd. Rodger mentioned some mods that might improve that. The power amp circuit is basically a Pro Reverb, with 2 6L6s, and a big, heavy ultralinear OT. As mentioned, it was Ed Jahns' attempt at something akin to the Mesa Boogie Mark II. It has a single input channel with foot switchable gain profiles via dual cascaded pre-amps like a Mesa, and with a lot of other (perhaps unnecessary) control clutter, pull boosts on all the tone controls, etc. One quirk is that it must have the foot switch connected or it defaults to the dual preamp "lead" channel. The drive and lead master controls have a odd relationship with the master volume too, they all affect one another in a non-intuitive way. There are schematics and info out there on how to mod it to bypass the second preamp stage so it's basically a single channel Pro Reverb. With the lead channel bypassed via the foot switch that's pretty much how it works and sounds anyway.

Had one with 1x15.. Also had its big brother the Fender 140[2 of them actually].. It would make a good steel amp.. They are clean and powerful.. I found the overdrive awful personally, but the amp itself was pretty good.. To my ears, it never sounded as nice as a plain old silverface Fender, but it sounded good for sure... I seem to recall it being insanely heavy, but it was long ago. I used one for a while in tandem with a SF Bassman head and small cab with a JBL 15... I got a massive and very good steel sound out of that rig.. The 75 is a good amp, and if its priced right I would grab it.. Like any hand wired, all tube Fender, they sell quickly if you ever get tired of it... I liked it fine, but just not quite as much as the older BF/SF models.. Did not have the same sound to my ears.... bob

Nathan,
Glad you’re still rockin that K-130. They make “everything” sound better!
I still have a couple K’s I use in an open back Webb clone cabinet I built, a couple D’s boxed up, an E in a closed back Webb clone, and an old Altec 418 boxed up. All these are original cones. You just can’t beat the tone!

Dave