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Topic: Question to Fender amp users . |
Dan Salini
From:
SLC UTAH USA
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Posted 12 Mar 2023 5:41 pm |
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Any of you ever use a Fender Concert head or amp ? 60 watts RmS .
Curious how they are as steel amps . Thinking of a head version . Vs a Twin head ….
Thanks for any info .
Best ~ Dan |
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Patrick Fleming
From:
South Dakota, USA
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Posted 13 Mar 2023 5:18 am
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Hi Dan-
I have not payed through one since I was in the High school band. Here is a link to the robrobinette page:
https://robrobinette.com/AB763_Model_Differences.htm
I think that the concert is basically a band master in a a 4X10 combo. So it's an AB763 circuit with a solid state rectifier and two 6L6 output tubes. That sounds like a great steel amp to me! |
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Jack Hanson
From:
San Luis Valley, USA
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Posted 13 Mar 2023 6:01 am
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Overlapping the transition from CBS to FMIC, from 1982 to 1987 Fender marketed the "Concert II" in blackface cosmetics that was available in 1x12, 2x10, 4x10 combos, and separate head & cab (1x12, 2x10, 4x10, 2x12, & 4x12) configurations. It was NOT an AB763 amp. They were 2x6L6, 60-watt amps with reverb and channel switching, solid-state rectification, but no tremolo.
Although I've never played through one -- depending on the speaker(s) -- a Concert II most likely would be an adequate steel amp (unless you need to play at Spinal Tap-esqe volume levels). |
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Patrick Fleming
From:
South Dakota, USA
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Posted 13 Mar 2023 10:44 am
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Jack is correct that the concert II from the 80's is not an ab763 amp that would be a decent steel amp. The original 1964 concert amp was an an AB763 amp with two channels; A normal channel with Volume, treble and bass controls and a Vibrato channel with Volume, treble speed and intensity contropls, It did not have reverb.
Here is a reverb add for one:
https://reverb.com/item/13174734-fender-1964-concert-amp-excellent-condition
The robrobinette site has schematics and layouts, which show the differences between most of the AB763 models. |
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Dan Salini
From:
SLC UTAH USA
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Posted 13 Mar 2023 10:54 am Thanks guys
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This is helpful . Thx . The one here I am considering is being called a
Rivera / Fender concert . It must be one from the 80’s . The guy has one with 2 / 10s and a head . I might try for the head and get a K 130 with a custom cab . |
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Dave Mudgett
From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
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Posted 13 Mar 2023 11:22 am
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I used an '83 Concert 112 1x12" combos off and on for the last few years. Yes, 2x6L6, nominally 60 watts RMS. With a good speaker, I like it as a clean pedal steel amp if I don't have to be ridiculously loud and clean. In terms of clean volume, the clean channel sits somewhere between a Deluxe Reverb and a Twin Reverb - probably a bit more clean power than a Super Reverb or Pro Reverb. And for pedal steel, I think I really prefer the 1x12" configuration, as long as the speaker can take it.
So I put an 8 Ohm, high-power-handling (I think 250-300 watts) Furlong neodymium magnet speaker in mine. It not only helped the weight significantly (these amps are not lightweight at all), but also helped the efficiency. It could get pretty loud and clean. Personally, I rarely need to be more loud-and-clean that this amp could get.
For the most part, I don't like the overdrive section in most of the 80s Rivera-era amps like the Super Champ. But I thought, with a bit of judicious knob tweaking, this one sounded OK. It took a bit to dial it in for a more Boogie-ish guitar sound - much like dialing in that era of Mesa Boogies. The sound is there, but to get what I want, I had to take time to dial it in. But to get the overdrive sounds I liked, it had to get pretty loud.
'
I think for pedal steel, given the choice of a 2x10" combo or a head, I'd go for the head, all other things being equal. I like 2x10 just fine for E9 pedal steel, maybe not so much for C6 or the low end of a universal. And I think a head would not only give you options for speaker(s), but also cut the weight significantly.
And yeah - this is not a silverface amp. It's the big brother of the Super Champ. However, tonally, I found there is quite a bit of similarity between this amp and the later medium-to-large silverface era amps. To my understanding, this is not an ultralinear circuit, but sort of has the sound of something like an ultralinear Pro Reverb - but of course, mine just had the single 12" speaker. |
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Bob Carlucci
From:
Candor, New York, USA
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Posted 13 Mar 2023 12:38 pm
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Its a "Rivera era" Fender.. They were pretty good steel amps.. Clean and powerful,, I have had several in different configurations.. they are decent for steel, but to me, don't have that typical "vintage" Fender tube sound we all love... They sound I dunno, like half Fender, half Peavey Classic .. something like that.. Just not really the "classc Fender sound.. close enough though and better than many other tube amps, and for my money, better than any SS/tube hybrids... bob
_________________
I'm over the hill and hittin'rocks on the way down!
no gear list for me.. you don't have the time...... |
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Dave Grafe
From:
Hudson River Valley NY
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Posted 13 Mar 2023 12:53 pm
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| What Bob said, an adequate tube amp but no reverb and no vibtage mojo inside or out |
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Dave Mudgett
From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
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Posted 13 Mar 2023 2:09 pm
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| Dave Grafe wrote: |
| What Bob said, an adequate tube amp but no reverb and no vibtage mojo inside or out |
My Concert 112 had reverb, but no trem. I've had a few of this series over the years, they all had reverb. The reverb on this latest Concert I had was a totally classic Fender amp reverb. I used it for a couple of surf gigs, it was just fine for that.
The clean channel of these amps does not break up like a blackface or earlier Fender. But neither does the clean channel of the higher-power, late-70s silverface Fenders. I just see these amps as the logical evolution of those later silverface Fenders, with the biggest difference being a more tunable overdrive channel. The overdrive circuit in the later higher-power silverface Fenders was pretty awful, to me.
And these are the last of the hand-wired, production, CBS Fenders. Once the new team came in, the production amps went to PCBs. |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 13 Mar 2023 3:41 pm
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The 4x10 version is a really sweet amp (my band's lead player used one exclusively for a decade). But I'd guess most of that sweet sound was due to the configuration. A head version pushing anything but 4 tens wouldn't be nearly as special, IMHO.
(I have a special fondness for multiple speaker arrays.) |
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Bobby Harris
From:
Kentucky, USA
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Posted 15 Mar 2023 8:11 am Concert amp
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| A few months back I resurgent on internet what I could find I would like to have one I thank they sound awesome I have a Webb amp and a fender twin amp that has a of 350 and a tt112in it if I needed a steel amp I would buy me a fender concert amp but I don’t need it. |
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Tony Prior
From:
Charlotte NC
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Posted 15 Mar 2023 11:50 pm
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I also owned and used a Concert 1x12 amp for a good bit during the 80's . It was an OK amp, I liked it but didn't love it . I had always thought these were 40 watt rated amps rather than 60 . The Overdrive option was rather poor in my mind. Mine had reverb, no Tremelo. It was an ok clean amp for Steel but didn't have a lot of PUNCH. On the big stage gigs I used the Concert and my 1970 Twin reverb ! 
_________________
Emmons L-II , Fender Telecasters, B-Benders , Eastman Mandolin ,
Pro Tools 12 on WIN 7 !
jobless- but not homeless- now retired 9 years
CURRENT MUSIC TRACKS AT > https://tprior2241.wixsite.com/website |
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Dave Grafe
From:
Hudson River Valley NY
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Posted 16 Mar 2023 4:29 am
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| Tony Prior wrote: |
| I also owned and used a Concert 1x12 amp for a good bit during the 80's . It was an OK amp, I liked it but didn't love it . I had always thought these were 40 watt rated amps rather than 60 . The Overdrive option was rather poor in my mind. Mine had reverb, no Tremelo. It was an ok clean amp for Steel but didn't have a lot of PUNCH. On the big stage gigs I used the Concert and my 1970 Twin reverb ! |
There are two entirely different product lines from Fender that are called the Concert Amp. The Concert Amp was introduced in 1960 with brown Tolex and white knobs, and was essentially a 40 watt Vibrasonic Amp with a 2-ohm OT and four 10" speakers, replacing the 4x10 Bassman Amp, and subsequently appearing with white and black covers depending on the year. This line was discontinued by CBS in 1965 or '66. These amps had vibrato, bass, and treble controls. The circuit evolved from the 5G12 (1959, early 1960) 6G12 (late 1960, early 1961), 6G12-A (1962 into 1963), and eventually the AB763 "blackface" circuit. It is the early brownface model that has been long revered by blues guitarists due to its lively response and warm distortion.
An entirely different "Concert Amp" was designed by Paul Rivera in the 1980's. Rivera's Concert Amp put out 60 watts into a single 8-ohm 12" speaker, and featured both clean and overdrive channels with a channel switch pedal, an effects loop, and a traditional spring reverb tank. This was a tube amp with five 12AX7s, two 12AT7s, and a pair of 6L6GC power tubes, but has an entirely different circuit, sound, and speaker configuration (and output impedance) than the original Concert Amp.
Having grown up with the magnificent brownface 4x10 Concert, to my ear the newer amp sounds sterile and lifeless and unworthy of the name. |
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