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keto
26 Feb 2004, 12:27am
One of the stranger occurences of my entire life happened today.

As detailed by me in prime's original G.A.S. thread, I had owned a 1966 Fender Pro Reverb guitar amplifier. I had sold it on consignment in the summer of 2000 at a shop here in Edmonton called Avenue Guitars. I have always regretted getting rid of it and I had decided to go to Avenue today and ask if they could look back in their consignment records and contact the purchaser to see if he/she might be interested in selling it back.

I've been nosing around town for most of the past week looking for a vintage Fender amp and know there weren't any to be had in town at the moment. I walked into Avenue, which is a very crowded place, and not 8 feet inside the doorway is an amp on the floor that wasn't there on Saturday. I look closer, it say's 'Pro Reverb Amp'. My heart speeds up, I check the hang tag and it says 1966 Fender Pro Reverb (Consignment). I look up at the guy behind the counter with this look on my face :wow: and say, "This is my amp!" I'm sure he thought I meant it had been stolen and now brought to them to sell cause he got all squinty eyed and suspicious like and said "whaddya mean...?" So I explained the purpose of my visit, which relaxed him a bit. Turns out it's not the same amp I consigned 3.5 yrs ago, different speakers and other minor cosmetics. But I plugged her in and played a bit and it sure has that same sweet sparkly rich Fender clean tone and breaks up nicely if you crank it a bit.

They had taken it in on consignment this morning, I was the first person to even look at it. YAYYYYY. The karma here is just beyond belief.

I was right when I said in the other thread that these things have gone up 2X to 3X in price since I sold mine - I paid $2200 for this one ($1600 US), which is 2.75X what I got for mine ($800) in 2000. I did overpay a little bit but don't care, the odds of finding another one any time soon are a million to one - I bet there aren't 5 of this make and model and year in Edmonton, heck this one and my old one could very well be the only 2 for that matter. There are a couple of minor cosmetic "issues" with it - the handle has been replaced, the speaker baffle may be a replacement, the knobs are almost certainly replaced. The speakers are supposedly 1969 models, I'll be checking that out later. But what matters most is how it sounds and brother, it sounds so right!!!! :cool:

PS: I know it says '72' by the patent but that's NOT the year of the patent or of the manufacture. My old one was the same. It's a '66 without a doubt.

Norge
26 Feb 2004, 1:57am
Oooooh pretty. That is a weird chain of events but it good that it all worked out for you. It stinks that you had to pay so much more for it than you sold yours for but it sounds like it was well worth it.

Norge

csimon
26 Feb 2004, 3:03am
Those are tubes in the back right not solid state?
That's why you like the sound so much ...probably the most popular amp ever made and most musicians that used them miked the amp itself instead of connecting straight to a mixer.
:Rocker: :thumbsup:
I myself would like to find a vintage svt tubed amp for my bass.

keto
26 Feb 2004, 4:15am
Yup, all tube. GZ34 Rectifier tube, 2 X 6L6GC Power tubes, 7025, 12AT7, 12AX7 Preamp tubes. Tube is generally a "warmer" sound, transistor can sound stale and dry. Also, tubes flex with your attack - that is, if you play hard, they get loud but if you strum softly, they sound out of the amp is soft. Very dynamic in relation to the touch one uses. Also, the sound varies with volume. It's sweeter at 4 than at 2, tho too loud for the house. At about 5-6 it starts breaking into very nice distortion, at 10 it can be heard all over the block but sounds spectacular. A transistor amp is more likely to sound the same regardless of volume, other than if it clips the speakers into distortion.

Tube amps are heavier than transistor, by quite a lot. Specs on this one say it weighs 53 lbs, and its a 40 watt amp. Heck, there are 100 watt transistor amps that don't weigh anywhere near this much. Transistor is also generally more reliable, tubes do burn out after time and have more parts to potentially break down.

But nobody yet has written an algorythm (sp?) that captures the sound of a tube amp really really well so tons of players still prefer the old fashioned tube amp - myself included.

Geeky1
26 Feb 2004, 4:24am
Hey Keto, since you like tube amps, you thought about getting one of these?
http://firingsquad.com/hardware/ax4b533tube/
http://firingsquad.com/media/hirez.asp?file=/hardware/ax4b533tube/images/03.JPG

:D

keto
26 Feb 2004, 5:56am
I had just bought a P4PE when that came out or, believe me, I would have. I remember well reading up all the reviews that came out, most of them loved the warmth of the tube sound solution (those that could discern a difference, anyways).