Just happened to notice this as a newer Fender offering. Looks like a DRRI but the reverb & vibrato is available on both channels and one channel is "voiced like a bassman."
If the idea is that cutting the bright cap isn't necessary (for those like me who use pedals with it) on the reverb channel, and a lower breakup threshold on the other channel--might be very cool.
Just curious if anyone here has played one. The video demos I've seen look pretty cool.
I just downloaded the schematic...going to look it over.
These look pretty cool.
"...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little,
shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."
-Edmund Burke
I tried out the Princeton Reverb and the Deluxe Reverb and ultimately settled on a tweed Blues Jr. - mainly because of cost - and it met my needs adequately...although I'm starting to repent of that decision.
I also A/B'ed the DRRI and the '68 Custom Deluxe Reverb and thought that the '68 was better, more versatile, and downright prettier to look at (I've always been a fan of the silverface look).
If I had the ducats, I think I'd have gone with the '68 CDR.
"I'm gonna find myself a girl
that can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams..."
I've had one for about 8 months and love it. I use the Custom channel, which is supposed to be based on the Bassman circuit. It loves pedals and sounds beautiful when breaking up (which generally happens with the volume on 5... which is pretty damn loud). The only down side is that the crappy footswitch died almost immediately.
Thanks for the info! I may have to take one for a spin.
So I went to check it out at GC and it came home with me a half hour later. It's literally amazing; I've got some really nice amps and none have excited me right out of the box like this one does--not since I got my DRRI almost 15 years ago.
I've used my DRRI (sometimes alone, sometimes in a pair with another, usually Marshall amp) since '01 and I love it, but in its last year of heaving gigging a couple years back, it was getting more and more rattly and I'd grown tired of re-soldering the cable to reverb tank for the hundredth time. I'd been doing just fine with my direct rig [Ethos Overdrive into the house with in-ear monitors or small Roland keyboard monitor) for many gigs now, but I can tell you pretty certainly that I'll be immediately going back to lugging an amp again to gigs.
As advertised, the reverb and vibrato are available on both channels and sound just fine. The "vintage" channel sounds almost identical to my DRRI's reverb channel in terms of tonality and where the breakup starts to occur (about 7-8 on the dial). It also doesn't have that harsh sound at lower volumes when using an overdrive pedal, which leads me to believe there is no "bright cap" on this amp at all. NTBluesGuitar has the schematic and can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not hearing it.
I'd say the only difference is for an exact match of tone I need to turn the treble on the '68 Custom up about a notch higher than the treble on the DRRI, which I attribute to the brighter Jensen speaker on the DRRI versus the Celestion on the '68 Custom. (But as I'm no expert on the innards, could be the electronics and not the speaker.)
The "Custom" channel is a real treat too. It has a similar tonal vibe but noticeably louder if set at the same volume as the Vintage channel. It also sounds great with pedals and if I use my old Fulltone Fulldrive (the only TS-9 clone I have currently) it gets you to that SRV place pretty quickly. Not really my cuppa, but you can hear that "Bassman circuit" for sure.
However the biggest joy is turning the Custom channel up to about '5' or so on the volume knob (as mentioned by lure555 above)--instant breakup without any pedals at all and it sounds fan-frickin-tastic with a Strat or Tele. When I plugged a Lester in and used the bridge pickup, the opening chords to Journey's "Stone In Love" rang out like I had a stack of Marshalls in front of me.
Fender hit another home run with this one IMO.
You make me want one!
AUGH!! ME TOO!Originally Posted by Cogs
(Sorry for yelling, but thisis jonesin' for some Fender goodness)
"I'm gonna find myself a girl
that can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams..."
You made me want another one!
Then maybe I shouldn't mention that after a solid day of playing it with every guitar I own, I love it even more. What an amp!
Indeed, there is no bright cap in the tone stack according to the schematic.
Man...I hope I can try one of these soon! Granted...if I ever own one, y'all know what I'm likely to do with it...
"...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little,
shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."
-Edmund Burke
I went back and forth between the '68 Deluxe and '68 Princeton. I ended up saving a few bucks with the Princeton and I'm a happy camper.
They both sound great but I've already got a Chicago Blues Box Kingston which covers what the Deluxe does pretty well.
For the price both of these '68 Fender offerings are excellent choices. I like the '68 versions better than black face reissue versions.
Me too--I'm really digging the SF look.
Did a rehearsal and a gig with it so far and it was "all that and a bag of chips." Really happy with it. Gonna pair it stereo with something for a show on Thursday for a little stereo action--probably my Marshall DSL-15. Can't wait.
One of the first amps I worked on for a friend was a late 70s SF DR. Just a cap job, but I remember how sparkly sounding that was. Fender SFs are wonderful.
Here's a cool vid - Jim Campilongo trying out the 68 Custom PR alongside an original 68 SFPR:
"...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little,
shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."
-Edmund Burke
Oh Jim is one of my favorite Tele players. I haven't heard much from him lately.
I love Jim.
Lots of Tele goodness:
"...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little,
shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."
-Edmund Burke
I downloaded thia and put it on my iPad a while back. I watch it frequently and show to everyone I think might even be remotely interested (alone with some who won't be). I love this gig!
Even though I'm a blues guitarist and play nothing like Jim, I'm hugely influenced by him.
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